One last drive...

...from Fulton back to Michigan.

From Pella to Fulton

Another busy day! Today we went to church and out to lunch with the Van Hal clan, then drove to Fulton, Illinois to visit Bryan's maternal grandparents.

Sitting in Grandma's lap at Sunday service.

Having fun at the Chinese restaurant.

We had some difficulty getting Anna to let her great Grandma Housenga to hold her after meeting so many new people in the last 24 hours. We found the perfect solution- a box of tissues. Anna is never happier than when pulling them out one by one.

A Pella Christmas

This morning we got up very early to drive from St. Louis to Pella, Iowa, to see lots of relatives from the Van Hal side of Bryan's family.

On each leg of the car trip during our Christmas travels we've been giving Anna one new animal toy. When she has them all she can take them apart and mix and match them. Today she received a hedgehog :).

By the time we arrived in Pella it was lunchtime. This pic is of Anna eating in the impromptu highchair we made for her in our hotel room.

After lunch and a nice nap we went to Bryan's grandparents house to meet a LOT of family members. Here is Anna taking a swing with Uncle Mark.

Here is Aunt Linda trying to coax Anna to come closer with the clever use of a dog. Anna is a sucker for animals.

Here's Anna with her great Grandma Van Hal...

... and reading a book with Bryan's cousin Jeff.

Anna's favorite part, of course, was the presents. Thank you everyone for the nice gifts!

The Missouri Botanical Gardens

Today Bryan, my Dad and I brought Anna to see a very elaborate train exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. We took a walk around the park, too.

And here's a photo of Anna on this day last year!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful day in St. Louis today spending time with family and opening gifts.

For Anna the best part was the paper.

My, how Anna has grown since her last Christmas!

Christmas Eve

We had a nice quiet Christmas Eve this year. In the morning went to see our friends Bekah and Caleb and their sons, Daniel and Seth. We also went to (some of) Christmas eve mass.

Anna enjoyed sharing breakfast with Grandpa...

... and Samson.

We had a great time getting to know Daniel and Seth again.

Anna didn't quite make it through all of mass.

As soon as Anna woke up this morning she got to see her buddy Tristan! She hasn't seen her cousin for a few months. We spent most of today relaxing at my parents house and hanging out with Tristan.

Isn't he a cutie?

Anna and Tristan loved watching Grandpa's electric train set.

Tonight we went to one of my favorite restaurants for dinner- Maggiano's. Yum!


Here are my favorite Tristan videos from today:

On the road again

We arrived safe and sound in Missouri tonight at about 7:00. Hurray! Here are some photos from our road trip:

Snowbound

This morning we woke Anna early for an adventure. We got her up at about 5:40, changed her diaper, fed her, bundled her up in the car, drove around for about 45 minutes, brought her back home, and put her back to bed. It was exciting!

A BIG storm has hit southwest Michigan early this morning. Our plan was to drive to St. Louis today to visit my family. We had hoped to leave before the storm hit and it seemed likely as it did not look too bad when we looked out the window. I don't think it was even snowing. On the highway, however, the conditions were very different. The blowing snow and near white out conditions made it difficult for us to even turn around to go back home. Anna was confused but handled it all very well. She even went back to sleep when we got back home.

We'll be trying again tomorrow! The winter weather watch ends tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. so we hope we can leave by lunchtime.

We decided to take advantage of the extra day at home to have a little family Christmas.

One of Anna's favorite Christmas gifts was an egg shaker she found in her stocking.