New Little Princess

Proud cousin Claire holding Julianna
Justin, Jordan, and Reuben in the pool of choice: the hot tub

Claire doing an amazing belly flop

Claire (doing the hula), Reuben, Erin, and Mason eating ice cream

Holding my new little niece....isn't she tiny and precious!!

Julianna Harmene Hill

This weekend the girls and I headed up to Canada to see our new little cousin and niece Julianna. What is usually a 5 hour trip turned out to be a 9 1/2 hour car ride that never seemed to end. We first got a flat tire going through a construction zone. Luckily a state trooper came within minutes and helped me change my flat. He pointed me in the direction of the nearest tire place 10 miles up the highway so we headed in that direction going 45 mph with a donut tire. Of course my tire was not repairable so $100 and 1 1/2 hours later we were on our way thinking that would be all to encounter. Then 3 miles before the bridge we stopped in standstill traffic, and 2 hours later we still were not over the bridge. Apparently there was an accident on the bridge which backed up traffic for hours. The trip could have been even worse if the girls had turned on me, but luckily they were the perfect travelers! Their only concern was that I would turn around (which I threatened to do) and then they wouldn't get to see their new little cousin.

We had all day Saturday with Grandma & Grandpa, aunts, uncles, and 7 cousins ranging in age from 5 to 3 weeks. And that brings us to Julianna who we came to see. She is now almost 7 pounds and an absolute angel. The girls, especially Claire, would have been content to sit in a chair and hold her all weekend! I didn't once hear her cry, and I probably only saw her eyes for about 12 seconds. It will be fun to see her again in three weeks and see how much she's grown. Thanks mom, dad, Marcy, Vince, Kim, Darren, Lisa and Rob for the fun weekend. We can't wait to spend more time with you in a few weeks!

After a fun day and a half of swimming and family time, the girls and I headed home. I now know that traveling on a holiday weekend probably isn't the best idea. We were again stuck at the border for over two hours...not because of an accident, but just because traffic was backed up. The girls were again really good for the most part, although I heard the word "butt-crack" too many times. And how cute is this...when we got home they insisted peeking in on Benjamin in his crib. They really missed their little brother. Ben really missed Claire as well and asked Jerry at least 30 times each day, "Wha Care" which is "where's Claire?" He never asked for me once. He is definitely a daddy's boy!