Happy New Year!

Here are our pictures from Christmastime, almost one month later! I always think things will slow down in January, but they never do! Noah has been growing by leaps and bounds--he's a pro at sitting up now, and can even get onto his tummy without bonking his head.

Caleb had a great time at Christmas--he loved visiting his Minnesota relatives, and of course getting lots of presents. His only regret is that he didn't get to personally visit with Santa on Christmas night; there was a bit of crying Christmas morning when I had to tell him that Santa didn't come to visit, just to leave presents. Seeing as he was upset, I told him the truth about Santa. I know Caleb heard me, but he still talks about Santa as if he were real. I am okay with that, seeing as Santa was one of my favorite parts of Christmas when I was young.
Anyway, Caleb and Noah both got a lot of great presents this year--I think Caleb loved all of his--but on Christmas Eve night, the big hits were a colorful remote control car (no picture, it wouldn't sit still long enough) and Lightning McQueen roller skates.

Noah preferred the boxes to the actual toys--he was quite content to play with whatever box Caleb had just tossed aside! And as is tradition, Noah wore a bow on his head for some of the evening, just like his brother did when he was the baby.

We celebrated Christmas with my dad's family on Dec. 26, but didn't have enough of the day left to travel home. So we planned to stay at a hotel near the highway, then travel home on Saturday. We picked out a hotel with a little water park in it (Safari themed) and Caleb had an awesome time! We all did, actually--we swam on the night we got there and in the morning before we left. I didn't get any pictures of the park, but here is Caleb all ready to go, in our hotel room.

Caleb had fun splashing around in the pool; they had a zero entry area, where you could just walk into the water, and lots of 2 foot deep pool space where Caleb could play. They also had two water slides (Mark enjoyed them, but Caleb was too young, and I had Noah), an elephant that sprayed water, and a neat "river" area where jets produced a current, so you could float around and around--Noah and I enjoyed that. We had a great float that had a harness for Noah's bum and a part that wraps around me. During our morning swim, Noah was so comfy in the float and water that he fell asleep! When we left after swimming, Caleb was not thrilled to go--to get him in the car, we had to promise that we'd try to stay at that hotel again next time we visited Minnesota! (We had planned to make it a tradition anyway)