This was Brycen's first plane ride. Bailey and Colby are experts at the whole traveling business, by now, but we always worry with our babies. But he was wonderful and enjoyed himself, and the flights went by really fast. We flew with Delta, which we rarely do, but the one great thing about them was that their plane had individual TVs for each seat, so everyone can watch whatever they want! It was great!
This is Bailey and Colby jumping on their Papa in the Wilmington airport.
As soon as Meme had a chance, she took Brycen alone in their "Tinkerbell Room" and read him a story and played with him. They hadn't seen him since their visit to Utah right after he was born!
This is Colby with his cousin, Will. They're only about 5 months apart and are quite the pair when they're together!
One of the things Jonathan was most looking forward to before our trip was having an oyster roast in his parents' backyard. His brothers bought some fresh-from-the-ocean oysters, and then they spent a whole evening outside cooking and eating them. I actually don't mind them myself, but they're really just salty, slimy, and sea-foody--definitely nothing I would crave, by any means. The coolest thing about them is when you find one with a tiny crab hiding inside and get to eat it whole. Then it's salty, crunchy, and sea-foody! :-)
Sharon had a beautiful tree (that she put up before Halloween!) and loads of huge presents under it, so of course we had to get some pictures. We bought Bailey a pretty, new Christmas dress while we were out there, so she and I posed together.
Brycen's first Christmas tree! (We didn't have one at our own house this year, knowing that we wouldn't be there to enjoy it.)
Matching candy canes. :-)
These are the Brunjes cousins, minus Brycen. They're a fun bunch, but very rascally!
We had an early family Christmas there, and it was crazy! A Brunjes Christmas means just give everybody their presents as fast as they can open them and try and keep up with the insanity! It is pretty fun, although I missed a lot of the presents that my kids opened.We also got together with a bunch of our friends out there one night for a BBQ, but I was unable to find any really good pictures of it. So if any of you are reading this and have pics, please send them my way! We made some of the best friends of our entire lives during the 4 years we lived in Wilmington, and there's not a day goes by that I don't miss them! I love you girls! And Jonathan loves you boys! Uh, I mean, Go Tarheels. Haha.
We had Sharon give Brycen his first "real" haircut. Jonathan had given him one little trim over the ears before this, but this was the first time he had to sit still and be good for a decent amount of time. He was pretty good, but not happy!
Bailey received a Tinkerbell puzzle for Christmas and started doing it in the kitchen. I thought it was funny when Sharon started helping her, then Jonathan, then me! It was kind of a fun little project!
This is Jonathan's Grandma Brunjes, age 87 and still kickin'! We wish we could see her more often, especially the kids, because we want them to be able to remember their great-grandma! She doesn't really remember her grandchildren and their kids anymore, because of some dementia, but she still just loves everybody so much, especially the babies. Her famous saying is, "I love all my babies."
Our plan for our Christmas vacation was to fly home Christmas Eve to Las Vegas, and spend the night there at my sister's house, then spend Christmas morning with her family. After a 5 hour layover in Atlanta, Delta asked for 4 volunteers to give up their seats to Vegas for $400 in vouchers each, plus a hotel and meals. I asked Jonathan, and we decided to do it, although we were a little nervous about it. Spend Christmas in a hotel?!Bailey was NOT happy about it. She was yelling at us in the airport: "YOU'VE RUINED CHRISTMAS!" But Jonathan and I couldn't pass up $1600 worth of flight vouchers! But her tears actually helped us out, because when I was talking to the Delta agent about our hotel room, I pointed out how upset our daughter was to be "missing Christmas," and she put us in a suite. They also gave us $100 worth of food vouchers to get us through to our flight the next morning, so we were set that way, too. Christmas Eve dinner from Chili's To Go. Nice. Very Sentimental. Oh, and did I mention that our luggage was on the way to Vegas? Fortunately we've flown enough that I knew to have one spare outfit for everyone in our carry-on. And Delta gave us deodorant. :-)
Once we got to our hotel, we were all very exhausted, so we just showered and went to bed. I wanted to read Luke 2 (thank you, Gideons), but the kids crashed before we could even do that. But Santa Claus, being as smart as he is, knew that the Brunjes family was spending Christmas Eve in a hotel in Atlanta and let them know they weren't forgotten. When the kids woke up in the morning, they found a note:
They were thrilled beyond belief that Santa hadn't let them down. Colby kept saying, "There was an ELF in this room! Bailey, an ELF!!!"
It certainly put them in a good mood for the start of Christmas Day. It didn't make going through security all over again any better, though!
All in all it was a super fun trip. We love North Carolina and love our family and friends there. I want to go back for another vacation already! See you soon, guys! (I hope)
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