last hurrah in seattle

our last two weeks at my parents' house in seattle were characterized by watching movies in our pajamas by the fire, sewing/crafting late into the night, learning how to make soft pretzels from scratch, eating all the food i crave in singapore (when is great harvest bread coming to asia?!), stocking up on baby food and clothes, and leaving in a blizzard.

it's kind of a running joke that "snow day" in seattle means frost on the grass. but, seattle got hit with a pretty big snow storm a few days before sage and i were slated to fly home, which translates into sledding for the first time! this little girl was not liking those fat snowflakes in her eyes, but cheered up once that stopped and loved being pulled in a sled.

classic.

i was so worried about flying 20 hours by myself with sage that nate kindly used an upgrade to put us in business class. and then, miracle of miracles, our whole row was almost empty so sage got her own flat bed. we made it home, finally got over the jet lag, and love that we get to wear shorts every day again.

seven months

in seven months of life, sage has racked up 20 airplane flights.
she could have elite status by now if it weren't for the age requirement...

her latest specialty is smearing food across her face, up her nose, and into her hair.

out of nowhere, she lays her head on our shoulders and is cuddly.
i. love. it.

au revoir, 2011

nate is back in reality while i'm still in america.
the house is quiet, sage is sleeping, and i'm thinking about the past year...

nate became a 1K member of united airlines while i became large with child
i finished my two year commitment to teach for america
graduate degree - check
sage elizabeth...all 9 pounds, 12 ounces of her
thoroughly enjoyed chicago's restaurant scene in large amounts before singapore
moved across the world
too many hours of gmat studying for the hubs
travels to australia, philippines, india, italy, and germany
wonderful visits to friends in d.c. and chitown
seattle, whistler, and disneyland to ring in the new year

hopefully 2012 will be slightly more mellow in the huge life changes department.
i'm feeling really grateful for my little family and the opportunities given to us.
despite this, i'm nervous to go back to the hot, to the bugs,
to the singlish, and to the unfamiliar from our american holiday.
my 2012 goal is to just find happiness wherever i am.
come what may, and love it.

vacay

lounging in a target cart (oh target! i love you!)
experiencing the magic of disneyland
dressing up pretty
sleeping with an eye mask

disneyland

our last stop on the christmas extravaganza trip was a week in california with all of nate's siblings. i have never spent consecutive days at disneyland and it is the best. we didn't have to worry about cramming everything into one day, and even got tons of extra fast passes thanks to being stuck on a broken indiana jones ride for 45 minutes...not to mention the kid in our jeep was making a youtube video of the experience, so we probably got 15 seconds of internet fame too. look it up.

we rang in 2012 at the happiest place on earth with thousands of people,
but none of us could see the fireworks thanks to the thick fog.
luckily, the partying continued since we got to celebrate jordan's new year's day birthday.

nate got suckered into wearing the dopey shirt.
he looked cute in a 9 year-old sort of way










sage's sleep habits were epic. she passed out in the middle of haunted mansion.
haunted mansion. who falls asleep on that one?!
















tradition: every time i visited disneyland as a child, i wore matching outfits with my cousins













at the very end of the trip, we got to spend the night with matt and belize, sage got to hang with eve, and i got to hold sweet baby dane. we made a mega costco/target run and stuffed our suitcases full of goods to bring back to asia, then parted ways. nate, being the responsible hubs he is, went back to work...and well, i wanted to play just a little more. so i flew back to seattle.