Well we just arrived back tonight from our trip to Washington to see my family. We flew out last Wednesday evening (thanks again to Felipe for driving our car back and picking us up today), and spent five days with only one scheduled event, a family dinner Saturday afternoon. Other than that we were able to make plans as we wanted, sit around without anything we HAD to do, and visit with family that we haven't seen in almost two years! It was so nice to not have to decide what to make for dinner, lunch, breakfast (though we did help with what was being made or helped clean up, it's still not the same as all that plus deciding and planning, etc) I read two books, Keith played a lot of games with nephews that now love him (my brother is in Taiwan building a school with the national guard and my sis-in-law is in the sick early stage of pregnancy, so the boys were glad for a guy to run around with in the backyard and play swords, races, wrestling) Alex did great on the airplane ride both ways and had plenty of admirers as always.
While we were there we went to Northwest Trek, a wildlife preserve near Graham where you take a tram ride through acres and acres of land watching for the free roaming animals. We saw bison, swans, deer, mountain goats, elk, and moose, then we walked around and saw the barn and snow owls (including Hedwig), black and brown bears, otters, fishers, bald eagles, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, lynx, wolverine, cougars, and lots of other interesting animals in as natural of a habitat as they could provide. We also went to the Museum of Glass where we were able to watch them make a saxophone and a goblet then we toured the galleries. Our favorite by far were the creations the glass blowers made of pictures children had drawn of magical/terrible/lovable/interesting/imaginative creatures. Reading the descriptions and directions of the children made us laugh the whole way through that exhibit. It's amazing that plain sand heated to incredible temperatures can become such beautiful and intriguing pieces of art. At church on Sunday Alex found himself a girlfriend for Sacrament meeting. She was a little girl probably 10 or 11 months old with bright red hair that was sitting in front of us. As soon as we sat down and he saw her he pulled himself to their bench and started chatting, I've heard him babble and make noises, but he was talking to this little girl, it was so cute, he made all kinds of fun squeals and giggles and all the sounds he could come up with. She was a little wary at first, but soon perked up and started chatting back at him until her parents sat her down to quiet them for the meeting. Alex strained and strained trying to get back up to her. :)
I am realizing after many days now without a nap, that I've become quite dependent on my morning nap while Alex takes his to make it to 10:30-11 at night when I finally end up making it to bed. Alex still isn't sleeping through the night, he still eats multiple times a night, so I do really need that boost to keep up with the world!
One last thing, Alex has started, just tonight, getting himself forward instead of just crawling backwards!! Way to go little guy! Let the terror begin! ;)
I am glad you had such a fun trip! And a big congrats to Alex for learning to crawl forwards. That is a big milestone.
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