Grilled cheese tour of the Northwest

We're back from a whirlwind tour of homes of family members in the Pacific Northwest. For Nathan, this was also a tour of variations on the grilled cheese sandwich made in different kitchens. He enjoyed a grilled cheese fried in bacon fat I made for him at Uncle Brian's in Portland Oregon, although he would have nothing to do with the bacon his uncle made for breakfast, nor the bacon donut from Voodoo Donuts:

Nathan had a good time with his 1-year-old cousin and all of his toys. here they are at the park:

Next we traveled to Edmonds Washington and stayed with Nathan's Great Grandma Shy. He enjoyed toasted cheddar on bread with seeds and nuts there. It was pretty cold in Edmonds and I'm not so sure Nathan appreciated being dragged outside

but he enjoyed going out for pizza and reading books with Great Grandma:

We also visited my second cousin and Nathan's third cousins before heading farther north to Bellingham WA, where we visited Nathan's paternal grandparents and stayed through Christmas, eating lots of Velveeta on wheat during the stay.
Here is Nathan riding the large stuffed bear,

walking with his grandpa to get the mail

and some Christmas excitement

.
Of course, the ribbons were actually the most exciting part of Christmas.

Next we migrated back to Oregon and spent a night at Grandma Laurey's in Boring. Nathan enjoyed grilled sharp cheddar on baguette and another Christmas. We learned that raffia is every bit as good as ribbon.


The 10-hour car trip on the way up somehow became an 11 hour ride on the way home, raining the whole way, except for when the rain became snow. Nathan tolerated all of this travel and change about as well as any 3 year old I can imagine, but of course it's good to enjoy whole wheat english muffins with tomato sauce and cheddar in his own chair, in one's own home.