vacation is awesome!

Elliot is an amazingly good traveler. He doesn't mind the plane, the car seat, the Kelty carrier, the snow, the sand, the woods, the mountains, or the rain forest. In fact, he giggles a lot and tries to randomly grab things. He likes watching birds and waterfalls. He babbles at us when we're walking downhill.

We spent just 5 days at Olympic National Park in a cabin by the sea but managed to see everything. The first day we walked the beaches, the second day we got snowed on in the rain forest. The third day we walked on top of 13' of snow (we could see Canadia from there!) and chased rainbows. The fourth day we visited waterfalls and more rad beaches with our friends Dan and Jen from PDX and their dog (which E loves) Elsa. And the fifth day we hiked more. We even saw flying salmon. Good times.

Here's how we did it: We checked our car seat at the desk and gate checked the kid carrier. We didn't bring a stroller. We rented a cabin with a kitchenette and brought a clip-on high chair. We stopped at the Olympia Food Co-op to buy baby food and groceries and we bought a few disposable diapers. (Yes, his first disposables since he was 4 days old... and probably his last. Yuck.) We cooked all but one of our meals. The cabin provided a pack n' play that we used as E's crib. We did lots of back-seat diaper changes and such, and nap time was generally in the car seat as we drove between trailheads. We kept the walks short- 2 hours or less- and we brought a rain jacket for E. (Once he needed gloves- we didn't bring any for him- so he used Dad's instead. He found it pretty funny.) For both the plane and our drive of 2 mi and 5000' elevation gain the pacifier was enough and we made a game of yawning big, hoping it would be infectious, but in the end just making him giggle. He loved the hikes but especially loved touching things-- anything-- so we made a habit of picking things up for him to hold or letting him reach out to plants. He carried around lots of stones, pine cones, fern leaves, moss bits, and sand.

woo hoo vacation!