Trip to Ohio

From November 16-20, Caleb and I took advantage of some saved-up Delta Skymiles and flew up to visit my extended family in southern Ohio. Two of my mother's sisters own adjacent farms and five of my cousins live there or nearby. I had not seen these members of my family since our wedding five years ago, so it was a lot of fun for me to catch up with everyone and show off Caleb. I even got to spend a couple of hours chatting with my best friend from college, Alli Herren, who lives about an hour away from the farm. Caleb loved the farm animals! He added to his life experiences the following: hand-feeding granola bars to goats, having a very young calf suck on his hand, petting an unusually passive chicken, chasing a pet rabbit, and watching the daily antics of the four horses, six dogs and twelve cats. He also saw snow for the first time (though it didn't stick) and experienced temperatures in the 30's. He wasn't too crazy about the idea of wearing a coat either...apparantly he found it to be too bulky and hard to move in.

To add to Caleb's fun, my cousin's teenage sons were at the farm that weekend with two of their friends. Those four boys went four-wheeling, drove the tractor, played paintball at dusk, and built a huge bonfire and roasted smores. Caleb watched the"big boys" out the window with wide-eyed wonder, and he was ecstatic whenever they came in and played chase with him. All-in-all, it was one of the most fun weekends Caleb and I have had together. Everyone was comfortable and happy the whole time, and of course it warmed my mother-heart so much to have so much attention and love poured on my sweet little boy.