Operation Meet the Family Part 1

We're home and (mostly) recovered from our trip to Missouri. We had so much fun introducing Samantha to family and friends! It was a trip of firsts for Sammy. During Operation Meet the Family Sammy:

- Took her first plane trip
- Cut her first (and second!) tooth
- Went swimming for the first time
- Had her first visit to Steak 'n Shake
- Attended her first wedding
- Stayed in a hotel for the first time
- And most importantly, met lots of people for the first time

Before we left for St. Louis, we drove up to Bellingham to visit some of Pat's side of the family. Samantha had so much fun playing with Pat's cousins. We got to celebrate Emma's birthday, and Samantha met her Great Aunt Karen and Tina and cousins Ben and Jake. Here's Samantha at GG Jim and Dorothy's house playing with cousin Margaret.

Our first stop in Missouri was Clayton for the wedding of one of Pat's Army buddies (congratulations Mike and Jen!). We got to see several friends that we hadn't seen in a while, and it was so nice to catch up with them. After the wedding, we headed out to Hermann to spend a couple of days with my family. We probably had about 20 people over to the house on Sunday to meet Samantha. She was a trooper and played happily the whole time we were there. Clearly she has no problem being the center of attention. :-)

Samantha had so much fun playing with all the toys that Grandma had rounded up for her. I think her favorites were the balls and the xylophone.

Since having Samantha I've felt this need to tap into my inner crafty side. I got this idea to make some fleece diaper soakers for Samantha out of some strawberry fleece that I found on sale. I had used a sewing machine before, but don't own one, so I asked my Mom if I could use hers while we were visiting. The pattern was just 4 pices....simple, right? Thank goodness she was there to help me! I ended up doing some of the sewing, but left the trickier parts to her. We ended up making this cover and a little t-shirt to match.

After the visit at my parents' house, we headed to a hotel in St. Charles as a home base to see some friends for a couple of days. The hotel had a pool, so we took Samantha swimming for the first time. She had so much fun splashing Mommy and Daddy! We have a cute video of her in the pool, but Samantha got a little enthusiastic pulling on my suit, so it's definitely not going on the internet. ha ha

All clean after my shower!

Wow...this has been a long post. More to come later!