Tucson Trip - Feb 2010 and New Nephews

Hillbilly Papa and Hillbilly Josh, sunning their extremely white bellies! Hopefully the neighbors weren't blinded!

Josh and Niko

Papa, Niko, Taly and Josh.

Well, it has been two and a half months since I did a blog update. I think that is bad, but know that there are only a couple people who check this thing out anyway, so who cares!

Since my last entry, we survived two more blizzards here in Nebraska, one of which kept everyone away from home for Christmas. So, we spent our first Christmas in Nebraska by ourselves. The snow started Tuesday, and we didn't leave the house until Saturday afternoon, and that was just to drive around and check out the snow... probably should have stayed home. The weather was so bad, that when we tried to make it to Lincoln for Christmas Mass, we got about one mile west of Eagle, and the roads were drifter shut, so it was a no go.

January brought us three more snow days, so Christmas vacation didn't end until January 11th! Crazy! Josh was ready to be back to school, so that was great for him. My sister and her fiancee David finally made things official on January 5th.

February has been an exciting month for our respective family's, and also sad for Pauline's family. On February 11th, Brad and Heather welcomed Lincoln James Hilfiker to the world. He weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces. We haven't seen him yet, but are hoping to tomorrow. I've seen a couple pictures, and Grandma Del Rae assures me that he is super cute, and a good eater. February 22nd, Kara and David welcomed Nikolas (Niko) Omar Ash to the world. He weighed in at a whopping 9 pounds 7 ounces... she was only in labor for 5 1/2 hours, and actually complained that she felt like she was jipped out of the labor experience, because once she had the epidural, she slept until she pushed. That sounds like heaven to me!

Pauline's mom, Marge, fell and broke her hip and collar bone February 18th. Pauline drove up to North Dakota the following day. The injuries, along with her other medical problems proved to be too much to overcome, and she passed away on February 28th. I only met Pauline's mom once, but know that it is difficult to lose your mom.

Dad couldn't wait to get down to Arizona to cuddle his grandbabies, so Josh and I joined him on a whirlwind trip. We left Friday at 3pm, and got to Tucson Sunday about 1. Niko and Natalya were super cute, and it was great to see everyone, and see where Kara lives. The weather was nice other than the first day. We left Tuesday at noon, and got home Wednesday at 10 pm. If you counted, that is 5 1/2 days gone. Two down, two back, 1 1/2 there. We actually drove 16.5 hours on Wednesday. It was a really long day, and I don't think I will do that again. I am attaching some pictures.