Christmas vacation, part 3 of 3 (eastward)

After Christmas, there was more merriment to be had.

We went for a misty walk at Cooper Mountain.

The kiddos cuddled.

On Saturday, I went up to Washington to see a friend while the Allen clan took the kiddos to Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve.

Madeline plied her steed Marc with goldfish.

That evening, Madeline excitedly recounted the animals she saw there.  She was especially impressed by this pettable raccoon pelt.

Lunch followed the preserve visit.

The next day, we visited Ceci and Carlos.  Oliver was happy!

Although Oliver was happy, that night we became pretty sure that Oliver was also sick.  So the next morning, Summer took him to a doctor while I packed and Madeline watched Finding Nemo.  The result of the doctor visit: a pneumonia diagnosis for Mr. O and prescriptions for some sort of vaporizer and some antibiotics.  And more happiness.

As our Oregon visit neared an end, the obligatory posed picture occurred.

And the next morning, we were on a plane back east.  For the westward plane ride, we'd purchased some episodes of a new PBS show called Peg + Cat.  This show has become a fast favorite of us all.  Madeline would happily spend her entire life watching the episode about The Messy Room and The Golden Pyramids.  This made the return plane trip very easy too.

We were home for New Year's Eve.  Madeline made it to bed before midnight, but Oliver stayed up.  Happy 2014!

Then we spent today getting reacclimated to the east coast.  Madeline played with dinosaurs.

And we visited Meshanticut Park, a lovely little state park just a few minutes away in Cranston for the first time.

The highlight was this duck, which went up the hill to meet Madeline and then later accepted bread scraps (provided by a passerby) right from her hand!

Now here we are in Rhode Island in 2014, safe, sound, and happy.