Visiting the Mother Land

Waiting to Go!

November 13th, we set off for a quick trip to visit our families in Utah and show off--I mean introduce our baby to his family. We left on a 5pm flight, had a short stop in Chicago, and reached SLC at midnight. As luck would have it, evening is a great time to travel with a baby. Maybe because of all of the excitement, Jackson didn't eat much or sleep in the afternoon. At the airport, he was delightful. There was a grandmother sitting across from us that Jackson was flirting with shamelessly. After a while, Jason handed Jackson off, and she kept him for a 45 minutes. He attracted the attention of a few other grandmothers, who seemed a bit envious. On the plane, Jackson wanted to eat right away. I tried to get him to wait for takeoff, but we had to wait in line, so we couldn't wait. Jackson went right from eating to sleeping and slept or ate for the rest of the journey. This was great, but it was challenging for me since I was paralyzed with a child on my chest and couldn't reach anything or turn pages to read.

Breakfast with Lily

Wednesday morning, Jackson slept to a respectable 6am MST. I took him upstairs to look for someplace to go without waking anyone else up. The only room without people had the fishtanks, so Jackson amused himself staring at the Koi who were in for the winter. We also managed to wake up the bird, and Sherman took the blame for waking the rest of the Dodge household. We went for breakfast with the Dodges, including Jason's brother Tim, his wife Katie, and their 2 young girls, Lily (3) and Riley (1). Turns out Lily REALLY loves babies. She was so excited to play with him and wanted to be face to face all the time. Katie chastised her several times for being "up in his grill". That afternoon, we went for family pictures. It was a beautiful afternoon, a little chilly, though. We took pictures with various family groupings. The photographer took shot after shot trying to get the little girls to look at the camera and smile. Jackson was easy. He is all about pictures. He's grinning and has his excited arms outstretched in every shot. I think the click of the camera excited him to cheese for the next shot. Later that evening, we went out for Mexican food (Connecticut doesn't have Mexican food--like the cinnamon bears). Dinner was good, but poor Jackson broke down as soon as we arrived. 5:30 MST a week after Daylight Savings Time ends and across 2 time zones is 8:30 in his little baby world. That's past his bedtime. His internal clock expired at 5pm every evening for the whole trip.

Silly Duck Hat

Chillin' with Nana

Thursday, we went with my Mom and Grant to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. The drive down to Lehi was an eye opener for how things are developing along the Wasatch Front. Desolate Lehi, where 150 years of trying had yielded few attempts to settle and grow something besides sagebrush, was crowded with large houses and lawns. The freeway was again under construction, this time to build overpasses to the future wetlands depleting Legacy Highway. The one positive development is the commuter rail which parallells I-15. It's actually started test runs between Davis and SLC. The museum was surprisingly well done, with a big collection of fossils and fossil castings. It chronicled time through the display of large and imposing beasts. Capturing the impressive and ignoring the potentially controversial (such as the big bang). Jackson had a great time at the museum. He enjoyed backpacked around, looking at the towering skeletons, and taking a lengthy nap while I walked hunched like an early hominid (who I oddly didn't see a history of on display). On the way home, we had mole for dinner at The Blue Iguana. So delicious.

Sitting on Grandpa Fox's Lap

Friday, we got up for breakfast of French Toast, fruit, and corned beef hash with the Dodges, then had lunch with some more of my family: My Grandfather and Mickey, my baby brother, Ellis, my second to baby brother, Wes, and his fiance Lessie, my mother and Grant, and my aunt Sue. We then went to my Grandpa's for while. Wow, he keeps a warm house! The warmth and big meals put Jason to sleep, but the rest of us had a nice visit.

First Pony Ride

Meeting Granpa Dale and Grandma Honey

On Saturday, the Dodge's planned Thansgiving as a family. Jackson was able to meet his Great Grandma Honey and Great Grandpa Dale. Jackson also got to go for his 1st pony ride. He wasn't very excited about it.

Our 4 Generations Picture (With Wes and Lessie in the background)

Sunday was a day full of my family. We went out to meet Jackson Great Grandpa Swenson. Ellis, Wes, and Lessie came along. Jackson was a delight and we had a nice visit there. Then we went back to my mom's for another family party. My Grandma, Sue and Racheal (Wendy was working), Lori, Scott, Kelsey, Kailey, and Jake (in 3-D this time), even Morgan joined us. We were, sadly, missing The Fox-Pattersons due to illness--and hope Cait is getting better.