We spent last Saturday in the cities to help our cousin and godson celebrate his third birthday, and to also visit with Andy's sister and her family to meet our newest niece and cousin, Baby Cora! It was a busy day, but luckily Luke did really well with the car ride and change in schedule.At D.'s birthday party, Luke wanted to get in on all of the action, and was SO EXCITED to see the pinata come down! 
After the party, we went to go visit Krista and Matt, Micaiah and.... baby Cora! So precious! It was the first time that Luke and Micaiah, being 7 months apart, were actually playing together. The fact that he has cousins in age that are so close together is so special. Now that they are growing up and actually playing together...so neat! We got Luke into his jammies at his usual bedtime with the idea that we would leave right at bedtime and drive when he was sleeping. So Andy got to read the boys a bedtime story and we even got a few pictures of the kids in their jammies!
We made the trip out to N.D. to celebrate Christmas with my family. This year was my family's turn to spend Christmas together, and who knew that it would fall over the weekend that the "winter storm of the quarter century" (yes, an actual quote I read in the newspaper from an actual official weather person). We left a day early to beat the "winter storm of the quarter century", and made it just fine. It was a good thing we did, because the day after we arrived, so did nearly 2 feet of snow. Yuck. Christmas did not go the way we initially planned, but it was fun indeed. Last year, being 2 months old, Luke slept through most of Christmas. This year, he had actual interest in visiting with people and opening his presents, which was so much fun to see. 
Due to the weather, we did make an initially unplanned overnight pit stop at Andy's parent's house to stay and to break up the drive back in the aftermath of the "winter storm of the quarter century". While there, we did manage to squeeze in some sledding fun with all of the fresh snow! Luke was very excited to take a spin around the yard with Grandpa John!
