Washington Vacation: LaConner

We took a family vacation to the state of Washington. Jim's dad has a lot family there and we wanted to introduce Josh to as many as we could. Jim's parents drove up and were able to take some of our bulkier items since we were flying.

Josh did AWESOME on the flight up. He slept about 45 minutes and was well behaved and charming the entire time.

Our first destination was the family farm in LaConner. Jim spent many summers as a teenager working here.

Here are just some pictures of the downtown area along the waterfront.

The boys - Jim, Josh and Glen - took an afternoon to do a hike.

We borrowed a frame pack from a friend of mine and Josh really loved being in it. Towards the end of the hike, apparently Josh found Jim's ears and had a good time pulling them.

This picture makes Jim laugh.

Here are some pictures of the neighboring family farm property.

I think this may have been the first time Josh met horses up close. He was fascinated, especially when they started talking to each other.

Our last night in LaConner, we had a family dinner.

Lauren (Jim's cousin), Mary (whom we stayed with), and Josh (of course)

Serena (Lauren's mom), Mary and Josh
Watching whipped cream be made

While his parents weren't looking, Josh got introduced to licking the beaters. He really, really enjoyed it!

Easter 2011

This Easter was fun. I had hoped to take Josh to an Easter egg hunt and had a list of events happening around the county. When I was able to recruit my friend Andrea to join us with her son Silas, we picked the event in Cypress to go to.

I had visions of a big field with kids scrambling for eggs. I was a little concerned because it was for ages 11 and under and I just didn't know if Josh would get run over. My sister suggested that when they yelled "go" to grab Josh like a football and book it to the other end of the field to claim my territory like a squatter.

When we arrived we learned that it was in fact divided into age groups. However, the area for three and under was an obstacle course for the kids and they just got eggs at the end. That seemed really weird and a little disappointing. But when the time came, it actually was kinda fun and I see why they do it that way. I guess we should trust that an event that's been going on for 36 years knows what it's doing, compared to these first-time-egg-hunt-moms. :)

Josh went through the course while I tried my best to guide him and hold the video camera. At the end they throw down some candy and eggs filled with toys. He did really good picking them up and putting them in his little basket.

There were some people making balloon animals and teenagers doing face painting. We tried to get the boys' faces painted, but they both were not having it. When the girl tried to put the brush to Josh's face, he just leaned away from it - over and over. It was so funny. So we let that go.

Afterwards, we sat down to a nice picnic lunch. It was so wonderful to just sit there with Andrea and our boys. I was also amused to see other kids having melt downs and acting up and being reminded that my kid is normal.

I also wanted to take some fun pictures of Josh for Easter. Here are just a couple of my favorites.

Easter day was fun too. We had a nice big gathering with family and were joined by my friend Melanie and her family. Jim's parents had set up an egg hunt for Josh in the backyard. It took him some coaxing to pick up the first egg, but then he got the idea and was loving it.

The Bounty

Davia is Melanie's youngest and she just loves being with Josh. She was helping point out the eggs and just palling around with him all afternoon.

There seems to be a tradition in Jim's family that the men marry older women. Josh certainly has his pick already. There's Josie who is three days older, Eliana at 2 years older and Davia at 2.5 years older.

The couple with their Elmo kids