Trip to visit mommy's family

We took a long drive up to Redding this past weekend because mommy was in her good friend, Mary's, wedding and to visit mommy's family. Lily did surprisingly well on the drive. On the way up and back she slept 5 of the 8 1/2 hours!

Sleeping in the car while daddy was driving.

We had a wonderful time seeing Mary and witnessing her marriage to Jeff. It was a long time coming! Lily and I with the beautiful bride and another one of mommy's oldest friends, Emily (next in line to get hitched!).

Grandma and grandpa were looking at Aunt Melody's camera but Lily couldn't take her eyes off her mommy.

Laughing with Aunt Melody.

Lily with her Great-Great Grandma Flora. She likes her grandma because she lets her rip up magazines. Lily liked sitting in a chair on top of the table in front of grandma and talk to her.


Lily is still a lot taller than her cousin Isabella.
And we also like hangers apparently. It's fun because we can hold them with our hands and our feet.

Phew!

We are finally home safe and sound after 4 flights, 3 states, 2 National Parks, 8 grandparents, 7 aunts and uncles, many, many hours in the car and too many other relatives and friends to count.

It was a long 2 and half weeks but so much fun to spend time with family and friends and it really solidified how lucky we are to have such a good baby. Lily did remarkably well on all legs of the trip. We really couldn't have hoped for a more well-mannered baby. Her worst moments bookended the trip--puking all down the front (and inside!) of mommy shirt while waiting to head to Maui in the terminal of LAX and then a little bit of fussiness on the flight back from Sacramento to LAX. Overall a great trip. Lily's a star traveler already.

So what's new in Lilyland? She's smiling up a storm. It's the best feeling in the world to see her smile. Hard to ever be upset or sad when you see that every day. She makes HUGE laughing faces but so far no sound comes out. I'm sure any day now the giggles and belly laughs will start. She awake a lot more during the day. She loves to play on her floor gym. She reaches for toys and grabs a hold of them. She's still figuring out that she can move them once she's grabbed a hold; but she loves to look at her toys. Sometimes she gets a little fussy just because she wants to lay down and play. She loves the flow in the dark planets now suspended from the ceiling in her (and our) room. She finds them hilarious and loves to watch them.

A review in photos...first stop Maui.

Lily with Daddy and Uncle Gary on his wedding day

Chilling in Lahaina


Hiking down to the blowhole that wasn't really blowing


The whole family in front of the Iao Needle


On top of Haleakala, Lily's first National Park. Yes, we are still in Maui, just 10,000 ft up.


Then on to Northern CA and Oregon.

Meeting her Great-Great-Grandma Smith


Aunt Melody with cousin Isabella, Lily and mommy, and 2nd cousin Stacy with 3rd cousin Jacob


A short hike to a waterfall


Crater Lake with Aunt Anna


Hard to believe Lily's cousin Isabella is only 20 days younger than her.


Isabella prefers sleeping on her side while Lily prefers the "touchdown" position

Baby Shower!

My mom and my sister, Kellie threw a shower for me and my sister, Melody (who's also pregnant), on Saturday, February 16th. I was overwhelmed by the turnout and the generosity that people showed towards us and our baby. I have many special memories of that day that I've already written down to share with Baby Pope one day in the future. We never got an official count but we think there were about 40 people there. My parent's living room, kitchen and dining room were full of people-- well the living room was almost fully occupied with gifts. I have a lot of pictures, but I'll post a few that will hopefully be a good representation of the afternoon. Sisters - who's bigger?
Me and the grandmas.
We asked that people bring a book for the baby instead of a card and write a message to the baby inside the book. I was so pleased by how many people participated. We love books and reading and I know the messages will be especially nice to look back on. These are the books Baby Pope received:


My mom's mom (so Baby Pope's great-grandmother) made a quilt for the baby using some different green fabrics I picked out. One has some jungle animals on it to match the "theme" of our nursery corner. It's not overly babyish which is exactly what we wanted. I love it.

We got a few coordinating outfits. Since our babies will be so close in age they could be mistaken for twins. Thankfully Scott and Dusty don't look anything alike.

Kellie made Melody and I each a cake out of diapers, which was really cool and will be very useful.


We also had some cupcakes with babies sleeping under their quilts on top. And everything is edible-- even the babies.
It was a wonderful day. Unfortunately, Scott couldn't make it since he's a busy graduate student. His parent's were able to travel up to Redding for the first time and take part in the festivities. The also got the grand tour of Redding and surrounding areas. We think we showed them a good time. We had beautiful weather in the high 60s and 70s most of the weekend so it was a lovely time to visit. And for the Pope/Kerbis side who aren't familiar with Redding or Northern California, here's a taste of what you're missing:
On Debi & Jim's last day we visited this well-known lookout of "The Three Shastas": Shasta Dam, Shasta Lake and Mount Shasta. Wasn't it a beautiful day?

Thank you again to everyone who came to the shower and thank you to those of you who weren't able to make it that sent Baby Pope gifts anyway. We really appreciate all your generosity.