I figured I should probably finish posting Christmas stuff before January's over. A few weeks ago I snapped some pictures of Jack in these adorable jammies from his Grandma Lambert. He thought it was hilarious to kick his legs and try to get one of his elf shoes to fly across the room. That's why he's only wearing one shoe in most of these, but it's also why he's smiling so big so I'll take it. We did a similar Elf on the Shelf photoshoot of Jack last year for his first Christmas. You can see those pics near the bottom of last year's Christmas post [click here]. 
These Elf on the Shelf shoots are my favorite. I think we're going to make it a yearly tradition, and hopefully Jack will carry the tradition with him through his whole life. Can you imagine how funny it would be to see Jack at age 40 in a photoshoot like this? So good.
Jack on the Shelf

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Here come a lottt of pictures from our time spent in Washington over Christmas! Jack is down to one sad little nap and it's only about an hour long (ughhh), so I'll write as much as I can until, well, until I'm out of time. 

Our journey from Casper to Seattle went about as well as could be expected with a very wiggly not-quite two-year-old. It was exhausting trying to keep him contained and entertained on the flights, especially since he won't nap while traveling, but we survived. Jack loved watching the planes come and go--that was pretty cute. I probably would've felt all sorts of relieved and excited upon landing safely in Seattle, but right as we made it to the baggage claim I realized that my phone was missing, and my heart sank. I knew immediately in my gut that I wasn't going to get it back. I ran around for probably close to an hour, talking to everyone I could and even having someone check the seat on the plane I was on, but no dice. It was on airplane mode, so there was no way to track it. I've reported it to the airport's lost and found and Delta's lost and found, but at a month later it's safe to say she's a gonner. I think it must've either slid between the cracks in the seats on the airplane, or else I put it in the "wipes" pocket of my diaper bag, which just so happens to have a large slit in it where my phone could've fallen out anywhere. It ended up being ok not having a phone for a couple weeks, and I have a replacement now, but still a bummer.

