Aunts/Uncles/Cousins

We're back from a quick visit to Portland, with a brief - unplanned - stop in Denver.

Our layover on the way out (on Christmas day) was in Houston.  I know; not exactly a logical travel route.  Our 6:30 AM flight left late, which meant that we arrived in Houston just after our flight to Portland left.  Naturally, the airline had automatically moved our tickets to the next flight for Portland, which wouldn't leave until 6 hours later.  We weren't super excited about that, especially since the flight itself would still be almost 5 hours, putting us in Portland well after the Little Guy is usually done for the day (and, frankly, us too!).  So E asked the woman at the service desk if we could go to Denver instead and spend the night.  A random request, it probably seemed to her, and I'm pretty sure airlines just don't do stuff like that, especially not when you are nobody special and you purchased your ticket using miles.  But this woman didn't even blink.  She just spent the next probably 20 minutes moving our tickets to a flight to Denver that afternoon, plus standby for 2 (was it 3?) earlier flights to Denver, plus a flight the next morning from Denver to Portland.  A Christmas miracle.  In Houston.

Why go to Denver anyway?  E's brother's family is there, so it would give us a chance to see them before we move.  Also half the flight time of going to Portland and a whole lot less waiting around in Houston.  So we trucked off to check on the first of our standby options and, at the last minute, got seats.  E and Little Guy with the Denver cousins:

The next morning we got up early again and got on the flight to Portland.  This flight was, by far, the worst of our flying experience with the Little Guy so far; he was super moody the whole time.  (Later, in Portland, we decided that, in addition to the travel chaos, he had finally started teething.  We eventually got him some pain relief but not in time to keep us all from getting pretty wound up on that flight.)  But we made it and then had a great 2.5 days in Portland with my siblings.

5:00 AM walk in the fog with Little Guy, who hasn't figured out how to handle jet lag yet (this trip involved a lot of way too early mornings!):

 Headed downtown on the Max, with improvised winter wear for Little Guy:

 Siblings (2 of 3) + niece:

 Nephew and brother-in-law:

 Waterfront (siblings, nephew, niece, etc.):

 Headed back home on the Max:

 Whole lot of family: