Seattle 2007

Where do I begin?? A road trip of more than an hour with an 8 month old is ALWAYS going to be interesting, but throw in 2 anxious dogs, 2 anxious parents, and a trailer, and you have OUR vacation!

The highlights of our trip (in no particular order):

1) Jason's 35th birthday! He got a bike trailer from my folks, a PSP from Faith and me, and an inflatable boat for our trailer from Derrell and Terralee! All three gifts were very handy for our trip! Plus, he was able to keep his Java toasty with the awesome mug Sandy designed, that basically chronicles his life, so far... from being a boy, to being a hubby, to being a daddy. Its so cute to see his pride when he holds that thing!




2) Faith getting to hang with Grandpa Derrell and Grandma Terralee! Terralee hasn't gotten her hands on that girl since she was just a few days old! Boy...things have changed! Unfortunately, T got sick after our camping trip, but at least got some good snuggles in before the cold snuck up on her! Grandpa FINALLY got to introduce her to one of his "Best Friends", Mr. John Deere! One night, while we were having trouble getting Faith to bed (more on that in a minute), Grandpa offered to take her for a ride on the tractor! It was then that we realized she hadn't made a sound for a few minutes and was blissfully (at least for us) asleep! Grandpa had to be sat on (well... not really, but it'd have been funny!) to prevent him from going up to wake her to take a midnight ride!






3) Maddie playing in the water at Ike Kinswa State Park in Washington. She was a bit leery at first, but after a few good tosses of a stick in the water, she was swimming out further and further! It saved us from having a stinky puppy on our hands too as the fresh water was awesome for her coat! Now...if Stinky Sophie would just venture more than a few inches into the water, we'd be all set! Then again, maybe she knew Maddie was peeing in the water and is just too SMART to go in!





4) Ike Kinswa SP. Oh My God. Washingtons State Parks TRUMP California SP tenfold!!! Full hookups, a beautiful view of the lake that was just 300 feet from our campsite, great paved roads to take the bike trailer on, a great hiking path that took you right to the water's edge... it was amazing and we can't wait to go back! Too bad it takes a few days to get up there!





5) Faith's reaction to the English Mastiffs! She LOVED those huge dogs!! At first, we were worried about Amy, being a 200 lb (right Derrell?) "puppy", she often doesn't know he own size and the weight of those enormous paws... but she seemed to "get it" quickly with Faith and she turned out to be one helluva babysitter!! Lexi, on the other hand, just went with the flow...as always... She was even kind enough to share a bit of her couch with Faith!





6) LOTS of family getting to meet Faith for the first time including her other set of Godparents, Uncle Danny and Aunt Jessamyn, that live in Portland, Jason's uncle/Godfather, Rob (aka stud at getting Faith to sleep) and his awesome girlfriend, Cindy (maker of Faith's favorite sleeping blanket and beautiful quilt on display in her nursery), Uncle Mark (Terralee's brother), and Auntie Joyce (GG's sister who surprised us all by driving to Washington from Idaho!).





7) GG seeing Faith crawl! GGs not doing so hot these days, but I can only hope it was spirit lifting to see her great-granddaughter growing right before her eyes! It was nice for me to give her to chance to know her legacy lives on! We love you, GG and keep you in our prayers! (no pics, sorry!)

8) Going to the Irish pub in Seattle that Jason got hammered at for St. Patty's day last year while I was 13 weeks pregnant and actually getting to DRINK a beer!!! This day was actually one of my favorites I had my 2 favorite people with me... what more could I ask for?







9) Visiting Bruce and Brandon Lee's burial site... weird it's a highlight, I know... but Jason is a BIG fan of "The Crow", Brandon's final film, and it was nice for me to be with him when he went to the gravesite at Lakeview Cemetery. Rest in Peace, gentlemen.




10) My Mother's Day gift/ Birthday gift came early! Because we got this awesome trailer for Faith, we HAD to get new bikes too! (I love it when that happens!). I got the Electra Townie21 700C and Jason got a DiamondBack Mountain Bike. I can't wait to customize my ride and go for a spin with the fam!




11) BY FAR, my favorite parts of our adventure was when we were just being together... we are at our best when we're doing that!









Some not so great moments:

1) Faith NOT sleeping! She slept like crap most of the time, which meant WE slept like crap! She was teething, crawling, stuffy nosed, and anxious to hang with everyone! That meant she would rather be awake than asleep, but she must have missed the memo that all play and no sleep makes Faith a PITA (Pain in the Ass). Luckily, we had lots of people willing to love on her while Mom and Dad got a tiny break!

2) Setting up and breaking down the trailer 6 times... once is enough. Next vacation, we'll pick ONE place and stay there. I am SO thankful to not have to build Faiths bed every night and not have a comfy chair in which to nurse her in the middle of the night, not to mention having to break everything down in order to move around in the trailer during the day!

3) We will NOT go on another vacation (at least not a 2 week one!) while I am still in school... During breaks, fine... but I had so much stress (self inflicted, admittedly so) for not keeping up with my classes that I ended up in a pissy mood WAY too often (which the lack of sleep didn't help). Hopefully, the next ACTUAL vacation (next year) I'll already have a degree in hand... we'll see!

Things I LOVE about being home:

1) Faith only woke up ONCE our first night home!!! SO much better than the 3-4 times for the past 2 weeks! She just missed her bed!!

2) Speaking of missing beds... we have a King sized bed at home and LOVE it... I think, above all other purchases Jason and I have made together, that bed is the best one. I slept like an angel last night, except, of course, for the one time I went to Faith.

3) Our dogs love being able to be out of the car and trailer. Poor girls! They were stuck in one or the other the whole trip because there was so much else going on! They were reluctant to get in their crate last night cuz they were loving our bed too much! (I'm sensing a theme here...)

4) Getting back to my routine! Before the vacation, I was stuck in a rut. I needed a change and the trip was just the thing to give it to me!! Now I can come back, focused, and appreciate the system I've got going for me!

5) Letting Faith "fuss it out" for a few minutes as she is going to bed. Being in the same room as her for the past 2 weeks has been difficult as I would try to get her to quiet down as quickly as possible so we would lose as little sleep as possible. Because of this, she hasn't self-soothed in weeks... I'm happy to report that she talked herself to sleep for her morning nap, snoozing soundly 30 minutes after I fed her and put her in her crib.