Our First Family Vacation

It's the update you've all been waiting for! We have just returned from our marvelous family vacation to San Diego.  We had so much fun! Mommy took over 150 pictures, so of course, we've censored her to make sure she doesn't share all of them with you.  We've compiled the pictures that give you the best glimpse into our week in SoCal.  

Here we are hanging at the airport.  This was not our first flight, but the longest we've been on--it took 5 1/2 hours to fly cross country.  And despite the crabby people on the plane scoffing at "ahh" "gasp" "sigh" TWO babies (wow, buddy, you can count!), we were spectacular on both the trip out and back.  In fact, one stodgy old guy was convincing the flight attendant right when we were getting on the plane that he got on the wrong flight.  He said "this isn't a flight, it's a nursery!" Then he turned around to see us.  Elyse gave him her best "are you talking to me?" look and he got very quiet...we showed him!

Hanging with Daddy on the biggest bed we've ever seen! Our hotel room was spectacular.  We had a nice view of the water and the suite had all of the amenities two babies (and their parents) could need!  We stayed at Humphrey's Half Moon Inn and Suites.  You can see where we stayed here.

Felicity: I had SO MUCH FUN!!  I just couldn't contain all of my giggles.  Seriously people, 75 degrees, sunny, no humidity.  You just can't go wrong!

Elyse: Here I am with Daddy at Seaport Village, a quaint shopping village right on the water by the San Diego Marina.  We had a nice relaxing day by the water here.

Elyse: This was my first experience with a cactus.  I was very interested in the many kinds of cactus plants in San Diego, particularly this one, until Mom took out her camera in which case I turned my attention elsewhere (pacifiers can be perplexing things to figure out). 

Here we are with Daddy in Old Town.  We shopped and enjoyed the historical landmarks from the first settlers to San Diego.  This was the first night of 3 that Mom and Dad had delicious Mexican food.  And they say it was absolutely, mouth-watering delicious!

The historic Old Town church behind us:

Felicity: So much fun! We just loved seeing all of the tropical flowers that we've never seen before!

A close-up of the Old Town cathedral (Mommy put this pic in just so you know she was on the trip...mostly she was the one taking the pictures).

Eating in Style

Just the other day we got to try out our new highchairs! We are so excited to eat at the table like all of the big people do.  It really gives us a whole new perspective on the world!  We know we're little, but all the cool kids are doing it, and now so are we!

Felicity: I'm not sure about this guys.  Maybe this is just some master plot to get me to eat more of that mushy food...I'm skeptical.

Elyse: Oh, Felicity! Look on the bright side of things! Now this means that when we sneeze with baby food in our mouth, it really will go ALL OVER!  It will be hilarious!  Overall, I'm happy about this new development.

California, Here We Come!

In just a few days, we are flying to San Diego for our first family vacation! We are so very excited to relax, kick back, and enjoy the mild San Diego weather. After all of the moving hullabaloo, we could really use a break. Besides, Daddy starts work after we get back from vacation, so this is going to be a great time for us to have fun with him. We're staying at a beautiful resort and will enjoy the pool and our first experience of a hotel room (a resort suite isn't too bad, we figure). Of course, Mommy will take LOTS of pictures of our trip and post them here when we return. But for now, we thought we'd share with you some of the highlights of what we are most looking forward to:

This is Campbell. We are going to meet her for the very first time. We just know we're going to be fast friends! She is the daughter of Mom's very good friend from graduate school. They live right by the beach and we just know that there will be many more visits to see Campbell and the beach in years to come! She is only a few months younger than us. From her picture, it is, of course, evident that she is a California superstar already!

We are also excited to go to the San Diego Zoo. We love looking at animals and can't wait to go to such a HUGE zoo! It's going to be grrrreat! (By the way, Mom bought us special leopard print outfits for us to wear just for this occasion. Pictures to come, of course!).
And you wondered if we were going to go to the beach! Of COURSE! This will be our first experience of the beach, the ocean, and waves! It should be fun, fun, fun!
And what would a trip to San Diego be without a visit with Shamu?! Dolphins, whales, fish, oh my! We're convinced that this will also be spectacular (and no, Mom did not buy any outfits with fins on them...you silly people!).
So wish us luck on the 5 hour plane trip (the longest we've taken so far) and we'll have a big update when we get back. (And for those of you waiting to see pictures of the house, Mom will get to that when we return from vacation).

P.S.--For our faithful blog readers who are concerned that we may miss the Packer/Viking game because we'll be on vacation, do not worry. We are going to see the game on Monday night for sure! (And we'll have some pictures from our first big showdown too!)

Just in Case...

Just in case you thought we fell into a deluge of our own sadness because our stuff still wasn't here, it has now arrived and we are quite happy!  As you can see here:

Mommy and Daddy are busy, busy, busy unpacking and getting things organized, but when they're done, Mommy promises to post pictures of the new house all decorated and settled.  Lucky for us, she is done with our room and the basement rec. room where we will be playing with many of our new toys.  Mom and Dad are very tired from all of the unpacking, but we are mostly unfazed by the chaos.  We're happy to let our parents do all of the work.  After all, we're busy working on our own difficult task: crawling.  We are getting closer and closer each day!

To placate all of our friendly blog readers while Mommy is too tired to take and post pictures of the new place, here are pictures of our favorite activity--tummy tumults, twists, and turns:

Happy long weekend everyone!

More Fun in DC

While still waiting for our things to arrive from the moving company, we decided to further explore our surroundings in our new city.  You can see from our pictures that we've been all over the city and loved every bit of it!

