Traveling Man

2011 has been the year of travel for Keaton and family!  He made it to 13 states if you include 2 airports.  He is a great travel companion, never gets stopped by security, even with all the liquids and mystery powder (aka formula) that he travels with! Just have to have lots and lots of bottles because he gets dehydrated. 

Washington: Still haven't been to Eastern Washington yet but have been up to Bellingham and down to Vancouver.

Oregon: We drove down, spent about an hour walking around, decided it was too hot and came home. We had planned to spend the entire weekend there with Keaton and even brought Manny.

Idaho/Montana: Road trip with Grandpa to Butte and Flathead Lake.

Alaska: Went to visit 2 week old cousin who finally got a name about 4 months later (Crystal).

Illinois/Indiana/Michigan: Visited family in Illinois and went to Michigan dunes.  Drove through Indiana and stopped at a Walmart to buy Keaton new pants because he had an accident :).

Ohio: Spent about 30 minutes at the Cleveland airport. Was notified over the airport intercom that we left a stuffed gingerbread man on the plane.

Massachusetts: Visited family twice: for baptism and Christmas.  Will be back a lot, just wish the flight was shorter!

New Hampshire/Maine: We drove up to the coast of Maine this summer which was beautiful.  Had to stop at a visitor center in New Hampshire to get info. on destination.

New Jersey: Spent 5 AWFUL hours at the Newark airport.  According to the Urban Dictionary, 4 people are murdered here everyday.  I'm surprised TJ and I made it out of there since we were pretty grumpy by that point and not being very nice to each other!

Keaton got this super cute suitcase for Christmas.  I'm thinking our next flight should be a short one, which will be much more enjoyable for everyone.  As of right now we don't have anything planned but I'm sure that will change soon!

Christmas 2011

Keaton's first Christmas was a lot of fun.  It felt like we spent the entire month of December celebrating.  The best Christmas gift was all the family and friends Keaton got to spend time with.  He got to spend nearly 3 weeks with Aunt Becky, Uncle Jason, and cousins Emerald and Crystal.  Oh, and the dog Jager, Keaton loved Jager.  When I think of Becky and Family's visit the following rings in my ears "We're off the track, we're off the track" because the kids were constantly playing with a toy train grandpa got Keaton and it was constantly being knocked off track.  Good thing we had our Aunt Claudia around to keep us "on track" during Becky's visit, making sure everyone was fed and no one got lost or hurt. 

We spent Christmas in Boston which was a lot of fun (except the 5 hour layover in New Jersey).  The few snowflakes we saw on Christmas day were very exciting for us since it never snows in Seattle on Christmas.  It was great for Keaton to see his grandparents as well as great grandparents!  We got to stay with his Aunt Eileen and Uncle Steve and cousin Wyatt.  It was so fun to see the two boys play.  I was convinced Keaton was an extra hyper, active boy but after spending a week with Wyatt I've changed my mind.  Wyatt is much more active!!  We told Manny he was going to "Snow Camp" while we were gone.  He really went to the best dog boarding place ever, it's probably as good as camp but there was no snow while he was there.  He did get some good stuff when Santa visited all the dogs there.

Keaton sat on Santa's lap 3 times: At a shopping center in West Seattle, at a very decorated house in our neighborhood and at the airport.  He must have been pretty good because he got some pretty cool gifts: Shiny red sports car from mom and dad along with piggy bank so he can start saving his money for a real one, train set, guitar, race cars, suitcase, etc. etc. etc.  The ones from Grandpa Morgan were wrapped very professionally in brown paper bags with masking tape. He also got his first kiss from a girl on Christmas Day.  Anika Ryan (TJ's good friend's daughter) gave him a kiss on the cheek and he must have really liked it because a few days later he was kissing his cousin!

Neighborhood lights & Santa

Christmas Morning

Kissing Anika, Kissing Wyatt!

Long day of Traveling.....

Keaton likes standing on the hood instead of sitting in seat, this kid is a climber

Great Grandparents

Family Fun....

Cousins Emerald & Crystal

Stationery card

We Believe Christmas Card

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Hanging out with the Big Kids

Today we met a friend for lunch at Bellevue Square (Misty!!).  I heard they had a really good kid play area so I wanted to check it out.  I figured we would only be "checking it out" since I thought Keaton was still a too young for that type of thing.  So we put on our best Ralph Lauren shirt (thanks Brian and Tara) so that we would fit in with the Bellevue crowd and ventured up to the third floor!

It was mobbed with 2-5 year olds and total chaos!  But to my surprise Keaton loved it!  He was not at all intimidated by the big kids, maybe because he had his own personal body guard by his side the entire time (that would be me).

He made a little friend right away.  Of course it was a girl...he sure does like girls!

He had so much fun exploring.  I really think he was trying to impress the older kids by standing with no hands!  He seemed very proud of himself.

Keaton is getting to the age where he is now able to interact with other kids and "play".  It is so fun to see him develop into a little man with his own personality.  

I have discovered that seeing your child happy and enjoying life is the very best feeling in the whole world.  In the almost 35 years that I've been around, I've never experienced anything even close to as good as this!

Yes, there are more pictures.....because I think it's so great that I must capture every moment!  I definitely need to work on taking less pictures at things like this because Keaton will be embarrassed when he gets older (I'm even embarrassed of myself for being the crazy mom taking tons of pics).

Halloween Fun

The great thing about an 8 month old is that you are really celebrating for the pictures...so you can do it anytime!  Since I'll be working on Halloween we had to celebrate (aka take pictures) early!  I was thrilled that the dog was basically a statue in his costume, which made it easy for pictures. 

Since Keaton seems to think he has the powers of a super hero lately we decided to go with Batman and Robin.  Unfortunately the cape isn't keeping him from falling to the floor each time he tries to stand and then let go....but it's not Halloween yet so maybe the super hero powers will kick in then!

Fun at the pumpkin patch.  First real "family/festive event" TJ and I have been to...not sure we're completely ready for all this parenting stuff...

Terrible family picture (don't have strangers take them)...great pic of Keaton...impossible to get 6 little ones all looking at the camera!

We ran into some scary kids at the pumpkin patch...

Speaking of scary kids...Keaton's friend Henry looked pretty spooky and I didn't even have to do any photo editing! 

Visiting Family in Illinois

This past week my dad, Keaton and I went to Illinois.  My mom was from there and most of her family still lives there.  One of my mom's wishes was to have some of her ashes spread on the farm that she grew up on so that was the main purpose of the trip.  I wasn't looking forward to it and knew that it would be hard seeing all of her family without her there.  We did a very nice, casual ceremony with the family and spent some time remembering what an amazing person she was. 

Even though you can't pick your family, if I could I would pick the ones I have.  I feel so blessed to have such a large and loving family.  My dad comes from a family of 9 children and my mom 7.  And all of them have kids so I have lots and lots of cousins!  Even though lots of them live far away and I barely ever see them, when I do there is that family connection that can never be replaced.  Keaton comes from a much smaller family but already has lots of extra aunts, uncles and even an extra grandma next door!  I am fortunate to have many life long friends that have become family to me and my family.  At the end of the day, family is the most valuable thing you have in your life!

Even though I didn't know if this trip would be fun, we did manage to have some which is what my mom would have wanted.

Here we are at the Michigan dunes.  The trip to Michigan got Keaton to 11 states by age 8 months. He has been to: Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Alaska, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.  Sadly, he won't remember any of it! 

Keaton having some fun on a horse at our stop to a store to buy him some new pants since he had a little accident.  Looks like Keaton also enjoys fast cars like his dad!

The farm my mom grew up on and the house she grew up in. My uncle Bob still does all the farming on it. 

A pretty cute Boston Terrier pup that I found in the mall...I don't think Manny would have been very happy with that souvenir!

Here are some pics of those great relatives...

When life gives you lemons....feed them to Keaton! We discovered he loves lemons...I also discovered after-the-fact that he isn't suppose to have citrus until after 1 year...oops!

Grandparents Visit!

This past week Keaton's Grandparents came to visit from Massachusetts!  I'm not sure who was more excited, Keaton or Manny....OK it was definitely Manny!  I think Manny is still catching up on sleep from his marathon of craziness!  The picture on the far right was included because I think Manny spent almost the entire visit in the kitchen begging for anything he could con someone into giving him.  Keaton must have been pretty excited too and I think was trying to impress them because he was in a great mood the entire time they were here.

We took Keaton to the zoo for the first time.  I hadn't been in years and it is definitely more fun with a little one! 

We also went to Salty's (where TJ and I were married), the Ballard Locks and Pike Place Market.

Keaton impressed Nana and Grandpa by showing them how he can already read! He's actually teaching his daddy how to in this picture :)

Picture of Keaton with the Grandparents..

We really enjoyed their visit and know that living on opposite sides of the country makes things more difficult but look forward to the many more memories we will share as a family!  We'll be heading back there for Christmas so Keaton can spend the holidays with his cousin, Wyatt.

PS, I went a little crazy on the photo editing software I just tried out.  :)