Beach fun

The last day of our vacation - before catching the red eye home - we hung out at the beach. Tim & I packed up Sebastian, his two second cousins and some lunches, and we headed to the beach. It was a far cry from bathing suit weather, but we had a blast playing with the kids. And they had a fabulous time, too! Just look at the pictures below – they tell a thousand words… or at least a thousand laughs, giggles and shrieks of joy!

Sebastian LOVED the sand. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that he immediately shoveled handfuls of it into his mouth.

The boys became great friends with Sebastian and really seemed to enjoy playing with him. They were so gentle and tender with him – it was endearing. This picture makes me very happy. :)

Here are a few of my favorite pics from our time at the beach (there were lots of great ones; it was hard to choose!).

Air born!

Contemplating the water…

The cold, cold water didn’t go over so well with Sebbie.

We’re making our way to a pose for the camera.

These guys are the sweetest… they call each other “brother” when addressing one another. It’s super cute to hear them talk.

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Everyone was wet, wet, wet! We had the boys strip down to their skibbies before we drove home :).

And these photos just sort of sum up the good times had by all! They make me smile. A lot!

We were so thrilled to be able to hang out with my cousins during the time we were out in California. It was great to get to know the boys better and to just be with the whole gang. Oops! I’m realizing that I didn’t get any photos of the adult cousins! Gulp. Well, I guess we have to make another trip to take some group shots. That’s just fine by me… ;)

Some more photos to come later…

17 minutes...to California

We're learning some lessons about traveling with an infant... we're still not experts after our first airplane trip, but all in all, our trip has been so, so wonderful! Sebastian has been a champ! He essentially slept for our entire first flight from Harrisburg to Atlanta, which was a total blessing. Our flight took off late from Harrisburg, which meant that we only had SEVENTEEN minutes to catch our connecting flight from Atlanta to LA. If you've ever been to Atlanta, or travelled some, you might know that it's the. busiest. airport. in the world. Yes, in the world. And we only had 17 minutes. With an infant, two backpacks, a diaper bag and a stroller. While Seb was still sleeping, I put him in the sling, knowing that we were going to have to bolt through the airport... although I was pretty resigned to spending the night in Atlanta already. Tim told me to run, and that he would catch up to me. So I had a small backpack and a baby in a sling and I went running. Meanwhile, Tim had everything else and trucked on behind me. When I got to the tram, I decided that I'd rather wait for Tim to catch up than to be at the gate two or three terminals away without a husband OR a diaper bag. So I waited. And he caught up. And then we ran again, together. I was in total and utter disbelief when I got to the gate, and there was a gentleman smiling and greeting me. He asked how I was, and I was essentially too out of breath to answer. Then he took our tickets and let us on the plane!

The worst part about it all was that I was dying to go to the bathroom, for what seemed like hours. On the first flight I had Sebastian on my lap asleep (directly on top of bladder). In the airport, I had no business even thinking of going to the bathroom. And on our next flight, we got on too late to consider it before take-off, then we flew right into turbulence, so it seemed like FOREVER til they turned off the fasten seat belt sign. But finally the opportunity came... and I was so thankful!

We had a happy baby on the flight - he was laughing, smiling, and flirting with the woman behind us. He loved to look out the windows at the clouds. We learned to be thankful for puffs. They kept him occupied and quiet. He wasn't bothered by the pressure change. He did great! Didn't cry once. I missed out on the diaper changing experience of the year, because Tim pulled the short straw. Not really... he just loves changing diapers, so changing one on the plane didn't seem out of the ordinary. Til he got back into the tiny bathroom. And had a poopy diaper. Plus a squirmy baby (who loves to get his hands into anything and everything, including that which can be found in the diaper). There was nowhere to lay him down, so he changed him on top of the toilet. Plus he had a baby in need of a change of clothes after spitting up all over the place. He told me later he was hoping I would have gotten the telepathic message he was sending to have me get up out of my seat and go help him out, but I missed it. It went straight to voice mail!

Once we arrived in LA, we weren't surprised at all to find that our luggage wasn't around. We had to go through the process of registering our bags. Tim took care of that, while I fed Sebastian in his stroller. Our bags were expected to arrive in Santa Barbara the next morning. We eventually headed out to get our rental car. Once we got that taken care of, we were on our way into the LA traffic - essentially a stand-still parking lot that took us about an hour to go 15 miles.

