Christmas in New York (State, Not City)

The twins are now seasoned travelers, at the wee age of only 8 months. We stayed one week celebrating Christmas in Mechanicville (i.e., Albany), New York, at Grandma and Grandpa Boespflug's house. [We flew after 6 pm at night, and the twins essentially slept the whole time. yay!]

Then, Mommy and Aunt Amanda flew with the twins to Parker (i.e., Denver), Colorado, where we spent the first week of 2008 at Grammy Sharon's house--which will appear in the NEXT blog post.

At Grandma and Grandpa's condo in Mechanicville, 9 adults, 2 infants, and 2 dogs stayed together in a 3-bedroom, 2-bath living space--and enjoyed it immensely, believe it or not! :) Here's what happened:

Chance meets his Uncle Matt (Jenny's brother) for the first time!

The brand-new girl cousins meet (though apparently Daddy is entertaining Cousin Shayne off-camera).

Gracie opens her first gift with her Daddy's help.

Aunt Sue helps Chance play with a toy on Christmas (btw, that's Snickers in the foreground, Buddy in the background).


Uncle Bob holds a comedic Chance.



Shayne, 6 mos. old, kisses her Daddy's nose.

Boespflugs and Baumgartners (L-R: Matt, Shayne, Jessica, Jenny, Chance, Eric, Grace, Amanda)

Daddy gives Gracie a taste of his Fuzzy Navel (just kidding)!

The Cousins!

Aunt Jessica, Cousin Shayne, Daddy, and Grace.

Hmmm . . . so, THAT'S where Gracie's hazel-colored eyes came from! :)

Grandma Boespflug holds Grace at the Albany Museum when we stopped for a quick lunch.

Grandpa Boespflug and Chance deep in play in the children's section of the museum.

Chance crawls into the tunnel at the museum.

Chance seems to be exiting the tunnel . . .

. . . not quite. Chance definitely does not want to go all the way through the tunnel. We tried to coax him three times. Maybe Daddy can diagnose this odd behavior.

Daddy wanted this weird picture of his girls with a giant fly at the museum.

Uncle Matt holding both of the baby girls at once--whoa!

Chance trying some of Mommy's ice-cream birthday cake from Cold Stone Creamery (dark chocolate peppermint with marshmallows and nuts and chocolate cake!! Thanks, Manda!!)

VIDEO of Grace and Grandpa on the eve of Mommy's birthday--it's quite a conversation between the two of them. (Mommy was already wearing her PJs, a robe, and was heading to bed: after a gift of a "date night" with Daddy that included dinner at a posh nearby restaurant--the grandparents and Aunt Amanda also babysat the twins--Mommy hoped that sleep would also be a nice gift for her birthday. No such luck.)

At the airport, Grandma and Grandpa make Gracie laugh out loud. :-)