Carters First Trip

We planned a trip to Oregon so Carter could meet all of our family and friends. We considered driving before he was born but then quickly realized that flying would be a much better option.  He was such a good boy on the flight.  He fell asleep before we got on but was still sucking on his binkie for take off, then he woke up and drank a bottle and went right back to sleep.  As we were boarding the plane a couple saw us and asked us how old he was, we told them 2 1/2 months and she just replied you are brave! I wasn't really that nervous, I figured if he did cry the whole time it was a short flight...

Nate's Mom (Nana) was so excited to pick us up and hold Carter again.  I wanted to surprise her with this shirt...she was thrilled.

He looked so cute sleeping in the carrier on my chest.  I was trying to get a picture and this is what came out...gotta love Southwest.  Luckily the flight wasn't full and we had a row to ourselves. 

Our first priority was to see Carters brand new Cousin Maggie.  We planned to meet halfway on Friday because we couldn't wait until Sunday when we had originally planned to get together.  We took so many pictures I can't comment on them all...it was so much fun to get them together, and I know it will get more and more fun every time they see each other.  There weren't very many times that both of them were happy, one of them was crying, eating or sleeping.  

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The next item on our agenda was a family baby shower.  We had the shower at Aunt Alice Kaye's house.  It was so much fun, we got to see a lot of family that we don't get to see very much.  Stephanie and Emily organized the games, the first one was guessing types of baby food.  We got to smell and even taste if we wanted too...some of them were pretty bad! The next game was naming celebrity babies' parents.  We ate, visited, opened presents and had so much fun.   Oh...and the pictures of Stephanie, Emily, and I were some fun self portraits..I had to include them. 

We were able to see some friends while we were there also.  Not as many as we wanted too, we always run out of time.  

The Bairds...Trevor and Elly (Sue and Gordan were there too, but we didn't get any pictures)

Kristi Harmon got to hold Carter all through church

The Harmons...Rich wasn't as interested as Karla.  :-)

Carter with his visitor badge at OMI...  We had (got) to go to Oregon Mutual to see "the girls" that Kathy works with.  When she said the girls we didn't realize that it translated to 3 floors of co-workers.  It was fun though, and Carter was very good for the visit, luckily. 

I also got to go see my friend Christine and her 2 daughters.  I met Adisyn in November when she was only a day old so I was really excited to see her again.  And..I know you are reading this Christine...so I think you should move back.  SOON.

Carter and Adisyn

Brynn and Carter (She really liked to hug him) 

I love this picture..I think they have the same amount of hair..the sad part is Adisyn has lost some. 

It took a while but we got all three of them.

We went out to breakfast with my friend Xan from the office and we didn't get any pictures.  :-( She held Carter for about a minute until he got fussy and then fell asleep.  It was great to see her though, I miss the office tons! And if we do move back to Oregon I know I will always have a job there...with great co-workers. 

One really special thing about this trip was Carter got to meet his Great Grandpa Willard. Grandpa has had dementia for a couple of years now and I knew it was really important to spend time with him. We were in Oregon when I was pregnant and Grandpa got a very serious look on his face and told Nathan that his life was going to change when that baby was born, we were all shocked that he even understood that we were having a baby and remembered Nate.  I will never forget him saying that and he was right... 

Grandpa had seen Carter's picture on the piano but of course didn't understand that we were coming to visit or who he belonged too.  I asked him if he wanted to hold him and he got the cutest look on his face.  Carter settled right down and just stared at him.   He couldn't remember his first name but as soon as I told him his name was Carter he would say, that's right Carter Dean.  

We got to see both sides of the family while we were there.  I only got one picture when we had breakfast with the Browns' because of course I forgot my camera! 

Nate had to come home to go back to work but I was able to stay through the weekend and go to the coast to spend more time with family. It was fun to have the babies together again. On Sunday before we left we went to the beach. Carter didn't really like the wind, but at least we got some pictures.