We made some stops along the way - a jaunt into Target for toothbrushes, underwear and other essentials that we didn't have packed in our carry-on, because we were too busy worrying about packing for Sebastian - and some dinner. We were thankful and excited to finally pull into the driveway at my cousin's house about 4 or 5 hours after landing. Hooray! Not bad for our first airplane trip. Not bad at all. Sure, there were some bumps and bruises... nevermind the fact that our baby was picking things up off the airplane bathroom floor and putting them in his mouth... but we made it! No luggage, but all in one piece and so, so, so happy to be in Santa Barbara with folks we love to hang out with.

And it's not everyday you get to see a sign like this:

Gosh, I love California. My cousins have about 4 avocado trees in their yard, along with grapefruit, oranges, lemons and limes. Note: this sign was not found in their yard, but rather at a house down the street. Made me laugh, though. Especially because, except for mangos, avocados are probably the only other fruit I would consider ripping off someone else's tree. He he. I have a bit of an avocado addiction...:) And no, I've never ripped an avocado off of someone's tree. Just thought about it, that's all.

I intended to get some pictures of Seb on his first plane ride, but that didn't happen...so maybe on the flight home. I did get a couple of pics from our trip to the playground. Seb had his first ride down the slide with Tim, and I got a cutie shot of his little second cousin. So fun!

Mt. Gretna revisited

My nephew, Isaac, was in town a couple of weeks ago to spend a whole week with his grandparents - his vacation away from his sister (so he says!)! Last year when he was here, I took him and some of my other nephews to Mt. Gretna for the day. They had a great time and became friends, so I promised to take Isaac again this year. Only Gabe was available to go along this year, but we had the addition of my little munchkin, Sebastian. Despite some rain showers, the boys had a great time. And Sebastian experienced "swimming" for the first time. Just when I was trying to introduce him to the water for the first time, a little girl - innocent as can be - ran past him and splashed the bejeezers out of us both. He was NOT a happy camper... So I waited a good while before attempting again. And slowly, I cupped my hand and filled it with some water to pour over his little toes, then his legs...and finally I lowered his body into the water. He was sporting the cutest swim diaper... and certainly was the cutest little boy at the beach that day.

Grandma Judy came along, and we all enjoyed a good day. Our biggest dilemna was whether to stay an extra 45 minutes later at the lake, or leave earlier and stop at the Jigger Shop for ice cream. Each of the boys had a different vote... I'm sure if Sebastian had cast his vote, he would have been the tie breaker for ice cream, but in the end we stayed and played.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the day...

Cousins

After learning my lesson with the sun, I did manage to get some great shots of Sebastian with his cousins, and even some with his second cousin. I love that my camera shoots fast enough that I can just snap, snap, snap photos and be sure to get some fab images in the end... Take a peak and enjoy.

Next lesson I need to learn: kids have short attention spans and lose their patience very quickly! I better put my fast shutter to use as often as possible... cuz posing is a major task for the little ones.

While the boys are sleeping...

I know I should be fast asleep too, but I wanted to get some more pictures posted, and I have to take the opportunity when I can get it! So humor me while I show you the cutest baby boy around...Sebastian seemed quite fond of the hammock. He really does love the outdoors!

And here are some photos of how I learned my lesson while trying to take pictures of the cousins with them all facing the sun (note to self - don't put 3 small, fair-skinned, blue-eyed children directly in the path of the rays of the sun if you expect to get anything but funny pictures out of them!):

I did eventually get some great shots of the cousins... stay tuned for more photos coming soon. Well, as soon as I get the chance. :)

But it may be sooner rather than later, because we've started sleep training with Sebastian, and he seems to be doing quite well - both at nighttime and during the day. The first three nights were great (hooray!), but last night was not so great... We'll see how things go tonight; all in all, however, we can't complain, because he's been a pretty darn good sleeper since we left the hospital (and didn't have Sergeant nurse knocking on our door and barging in every 1-2 hours!) with no interventions from us whatsoever til now.

Now it's off to bed for me... I dare not be foolish and stay up late doing frivolous Internet things! But aren't you glad I posted some pictures?!?

Sebastian meets more cousins

My brother and sister-in-law and their kids were in for the weekend, as we celebrated our parent's 40th anniversary. Sebastian got to meet Isaac & Lauryn for the first time. The kids were very fond of him and took good care of him - Lauryn always making sure he was eating right on time and Isaac acting as his body guard!