Happy Birthday

This past weekend we made a quick trip over the mountains to join Jon's family in celebration of his Mom's birthday. Matt and Kristi also made the trip, so we got to hang out with the whole family. It was a very fun time and we were glad we could be there to celebrate the special day.

Logan and his cousin Zach played together pretty well. Since Zach is 6 months older, he is bigger and stronger, so he won most of the fights over toys (resulting in some tantrums and screaming from Logan). But he's also learning to share, so he very nicely brought Logan toys sometimes too. It was pretty cute. And they made up a game chasing each other around the house, which was very fun to watch.

Logan has not yet begun to grasp the concept of sharing. He has, however grasped the concept of "no." His vocabulary seems like it has been exploding lately. Some of his favorite words currently are shoe, star, ball, dog, duck, car, and nonononoooooo! He just started that last one yesterday. He uses it sometimes when we take something away that he wants or prevent him from doing something he wants to do. I expect we will be hearing a lot more of it in the months ahead..... He's really a very good boy, but he's definitely entered the toddler stage.

Here are a few pictures of Logan enjoying the fall leaves and wheelbarrow rides during a break in the rain.

Palm Springs (La Quinta)

Well, we made it back from vacation. Here's a run down of the week:

We left early Sunday morning to fly from Eugene to LAX. Then we had a 2.5 hour drive to La Quinta (which is about 20 miles east of Palm Springs). It was Logan's first airplane ride and he did pretty good, in spite of the fact that he woke up at 4:00 AM and didn't sleep at all on the plane or in the car (thank goodness for the DVD player we borrowed from some friends). The house we stayed in was very nice (thanks to Robert and Sam for arranging it). We pretty much just hung out there until Robert and Sam arrived in the early evening (after 2 straight days of driving - I'm sure glad we flew!).

It was quite a bit warmer down there - highs in the mid to upper 90s. Most days we went for a walk/run soon after we got up (before it got too hot), had coffee/breakfast and hung out, fed Logan, went in the pool, and then put Logan down for his nap. While he was napping, we either rested or got back in the pool for a while. Then we had lunch, fed Logan lunch, and went to the store or something in the afternoon. It was mostly too hot to do much outside after about mid-morning. We did go out for a hike one morning. And on Friday it cooled down enough for us to go to the Living Desert (zoo, wildlife preserve?) in the afternoon, which was pretty cool. Logan isn't quite old enough to really appreciate seeing the animals, but Jon and I enjoyed it. :) In the evenings, both kiddos went to bed pretty early, so we got to hang out with Robert and Sam, play some games, and use the hot tub.

We came home late Saturday night. A weather system moved in on Saturday and the drive to the airport in LA was very wet (translate slow) once we got into much traffic. But the weather also caused our flight to be delayed, so we made it in plenty of time. The flight back was very bumpy (small plane, rough weather), but Logan slept through most of it. And he went right to sleep when we got home. He's such a good little boy!

We have realized that vacationing with a young kiddo is a lot different than vacationing without kids. While it was a really nice week (and we had a great time hanging out with Robert and Sam), it's still a lot of work taking care of a baby/toddler - you don't get a vacation from that. I've heard the remedy is to take grandparents along. :)

Thanks to Robert and Sam for putting this trip together. We're looking forward to our next adventure together. Although they weren't able to go on this trip, I think it's Nate and Jodi's turn to plan something for next summer.