September 7, 2007

Greetings from Scenic New Jersey

I'm back! It hasn't been long, but we've sure been busy. I've got lots of pictures from our book club trip and from our trip to New Jersey (so far) and I'm going to try to work on getting them uploaded tonight.

I'm sitting in the living room at my Dad's house in Flemington, New Jersey right now typing this on my laptop. Sam's been asleep for about 45 minutes, and he got up early today (7:00), so he might even nap for over 2 hours if I'm lucky! We're working on getting the house neatened up for the party tomorrow.

We have had tons of fun during this trip so far, and it's so fun to watch Helene with Sam. She loves him so much, she's such a good Grandma. We also had a loss in the family recently, Helene's mother died only a couple of weeks ago, so I think it's a really great time for us to be visiting and hopefully Sam is spreading some happiness. Lianna turned 9 yesterday and she is adorable with Sam. She helps watch him and plays with him and talks to him. This morning she was reading him a book, and it was really cute.

So, we arrived to the house at about 10:00 pm last Friday. Kira, Sam and I all flew together and had seats together. My Dad used frequent flier miles to upgrade us to first class, and boy am I glad. If we'd been in coach his car seat would not have fit into the plane seat, and that would have been really hard trying to keep him in once place. The first flight was Seattle to Minneapolis and Sam was awake most of the flight, but slept for about 20 minutes. We had a 2 hour layover so Sam was able to run around all over the gate area and airport while Kira and I chased after him and he could get some energy out. On the 2nd flightit was a little harder because even though the flight was only 2 hours, we sat on the plane for an hour before taking off because of mechanical difficulties. Sam was a little fussy during that time, but didn't scream or cry or anything. Boy am I glad that Justin bought the portable DVD player though. I wouldn't have bought one, but it really saved the day. He was so overtired by the 2nd flight I just wanted him to take a nap, and I was able to put on Blue's Clues for him to have him focus on something while he got sleepy.

Saturday morning we got all packed up and drove down to Ocean City to stay at my Aunt's beach house for a few days. On Sunday and Monday we went to the beach and Sam had a great time. Sunday he slept for a couple of hours on the beach, which was nice. Monday he just ran around and had fun. We both got a little burned, so we decided to just stay at the house Tuesday morning and hang out and take our time packing up to come back to Flemington. Sam's done really well with the time change and since the 2nd day we were here he's been going to bed at his normal bedtime. The last 2 days he's woken up quite early, yesterday at 6:45 and today at 7:00, but he slept in his crib all night both of those nights which was awesome because I got the bed to myself. Sam had a great time at the beach, and so did I! The water was just awesome, it was warm and the waves weren't too big. I got to float around by myself or with Kira out in the ocean while Helene and Lianna played with Sam. Sam loved the sand, although he just had to taste it every once in a while, and he went in the water a little bit, maybe up to his knees and then I also sat in the water with him on my lap so I could lift him up a little if a higher wave came. We also got to see Matt and Erica (just married cousins) who are expecting a baby in January and just found out it's a girl! I'm excited that someone else is adding a little one to the next generation of our family. We also got to visit with my other cousins, Laurie and Emmy, and see Aunt Barb, Aunt Ann, and Grandmom. We just had a good time, and I was so happy when Emmy and Ann came down for the day on Monday so we could see them since I didn't think they were coming.

Tuesday afternoon we headed back to Flemington. Sam was good in the car both ways, just a tiny bit fussy for the last 10 minutes of the trip home, no big deal. Lianna was in the back seat with him, so she helped entertain him and give him some snacks. Wednesday was Lianna's first day of fourth grade, and we just hung around. Kira and I walked down to main street and got coffee at a shop there and went into a few of the stores.

Oh, I gotta go - Sam is awake, way too early! More later on tonight hopefully.

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