What a long strange trip it's been!

Well, Waverly's first really big trip seems to have been a roaring success. She has already made several trips to Boston (3 hour drive one way) to visit Maryellen's parents, but our Thanksgiving itinerary called for traveling on four consecutive days -- a 4 hour drive from VT to CT, a 2 and a 1/2 hour drive from CT to NJ, a 1 and 1/2 hour drive from NJ to NYC, and then a 6 and 1/2 hour drive from NYC to VT. As new parents we were nervous about this plan, but everyone seems to have held up great, and we had a good time.

Here we are arriving at my Mom's house in the woods of Connecticut for Thanksgiving Day turkey.

Waverly's cousin Lois was there, as were 24 other people, including her cousins Michael, Emma Rose, Margaret, Derek, Brett, Heather, Peter, Liza, and Will. Waverly got so excited she projectile vomited (in a way that she never had before) at about 4 p.m., and the three of us spent the rest of the day taking it easy, mostly out of sight of the big crowds.

The next day we made a namesake tour of NJ. Maryellen's grandma and cousin are both named Winifred, and both live within a quarter mile of one another. So on Friday Waverly Winifred had fun with both of them.

Three generations of Winifreds.

Maryellen's Grandma has these big bay windows that Waverly loved to sit in front of and just watch the trees sway on the edge of the lake upon which she lives.

On Saturday, we visited my Dad, who lives on the Upper West Side. The shame of this whole trip is that we didn't get a usable picture of the view from his apartment window. He looks out over the Hudson River and all day long you can watch boats, helicopters, planes, people, cars and clouds go whizzing by, one way or another. Again, Waverly had plenty to watch at in wonder.

Saturday night we stayed in Brooklyn with our friends Mark, Tam, Julie, Uther, Dakota, Tazi, Izzie, and Larry. Plus, there are four beautiful fish that also live there, and since I don't know their names, I will just call them Sparkle Motion (TM) for now.

Here is Mark's hair in the morning. This photo alone may be enough to get the plug pulled on this blog. Since Mark controls the server, I can never be sure where his line is between benevolent Obi-Wan-like computer mentor, and wrathful techie taskmaster.

Here are Uther, Dakota, Larry, and Izzie.

And here is Wavo getting her tummy rubbed on the kitchen table. Plenty of good eats in Park Slope. Mark made us a spaghetti dinner, and on Sunday morning we had real, honest to goodness, bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches on Kaiser rolls from the Bagel World around the corner.

We are glad to be back in VT, where there is snow on the ground, and all seems right with the world. But we had a great time, and we have lots of gratitude for such nice family and friends, all within a long drive of home.