To Our Family In South Africa

Daniel, Allison, Lucas, Alexis and Joshua you were greatly missed at Christmas!

Airport Travel

The traveling part of our visit is by far the hardest. The trip from Alaska to Nebraska is very long and on our trip back we were reminded just how long. We started our trip Friday morning at 10am. We check in in Omaha, went through security for the first time (yes, start counting). Upon arriving in Denver we had to get all our luggage from frontier airlines and check into Alaska Airlines, so rechecking bags in and going through security for the second time. Oh, Stephen forgot his coat at the ticketing counter so he had to go through security an extra time. We arrive in Seattle at 8pm, praise the Lord for wonderful friends, Cindy and Evan. We had to get all our luggage again, load it into his car, drive 20 minutes to their house. BUT this was wonderful, we had a great New Years Eve party with them and their kids (not a lot of sleep though). 6:30 AM we were up and off to the airport again, where we checked our bags in and went back in through security for the third time. So I need to tell you when I say bags I'm talking about two 50 pound suitcases, a car seat, a backpack and then we carried on a computer bag, backpack and baby bag. After another 4 hour flight we arrived in Anchorage, tried to get some lunch and get Greyson to go to sleep. We loaded on the plane at 3 pm 32 hours after we started our trip and waited. They secured the cabin, waking Greyson up, and then told us the runway was bad in Kodiak and we'd sit for a half our and then the captain would get back to us. 50 minutes later we were unloading, out of the plane, still in Anchorage. We had to get our bags, find a hotel, load onto the shuttle, order pizza and try and get some sleep. We awoke at 4AM the next morning, checked our bags, went through security again for the forth time and waited. By 9 AM on Sunday morning we arrived home in Kodiak. So after 50 hours in and out of airports we made it. Needless to say, Greyson is a little trooper and I'm so thankful for such an incredible husband that was amazing!
Since being home Greyson has only been in his car seat three times for less than 5 minutes each and he's not even a little bit mad.

Christmas Time

Greyson had a great time meeting all of his cousins in Iowa. It was fun to watch Greyson run around the gym and he loved watching football and playing with his cousins. Stephen's brothers also got Greyson a matching shirt, which makes them look even more alike.
While at Grandma Vanderbroek Greyson ate in the same high chair as his grandpa. What made this even more fun was Lee found a picture of himself.

Christmas Day

Christmas day was spent with the Westing side of the family. It was so fun watching all the little cousins play together.

Christmas Eve

Driving is something Stephen and I did a lot of while in Nebraska. After spending a few days with my parents we headed back to Fremont for Christmas Eve. We all enjoyed sitting around the Christmas tree, opening gifts and laughing together. Jean made a delicious dinner before we all got ready for the Christmas Eve service. Lee directed a brass ensemble that Joel, Paul and Stephen all played in and Jean played the organ. It was a beautiful night for sure!

Christmas Tree Hunting

I can count on one hand the number of times I have not been with my dad to pick out our family Christmas tree. It is a long standing tradition to all pile into the pickup (dogs included) and head out to our pasture to pick out the perfect tree. It was fun to include Greyson in this years Christmas tree hunt. The weather was perfect and we came home with the best tree we've ever had.

Our Christmas Trip To Nebraska

The first leg of our trip to Nebraska for Christmas really began in the airport. We left Kodiak at 4:30 on Thursday afternoon and finally arrived in Nebraska 10:30 pm on Friday night. We quickly realized that going in and out of security was not much fun, especially with a 9 month old.
But we made it safely and spend our first couple of days with Grandma and Grandpa Foreman. Greyson loved pulling everything out of Grandma's kitchen drawers and walking around in the walker his uncles had used.