Ezra’s grandparents (Ahna’s parents) came into town for a long weekend of Ezra fun. They arrived on Thursday night/Friday morning – depending on what clock you looked at – after a long, long day of travel. The normal 2.5 hour drive from home to the airport was turned into a 5+ hour trek due to a snowstorm that wrongfully timed it’s arrival. After a short delay in Minneapolis of about an hour, they had a fairly uneventful trip to Denver. I met them at the airport right as the clock struck the witching hour…though no ghosts appeared. 

Friday was a fun day of seeing Ezra for the first time since Christmas for Grandma and Grandpa. We enjoyed a morning at home, a lunch out, and an evening of family-style relaxation. Saturday had little more business-like morning, with a trip to the store for some new PJs for Ezra, but the afternoon kicked off with Ahna and I going out for a short date to the movies – the first one that we have gone to since early last summer (movie review coming soon). The day ended with a wonderful and engaging dinner at our house with my parents. It is always fun to have everyone together, and we really enjoyed each other’s company. Of course, Ezra loved all of the grandparents being around and spent the evening moving back and forth between everyone. 

Grandpa and Grandma Bersagel leave to head back to the midwest on Sunday. Our next scheduled time together is a trip sometime this summer….details to be reviled later. Here’s a few pictures from today:

Re-read that post title in the voice of a pirate. It’ll make more sense when you see the pictures. 

We had great fun with the crowd at the ‘Lover’s Brunch’ at Gabe and Charlotte’s house. The Valentine’s Day fairy even showed up to give a special wish to Ezra. Okay, perhaps Jennifer was just looking for an excuse to dress up, but Ezra was fascinated with the pink hair. Tori brought everyone a small gift, and for Ezra she brought him a pirate eye patch. It is pretty funny. 

Later that evening, the three of us went out for a really nice dinner at a local restaurant before retiring to the house/bedroom for the evening. We all layed in bed and watched Dan In Real Life before nodding off for the night. 

It was my intent to remove the Obama ’08 sticker that has adorned my car for more than a year just after the inauguration. I figured that was appropriate time to bask in the victory without being one of those people who are driving around with Gore, Kerry, or W  stickers 8 years later. Well, every time that I was going to do it, I would be driving on the road and see someone with a Nobama sticker, or a McCain sticker, or a Palin sticker. Just between you and me (because doing something this silly is not worth while), it was great fun to speed up and pull in front of them on the interstate…..and drive there for a few miles, thus forcing them to stare at the Obama sticker for a while. Yea, I know….pretty immature…..but after the last bunch of years…..great fun. Alas, yesterday was the time. The sticker came off of the car. The rear window now seems a little naked – you have any suggestions?

So today we will participate in the celebration of Ezra’s first Valentine’s Day by going out to brunch with our ‘family dinner’ gang, then later heading out to dinner as just the three of us. Ezra got a head start on the partying at his day care on Thursday, as Peggy hosted a Valentine’s Day party for all of the kids. It sounds like it was a good time….for the other kids…..Ezra apparently slept through most of it. He did write everyone a Valentine’s card, and gave everyone a little piece of candy. Of course, he came home with a little brown bag full of cards and candy from the other kids. It’s a shame that he can’t eat that stuff yet, and someone will have to pick up the slack. Also, Peggy gave him a little gift of a sippy cup – which transitions well to the next paragraph. 

A few days ago, we got Ezra his first drinking cup. He has been fascinated with whatever we have been eating/drinking for some time, but we were holding off on getting him anything until now. In the past, he has been able to drink out of our water bottles: he figured out how to bite the top of the straw and suck the water out (they are made by Camelback)….so we didn’t think that this would be too foreign for him. Turns out that we were right: he took to it very well…as long as we hold it up so water can come out. Since the bottle is metal, it’s a little heavier than the plastic ones, and he has a hard time of picking it up and holding it upside down…either that or he just doesn’t understand the principal yet. Regardless, he loves to hold it and bite/suck on the top. Oh, and he loves to throw it also. 

Yup, that’s him standing on his own on the table. He has gotten really good at sitting on his knees and picking himself up to a standing position on nearly anything. He also is loving climbing stairs, and can do two or three on his own before forgetting what he was doing.