Dancing with my baby

Just remembering happy times when I was dancing with Sebastian in a playground that overlooks the ocean in California.  Sebastian loves loves loves the outdoors… and I’m certain he just can’t wait to get his little toes kissed by blades of grass on his bare feet.  It seems like he’ll soon be doing his own dance, or at least running all over the place.  :)

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!

Beach photo shoot

While at the Outer Banks, we planned a photo shoot with all of Tim's family, which was great fun - not to mention an adventure - to get all 18 of us looking at the camera and smiling with every hair in place at the right time!  Ha!  Thank goodness for digital cameras with super fast shutter speeds!  We took advantage of the opportunity to get some shots of our own little threesome.  There were multiple photographers helping out, which made for a ton of fantastic shots, but lots of work sorting through all the photos!  Many thanks to all who snapped some pictures.  There were soooo many to choose from, and I'm sure I'll be at it for months... But, to pique your interest , here's a glimpse of some of our favorites!

making memories...

First experience with sand dunes...

First time beach lounging with Grandpa Martin...

First kiss of ocean breeze on the back of his neck...

First touch of sand on his little toesies...

First caress of salt water on his soft skin...

First trip to an aquarium and first sight of real, live turtles...

First picture of the family in front of fish sculptures...!

Sebastian was fascinated by the crashing waves, the howling wind and the sea life behind glass walls at the aquarium.  It's so much fun to watch him experience all of the wonders of this incredible world for the first time!  Oh, to have the awe and curiosity of a child seeing, feeling, touching and hearing God's creation!

Smelling the ocean

Sebastian and mommy are visiting the Outer Banks for the first time (Tim was here when his brother Jeff married Lori 5 years ago), and that means Sebastian gets to experience the sand, wind and waves for the first time!  We were up early to catch the final glimpses of the sunrise, and Seb seemed engaged and enamored.  He's always loved  nature, and now he's sold on the ocean!  Unfortunately the storm (Ida) that occurred last week has left behind a lot of debris and gritty sand AND the water is way too cold to even remotely consider going in for a dip.  But it's beautiful and peaceful, and we're glad to have a break from the regular routine of life and spend time with family. :)

Aren't my two boys just the most handsome ever?!?! 

Adventures in Nicaragua

We've been gone for 10 days! Our last vacation was close to a year ago, so we were ready for the time away - it was a lot of work to get ready for the trip, but very well worth it! We arrived home just after midnight last night after our babymoon excursion to Nicaragua. Tim, baby and I all had a great time... we're spending today trying to recuperate from vacation (funny how that happens) and slowly get back into the swing of things... but oh, how wonderful it would be to relax in a hammock with a good book or a daydream for days on end! We are very thankful for the time to be away, and I'm sure eventually we'll be glad to be back to our regular routines. Probably the highlight of our trip was staying at Finca Esperanza Verde which is a coffee plantation in the northern highlands of Nicaragua. It's an ecolodge that grows organic coffee and has an organic farm, where they grow all the food they serve at the lodge. We did quite a bit of hiking and relaxing, which was great, but most of all we enjoyed learning about the in-depth process in growing and producing coffee. We have a much better understanding of what goes into every step along the way to our delicious java brew, and now have absolutely no reason to gripe about the cost of a cup of coffee. The baby even had its first sip of real coffee here in Nicaragua - how could I resist, when we were staying on a coffee plantation?!? It was delicious - truly the nectar of the gods - and the baby seemed to be pretty excited about the experience too - which was rather energizing (so to speak) for the growing one inside of me. We also spent Valentine's Day at an organic chocolate factory, El Castillo del Cacao, also in the northern highlands of the country. They have just recently converted the house portion of their facility to a bed & breakfast, and Tim & I were the very first guests to stay there! We were surrounded by chocolate, which seemed divine for Valentine's Day! Here, we learned the step-by-step process of making chocolate... the chocolate they make at El Castillo is much more like an artisan form of chocolate, as they do most steps by hand, and they only use cacao and sugar... plus for some of their varieties add a few other ingredients like cacao nibs, coffee bean pieces or nuts. Delicious! And we brought some home to share :). There are so many stories to tell from our time away... but there are also things to be done around here, now that we're back home and back to reality... Here are a few highlights!

From the top of the Cathedral in Leon... a view of one of the 16 other churches in this very historical city...
A common site in Nicaragua - these guys can carry anything and everything! Sure saves on gas prices!

Laguna de Apoyo, a lake formed by a crater that erupted from a volcano about 200 years ago - supposedly has the cleanest water in Nicaragua! We stayed at a resort here, and shockingly were the only guests in the entire place! It was a nice, tranquil stay between two stops at busier cities.
Timmy outside one of many churches in Granada, another historic town. There was a poetry festival going on while we were there - not surprising since Granada is considered the literary/cultural center of Nicaragua, not to mention the birthplace of Ruben Dario, Nicaragua's claim-t0-fame poet.
Warm beautiful colors of Granada, with the Cathedral in the background.

Kirsten along the edge of the Masaya Volcano... we had a great whiff of sulfur at this spot!

The beautiful beach on the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua. We stayed in a nature lodge here called Punta Teonoste, and had a long strip of gorgeous beach to stroll and turn into lobsters ourselves! The perfect sunset at the beach... and a wonderful end to our trip, before heading back to Managua to catch our flight back to cold, wintry weather here in the States!