Monday, June 7, 2010

Washington Again!

On May 24th Nathan and I took the train up to Washington to see my family. I’m so bummed because my best friend Alex (who lives in Utah) is there this week and neither of us knew the other would be in town so close together! Oh, well! Our trip was fun anyway! I was hesitant about taking the train but it ended up being a nice journey. The train takes a few hours longer than driving would but I had my hands free to take care of Nathan. It’s also better than flying because it’s cheaper, I can pack whatever I want, and I only had to arrive about 20 minutes early. We had plenty of space too. I packed a backpack full of toys and goodies and Nathan slept for a while in my arms (which I loved). We even got two seats to ourselves since the train wasn’t very full.

Here’s Nathan sitting on the train being such a good boy:

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He loved looking out the big windows and seeing new things. THe only problem was that he wanted to walk around and meet everyone, but the train is bumpy and he doesn’t have great balance yet (adults even lose their balance on the train- including me!) so I had to keep him close to me. The last part of the trip was a little rough but he he would have been perfect if the train didn’t have a half  hour delay. Who ever heard of traffic on train tracks?

Besides, when Nana came to pick us up, she brought him a special treat for being so good:

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By the time we got to my parents house he had eaten all but a small piece of that giant cookie!

The first day we were in Washington, we had nice weather and Papa put Nathan’s swing up on the porch. He loved it! Too bad the rest of the week was yucky and wet:

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Papa also taught Nathan what a dryer is really for:

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My sister, Leslie has been taking a sewing class through her school and while I was in town I got to go with my mom to see her graduate and walk the runway. All the kids got to model clothes they had made! It was really neat and a fun  “girly” thing to do. I’m jealous that I never got to take a sewing class!

Nathan and I got to go with Nana and Auntie Leslie to their favorite used bookstore in Sumner. Nathan loved playing with the train in the children’s section and picked out a neat Elmo book to take home:

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We also got to go to the Saturday Farmer’s market for breakfast and to check out all the great things for sale. Nathan loved eating fresh doughnuts and seeing all the doggies. Speaking of doggies, this was our first visit to Washington since Nathan learned to walk (and run) and he spent many gleeful hours chasing after poor Lucy. She was so scared of him!

I caught a cold while I was in town and wasn’t feeling really great so instead of taking the train all the way home, we rode to Portland where Ryan picked us up:

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We had a great trip but we are happy to be home with Ryan, although I think Nathan is ready to head out again!

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6 comments:

LisaJones said...

that's so fun that you're close enough to home that you can visit often! I'm sure your parents are thrilled to get to see Nathan. He's such a little Man!
I'm not sure when we'll come up to WA next, So you make me jealous.
Miss you!

The Hojnackes said...

I took the train up to Seattle when I was pregnant with Drew. The delays were crazy. I guess trains are notorious for that! Nathan is getting so big. I can't believe how quickly time is passing now!

Melinda said...

So fun to take the train! I was just looking up how much it would cost to go down to Utah by train, did you take amtrak? Its saying it has to go down to sacramento before going up to salt lake and its like 40 hours! That can't be right! Let me know what you did! :)

Melinda said...

Oh duh, you guys live in Oregon, so its totally different! sorry! haha

Beck said...

It must be so nice that you are a quick (relatively) train ride from home! Looks like so much fun. :)

Unknown said...

SO much fun to be able to play with the grandparents! Nathan looks like so much fun at this age too! Love it!