Traveling. A Lot.

Cole and His Mama
Originally uploaded by jmsmall2005.

I should have warned you to expect another onslaught of Cole (what will I do when I have another niece or nephew (Shaanti keeps suggesting that Cole needs cousins, but so far no one is biting)?), but somehow almost three weeks have gone by without a blog entry. It's also been a couple of days since I got back from my latest trip to Idaho, but all that traveling was exhausting and, after a few nights of going to bed waaaay too early, I'm only now feeling back in the swing of things.

This time, not ALL the pictures are of Cole, but I love this one of him and his mama. I don't have nearly enough cute pics of Shaanti and the boy, as she's always the one behind the camera, and this one is so sweet. He is getting so big and funny--he's lately taken to making truck sounds and waving his arm like he's ready to lasso something. Wow. Typing those things out made them sound pretty unexciting, but its amazing how long you can be fascinated by such things...

It was a special treat to spend a bit of time with Kim and Casey. They were down for a wedding (they said they have 10 weddings to go to this year--ah, I remember those days!), so they stayed for a Memorial Day BBQ the day I got there. Short but great fun to catch up. I feel a bit like my mom, who gets a little sentimental "when all the kids--except Jason (and she makes a sad face)--are home."

This was another work trip for me, and I racked up a lot of traveling miles. I flew in Monday, then on Tuesday I drove to Twin Falls and back, and Wednesday I drove to Sun Valley and back. Long but good days. On Friday, Mom, Dad, Gramps and I piled into the truck and drove to central Washington for my Uncle Don's retirement party. Mom and I enjoyed a little of this and this on the way. Good times. The party was really nice, and it was great to celebrate with Uncle Don, but wow, we missed Aunt RaVae. Saturday it was home again home again, in time to greet cousin Katie at the airport--she's been in Norway and India this year and has finally returned. Then I packed up and headed out on Sunday. Whew!

As for life in Virginia, we are slowly packing up our condo and preparing to move--we close in a week and a half! It has felt like the 2 months between putting the contract on the house and closing have gone so slowly, but all the sudden we only have one room packed and not much time! Yikes! We're getting really excited, though, and I'm trying not to buy too too much fun house stuff before we actually move in and see where everything will go.