A quick drive to Woodinville later and we were home at Jared's parents' beautiful house, elegantly decked out for Christmas! Every detail was perfect, down to the spruce hand soaps and Christmasy boxes of disposable hand towels in the bathrooms.  Jack was immediately smitten with his only older cousin, Mae Llewellyn. She's in kindergarten, so several years older than Jack, but he adored her and followed her everywhere the whole time we were there. Jack tends to take charge when he's with other kids his own age, so we loved watching him be an enamored little sheep as he followed Mae around. I think she liked having a little minion who she could tell what to do, too.
The Seattle area is a great place to be in December. Cool enough that it feels like winter, but warm enough that you can very easily slip on a coat and go for a pleasant walk most any time. On one of our first days there, a few of us hopped into Grandma's car and went for a morning adventure beginning at a pretty nature preserve. Jack kept spontaneously falling to the ground and rolling around, sometimes even up hills haha.
Next we visited one of my all-time favorite Washington sites: Snoqualmie Falls. Probably the biggest waterfall I've ever been to besides Niagara. It was misty and beautiful. We all enjoyed sipping steamy hot cocoas. 
 ^^We were trying to get Jared to do a "real" smile for the camera. Wish I'd gotten a better picture of the falls! Go google Snoqualmie Falls real quick for a better idea.
 ^^Jack during our professional family photoshoot. I'll post the beautiful professional pictures next week!
 ^^Jack's other Lambert BFF, Elsie dog. He never called her Elsie though--only "Dog," with a very heavy "g". He was slightly nicer to her than he is to his own Savvy dog (he calls Savvy "Ya ya"). He loved finding Elsie immediately upon waking up every morning, and Elsie actually sat in his carseat with him when we drove from the airport to the Lambert home that first night. Jack was PUMPED.
^^Decorating the living room tree on Christmas Eve
 ^^Also on Christmas Eve. We had our Christmas Eve dinner at a delicious restaurant called Ixtapas. This is mine and Jared's second favorite restaurant to hit when we visit Washington. The tortilla soup always hits the spot. Jack was a record amount of wiggly and escape-artisty, but it was still the perfect Christmas Eve.
 When we got home from Ixtapas, we all put on our Christmas jammies and opened a present from Jingle the elf. Then we put Jack to bed and enjoyed an evening playing fun games with great gift card prizes.
 ^^Christmas morning! Jack was so excited about the contents of his stocking that he wasn't really interested in opening the other presents because he was too preoccupied with this light-up Christmas tree thing that had m&ms inside. Eventually he caught interest in the beautiful wood train set he got from Grandma and Grandpa Lambert, and he's been playing with it ever since.
It was a wonderful, magical Christmas morning! I think Christmases will continue to get more and more magical over the next decade, as Jack understands a bit more each year and we add more kiddos to the mix. 
 ^^A rare hug sighting between Jack and Mae. Mae's not much of a hugger, and neither is Jack (heck, I'm not either for that matter), but Jack loved Mae so much that he was down for a good Mae hug anytime we suggested it.
^^A happy Jack going to sleep on Christmas Day, and me wearing a 70s-style velvet jumpsuit that I got for Christmas and now live in. For Christmas dinner we had a delectable ham feast, but my favorite meal we had during our time in the Lambert home was a beautiful, amazing, delicious, enormous fish that Jared's mom made. She had a bunch of fancy foodie ladies over for dinner one night and fed them this fish and they went gaga. I got the recipe but am skeptical to make it because the fish I'll be able to find in the middle of Wyoming is definitely inferior to fresh Washington fish. Oh, then we had the most beautiful rosemary lemon cake for dessert. Mama Lambert knocked everything out of the park! 
 ^^Sweet widdle napping baby. Jack slept in a pack n' play in the same room as us. I was so worried that Jack would be a nightmare in the sleep department, but he did really great the whole time we were there. I'll always treasure this shot. Such a perfect capture of how Jack always sleeps: preferring to be pantsless, pulling off his socks before he can fall asleep, with a couple toys in there for good measure, and hugging his stuffed bunny tightly (actually a dog but looks kind of like a bunny and he calls it "buh-buh"). If you zoom in his eyes are actually just starting to open. I'm pretty sure getting this shot woke him up, but it was worth it!
 ^^Annie, Mama Lambert, and I think Marie made a batch of french macarons while we were there. How fancy and amazing are my in-laws?! I've never really felt bad that I grew up with all brothers and no sisters, but spending time with my in-laws and watching Jared's sisters do cool stuff like this and having that classic sisterly bond for sure makes me feels like that would've been amazing to have growing up. I have so many amazing sisters-in-law now (5 so far), and hopefully I'll be able to live closer to some of them some day and develop some deeper sister bonds. But no worries, I'll always treasure the bonds I have with my brothers and laughing at the neverending potty humor when I get together with the brosefs.
 ^^This was a walk through the watershed preserve near my in-laws' house. So beautiful.
Our last full day in Washington was spent exploring downtown Seattle. We ate at everyone's #1 favorite restaurant to hit up when we're in Seattle: Din Tai Fung (Emmy, if you're reading this, you MUST eat at Din Tai Fung while you're living in Seattle). It's got some fancy restaurant accolade that indicates it's one of the top restaurants in the world (Michelin star[s] maybe?). We always get their signature steamed meat dumplings, the shrimp won tons, and their green beans. We also got the mini bok choys this time, and some taro dumplings for dessert. Even with Jack being Jack, breaking ceramic spoons and laying on the floor between our chairs, me and Jared still managed to stuff ourselves completely full.
 ^^We also walked down to Pike's Place. Jack loved seeing all the Christmas lights around the trees.
And that's a wrap! We did so many other amazing things with family--too many to write about now, but it was a great Christmas. The last picture is in our tiny Casper airport when we made it home, exhausted but happy. It was a lifesaver to have our ergo carrier to lug Jack around the airports, but man, my back was Jacked up for a few days after this. Absolutely worth it!
Lambert Christmas 2019

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I'm dedicating this post to my champion mom, who had brain surgery over the weekend. The neurosurgeon took out a tumor that was apparently closer to the size of a BASEBALL than a golf ball, which is the size he usually deals with. WUT. Mom. How?! How does that even fit in there? She's in rough shape so I haven't talked to her much. From the conversations I've had with my dad I think they found the tumor to be benign. But there was a bit of confusion and apparently the results came back malignant the first time? No one seems worried and it sounds like they're pretty sure it's benign, so we'll go with that. Half of her head is numb/paralyzed right now. They're working to reverse that, but wow. MOM. You need a nice long vacation after you recover from this. (Just in time for Italy, right? Take me with you!)

This week I'll post some pics from our time with the Haineses over the holidays. Next week I'll do a big post about Christmas in Washington with the Lamberts. 
^^Should probably email this one to everyone. I'll get to it! I'm finding it hard to get pretty much anything done right now. That New Years flu hit me HARD. Still haven't got my energy back a million days later.

