Firstly, have I mentioned that Anna learned to crawl Dec. 15th when she saw the dogfood?
Dec. 22-23 – Visit with Grandpa and Gran Davis
Our first stop on our Grand Adventure was at Grandpa and Nancy’s. We decided that Nancy needed a new title. We tried out “Nana” and “Gran.” Since Nancy is a proud fourth generation “Gran,” that’s the name that stuck. So… Anna has a Grandpa and Gran Davis. We enjoyed talking and eating and eating and talking and MOSTLY sharing Anna. Grandpa usually gets the kids’ love first, which means that Gran usually ends up getting the short end of the stick when it comes to grandkids. Not so with Anna! Gran and Anna were lovebugs from the beginning and it was super cute.
Dinner (Gran couldn’t put Anna down and ended up eating significantly less than us)
Grandfather and Grandson watching Gran with Anna
Gran shares just a little bit
Awww – Anna and her Great-Grandparents
Showing Anna the birds and the squirrels
Dec 25 – Christmas at home and at the OC Davis’
On Christmas Day, we enjoyed a beautiful Christmas at home. Brian got a reciprocating saw from me along with a new fleece jacket and some odds and ends. Brian bought me an mp3 player with sermons to listen to when I go on my walks. We also have a new stroller/bike trailer that we bought ourselves. We tried it out yesterday and it’s great!!!! Brian and I really enjoyed having our first Christmas morning with Anna – snuggling up around the tree with no thoughts but merry ones.
Late that morning, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Davis’. I’ll call them Jeff and Tamera, because too many grandma’s and grandpa’s gets confusing. We had a delicious Christmas dinner there and more happy memories. We also got the first measurable snow in the valley since 1930-something!!! It was Anna’s first snow. I’ll let the pictures share:
Papa turns Anna into a pirate.
What do I do with these, Mama?
Where’s Papa?
Awwww – I love my Grandma Davis!
The whole crew out in the snow:
Cuddling again:
The Snowman:
Dec 26 – Christmas at the Chapman’s
The next morning, we headed over to Mom and Dad’s (aka. Grandma and Grandpa Chapman’s). We spent the day visiting and playing with Anna (sound familiar?) and eating good food. Mom even made Cincinnati Chili for all of us, which I haven’t had in far too long. It was SO GOOD, mom! I got some nice pictures, but forgot to get one of Mom and Anna… do you have one anybody else?
Anna figures out presents:
Auntie Melissa gets some Anna time:
The guys and some gizmo?
Three pictures of Grandpa and Anna… awwwww
Dec 27 – Jake, Emily and Guy’s visit
On December 27th, Jake Emily and Guy came by for a visit. This was cool, cuz we had already enjoyed dinner with them several days earlier. This was doubly cool, because Jake helped Brian with mudding in the garage. Have I mentioned that we are finally SANDING now!??? That means the third coat is completely done! Thank you Jake for helping!
While they worked in the garage, Emily and I did some catching up and baby bouncing. We even got a pic of Guy smiling… almost! He was smiling real big shortly before. Does he look like his parents or what??
Dec 28-Jan 1 – Visit to Grand Coulee
Ok, now for the big Grand Coulee post! The drive is somewhere between 350 and 400 miles. I wrote it down, but don’t have it with me. That translates to a 7 hour drive about. We made it in 8 thanks to snow. We packed up and headed out on Thursday after B’s work. I think that’s right. In any case, we headed out with Brian driving at 6 PM. The idea was to drive at night while Anna slept. Turned out to be a bad and good idea. Good – Anna slept soundly. Bad – roads were freshly snowed on and frozen. But we made it! The drive home was much faster and the roads were nice and dry.
