New Year's Eve

We flew to Tucson over New Year's Eve weekend for David's grandmother's 90th birthday party. Wanted to share a few stories from our trip.

David and I decided not to take the stroller this time because lately we've only used it to push our bags through the airport while Thomas runs ahead and then we never use it again the rest of the trip. And isn't it just typical that the one time we don't have the stroller is the one time Thomas wants to be carried the entire time. And he's a big boy at 40 pounds so David and I definitely got a workout.

Thomas did great with David's family. He hadn't seen most of them since he was a baby but was very comfortable with them like he sees them all the time. He did fairly well keeping track of everyone's name but it was a challenge since David has such a big family. If he wanted to talk to one of his aunts, he'd use their name if he could remember it. If not, he just called them "that girl" which I think really made their day since it's been a few years since any of them were technically "girls." :-)

He wouldn't call David's grandmother "Grandma" because he already has a Grandma (my mom) but he decided to call her Grandma and then her last name. He's a lucky boy to have three living great-grandparents. One story not about Thomas but still funny is that Grandma's birthday cake said, "Happy 90th Birthday Pink" which cracked everyone up since the writing was supposed to be her name in pink. Luckily everyone in the family has a great sense of humor, especially Grandma.

During the party, the family was watching a video of old family photos from Grandma's life. At one point many said "Amen" in response to a message on screen about Grandma's life and how it had influenced others. Thomas looked up from where he was playing and said "Hey Man!" along with them. David's uncle Bob and I were trying to explain to him that they weren't saying "Hey Man" but "Amen." Once he got it, he looked at David's uncle and yelled, "A-MEN Bobby!" It might not sound all that funny in print but we all died laughing when it happened.

On Sunday we got to go to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum which is really nice. It's like a desert zoo, botanical garden, and museum all rolled into one. Thomas loved all the animals and catcus and knew he couldn't touch the cactus because they were poky. At one point though, he ran too fast and fell down into one of the small cactus. I saw him fall and thought I grabbed him before he did too much damage to himself or the cactus. It was only the next morning that we realized, he had two small cactus needles stuck in his stomach. We felt terrible because we thought he'd just been grouchy that day because he was tired.