Over the stormy sea

Hail the conquering hero!

We are returned from our adventures, and adventures they most certainly were. As far as travel, the Delta flights were splendid, after all the AA hullabaloo. The Delta people let me preboard without the baby so the husband could stay off the planes with him until the last possible second, and they even rearranged our seats to give us three together on the longest leg from Atlanta to SLC. We heart Delta!

And Jacob turned out to be a fabulous traveler. He nursed or sucked his pacifier or bottle at all the appropriate times, he didn't cry at all on three of the four legs of our journey out and back (he melted down somewhat on the final flight from Dallas to Charleston, but you really can't blame him after a weekend of utter overstimulation and much traveling in a car seat and planes), and he gave us hope that we can do this again and again with him, which suits us just fine, since we want to go to London and do a cruise in the near future.
Besides traveling, the rest of the weekend was also a success. We were able to stay with my family for some of the time and with the husband's for the rest. At my house, we were treated to a birthday celebration for me and the husband at a fun restaurant with big steaks and old-timey mixed drinks. We were able to give the grandparents some quality face time with Jacob, which was entertaining for everyone involved. He certainly loves his Grandeur and Grandest, as you can see from these pictures:

I was also able to fulfill my Ikea jones (purchases included some baby blankets, pillow cases, storage boxes, and a table for the baby's room for his use when he gets older) and my desire to get some religious board books for Jacob's use on Sundays (and whenever else we feel the need to be holy). And we got to talk to Lyman and Kelli (who is pregnant but you can hardly tell), Loren (vis Skype in Japan), Linsey and Caleb (via Skype in Peru), Grace (via the phone in Colorado), and Lane (in person). Lane gave Jacob some baby argyle socks that will assure his fashion-forward status with all the babies around here and will help him become as good looking and coordinated as his daddy. These are important matters, people!



Next, we headed off to the husband's house, where we we able to see all his siblings (Dave, Melissa, and Jim) and all of Jacob's cousins (too many to name!) and assorted other relatives over the course of 48 hours. While at the husband's, we had Jacob's baby blessing, the overt point of the trip (though the real point was for the grandparents to hold him as much as was humanly possible. At one point at 3:30 pm, I was holding Jacob to feed him and thought "this is the first time I have held him since we woke up this morning. WILD!"). Jacob was blessed on the same day as his cousin Eve, so it was a huge family affair. The husband did Jacob's blessing (and a very good job of it, too) and all the uncles and grandfathers participated, and Jacob performed beautifully (meaning he didn't cry, though he did manage to let out one long, world-weary sigh). Jacob wore the same blessing clothes worn by his paternal grandmother, now 91 years old. This same gown has been worn by her children, all my father's children, and by all the grandchildren so far. (For more on this story and to see evidence of another cousin's blessing, you can visit here.)

After the blessing, we hung out with family and friends the rest of the day. Jacob loves his Grandma and Grandpa on his dad's side, too! We then went to sleep in order to arise early to pack all the many, many things we had accumulated on our journey, including various blankets and keepsake items my parents had thoughtfully saved from when I was a baby (lo, these many years!) and lots of 2T-sized clothes graciously donated to Jacob by my sister-in-law. (The amount of stuff taxed even my packing expertise, but I was eventually successful and got all the bags in under the weight limit--huzzah!)




Jacob was a trooper who smiled and laughed and giggled and cooed his way through the weekend and into everyone's hearts! He did his mom proud with his performance for his various and sundry relatives. He collapsed into a deep sleep in the (sainted and much missed) swing as soon as we got home and has been sleeping off his weekend bender ever since.