Norris Lane: Thanksgiving in Oregon

I had wanted to get this posted last week. But I needed to recoup from the trip and within a couple days of being home, both Ellie and I came down with a cold. Stuffy/runny noses, sore throats and some coughs got the best of us and our girl needed some extra attention. Plus, my brother-in-law came to town for a few days. So, life got the best of me hence the late post. But I wanted to get it documented! Here it is...

For awhile now I wanted to make it back to my home town in Oregon for Thanksgiving. We already had plans to spend Christmas in Alaska with Steven's side of the family, so who knew when there would be a prime chance to have all my family on my moms side together. But, Steven had to work the grave yard shift Thanksgiving Eve and was "on-call" to work part of Thanksgiving Day, and then work his normal Friday-Sunday shifts. Of course I wanted to spend the few hours we would have together for Thanksgiving since it was Ellie's first; I wanted it to be spent as a complete family. But after having more talks with Steven and my mom, we all decided it would be good for Ellie and I to spend it with my family in Grants Pass. Even till the day of Thanksgiving I was torn and a little sad to not be with Steven. He however isn't as sentimental as I am and he stayed strong for the both of us ; )
I also hadn't flown alone with Ellie (we had all flown to Alaska when she was 4 months old). I do don't like flying for the most part. My ears get plugged a lot of the time and I always think of the movie Final Destination where the plane blows up, the show Lost where they plummet thousands of feet to a "deserted" island (I know, I know, we weren't flying over the ocean, but still...), and any other show or story I've seen/heard of planes crashing. Irrational I know, since flying is the safest mode of traveling (they say), but when there's an accident it seems more terrifying then another. With all that said, I get stressed and kind of freak out inside if there's any turbulence. I said many little prayers leading up to our flights and during. My focus was on Ellie the whole time, wanting to make sure she was well taken care of, and she did better than what I hoped for!!

Both going and coming back, the flights were during her second nap time. I thought it could work out great or totally back fire-having a restless/crabby girl on my hands. She landed sorta in between both of those; fighting a nap for only a minute and staying asleep for 20-35 minutes. If she sensed the elevation changes, she didn't show it one bit. I was able to keep her occupied and entertained with nursing, feeding her puffs, letting her play with the window, and introducing a new book and toy. Plus she interacted with the people we sat next to (she's a shy and friendly girl). Altogether the flights are only a couple hours and they went fast. AND there wasn't any turbulence (thank you Jesus!). I was amazed with how well she did and am grateful. It could have been a loooong couple hours.

Once we landed, family time seemed non-stop all week(end). I have a decent size family and they are fun, loving and crazy! There is no shortage of laughing when you're together and us girls felt loved. 4 generations were together to celebrate the holiday, which was pretty special. Ellie likes being around people, but can take a little bit to warm up. She just watches people for awhile and doesn't let out her normal personality till a little later. If I stayed close by, she did well with letting others hold her, but she didn't give out a ton of smiles. However, boy did she get excited a couple times when her cousins were around. It's like she knows they are young and wants to be close by them.

I also wondered if her schedule would be messed up with there being a one hour time change and if she would have a hard time winding down for nap/bedtime. We were also sleeping in the same room and I wondered if she would realize I was close by and have a hard time falling back asleep if she woke and saw me. The time change didn't faze her and she woke and slept like she normally would (i.e. waking between 6:30/7am like she does at home). I was also able to stay hidden in the bed while she slept/woke in the pack n' play. People had fun watching her through the baby monitor, while she wound down for sleep; her standing/rolling around and talking can be entertaining.

Every day we were there was spent hanging out with family and we soaked it up (missing Steven all the same). The three of us were able to FaceTime a couple times, which Ellie was only intrigued with for a few moments. It was fulfilling none the less.

Thank you mom and step-dad for making our stay enjoyable and memorable! I am so glad we've been able to see family the same amount of times, if not more, this year than adding the visits we had over the last 6 years!

Lots of posed family pictures where attempted. But with all that was going on around us, it could be hard for everyone to look at the camera at the same time. And usualy if Ellie was really happy, she would be a blurry mess, moving with excitement. I think in the future, more candid moments should be taken, because lets be real, getting kids (especially a 10 month old) to "cooperate" for pictures is hard work! Here's just some of the pictures from our trip...