Visiting Oregon

It has been a while sing I've updated our blog - my apologies to all!  So what have we been up to in the last two months?  One big event was that Ruthie and I traveled to Oregon to visit her Howe family.  I was nervous about flying alone with her, but she did great!  As luck would have it, we sat next to businessmen type travelers on almost everyone of our flights.  I was hoping we'd be next to other young moms or cute grandmas, but nope, we were next to lots of men who were really not very interested in ooing and ahing over a cute baby.  Ruthie was pretty funny about it though.  She would smile at them and if they didn't smile back, she'd stare them down and get really loud (and cute) until they acknowledged her.  It was a little bit embarrassing, but also pretty funny!

Ruthie got to spend lots of time playing with Grandpa Dave and cuddling with Grandma Kathy. 

We gave Ruthie a bath in Grandma and Grandpa's sink.  Turns out Ruthie loves baths anywhere, not just in her whale tub!

Not surprisingly, we've come to learn that Ruthie really loves music.  Whenever we sing to her she watches us carefully, usually with a huge smile.  One of my main childhood memories is listening to my dad play guitar and sing to me.  It was so fun for me to watch Ruthie listening to Grandpa sing one of my favorite songs to her.

We also spent two days in Corvallis visiting Joel, Dana, Annikka, and Eila.  It is so fun to have three little girls in our family now!  I love to imagine how these three are going to play together as they grow older.  

Aunt Dana showed Ruthie Annikka's crazy birthday card.  Ruthie was enthralled!

And Ruthie got some more cuddling in, this time with Uncle Joel and Aunt Dana.

It was a great trip and we can't wait to see everyone again when we go back to Oregon in March!