Maddox gets a haircut

Maddox got his first "official" haircut. We were all prepared with a smoothie to keep him happy, we thought about a sucker, but that just gets hairy. Turns out, we didn't need anything to distract him. He sat perfectly still with a worried look on his face for 15 minutes while Katie gave him a sweet faux hawk (fake mohawk). She even said it was the easiest baby cut she has ever done. Maddox has the most even and symmetrical baby haircut ever.

Lake Quinalt

December 20th we headed out of Billings and onto our great adventure. We were supposed to leave by 6:30 am, but when the alarm went off, and went off, and went off, and Bing didn't rally, I turned it off. We woke up at 8:30 feeling slightly refreshed after our Christmas Fete the night before, I, slightly hungover, and Bing, angry that we were getting a late start.

We made our way to Bozeman where we stopped and saw Reese and Sawyer, all of the other boys were out, and we exchanged gifts. She made me some very cute, custom napkins, and we gave them beer. By noon, or half past, we were leaving Bozeman on our way to Spokane. We arrived perfectly on time for dinner at Red Robbin with sister, Piper Claire, and then followed her to Uncle Fred and Aunt Artie's. We played a hilarious game called "My Redneck Life", made even funnier because we played with Artie who works at a convent. The woman is seriously wonderful, and sweet, and very good natured. I won because I had the most teeth, fewest children, and smallest debt at the end. HA!

From there, we made our way to Hoquiam, Aberdeen, Cosmopolis, & Summit Lake. On the 22nd we had dinner with lots of Bing's old buddies, guys and gals, and I got to meet lots of new people. We had a great turnout, and it allowed us to see lots of friends without spending our whole vacation driving around to see them... don't be fooled, we still drove all over, 3500 miles all told. After dinner, we moved on to Bob and Teresa Glenn's beautiful, lakefront home. They hosted us for several nights and were superbly generous.

On the 23rd, we took a daytrip to Lake Quinalt to see all of the pretty sights it has to offer. Bing's friend, Buster, came with and offered all sorts of comical relief. I am not sharing some of the pictures for Buster's sake, and yours.


More to come! I uploaded over 500 photos when we got home, so I will do this in bits and pieces. Enjoy.

Sorry people

I am sorry for the extremely long gap in posts. We no longer have access to someone else's internet at the house. My life has been crazy enough that I haven't had time to hit a coffee shop with the laptop. I promise, I will make time soon to update you on our Christmas in Oregon, the latest with Maddox, Bing's health, and more. Love you all.... bear with me!

Bing and I just returned from our escape at Bella Beach. Grammie Marcia and Papa Barn thoroughly enjoyed their three days alone with Maddox. Marcia was very good about sending us little video clips of our sweet baboo. He is getting more and more hilarious, goofy and energetic with each passing day.

While we were gone: Maddox pummeled Rudy (family dog), climbed into a clothes basket to read his book, ate in mass quantities and pooped just as much, refused to be gotten out of bed by throwing himself violently all over the crib post-nap. To our delight, he squealed and flashed us a face consuming smile when we crashed in on bath time, and then, jumped up offering kisses left and right. I know there was loads of fun without us around but, it is so fantastic to be received with such excitement and fervor.

Also, while we were gone: Bing and I ate amazing seafood (and lots of it), scoured for sea treasures on multiple beaches for hours on end, hit up the local outlet mall, ate more delicious seafood (little, raw oysters are yummy), took a candlelit bubble bath, massaged each others' feet and enjoyed several days of childless, marital bliss!



We tried to get cute pictures of the two of us but we both agree they turned out disgusting so, all you get is the corny, yet cute, beach video...