Fun at the mall with Hayden!

Just a quick post and a few pictures of our last play date with Joy and Hayden! We met at the Bell Square mall, did a bit of shopping, then let the boys play in the play area and had some lunch at the tables outside the play area.

The boys both loved the play area, Hudson wanted to climb every.single.thing he could, while Hayden wanted to crawl as fast he could to explore every area of the play place. Needless to say, Joy and I weren't able to visit much since we were busy chasing our boys, but we all had a good time and the boys got some of their energy out!

We're looking forward to the weather improving and hopefully getting outside for our next play dates!!

First Family Vacation: MAUI

The past month has flown by! We just got home from our first 'big' vacation with Hudson to MAUI!! We had so much fun and Hudson did great with all the traveling and new experiences.

We got up early Sunday morning (April 17th) and caught our first flight from Seattle to Portland. We made sure to keep Hudson awake on this quick flight, hoping he'd sleep for the long flight over to Maui. We had a quick layover in Portland and then it was off to Hawaii! The flight to Maui from Portland was 5 hours 45 minutes or so ... I was nervous to be cooped up in 2 small plane seats for that long, but Hudson did AMAZING!! He only slept the first hour and a half, but we managed to keep him interested and happy the rest of the flight by feeding him lots of snacks, reading books, playing with some new toys and stickers and talking to fellow travelers :)

Once we arrived in Maui, we got our luggage and picked up the rental car. Our first stop was Safeway to pick up a few grocery items for the week. I was amazed at how expensive things are over there. For 2 small bags of groceries we spent $70!!! That's generally what we spend for a week's worth of groceries here...yikes! We loaded up the car and headed South to our condo in Kihei. We were all exhausted after a long day of traveling and although it was only about 3 pm Hawaii time when we got to the condo, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to our condo to call it a night.

The rest of the week was pretty relaxed and low key. We didn't want to plan a lot of activities or excursions since this was our first family vacation. We spent most of our time at the beach, talking a lot of long walks along the beach and to/from 'town' and eating at new restaurants. We were also able to meet up with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins a couple times as well as have lunch with a couple co-workers and their families who were staying nearby!

We did attend a luau to celebrate mine and Andy's 4th anniversary on Thursday April 21st. After waiting in a LONG, hot line to get into the show we were rewarded with amazing food and an awesome show. Hudson stayed awake through dinner and tried several new foods including watermelon, kalua pork, mahi-mahi, hawaiian sweet rolls and probably others that I'm forgetting!

Overall we had an AMAZING trip and are already talking about when we can go back to Hawaii (or somewhere else warm to get away from this nasty Seattle weather ..) Hudson did great on the flight home - sleeping most of it and we're slowly getting settled back into our daily routines (I'm back at work today .. ugh ..)

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the week... Enjoy! :)

12 Month Check-up and Hayden's Birthday!

Hudson had his 1 year well child visit on Thursday. He is growing right on track and a happy healthy little guy!! Here are his current stats:


Weight: 20 lbs 12 oz (25th %)
Height: 30 1/2 inches (75th %)
Head Circ.: 19 1/4 inches (100th %!!)


He did well during his appointment ..although waiting in the waiting room and room is getting more and more difficult since he doesn't want to be held. He was trying to get into anything he could find in there! He had to have 4 vaccines :( and that was not so fun. He did ok with the first one, but was not too happy with the rest, although he only cried for a minute when they were done and was fine the rest of the day (including a nice long 3 hour nap!)

Unfortunately by dinner time he was starting to get a fever and it was up to 102 by bed time. I gave him some tylenol and put him down. He woke up around 11 and his fever had obviously spiked (I didn't take it, but I'm sure it was close to 104). After getting him some tylenol and rocking him back to sleep I decided I would stay home from work with him Friday to take care of him. I was glad to be able to take care of him and he got a lot of rest Friday and was all ready for his best friend Hayden's birthday party yesterday!!

Saturday I had the day off and we headed up to Lake Stevens to celebrate Hayden's First Birthday!! Joy did an awesome job putting together an adorable Owl/Woodland First Birthday Party. The decorations and food looked great. The boys had fun playing together and it was a nice, low key party! :) It's been so much fun having Hayden and Hudson so close in age and watching them grow and change this past year. I'm looking forward to continuing our play dates and seeing the boys grow up together.




I will update with Birthday Party pictures from Hayden's party when I get a chance. Here are a few from Hudson's 1 year photo shoot with K.Fenton Photography...I LOVE THEM!!! :)