As we drove north, towns kept seeming smaller and smaller… but it wasn’t til we got to Grand Coulee that we knew what small meant. Grand Coulee is a genuine “small town.” We went from Hillsboro – 88K people through Portland, The Dalles, Kennewick, Moses Lake… to Coulee – Population about 3K. I know some people won’t understand, but I also know that some of you will… when we say that it was wonderful. Even the people who work at Safeway are on a first-name basis… I mean, there are only like 3 people at Safeway. 🙂
Ok, ok – How do I write this post? You can’t compare Grand Coulee to the Willamette Valley. They are two different birds. We really enjoyed our time there. Let me tell you a little about it. It is in a canyon that was dusted with snow. It was cold. It was beautiful. The “bigger” church that we visited had 50-100 people in it. They don’t get strangers moving out there often… I think it’s mostly in the family. Most of the men work at the Dam, or as they say, “The Bureau.” (The Bureau of Water Reclamation or something like that)
Nancy’s family was great. They’ve got three kids from teenager Missy to 13 year old Marshall to 6 year old Katherine. Both Nancy’s dad’s (Father and Father-in-Law) moved out to Coulee with them. Nancy followed her sister and her husband out. They trade meals between families – going to each other’s houses every other morning for breakfast. Dogs and cats are always to be found. A turtle too.
Let me share some pictures with you:
Here are some of the homes in the area…
Anna and Cicci got along great. Anna LOVED all the animals!
Little town
Anna liked Missy – she let her bang on her laptop!
😀
Anna and Katherine
Brian and I went on a hike
Love:
The snow had grown crystals up off it… it was so beautiful and sparkling; Acres of precious jewel… that cannot be harvested or held.
Just part of a road:
Can you all come up here to camp with us? (during the summer!)
Nancy really enjoyed her baby time. Here she is feeding Anna:
Nancy’s home is a busy one… but not too busy. Here I am loaded up with snugglebugs:
I know many of you are wondering if we are moving to Grand Coulee. We are too. We don’t know yet. Our purpose in Coulee was to: visit, get to know the area, find out if we want to move there. We can imagine ourselves living there. We did like it there. But we don’t know yet. We are taking one step at a time. The first step is to get our home sellable. We’re working on that – finishing the garage and fixing the bathroom floor. Installing a compact dishwasher and doing regular maintenance. We plan to list FSBO very soon – whether the house sells or not… well, we just don’t know. We are trusting God with our lives and future.
wow how can you not have any comments??? o. cause you JUST updated it. heehee. gosh i’m awesome.
so the snowy pictures of the town look amazing, like one of those christmas scenes on cards (if it was night time) and that plateau and lake thing? beautiful!!!
i admit to not reading your entire post tho.
i read what you wrote about us tho!
😀
You want to camp up there in the summer? Are you guys crazy? You
realize its like 110 degrees there and bugs are plentiful to bite
you EVERYWHERE? Anywho you guys looked like you had fun. Jenn and
I would love to see you guys and the growing Anna some time in the
near future. Toodles.
haha ew bugs!
yah guy looks sooooo intelligent in his drooling picture. hmmm.
g2g make broccoli soup and parmesan rolls. mmmmmmmmm.
hi ho.
heehee you called Guy Jake. 🙂
Wow! Jake is such a tough little man. He is strong! That would be so strange to have a crawling 4 month old… i mean, they could move around but wouldn’t know what they ewre doing yet.
you are right tho. Jake is s tough man, not a little man tho. 😀
SO funny!
so hungry.
must eat lunch!
can not wait for jake to get home.
dying of hunger.
must
eat
noooooow…
In Response to Peter – The bugs aren’t that bad actually… We had no problem with them until the end of the summer. It does get really hot though! I read this whole thing like days ago and forgot to comment. Now here I am. You guys had a very busy several days but it looks like it was filled with fun! I never did write my blog… oh well I suppose. We miss you guys! Come back soon xD
I am so glad to read this Grand Coulee update! I had been wondering about it and I just don’t know why I have forgotten about yoru blog for so long! Grand Coulee reminds me a bit of Colville where we spent our Thanksgiving. You should look at our Picasa thanksgiving album and you should see some similarities.
P.S. Anna has gotten so big and is changing so much from the last time I saw her! It’s crazy how that happens! 😀 She is such a cutie pie!