All of my siblings live in Utah Valley right now. I think I've taken that for granted, but I'm realizing how cool it is that it's basically a little family reunion every time we go visit. Now everyone just needs to stay put until we can make it back there in like 5 years. K?!!!? Jared was able to be in Utah with us for exactly one day when he got back from his away rotation in Spokane. The next day we had to drive back to Casper for him to work. Boooo, work is laaame. I'm about done with this medical training garbage. Someone get me a 2-week tropical vacation where Jared doesn't have to take any calls or record any notes. STAT. ANYway, my sis-in-law Amanda had the great idea to celebrate a Haines family Christmas during the one evening Jared was going to be in town. So smart. We ate great food and did some chimes in my parents' basement. With my mom's tumor and people moving all around, we kept it simple. Instead of putting up a Christmas tree, we put up a green stick and wrapped it with lights. Then we did a gift exchange and called it a night. It was low-key and perfect.
^^How stinkin' cute are these Christmas jammies Jared's mom got for Jack in France??! I  die over them! And they are soooo soft. I did a photo shoot of him in them with my nice camera the other day. Probably will post them next week. Jack's not much of a shoes guy, but he was obsessed with these little elf ones. Until he outgrew them like a week later. He's growing way too fast!
 ^^Jared teaching Jack about hot chocolate.
After our wonderful Lambert Christmas in Washington, we made it back to Casper just in time for New Years. The biting winter wind and cold were a bit of a slap-in-the-face, but my parents and Tim driving up for New Years made it better. The last time they were up here was for New Years last year. This is becoming an excellent tradition! I would not advise a Wyoming vacation in the winter though, for the record. We tried to take Jack sledding in our neighborhood park one day. I think it was in the 30s, but the wind was so fierce that we only lasted about 5 minutes. Sleds were flying everywhere.
 ^^Uncle Tim and Jack with a snow drift to the face. It wasn't even snowing. The wind just picks up the snow already on the ground and whips you with it. Yay Wyoming!
We went to The Hangar the night they got here. It's an old airplane hangar turned restaurant--the only one in Bar Nunn. We're glad to have it here, even if the food can be spotty. Usually it's pretty good, but occasional we'll go on a night when the chef's having an off day and everything just"eh." This night it was pretty good! We had to take turns being dragged into the little arcade room in the back by Jack. There were a couple of car games and he loved sitting in the seats and playing with the steering wheels.


On New Years Eve, we ate a ton of food, played a game of Saboteur, and threw some boiling water into the outside air and watched it turn instantly into snow. We also let everyone sit around and watch while Jared and I opened our Christmas gifts to each other haha. Kinda weird, but they insisted we open them. We had limited space in our bags when we went to Washington, especially for the bigger gifts, so we left them behind. Jack especially loved the little basketball hoop from my mom and dad. My dad got a great video of him making a shot and then throwing his arms up in the air and clapping in excitement. 
We went to bed at 10:00 on New Years Eve like a couple'a party animals. Poor Tim. His first New Year's Eve as a college student, trapped in Wyoming with his parents and sister and calling it quits at 10:00 p.m. It was probably for the best thought, since my parents weren't feeling great and Jack and I woke up barfing and flu-ridden the next morning. Such bad timing! I had some fun things planned to do with my family on New Years Day, but instead I spent the day trying not to die, and they booked it out of there mid-Jack barf in the morning. It was a good call. They for sure would've caught the virus if they'd stuck around. What is it with all the holiday barf-fests lately? This one wasn't as bad as the Thanksgiving barf fest last year that hit all of my extended family AND all of Jared's extended family while we were there, but still. Not a great way to celebrate.
 ^^Me low-key dying on the couch. This is the best group shot we could get before they left haha

Sickness aside, we're so grateful for all the family time we had at the end of 2019. I feel like I'm just hobbling my way through 2020 so far. Jared and I both had pretty big plans for this year, but if I don't start feeling like my old self again soon, I'm going to have to write those plans off. That's why it's good to have a Jared around--he'll keep this ship going forward even if I'm being dragged behind on a rope, just doing my best to hold on for the ride. Our biggest goal for this year is for Jared to sign for his first post-training job. Technically residency isn't over until mid-2021, but it would just be nice to have a job secured and maybe be getting a monthly stipend in the meantime. This is actually pretty normal timing for residents to sign for their next job, but we'll see. We basically have two requirements for Jared's next job: (1) a salary that will allow us to pay off Jared's student loans in under 5 years, and (2) stay in the West, and hopefully inch closer to family. If you have any family physician contacts, shoot their info our way in a comment or something! We want a niiiice sign-on bonus, a niiiice monthly residency stipend, a niiiice loan repayment package, and a niiiiice salary to top it all off. Not too much to ask, right?!?
Holidays with Haineses

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