Visiting the Plaza's in Boston!!

This past weekend, Chase and I ventured to Boston Massachusetts to see Aunt Carolyn, Uncle Bob and cousin Claire! It was an adventurous ride getting there, unfortunately. To start, we boarded our plane, and then proceeded to pull away from the gate and sit on the tarmac for an hour!! This did not make me happy at all, because I of course completely planned out Chase's nap around the flight...so Chase was sleeping the hour we were waiting to take off. AND the pilot turned the plane off to conserve fuel while I held my hotter than blazes baby. To top of the trip I sat next to a baby hater!! Seriously, he roled his eyes when he saw he was sitting next to us, and didn't say one word to us the entire flight. This really made the whole flight miserable...people can be SO rude!! I realize an infant isn't an ideal flying buddy, but have a little heart, will ya??

Anyways, the weekend was fabulous! We were able to spend quality time with Grandpa Phil, Claire, Uncle Bob and Aunt Carolyn. Grandpa and I were there to celebrate Carolyn's 28th birthday on Friday. We ate great food and enjoyed each others company. On Saturday morning Chase and I watched Claire learn to swim at her lesson! She is going to be a swimmer natural like her mother!



Claire's swim lesson video!



Chase in the door bouncy video!

Sunday, Claire and Chase had their pictures taken together. Chase is 6 months old and Claire is almost a year. Here is the link to those pictures. They will only be up for a couple of months. Unfortunately, little Claire was just beginning her battle with hand foot mouth disease. She wasn't feeling so great on Monday, but is fully recovered now!! It really was a great weekend, and so great to see my family!! The other pictures I took can be found here

Next up: more visitors from Indiana....my parents!!! woohoo :)

Family Bonding!!

This past week we've had the pleasure of entertaining our first Indiana house guest...my dad! He came in on Saturday and we have been busy over the past few days filling his time here with pool lounging, cooking, and relaxing with Chase. Grandpa Phil even got to babysit Chase while I went to work yesterday for a few hours. It has been great having him here. This afternoon grandpa Phil flew to Boston to visit Claire, Carolyn and Bob. Chase and I will also be joining them in Boston on Thursday. I miss my family and am really looking forward to spending some time with them!

Chase is doing an awesome job with the sitting! I think he might be teething... he's been a little fussy and more difficult to console. I won't complain though, he is still incredibly happy!

Pictures to follow!

Sitting Up!!

We have reached a milestone...Chase can sit up!! We have been trying for a couple weeks now to get him to sit on his own without toppling over, and haven't been too successful. But, alas, yesterday he proved to us he can indeed sit :) He is also mastering the art of tummy time (and actually seems to be enjoying it) as well as talking and recognizing his favorite toys. I have a feeling he is going to be a lot like his parents... an energetic and bubbly, talking boy. Jason and I have already decided he's going to be the kid that comes home on the first day of school with the note "Chase is a very good boy, but he does an awful lot of socializing during class!" It is SO much fun to watch him grow and learn everyday. Based on everyone else's reactions, it looks like we have one of the bigger babies on the block. He goes to the doctor for his 6 month check up July 30th...I think he's around 18 pounds...

I am done orienting in special maternity care and have now moved to orientation in labor and delivery. So far so good! I really like my preceptor, which always makes things easier. As I have said before though, it is never easy being the "new girl"

Jason is great too...loves his job still, so that is a plus!

We miss everyone. I am feeling mildly homesick this week, but I am sure this soon will pass :) Enjoy this quick video of our new sitting skills:

4th of July on Buckeye Lake!

The clan packed up the car, and I mean PACKED up the car, and headed 7.25 hrs north and slightly west to Buckeye Lake near Columbus Ohio for the fourth of July! Jason's long time friends Andrea and Jordan Reid and their parents were gracious enough to let us, and Jason's parents, come up for the weekend of festivities. We went last year and had a BLAST!

It was a looooong drive up on Thursday night. As a matter of fact, a bite a little too big for Jason and I, so we decided around 1:30am to stop and get a hotel room. Chase then decided that would be his new wake up time :) Eventually, we all got a little sleep, and headed back out onto the road in the a.m. After arriving Friday mid morning, we started eating and didn't stop until we left Sunday afternoon! Seriously. I am pretty sure this weekend ranks every year as one of the highest on food consumption.

The weather was AWESOME! Warm and partly sunny throughout the day with no humidity with cool and crisp nights! Jason and I stayed at Andrea's Uncle's house where we slept with the windows open. For the first time in months my little toes actually got cold throughout the night....it was GREAT!

Andrea and I went jet skiing, we all ate more food on Saturday, and Grandma Larsen got to spend gobs of time with Chase...so we all had a blast! It was so great to just go and relax in such a tranquil area. Of course there were a few games....Baggo (like bean toss), Uno, Sorry, and my personal favorite Catch Phrase. We finished off the weekend with some water skiing and tubing. Hopefully by next year I will have forgotten what the drive was like and be ready to go back!

Here is the link to all of the great photos we managed to capture on the trip

We also had a little experiment of our own thanks to Tom's challenge: consuming 6 saltine crackers in less than 1 minute. I decided to video tape this for everyone's viewing pleasure. Jason, Marie, Lisa, and Tom were the participants. Check it out: