This month we took Ethan on his first vacation and plane ride!! We went to Washington to visit both of our families for about 5 days. It was a short trip, and as always, not enough time to see everyone we wanted to see, but it was a great trip. There are so many pictures that I'm going to have to post it a little at a time. I was a little nervous about how he would handle the trip (and how I would!) Here we are, hanging out before take off.
By the time we took off, Ethan was already having a ball.
Sorry, a little blurry, but this epitomizes how he did. He was awesome. I know that everyone around us just dreaded us sitting next to them because they didn't know if he was going to scream the whole time. But by the time we landed they were all amazed at how great he did. Looks like we have a traveler on our hands (thank goodness!).
My mom got us this sling-type thing from the Sky Mall magazine on her way down to see us. The good news is it was SOOOO handy. He was satisfied and strapped in and we were much more comfortable. The bad news is, he is already a little too big for it. The next trip we will have to figure something else out!
We bundled Ethan up for his first jaunt out in the cold winter air...when we got where we were going we found him like this in the back seat, asleep. We felt kind of bad, but mostly just thought it was funny!
Grandma and Grandpa Walker got Ethan a new play mat for Christmas and let him try it out while we were there visiting. Tristan decided he better check it out with Ethan to see what it was all about.
He LOVED this giraffe attachment that came with it.
Exploring what his new friends can do!
On Saturday night we met up with our friends Rich and Allisha and their little boy, Skyler to go to the Zoolights event at Point Defiance Zoo. This picture cracks me up because this is the first time that Skyler got to meet Ethan...here Ethan is, screaming because he just got out of the nice, warm car where he was sleeping and Skyler is just looking at him like, "What's your problem?!" Hilarious!
So to make a long story short, we had to ride a shuttle from the parking lot to the zoo...actually we CHOSE to ride it and it was a bad choice--enough said. Here we are making the best of it!!
Rich, Allisha and Skyler
Poor Ethan was so bundled that he reminded me of Ralphie's little brother in that movie, A Christmas Story...you know, his arms stuck straight out to the side and he couldn't put them down. Well, since Ethan already had a cold, we didn't want him to get sicker...needless to say, he never got cold to the touch on any part of his body. Poor kid!
Had to get a picture in front of the elephants!
Group picture!
Where this desert scene was they were offering camel rides...at the risk of sounding too crazy, I kind of felt sad for the poor camels. There they were in the FREEZING cold (keep in mind they're desert animals) in the middle of the night walking the same loop over and over again. I just kept picturing exhausted camels with colds the next day...poor camels.
Family shot!
Mt. Ranier in Christmas lights!
This is a view of the mountain and the bridges...you'll notice the white lights on one side and the red on the other--head lights and tail lights. You can't really tell here, but there are blue lights underneath for the water.
One of our favorite things is the "pink tree". We stopped to get some couple shots in front of the awesome pink lights.
Ethan didn't get a break from his exercised while we were visiting our families (much to his dismay!). But he is definitely getting better at tummy-time!
I don't know what it is, but for the last few years Louisiana has gotten snow before Washington did! This year we just got a small sampling and Ethan was sleeping. I didn't dare wake up a baby with a cold for pictures in the snow, so I was a little disappointed. Luckily for us, it snowed while we were up in Washington! More pics to come!
My parents with Ethan
Grandpa Walker lovin' on his grandson!
We took Ethan to see his Grandpa Bernard's grave while we were there visiting. Here are the Bernard boys!
Some of the Bernard family: Tristan, Ethan, Annette, Kelsey, and Desiree
It was pretty cold out there!!
Here Ethan is, all bundled up with his Grandma Bernard!
We went down to the water front to check out the scenery. As you can tell, my body is not used to temperatures this cold any more!
We were so glad to take Ethan to meet his Uncle Kelsey, who just returned from his two-year mission in Argentina before he returned to college in January. After two years apart, these guys had a lot of lost goofing-off time to make up for!
Ethan loved getting to spend some time with all of his grandparents! We took a moment to get a picture of him with Grandma and Grandpa Walker in front of their Christmas tree. It was so wonderful to get to see our families so close to Christmas!
We've been busy learning and growing this month. Despite his despise of tummy-time, we are finally making progress. Now he lifts his head every time we put him on his tummy instead of just lying there and putting his fist in his mouth.
