The Pilgrimage

When you fly for the first time with your new baby, people give you a great deal of advice. Pacifier, feed the baby at takeoff and landing, lots of toys, bring more diapers than you think you need and so on. Good advices, all, and much appreciated. But for anyone who knows how I fly, you know that Amanda wasn't up for taking care of two children on Thanksgiving weekend.

So we gate-checked Harper.

But once we got to Rhode Island (the Ocean State), everything was smooth sailing. We had our Thanksgiving meal at the home of the Pipers of Warren with a few new T-day traditions. Most notably: Our Thankful group of friends now comes with scads of children. Really, they're everywhere. What was once a long, lingering day of wining, brining and dining is now a hilariously hectic circus act. (Special tip of the hat to Stephen for somehow managing to still prepare a delicious and cornucopious spread.)

Which brings me to Special New Tradition Number Two: The pre-dinner raw bar including clams, oysters and crab dip (not technically raw, Amanda is pointing out). An inspired stroke of genius.















So, the kids: Harper met some new friends her size: George, Millie, Flavia and Doyle (who is actually more my size than hers). And she also got to meet her new grown-up friends too.


Not surprisingly she loved everyone.

That's Millie who is brand new.





















Here's Harper trying to talk to George who is talking on the phone. Unfortunately, George dialed the wrong number and got the croup on the other line and spent the following days recovering but remaining in great spirits, even making a trip to Boston and going out to eat at a restaurant.

























Here's what it looks like when two dads try to put babies in Baby Bjorns to go for a walk on the bike and walking path that runs right behind Asher and Erin's house. They were nice enough to house us during our visit.














This is the view from their back porch. Not too shabby.















Here's what it looks like when the dads are done and Millie appears to have flown across the street and gotten magnetically stuck to Sam's chest.














Here's Harper in a hat and me fighting off a cold. Not the croup, though.














Here is the wonderfully curious Flavia who constantly wants to know what everything is, and then asks again to be sure. She's especially suspicious of blueberries, concerned that they may at any moment go by a different name.

"Da?"
"That's a blueberry." (Considers for a moment...)
"...Da?"
"That's a blueberry."















Here's Doyle lying on a rock and Harper looking down on him. Literally, not figuratively. Doyle is smarter than Amanda and I. Collectively. He's probably going to be the president.


So there's part one of the trip. More to follow. We hope that everyone's Thanksgiving was filled with the kind of friends we have and the kind of good times we have with them. We're very thankful for all of it.