Six States in Five Months!

Greysen is turning 5 months old (young) this Sunday. He's as sweet as he is cute. And gets sweeter and cuter every day.

We just returned from a whirlwind tour of 4 states. Greysen has now logged 6 states in his short five months. We'll see if he can beat his Papa's record of seeing all 50 states so early in life. The first leg of the trip was with Oma and Opa in the car TEN HOURS to Bismarck, ND where I grew up. G was very good in the car given the circumstances. I fed him from the bottle for the first time while he was in his car seat and it went very well. We only stopped to change his butt and burp him.

We stayed at my Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Vern's place. It was a comfortable place to stay because they have several grandchildren of their own. They had sleeping quarters, exersaucer and SWING for G to camp in. G loved the swing.

We spent Friday evening visiting Great Aunt Cheryl and Great Uncle Vern and then saw Great Aunt Paulette and (here's where I can't figure out the relation) Second-cousin Brent and Third-cousin (?) Jaden. Greysen exhibited a bit of stranger anxiety for the first time but got over it for the rest of the weekend - which was good cuz he met dozens of people for the first time this week. And most importantly, we got to see G's Great Grandmas and take four generation pictures of them both.

I got to see my 7 girlfriends from high school. We were inseparable in high school and when we're in the same town at the same time (once per year as we've committed), we could probably be described as inseparable then too. We took this photo in high school and now it's replaced with this much better looking crew. We've aged like fine wine ... mmmm, wine!

On Saturday, Aunt Jessie showed up and we got to see her too. She helped take care of G that night while I spent the evening with my girlfriends. I think she enjoyed the practice.

On Sunday, the fam had a picnic in the park. Greysen wore his appropo onesie: Are you SURE these are MY relatives? He napped in the park, hung out with aunts and uncles, and provided entertainment for those watching GTV ...

We were back in town for one sick day (both Greysen and I had a cold) and then we flew out, for the first time with bebe, to D.C. Greysen did GREAT on the flights and passengers on the plane advised us: "That one's a keeper. He was SO GOOD." We assured them we would keep him.

G got to meet Uncle Dave Jakes for the first time. There was no shortage of love for the G from Gramma and Uncle. On Saturday, we went to a wedding and G stayed home with Gramma and Uncle. We arrived back home around 10:45 p.m. where G, Gramma and Uncle were lying in Gramma's bed watching Nickalodeon. I almost expected to find cookie crumbs and ice cream spots on the bed.

On Sunday, we went to a BBQ at the Andrico's house. We met the little dolly Olivia and many other little ones we hadn't yet met - Brayden, Taylor, Jake, and Whit. G did so well meeting Papa's peops. He even napped a little on the bed to reenergize for all the smiling and talking he did that afternoon. We didn't get photos of the event but it was great to see the dudes hanging out with beers in one hand and bebes in the other.

Finally, on Tuesday evening, we flew back home. It was a long, long LONG travel day, but on the layover in Minneapolis, we got to see Aunt Jessie (and belly) and Uncle Dave Tierney at dinner. It was the perfect visit for a 4 hour layover. And even though the flight was late on Tuesday evening, Greysen slept every minute of the flight. Not a peep out of him. Sweet boy.

Greysen has been in six states since birth - Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Virginia, Maryland and Minnesota. Crazy traveler already, but since we've been back, he's settled back into quiet Montana life and his good sleeping habits. This morning at 4:30 a.m., instead of awaking to a crying baby, I awoke to cooing and talking sounds: aaaaaaAAAA, eeeeeEEEEE, heeeeeeyyyy, dooooooooo, gooooooooo. I reluctantly interrupted his chat with his crib animal friends to feed him so that he could sleep again until 7:15 this morning.

Sweet Baby Grey is back into the swing of his sweet baby life.