Thanksgiving 2008: The first holiday I haven't had to travel for in 8 years.

... and that's it! I'm all caught up for now as far as an update. (If I was to post anything about the past week or so, it'd be full of Nyquil, Kleenexes, Dayquil and orange juice. The two of us have been sickies (Jordan even went into Urgent Care today). Hopefully this weekend will recharge us. I was really hoping I could catch up on things (hanging photos on the wall, etc) but unfortunately we've spent a lot of time watching movies and feeling sorry for ourselves. :)

However, I have to say that I'm so incredibly excited about the birth of Braden Andrew Lemieux - born November 6th to Jamie and Andy. Congrats to the new parents! Hopefully we'll have some photos to follow soon!

Salwa's family threw her an engagement party (in the Egyptian tradition) on October 25th. It was beautiful - so many personal touches, and it was so neat to see all of these people that love Salwa and Jake in one place. It's was a great way to celebrate such a happy couple.

Alas, there are no photos of Salwa in any dresses (that's sort of against Bridal Center law), but believe me when I tell you that she looks gorgeous in every. single. dress. she tried on. It was SO much fun, and Salwa is going to be a beautiful bride. Can't wait!

Mom, Kristina and I went to Florida a couple of weeks ago to stay with Grandma and Hugo. It was 4 glorious sun-filled days. Here is a sampling of photos from the trip, although most of the shots were taken with my mom's camera, as it is vastly superior to mine (so you'll just have to believe me that there was a GIANT HUGE REALLY REALLY BIG pool-side spider. Massive. Gigantic. Man-eating.).











Thanks to Grandma and Hugo for their hospitality. We had such a blast - and it was so special that the three Randall girls got to travel together.

Laurence and Karma visited us the first weekend in October (which was also Karma's birthday!). We had SO much fun (but surprisingly, we didn't take as many photos, in contrast to the previous weekend). We ate out, we shopped, we took walks... it was relaxing and comforting to have our Bismarck parents here.

They also brought a piano for us - all the way from Bismarck. (Special thanks to Brian Jesperson for loaning the vehicle and trailer. He's probably not a reader of this blog, but I thought he deserved special mention). We did get some photos of the piano being hauled it (and as you can see, I helped a lot). It went really well.

We're so excited to have the piano... Jordan plays practically every day, and I've already started taking lessons! Thanks Karma and Laurence!

Here be lots of pictures. :)

We were so happy to have Brynn and Eleanor visit us for the first time at our new home. Our little niece has grown SO much (as you probably know if you keep up with Brynn's blog. In fact, their trip here is well documented there, and you should check it out.) We loved hearing "Come on guys," or "Pizza!" or "Park!" She has such a great personality - and so does her mom. :)

We had such a great time with the two of them, and I am so lucky to have them as family!