First Family Vacation

This past weekend we had a whirlwind trip to St. Louis for one more kayak demo, and then flew to Los Angeles for the remainder of Memorial Day weekend. My friend Jill (from college) was getting married on Monday of the holiday weekend, and we decided to turn it into a mini vacation. Joseph's first flight went quite well. We had a direct flight, and he ate and napped for most of the 4 hour trip. He only fussed for about 15 minutes when it was naptime, so we couldn't complain.

Once we landed and rented our car, we headed to La Mirada, a suburb of LA, to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Chaddick. Fortunately, Jill and Gary were also in town for the holiday so we had a chance to visit with them for a few hours as well! Joseph had a lot of fun being a giggly little boy for everyone, and then took a nice long nap in the middle of the visit. Oh well!

Hanging out with Grandpa Jack.

Grandpa Jack, Daddy and Joseph.

Visiting with Grandma Carla before it was time to leave.

We had to say goodbye around 5pm so that we could make it back to Santa Monica, check into our hotel and have a few minutes before meeting my cousins Peter and Kim. We weren't sure how Joseph would handle the two hour time change, but it didn't seem to make much difference to him... he ended up getting an extra nap in while the four of us ate dinner on the veranda of our hotel, and when it was time to say goodbye, Joseph was ready for a bedtime bottle before his first night in the hotel crib.

Remarkably, Joseph's bedtime schedule didn't change at all while we were traveling. Although his crib was right next to our bed, he managed to fall asleep quickly each night, and slept for 10-11 hours straight through! This made for a very happy little boy each day, and he adjusted to napping mainly in his carseat each day quite well.

While on this trip, Joseph seemed to start to notice his feet. I caught him playing with his pajama legs, and trying to stick them in his mouth. It's only a matter of time before his toes are constantly wet from saliva, as his fingers are most of the time now!

He also has lots of fun playing the flying game. Hard to tell who's having more fun from this picture, but he giggles quite a bit (before chewing on those fingers!0

Bouncing with Daddy on the bed and laughing hysterically.

Chilling on the bed after our first night at the hotel. As part of a great deal my cousin Peter got us at the hotel, we had complimentary breakfast each morning. We would wait for Joseph to wake up and feed him, then head downstairs for breakfast on the veranda. The veranda overlooks Ocean Ave and has views of the ocean and Santa Monica pier, and was a great spot to sit, relax and people watch. Joseph typically napped either while we were eating, or would wait until we got back up to the hotel room, and nap while we showered and got ready for the day.

Our second morning in LA, (Monday) we walked over to the Santa Monica pier... and Joseph fell asleep as soon as we hit the bumpy planks of the pier. So we strolled up and down the pier, and then spent the next hour walking along Ocean Ave, before stopping for a slice of pizza on the Third Street Promenade. Joseph napped for all of the two hours we were outside!

Then it was time to get ready for Jill's wedding, which was at 2pm. Joe and the baby came along to the wedding, but we decided it would be better for everyone if I went to the reception by myself and let Joe hang out with the baby at the hotel for the evening. This situation ended up working out well, as they got to bond and I felt like my old, non-mommy self for the first time in months (except for needing to pump during the middle of the reception, but hey, it was a fun time dancing, drinking wine and having fun with old friends nonetheless!)

The family in front of the hotel after the wedding before it was time for me to go to the reception.

Tuesday Jill hosted a brunch for the out of town guests at her house before she and Chris left for their honeymoon. Joseph did well with all of the new people - at this point, there were new faces just about every time he opened his eyes, and luckily he participates in "pass the baby" quite agreeably. We decided to head back over to the Santa Monica pier once again, hoping to take Joseph on the ferris wheel. Someone had rented the rides out for the afternoon for a private event, so we were out of luck. We ended up once again with a sleepy baby, so Joe and I shared a mediocre appetizer for lunch at a restaurant on the pier and enjoyed the view. We headed back to the hotel for a drink before leaving for Playa del Rey, where we were meeting Joe's uncle Mike, Nairi and their kids for the evening. Joe's cousin Laura also joined us for the delicious dinner of Armenian barbeque Nairi prepared. She and I chatted while Joe's cousin Hunter beat him senseless at a variety of Wii games.

Wednesday morning we enjoyed our last breakfast and decided to give ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport, return the car, check the luggage and get to the gate. Although traffic was light, every other part of the return to KC was extremely slow, and although we thought we were being silly leaving the hotel 3 1/2 hours before our flight, we ended up with only having to wait 20 minutes at the gate before boarding. Joseph was absolutely perfect on the two flights back to KC - ate as we took off, played for 20ish minutes, and then napped until we landed each time. No fussing at all! I'm definitely less nervous about our trip to Phoenix in two weeks after seeing how smoothly things went this time.

It's hard to see, but our hotel is the turquoise blue building to the left of the larger white building at the right side of the picture. We're on the Santa Monica pier.

Our first family vacation was really fun - I look forward to many more in the years to come!