It has been such a fun summer it is sad it is coming to an end. We have had so many adventures and made memories to keep us warm all winter. Actually all of these 100 degree days make us look forward to winter. July started with Jefferson and I getting on a plane and going to visit family and a friends in Portland and Seattle. We wanted to escape the Utah heat wave and quite enjoyed the beauty of the pacific northwest. Traveling alone with a baby is workable- sometimes even enjoyable when everything goes according to plan. For the most part our trip did go according to plan and no catastrophes occurred. Our greatest challenge was getting everything to the rental car agency and so I piled everything including Jefferson in a cart and off we were.
There was a major accident on I 5 south (I will never forget I 5) so we sat in traffic for the first hour of our trip and counted it as a blessing that Salt Lake traffic never gets this bad. After getting through the accident the drive to Portland was beautiful. Jefferson slept most the way but woke up ready for snacks and clapped his hands when we crossed the big bridge into Portland. Cousin Lynn and her sweet family fed us a yummy dinner and we spent the night visiting and relaxing from our journey. The next day we hopped on the metro and checked out Portland inner city. We found the teachers fountain, Pioneer square, the waterfront, and VooDoo donuts. I think this was the first donut Jefferson has ever had and he was quite excited.
We met up with Lynn and the girls at the Oregon zoo and spent the afternoon playing and exploring. Jefferson loved these little girls and liked to be right between them holding their hands. When we visited the monkeys, one of the monkeys walked right up to Jefferson and looked at him through the glass. But Jefferson's favorite part was the fish tank- little things.
The next day was a beach day- Cannon beach, We had delicious clam chowder, played in the sand, flew a kite and just relaxed watching the waves. This was Jefferson's second time seeing the ocean and he wasn't quite as excited to jump the waves but he sure liked playing in the sand.
We ended our trip to Portland with a visit to the original Old Spaghetti Factory. We had a beautiful view of the waterfront and I will never forget Jefferson grabbing a huge ice cold glass of water the waiter just put down in front of him (before I could pull it away) and dumping it all over himself. He screamed and screamed. I'm sure proposals were ruined and fancy dates were annoyed, Thank goodness he had an extra outfit.
The next day we drove back to Seattle dropped off the car and spent the rest of our vacation with Rozzie and her cute family. We went to the lake, took at walk at the beach and climbed to the top of the space needle. We had a lot of fun spending time "mom-ing" together. Rozzie is one of my dearest friends from college and it had been years since we last saw each other.
We came home to 100 degree weather and sure missed the lovely 75 degrees we just left. We took Forrest for his birthday lunch and then planned for Jefferson's Unbirthday party. We had a fun Mad Hatter party- a yummy bbq with water games and everyone wore a silly hat.
Jefferson is now 20 months and starting to get a little "I'm not a baby attitude." If he see's Dixie do something, he wants to do it too. Dixie taught him to climb the latter to get to the big slide and took extra care to hold out her hand and help him. His vocabulary is getting more extensive and he is saying new words all of the time. Bubbles are his favorite along with the car keys (he likes pushing the alarm button (sigh) and now almost every morning for breakfast he has a fit trying to decide what it is he really wants. Though his independence is shining through he is still a fabulous sleeper- 12 hour nights and most the time 3 hour naps. We want that to continue as long as it can. He has the biggest heart and often surprises you with a big hug which makes you forget that tantrum an hour ago....
