The end of 2011, and our trip

We spent the remaining 4 days of 2011 in Keizer with the Casqueiros. It was such a blast, and I am such a bad picture taker. It should now be obvious how much I rely on my sisters' blogs because when I'm with the other family I have no pictures to post! Anyway, here's what I do have :).

On the 29th, we were trying to think of something fun to do in the very Oregon-esque weather, so we went to the Salem Carousel at Riverfront Park. I'd never been there before, and am excited to go sometime in the summer when we can walk around outside as well, but the carousel was awesome! It was beautiful, and all the horses are hand-carved by craftsmen in the area. They each had a name, and some are traded out for the different seasons. Olivia rode on a couple Christmas ones; she was very fond of their curly manes and the bows in their hair. It will be fun to see next time we go, since she now recognizes horses and likes to talk to them (her whinny sounds more like a scream, but we take what we can get around here). Anyway, the rides are pretty cheap, and it goes fast enough and long enough to be fun for adults too - at least I had fun. There was a good sized park right outside, but this day was too wet to play, so we stayed inside and explored the gift shop in between rides.

I've never made a video in Picasa before, but I had too many pictures, and my camera wasn't working great that day, so I made a video of all the frame-by-frame pics. You can see that Olivia definitely liked it more towards the endm after she got used to the speed and going up and down.

I'll admit, I'm a sucker for hand-holding pictures :)

The next morning we headed out to Silverton to see Grandma and Grandpa Wellman. Olivia always has fun at their house, and enjoys exploring while the grownups talk. This time she found Ruby's chair, and was really excited to be able to get on it all by herself! I missed the proud 'look at what I did' face, but I did catch the awkward feet shifting beneath her, followed by the 'just loungin' after she got all situated.

Olivia is always more hesitant around men than women, so I loved that when Grandpa started dancing she went over to join him. Together they shuffled their feet...I wish I had a video :)

We had a traditional Casqueiro get-together that night (no pictures of course...lame me!). It was a blast, it's always fun to catch up and have a little time to hang out when we are up. I especially love to watch Olivia with her older cousins, and how patient they are with her. Tyler and Aiden are awesome at running just a little slower and watching out behind themselves so she doesn't get too trampled.

We relaxed on New Year's Eve, I actually can't really remember what we did, except I do remember winning a mad Cranium game or two just before midnight...it was quite a wild party! It was a big improvement on last year, however, when none of my little family was up to see the ball drop. The next morning we packed up and headed out for one last night at my family's house before the drive back. This was really just to cut an hour off our drive the next day, and I was very glad for every minute that we didn't have to be in the car, so it all worked out.

Everyone had pretty much left my parent's house, so it was quiet enough that Olivia had to find her own entertainment for part of the afternoon. Imagine my delight and surprise when I heard wonderful piano noises coming from the living room! Olivia isn't tall enough to pound when she is standing, so it's perfect! After a few minutes, however, I took pity on her and sat her up on the piano bench. She LOVED being able to see all the keys, and did get a little more rowdy with her playing :). I stopped her after she started standing on the bench and climbing onto the keyboard...it just looked a little too dangerous, but I love that she is so into the piano, and can't wait for the someday that we will have one of our own.

Whew! That pretty much sums up our trip. I'll leave out our trip home, mostly because it was a very hard, miserable car ride that I'd rather forget. I get carsick on a good day, so adding in 7 weeks pregnant and a 15 hour day makes for major yuckiness and multiple emergency bathroom trips. I was very sad to leave our family, and felt it even more after all the laundry was done and gifts put away, and we had a totally quiet apartment again. Living away from family will always be the hardest thing for me, so I'm so glad that we get multiple opportunities each year to visit.