The Adventures of Dave, Lindsay, Cora and Edie

Last weekend, we headed out of town for a great weekend with friends. It started with a perfect afternoon on the beach in Hood River where Cora hooked up with some "big kids" who had built a tee pee out of driftwood and Peeka ran around chasing waves like the happiest dog on the planet. Then we headed up to Trout Lake, WA for some snowshoeing. Yes, my daughter has a mullet that we just don't have the heart to cut and my husband currently has a strange mustache. What can I say? Last night, Dave and I went to a friend's wedding in Portland and I got to see lots of old college friends. Big night out! As you can see, at 25 weeks pregnant, I'm getting bigger by the minute. Needless to say, we did not do our typical wedding protocol of dancing all night.

For Dave's birthday weekend, we rented a cabin near Mt. Hood with the Swain Family. Even though there was barely any snow, we had a great time and took our little snow bunnies to Timberline Lodge to play. It was Cora's first time in the snow and she seemed to love it, though not as much as her little buddy, Rylan!

Last weekend, Cora, Grandma TT and I flew down to Utah for Matt and Amy's baby shower. Cora was a fantastic traveler, thankfully, and we had a great weekend visiting with family and old friends. The first picture is 4 generations of our family - Great-Grandma Rose, Papa Steve, Mom and Cora. The second picture is Cora enjoying some bedtime reading time with Aunt Amy and Uncle Matt, who she adores. And the last picture is just to show Cora's favorite new activity...coloring or drawing. When all else fails, we get out the crayons!

Our Christmas festivities started with Christmas Eve morning at our house. Cora got her own computer, which we're hoping keeps her from climbing up on the chair and pounding on ours. She loved it...until she discovered the packaging popcorn in one of her gifts. That was her favorite toy! Then we headed down to spend the night at TT and Grandy's house where Cora woke up to her own vintage kitchen. There will be endless hours of entertainment with that, which is fabulous. Papa Steve and Grandma Tanna showed up a few days later to spoil all of us a little more. It's been a busy week but lots of fun. Happy New Year!

Cora isn't so sure about this Christmas holiday and all the "characters" that come along with it. At the holiday brunch we went to Sunday, she kept her distance from Santa....and the very large nutcracker. She does, however, know that whenever Santa is mentioned, she should respond with "Ho Ho Ho," which is pretty darn cute. And she LOVES the Christmas tree.

We had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving break with friends and family. On Thursday, our friends came up from Corvallis to spend the day and even treated us to homemade deep dish pizza - tasty! On Friday, we celebrated Thanksgiving at my mom's house with both my brothers and then headed out to Seaside on Saturday for a few great days on the coast. We even had a break in the weather so we could spend a little time letting Cora run around the beach, which she loved.