Family "Staycation" Travel Journal, Day 2

The first thing on our day's agenda was Ethan's first swim in a pool!  Chris had ensured he booked a hotel with an indoor heated pool, and while the snow was frozen outside, we got to take him for his first swim inside!

 

Ethan sported his bathing suit for the first time.  Our good friend Laura had given Ethan that suit during my baby shower... did she know ahead of time it would match his hair?

 

Oh, he knew he looked good, and wanted to show off his big muscles!

 

Modeling from the pool table...

 

 

to pool side!

 

"Let's do this Mommy!"

 

He looked puzzled at the vast body of water below.

 

Here's a video of his first dip!

 

Confident now, he got ready to do his favorite activity all morning...

 

SPLASH!

Looking like prunes, we finished our morning swim and continued on to explore the National Harbor some more.

 

Brrrr!  The view was beautiful, but it was much colder than the warm indoor pool. 

 

And during our visit to the Gaylord Conference Center ...

 

Ethan wanted to go back to swimming too!

  

"Is this art sculpture (The Awakening) coming to tickle me?"

 

"Thanks Daddy for planning such an awesome trip!"

Staycation over, now back to the real world...

Our Family "Staycation" Travel Journal, Day 1

This past weekend Chris planned for us a "Family Staycation," exploring a couple local treasures, the National Harbor and Old Town Alexandria.  He got a fabulous room for the three of us at Aloft Hotel, and knew that showing his frugal wife he got it at a huge discount on it would make the stay even more fun for her!  It was a really special weekend and I've been looking forward to sharing our travel journal of sorts with you.  Be forewarned, we both had our cameras on us, and were accompanied by our favorite subject!

 

Ethan settled into the hotel right away, I think he liked its modern decor!

We started our first morning heading out to breakfast overlooking the Harbor. 

Ethan flashed his two new pearly whites in approval!

 

We then explored the waterfront at nearby Old Town Alexandria.  Chris had taken me there on our third date, so it brought back some of the new relationship memories! 

 

"I love it when you have days off Mommy!"

 

Being the Obamababy he is, Ethan spotted the Obama's in front of a local store...

and our family caught another photo op with the First Family.

We headed back to our hip hotel so our little man could nap...

which Ethan thought was hilarious!  

  

"Haha!  Who naps on Staycation!?"

As these eyes were NOT shutting that afternoon... 

we went to lounge around in the lobby.

Ethan became his very own...

Ethan-in-a-Box!

We ended the day enjoying National Harbor's restaurant week at a very, very delicious Asian Fusion restaurant Grace's Mandarin. 

The view of the sunset over the Harbor was beautiful from our table. (Photo credit: Chris!)

After Ethan enjoyed a quick dinner, he fell fast asleep in his stroller (must have been that lack of nap), and graciously gave his Mommy and Daddy a quiet dinner together!  It felt like we were on a date night with a sitter.

We highly recommend their amazing calamari!

And their Teriyaki salmon, crunchy shrimp rolls, and spicy tuna sushi was even more incredible!

The perfect ending to a fantastic first day.

Daddy's Beard Tickles!

First crawling, now standing (supported)? We didn't give permission for this!

Ethan decided to celebrate his 7 month birthday by standing!

"Does my butt look big from this angle?"

"Sigh... the view from sitting down isn't as exciting anymore."

Ethan's Crawling!

Watch out world, our little man is on the move! We call this his "Ricky Bobby" outfit, and it was fitting for him to wear the racing outfit his Aunt Tina got him for the occasion!

Afterwards, he was very pleased with his performance!

You can see below what he was doing one week before building up to this big feat!  He had finally accomplished getting on his hands and knees, but couldn't quite figure out where to go from there. 

He would spend 20 minutes at a time rocking back and forth, stuck in one spot!

But that's no more, little man is officially on the move!  Let the babyproofing commence!

A special bonus was the fact that his mommy was working from home this past week and was unusually there for another first.  I've lucked out seeing his first roll and first crawl!

This is "Snoverkill"

We had 20-30" in the first round, and today we're expecting 10-20" more?!  Corinne's been telecommuting since last Friday and some schools have already announced they're closing for the rest of the week!

Here's Snowmageddon from space:

C'mon Mother Nature, let the first round melt a little bit first? The plows have no where to put the snow!

We made it through Snowmageddon!

fter about 20 inches of snow, it was time for this family to dig our way out.

The adventure began with bundling Ethan.  You can see how excited he was about wearing this many layers.  "A Christmas Story" anyone?

Ethan and Chris looked at the level of snow from inside our porch door.  

"Daddy, I'm glad both my parents aren't from Florida!  Your Pennsylvania experience is going to come in handy today!"

Ethan wasn't so sure about this whole winter thing as the snowflakes hit his face.

We wondered if it was too cold for our little tot...

...he thought about it...

... and decided "This is fun!"

This is Ethan acting as our little ruler.  He's standing in a section shoveled by his Daddy, that's the top of the snow meeting the back of his head!

There's a car under there!  The Floridian in the family never would have known to put the windshield wipers up before the storm.  

And our toasty home buried next to it.

Corinne (and Ethan strapped on) shoveled once for an obligatory photo op.

And Chris...

... plowed through the rest!

We went back inside to enjoy the rest of the weekend at home together.