Baby Adventures

We have had quite a few baby adventures in the past few weeks. We have really been enjoying the end of summer with its much more reasonable weather.

Boise has a hot air balloon fest that we woke up early to go see.  It was amazing how many people got up before dawn to go watch.  It made me really glad to live in such a family friendly city.

Ellis and Sara at the balloons.  Sara looks a bit overwhelmed. 

Sara had a chance to go to her first birthday party.  Her buddy, Rex, turned two.  Sara was a little crabby at the party, perhaps because we made her wear the silly hat. Ellis is making a sad face since she was crabby.

One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to go to the pool.  Sara and I went to the pool twice earlier this summer so I wanted to go one last time before it got cold.

Sara in her yellow polka dot bikini

We have been asking Sara what she wants to be when she grows up.  Currently she is practicing to be a dancer.  We haven't had the heart to tell her she will be way too tall for that. 

Both Ellis and I love to be outdoors and to camp.  Its always been a big part of our summers so we decided we needed to go camping at least once this summer.  So we crossed our fingers and headed into the mountains for some camping with Sara.  We went to one of our favorite car camping spots which is just a few hundred feet from a hot springs in the river.  Overall, we had a great time. Sara had a few breakdowns at night but nothing too out of the ordinary.  I think camping with a 4 month old is probably a lot easier than a mobile 1 year old. 

One advantage of nursing and camping is you don't need to bring food for baby. 

Sara and I getting in touch with nature, nursing on stumps and rocks 

no camping trip is complete without a very dirty child...

 ... or one sleeping peacefully in a sleeping bag

 Sara enjoying the evening by the fire. She had to wear a hood to avoid the bugs.

Back Home

We traveled back home a few weekends ago for a friends wedding.  It was also a great chance to see everyone and introduce them to Sara. I did a terrible job of taking photos... again. I guess we were having too much fun to think about photos

We were a little nervous about how Sara would do with the plane but as usual with new things she just went with the flow.  I don't think she made a peep the whole flight.

Friday night we enjoyed an evening with Grandma Susan and our friends came over for a little while to meet Sara.  Saturday morning Jackie and Ben hosted a lunch so we could see their apartment and we could all spend some more time together.  Laurie was able to come up and meet Sara which was so great.

Jackie and Sara cuddling

Saturday night Ellis and I headed off to our friend, Melissa's, wedding.  Grandma Susan agreed to watch Sara for the night so Ellis and I enjoyed our first real night out alone.  We had a great time...some of us (me) might have had too good of a time. 

Sunday afternoon we headed up to Grandma John and Yaya's house.  It was exciting because it was the first chance that the cousins would meet.  Caroline was born 12 days after Sara so it was so much fun to watch them together.  I think they will have a lot of fun together when they get older, and likely cause a lot of mischief.  

As usually with trips home, they are never long enough and you never feel you get enough time with everyone but we were grateful for our time back home.