Our first stop was Minneapolis where Aidan and I headed a few days before Charles was able to take off. We spent a week there playing with cousins, baking, playing board games, taking turns watching the kids and just generally hanging out. Aidan loved having Lily & Brooke to play with, and tried his hardest to keep up with them. He fully explored the lower shelves of Grandma's pantry and tupperware drawers, completely removing every item from these spaces more than once. He tried his harest to get the baby gate open so he could go down the stairs, and he nearly succeeded. As Nathan said "that gate has worked fine for 3 years, then Aidan shows up and all of a sudden it's not baby proof anymore!" (Yes, I think he's a bit of an engineer at one year old already...) Bath time in Grandma's big bath tub, dancing to Papa's silly turkey, and playing with new Christmas gifts rounded out his time in the midwest. Because we were traveling on Christmas day, we pretended like the 24th was Christmas day and just moved everything up a day. Santa came the night of the 23rd, presents were opened throughout the day on the 24th culminating in church that afternoon. On the morning of the 25th we did something none of us had ever done--the 4 of us "kids" went to go see the movie Les Mis at 9:30 AM. Rather than popcorn we enjoyed our hot mochas while watching Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway bring to life a story we've all grown to love over the years. Lily spent the week regaling us with her one-liners as only Lily can do. My personal favorites were: "Auntie Sarah, you are doing such a good job taking care of baby Aidan!" (Thank you Lily, we all need cheerleaders in life!) and "Maybe Gramma Nan is out shopping in heaven." (Maybe, but if you know Gramma Nan, you know that is NOT how she's spending her time in heaven!) and "What are these cookies Grandma?" "Those are lady fingers." "Oh. Well can boys eat them?" and "Do the stars have eyes?" "No I don't think stars have eyes." "Well in the song it says the stars in the heavens look down where he lay. How do they look without eyes?" I love that kid. A lot!
We flew home for less than 48 hours, long enough to repack and try to adjust back to west coast time before catching the bus to LAX for our flight to Honolulu! We were so so blessed by the amazing and generous gift of a week in Hawaii with Charles' family. There were 17 of us there for a week of sand, snorkeling exploring, and even some surfing. Unfortunately several of the crew ended up with the 24 hour stomach bug, but thankfully Aidan, Charles and I had all had it in October and that made us somewhat immune to it. We discovered that Aidan has a lot of his daddy in him and LOVES the sand and water more than anything. He went nuts trying to get in the ocean every time he saw it. We enjoyed an amazing polynesian show, a lovely luau, some delicious wine, grilled steaks, and board games with the older nieces and nephew. The highlight for me was having amazing family members watch Aidan for an evening so Charles and I could escape to Waikiki for a lovely dinner at the top of a tower there--with amazing views and really good food. (My husband also picked out and bought a sundress all on his own for me to wear that night--something he's never done before which was so sweet!) It was so wonderful having so many people there to love on Aidan and care for him--I love that he's able to get to know his family even though we live so far away! 
We had one week after returning home before my family flew in for Aidan's first birthday, and one week to put together a party. It was a busy week! I felt like we had suitcases and stuff everywhere, no clue how to decorate a rather unattractive fellowship hall, and a baby who decided to start teething as he was trying to readjust to being back in his own bed and own time zone. None of us slept much last week! But his party was so fun, and it was a great weekend celebrating him and the ways he has grown in the past year. We tried keeping things pretty small and low key--just about 20 people who know us and Aidan well, with homemade decorations from construction paper and photos of him. We were so blessed to have a great community around us to celebrate this milestone! 
Now life has returned to "normal." I don't have any more parties (Christmas or birthday!) to plan, our MOPS speaker schedule is finally filled out for the semester, I'm home for several weeks without traveling anywhere, and I don't have an insane to do list. It feels absolutely luxurious. I want to write a bit more, I finally picked up my book that I had set down for 3 weeks (our book club meets next Monday and I still have about 240 pages to go!), I want to enjoy days with my little one where I don't drag him on errands--where we can just go for a walk to look at the trees and birds or where I can sit on the floor with him and play with him rather than trying to merely keep him distracted while I quickly get something done. I'm so grateful for all we were able to do in the past month. And I am so grateful for this next month of "nothing." Until I head to Denver over President's Day weekend that is....:)
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