Christmas 2008

Here are some photos from our somewhat courageous Christmas roadtrip to St. Petersburg, FL and Augusta, GA. We spent many, many hours on the road, and learned a lot about traveling with a newborn. Like, don't change a baby while she's sitting on your lap.

It was all worth it - we had beautiful weather in FL, and enjoyed being with my parents, sister Andrea, her husband Martin and their two kids, Javier and Sara. We even got to visit my grandfather, who is in his nineties, and my Aunt Judy in Orlando. Then, we drove to Augusta, and spent a week chilling out with Doug's dad, Gene and his wife, Margie. Margie's son Sean was there, as well as their friend, Ji-Hoon. Doug's brother, Donald, drove in from Atlanta, and came back after a few days to visit some more.

Here is just a sampling of photos from the trip.


This is Merritt's first trip to the beach. My sister Andrea loved holding her!


Santa made a special visit to mom and dad's house.

We opened presents outside on Christmas morning. Christmas in Florida can be awesome.

At Gene and Margie's house in Augusta, GA. That's not just my hair... there's a little dog behind my head - Margie's yorkie, named Claiborne.

Grandmo (Margie) with Merritt.

The backstory

We just had our first child, Merritt Victoria, born November 20th, 2008. We are getting used to being parents, learning to communicate with each other better and becoming an even better team. Most of our friends already have one or more children, so we're trying to gain wisdom from their years of experience. It is definitely a new world, and we are enjoying every moment. The photos above (in opposite time order) are from October/November.

My first post!

I've been a fan of blogs for awhile now, and just decided it was time we needed a blog. Not that our lives weren't interesting before, there's just extra motivation now to get news and photos out to our parents and extended family. And I definitely need to "eat crow" since for years I've said I wouldn't start a blog just because I now have children...and here I am...setting up a blog on a cold, overcast day in January while the baby naps. Maybe I just need a creative outlet while I'm on maternity leave. We'll see if I can keep it up.

In any event, welcome to our blog! I hope I can live up to the name of the blog, and only write and show what's interesting. (Note that the name isn't meant to imply that we are the best of the Betts, just wanted to write about the Best of what's going on with us.) So, I promise not to write about poopy diapers or spitup, unless of course it's a really good story*. Also, I'm just figuring out this blog thing, so bear with me.

Tune in for more!

* Like the time the baby's diaper exploded all over her and me, and she even had a tiny poop handprint on her face. Hah hah yeah.