Thursday, October 23, 2014

Family Vacation!

Another thing we were able to do during Hunter's break was take our first official family vacation! We went up to Gloucester, MA and spent the weekend in a cute little cottage. It was beautiful, calm, and relaxing. 




One of Kellan's new things is that he HAS to have some of whatever it is we are eating, so naturally he got some of our ice cream cones. 



We were able to take a whale watching cruise during the height of the season! It did take us a while and we were almost all the way to Cape Cod before we spotted them, but we were able to see 2 humpback whales repeatedly surface and dive again. It was really neat!


We did some hiking at Halibut State Park while there.



We were even able to take the dogs - it was a full family vacation! haha. 






True to form, we ate some pretty tasty food.


Including sushi for the first time since I became pregnant! It was goooood sushi too.


Our baby was such a champ the whole time. He played, and napped, and just had a really good time. 



On our way home we spent an afternoon in Boston. While there, we hit up a Red Sox game! True to the rest of their season, they lost this game, buuuut we've been to Fenway and were able to enjoy a baseball game!




See what I mean about napping? That kid is pretty much perfection. 


We had dinner and desert with Cherie who was stoked to feed Kellan some of her ice cream! 


Even though we were both wished it was a little longer, it was a very nice vacation. It was nice and rejuvenating and hopefully helped up gear up for another crazy year of school. If you're looking for a quintessential New England vacation I highly recommend Gloucester! 

Anniversary Trip (1 Month Early)

Our anniversary trip got to happen in August this year. Something about scheduling on school breaks. haha. So we went the second week in August, a solid month before our actual anniversary.

It was my turn to plan our anniversary trip this year and after much debate I opted to take us to Washington D.C.! My mom came out to watch Kellan for us so we were able to spend a few days - baby free for the first time. Despite the fact that it rained almost the whole time, we really had a good time and got in lots of sightseeing and good eats.

The Capitol Building:



It's quite beautiful in the rain.

A nice view of the national mall all fogged and rained over. If you look closely, you can see the Washington Monument.


And a front view of the Capitol Building.


Just a few more random shots:




Then some views of the White House:




On our first night there the place we wanted to do dinner at (Founding Farmers - highly recommend, however it was pricy) had over an hour wait. We were committed though, probably because we knew we could sneak away and visit things while we were waiting. The first stop we made was the Lincoln Memorial.



We then got a nice twilight view of the Washington Memorial.


Here are some more pictures of our rainy day adventures.





On our last day in D.C, we made a stop at the temple. We were so happy to have the chance to go. It's a lot harder to make frequent temple trips when you live hours away and have a small child who is still very dependent on you. 


After the temple we made a stop at Arlington National Cemetery. That was a very humbling experience. It really makes you appreciate all the sacrifices that have been made to keep our nation safe.




Tomb of the Unknown Soldier


Rows and rows of headstones, all neatly aligned.


Not to mention the beautiful view of the city that you get from the cemetery. 


On our way home we stopped at a place in Anapolis that had a six pound shake. We made a special effort to go there. Between the two of us we managed to finish it off! 



I felt pretty full towards the end of the shake, but Hunter (who ate faaarr more than I did) almost lost it on the way back to our car but ultimately managed to feel better. 


All in all we had a great time! We were really able to enjoy ourselves - and being with just each other. Kellan and my mom had a great time and no problems. Everything went really well. We loved DC - probably me a little more than Hunter - and will definitely be going back multiple times in the future. 

Honorable mention that isn't pictured: parts of the Smithsonian. We visited the Air and Space Museum (where I desparately wanted to buy Kellan an astronaut outfit but didn't because of size) and the National History Museum which we could have spend so much more time in. 

Friday, July 25, 2014

8 months!

It feels like I just wrote Kellan's 7 month post and here we are again at 8 months! When they say time only goes faster when you get older and when you have kids believe them. It's 100% true.

Month 7-8 seems like it was a really big month for Kellan! It seems like he's doing all sorts of new things and just continuing to grow and develop. I know I say this every time, but it really is so much fun! I'm really loving this mom gig. 

