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Well, where to start!? November has been a very hectic month for our little family-- a month of firsts and a month of hellos and goodbyes. We are finally back home and settled in after a car trip to Baltimore, a plane trip to Albany and hosting my family for our first Thanksgiving at home, all within 2 weeks! I will make posts about each event in a bit, but here is a summary of our adventures:

Our crazy two weeks started off with Sean's first Notre Dame game... a moment we've been looking forward to since we found out I was pregnant exactly one year ago! The three of us piled in our car with more baby stuff than you could imagine, and drove to Baltimore for the Notre Dame-Navy game. Along the way we stopped in Richmond and stayed with our dear newlywed friends Luke and Andrea in their beautiful new home, and stopped in to see friends from law school in Gasperini-ville--- a small town in Richmond. We arrived in Baltimore at the ever-hospitable Tom and Colleen Galloways and had a wonderful weekend. Sean met his cousins Ben, Brendan and Kacie for the first time, met a ton of our NDLS friends and baby friends at the game and saw ND march onward to victory against Navy! It was a wonderful weekend full of firsts for our little Irish fan and he did AWESOME staying on his napping/eating/being happy schedule. We were so proud of how well he travelled.

However, it was with sadness we returned home to find out only the next day that my grandfather Jack passed away after 8 months of battling cancer. Almost immediately after we left Baltimore my dad and his six siblings were summoned to Albany to say goodbye to their father. Jack lived well and died well, taking his last breath as his wife of 56 years finished the last Hail Mary of the rosary by his side. Sean is Jack's second great-grandchild (Eva is the first), and we are so so thankful for the intense week of bonding Jack and Sean experienced up at Knobby Knoll this summer. Emmy and Jack accomplished so many things in their life and with their family, and the last few months were no exception. When Jack was diagnosed back in March Emmy and Jack made it their goal to spend one last summer at the Knoll and meet Sean Brendan, and they did! As we all gathered together in Albany last weekend it was amazing to see the life Emmy and Jack built together. It inspired Cody and I and the goals we have for our little family and gave us much to talk about and be thankful for.

Two days after we returned from Albany we welcomed my sister, mom and Pete and a surprise guest to host our first Thanksgiving. Little did I know that my mom arranged for Eva to come to SC for thanksgiving! what a wonderful and unexpected surprise! This week has been great-- relaxing, low key, full of bonding for the first cousins and Mama Peggy with SB and a wonderful thanksgiving meal :).

Stay tuned for illustrative posts about each event to come ....