Ho Ho Ho!

As has happened for the last three years, we realized, we came up with various plans for what we wanted to do during the vacation, ranging from going to San Francisco to going abroad, and then ended up chucking those complex ideas for a nice simple trip to Amherst and the McMurrers's.
The trip actually isn't that simple. It's about an 8 hour drive, so for the last two years with Maceo, we've broken it into two legs. This year, on the way up, we spent the night with the Abrams, friends who live in Philadelphia. They have a huge house and three absolutely lovely kids; Oliver is 7, Evan is 5, and Josie is 3. Maceo likes them all, though he doesn't really get any of them. Oliver is very nice and thoughtful; Evan is incredibly articulate and creative; and Josie is a good-natured little sister who follows and plays with the two of them, as long as they let her. From Philly we drove to Amherst where the McMurrers are.
For the past few months, Maceo has been a dream to put down to sleep at night. He snuggled right into bed, occasionally whining for all of 30 seconds at the most, and then he would awake early, but go back to sleep and not get out of his crib until 5:45.
However. Since we were in a house with others and we didn't want to disturb them (Nick's mom and her husband Maurice (or Monie, as Mace calls him)), we would take Maceo into bed with us when he began to cry. At 5, then 4:55, then 4:45 on successive nights. This was not fun. The rest of the days and nights were loads of fun, though, so it pretty much balanced out. There was biking, which was great.


There was singing, which was super cute.


While not everyone showed up in pictures, there were good times had with all the relatives! Thanks so much to the McMurrers for hosting us and doing so with such aplomb!