To start the month off, we took a quick trip to Boston where we were able to have dinner and visit with Hunter's mom who was there on business. Here's a picture of our delirious baby at the harbor around 9 pm. Waaaaaayy past bedtime. haha.


We have visited the beach multiple times now. Kellan loves the sand but isn't sure how he feels about the water. I think it's the cold that causes him to scream bloody murder with even the slightest touch. After he gets used to it a little he does better but is still wary. We're working on that.



Despite his hesitation with the ocean (Long Island Sound to be specific), he LOVES the little pool! He'll sit in there and splash and play around for as long as I will let him. This is also true of the bathtub. 


Daddy had Kellan for the day a few times this month while I was was at work and one of those days took him shopping. Dad got a USA futbol (ha!) jersey and Kellan got a whole outfit complete with socks and a tiny World Cup Ball. 





Apparently when Mommy's away the boys will play!

He's really started to interact with everyone. Here he is with a couple kids from daycare. He loves playing with them and gets so excited to see them every morning when we get there. 


Kellan LOVES Kenobi! Ameya too, but it's just not the same as the love that Kellan and Kenobi share. Kenobi will literally let Kellan do whatever he wants - pull his fur, hold his tooth, touch his paw - and just sit there. Kellan laughs and smiles, flaps his arms and kicks his legs every time he sees Kenobi. It's the cutest.


He officially upgraded to a big boy carseat this month! We opted for the Britax Marathon and got a plush covered one. It's nice and soft and HUGE! I'm still adjusting to it and the large size and I can't imagine putting a newborn in it! I know that it's perfectly safe for 5-65 lbs but it's just so big! haha. I'm sure as we use it more and get more used to it instead of the bucket seat it will make more sense to me.

Side note: He's not super happy in this picture, obviously, haha. At the time he had a fever (from his first official named illness - Coxsackie Virus or Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease) and was also in the process of cutting his top left front tooth. He cut the second top front tooth the day before his 8 month mark so he does have both, one is just a week and a half behind. 

Disclaimer: this picture was taken immediately after removing the carseat from the box in our living room. No extra measures were taken to ensure his safety in this picture. 
 If you look closely in the picture below, you can see the one top tooth. He rocked the scraggle tooth, haha. The mess on his face is because he learned how to drink from a straw this month! I got straw sippy cups for him to try and after a couple days he got the hang of it. He thought he was sooooo cool the day he learned how to drink from the straw and has started drinking a lot more water than before - which is great news. This was taken the next day after I shared my frappachino with him. I was impressed that he was able to drink from that straw as well because it was so much different than the sippy cup straw but he didn't have any problem! Everytime I picked it up to have a drink after letting him try some he demanded that I share.


 We have been loving this perfect summer weather and spending as much time as possible outside!


Other fun facts from this month:

Kellan is officially crawling! He only army crawls, but he can sure pull himself around pretty quickly and is ALL over! His favorite things to crawl to: the dog's water dish, any vent, and any dog toy. 

He's started waving and clapping! He waves to pretty much everyone when we arrive or leave somewhere. His wave looks suspiciously like hail Hitler, haha, but he's starting to move his arm up and down a little. It's super cute. Clapping started right around the 8 month mark. He'll even mimic you if you clap at him, although that's still hit or miss. 

We will have whole conversations in lip smacking. I am loving this new type of interaction. It's so fun to see him respond to things we are doing as well as things in the environment.

Now that he's a big boy and can sit up, he HATES being on his back. Diaper changes, in the tub, or wherever - he is a big boy. Don't even think about making him lay down. haha.

His hair has really started to come in! He's working on a nice little baby mullet that we might have to cut sooner than I wanted. He's also starting to get little hairs on his arms and legs. 

Stranger danger is real. He is a little more hesitant on handing out smiles to people he doesn't know than he was in the past. 

He's such a momma's boy! I am loving it. No one is as cool as I am at this point. haha.


Food wise, he loves solid foods! We added more fruits and veggies to his repertoire this month as well as turkey, beef, and eggs. He's really started liking to feed himself. He's even started to try and grab the food off the spoon. Because of this and his ability to chew, I've started making his foods chunkier and trying to give him some sort of finger food at least once a day. For the most part, the dogs only get a little bit of food.