Here we are on the marina/docks in Old Towne Alexandria, VA.  This is right along the Potomac and is a beautiful place to sit, enjoy the scenery, and drink Starbucks (which we know, as we've already established, is a staple for Mommy!):

This is at Arlington Cemetery right below where JFK's grave is located.  It's hard to tell from this picture, but right from his grave you can see all the way to the Washington Monument!

Mommy and Daddy in front of our nation's Capitol:

Grandpa and Daddy were hanging out with us by the Capitol steps, getting us used to the view.  Working here is our next step in our plan to take over the world, so it's essential that we get used to the place...but we guess conquering solid food will have to come before life at the Capitol...

Elyse: I am taking a nap here, hanging out with my Great-Great-Aunt Evelyn.  She is my Great-Grandma's sister.  Evelyn has lived in DC for a long time and her family are the go-to people for local knowledge and information.  We'll be visiting her a lot in the near future, we just know it! 

Here we have Grandma Beck and her cousin Peter (mommy's second cousin).  Peter lives in DC (Evelyn=Peter's mom) and has already been hanging out with us quite a bit.  He is so much fun.  We just LOVE playing with him and it has been rumored that we've spit up on him many times, but sources have yet to confirm this nasty rumor (and we're pleading the 5th)...sounding like politicians so soon...perfect!

This is a family photo at the relatively new World War II Memorial.  We were very interested in all of the history represented at this memorial because 2 of our Great-Grandpas fought in this war.  And of course, we are very proud of their service to our country!  

Just 17 miles from our house is Mount Vernon (the Big GW's home).  It is a beautiful place with an amazing view of the Potomac.  Mommy bought an annual pass so that we can take all of our visitors there to see where the magic all began.  

The view from George and Martha's place:

Well, as you can see from all of the pictures, we've done a pretty good job of keeping busy while we're waiting for our stuff to arrive at the house.  Even though Grandma and Grandpa weren't able to help us unpack, we were sure lucky to have them here for all of our fun adventures.  Thanks for a spectacular week of fun Grams and Gramps!  

Exploring Our Nation's Capital

This is a picture of our first walk by our new home along the Potomac.  If you squint really hard you can see the Washington Monument to the left of our Mom.  We just love all of the water here!  So different from dry Colorado.

This was also part of the view of our walk on the river.  And no, this picture is not zoomed at all.  We were this close to all of the great sights!

We have been waiting for over a week and a half for our things to arrive at our new house (what a bummer), so we've done quite a bit of sightseeing with Grandma and Grandpa to get accustomed to our new city.  Here we are with Mom and Dad on the Mall.

Here we are with Grandma and Grandpa after a LONG day of seeing all of the monuments/memorials.  We had fun in the stroller, but we're pretty sure everyone else was worn out from the heat and humidity!

As soon as our things arrive (hopefully it will only be a few more days), Mom will post pictures of our house and all of the other fun pictures we've taken while sightseeing.

Moving

Elyse: When the packers came to put all of our stuff in boxes, we went to our good friends' house to play so we weren't in the way.  Here I am with my friend Nella.  She was very nice to let me play with her toys and share with me!  We will miss our wonderful friends while we're in DC, but we hope to visit them soon.

Elyse: Nella, that toy looks pretty interesting.  Can I have a turn?

Felicity: I was so tired of all of the packing and running around that I fell asleep right in the middle of our empty living room!  It was a nice cat nap before the big airplane ride.

Here's our little family one last time in our Colorado home.  We're happy to move, but a little sad to leave the place where we were born.

Grandma Beck flew out to Colorado so she could fly with Mommy to DC.  Daddy had to drive the car the whole way, but we were able to get there much faster on a fancy jet plane.  And yes, for those of you who are counting, this was our third plane trip.

We were waiting for our plane here.  So excited to fly again!!

Our First Portraits

A few days ago we had our first professional portraits taken.  The photographer was a bit frazzled that there were two of us (twins=2 babies, DUH!), even though she knew we were coming.  But for the most part, it was pretty fun.  If you'd like to see more of our pictures, you can view them at:

www.thesmilestation.com

Customer Name: Amy Butcher

Access Code: LTTT0853108616TAR

As a special side note--if you are family, we have already ordered pictures for you, so you should wait to order any online until you receive the ones we've ordered for you! 

Food For Thought

Seeing as we have reached our 6th month mark, the doctor gave us the go-ahead to begin sampling our first solid foods (if you can call mushy rice cereal solid).  As we already think our palette is quite refined, we don't quite know why we would need to add anything into the mix, but apparently we need to learn to eat this stuff.  Have you seen what rice cereal looks like?  Yeah, we were skeptical too.

Elyse: You want me to eat that?  Really?  Are you sure you don't want to re-think this?

Yes, my initial inklings were correct.  Dis-gust-ing.  

Are you seriously taking a picture right now? Can't you see this is not my finest moment?

Maybe if I keep my mouth tightly shut you'll stop.

Magnificent!  It worked!  Do you see how happy I am when I don't have to eat that stuff?  Simply elated:

Felicity: You want me to put that stuff in my mouth?  Probably not.

Okay, okay!  I give up.  I'll swallow it, but I'm not saying I like it.  

I guess it's not so bad...

But you have more?  Will it ever end?  

Yup.  That is quite enough.  I do not think this whole "eating solids" endeavor is my cup of tea.  I would just like to make it clear now that when this same mush is offered to me tomorrow, I believe I will kindly decline.