Christmas in Texas

Gil and Wesley have been enjoying some father and son together time since the semester ended.  I was at work when Gil texted me this photo.  With our incredibly active and wiggly little guy, how he accomplished this is truly amazing.  (It also shows how creative and artistic my dear husband is.)

This makes me smile.

We headed to southern California to see Gil's cousins and to attend and extended family (Gil's side) annual Christmas party.  Wesley was introduced to quite a few cousins and enjoyed some time with his Great Uncle Merlin.

We continued on to Texas from there and somehow made it with limited mishaps, driving, with a seven month old cutting two teeth.  We were in Waco with Gil's dad and his wife and all Gil's siblings and their children were there too.  It was wonderful to be altogether as a family.

The day after Christmas, Gil took us on a tour of Waco, where he spent his formative years.  When introduced to his first longhorn, Wesley tasted his horn and deemed him alright.

Opa Bill and Oma Judy Clements have a large warehouse type structure on their property and Judy has turned one of the sections into her quilting room.  They had moved furniture around and cleaned off the biggest table I'd ever seen and the whole family hung out in this space.  To keep Wesley from getting into too much, Oma bought him a walker.

Our hotel had a heated indoor pool and Wesley LOVED (!!) swimming.  He was adorable to watch splashing around and enjoying the water.

He especially loved the animals.  The goats were a hit but his favorite by far were the dogs.  One dog was scared of him and his favorite game was to chase after it (Ehem, that would be me or Gil running after the dog with Wes in the carrier kicking and grunting in delight.)  Gil and one of his brothers look quite a bit alike and one morning at breakfast Wesley stared and stared at his Uncle Mark, trying to figure out who this guy was who looked like Daddy but wasn't Daddy.

We decided to drive straight home and made surprising time.  We had finally gotten Wesley down to one or two night wakings before we left on this trip and I hoped he wouldn't regress and he didn't.  He did get his first cold, which I was expecting, but suffered through it like a champ.  It was wonderful to see family and to be in Texas again, brief though it was.