our lovely vacation

After a lovely 2-week vacation to the beautiful Pacific Northwest, we finally made it back to NYC. We visited Jon's family in Portland, OR for Jon's brother's wedding. It was a fabulous trip. There was lots of wedding excitement leading up to the big day and then we were able to relax a bit with gma and gpa H, aunt Chrissy, and some of the extended family that flew in from Utah.

Noah did AMAZINGLY well on the trip. The flight was only mildly painful (thanks to our recent "investment" -- portable DVD player and Diego DVDs!). Both flights were completely packed, so no hope for that extra seat (lucky Amy!)but even having a 30-pound-15-month-old on our laps for almost 6 hours wasn't as bad as we thought. A few trips to the the bathroom to splash water in the sink, lots of treats and juice, a few walks up and down the aisle, and a couple of friendly teenage girls kept him entertained during the fussy periods -- i.e. when he wasn't watching a DVD! And on both flights the people sitting in front of us commented on how well he did because they didn't even realize there was a baby behind them. (I probably took way too much satisfaction from that :) He even did great with the time change and managed to take great naps most days -- even after cutting his first molar (yikes!). He also perfected his walking skills, became obsessed with the word "okay", and decided to start sleeping an hour longer every morning (my personal favorite new trick!).

The wedding was fabulous. Amber looked amazing (so did you, Mike...) and they couldn't have seemed happier. Looking back through our pictures I did have to laugh, because it was ridiculous how many times we ended up in downtown Portland (just can't escape that city life!). We hit lots of fun playgrounds and wandered through a few toy stores. We were also able to escape a few evenings (thanks gma and gpa H!) for a movie and some good food (loved Bourne Ultimatum!). We had a lovely trip to the Oregon Zoo with the cousins and we topped the trip off with an awesome trip to the coast.

Here are a few pics from our vac-a:

making himself at home

(he was obsessed with gma's oversized stuffed bear!)

Salmon Street fountain

(gotta love those city fountains!)

tearing up Finnegan's Toy Store

downtown playground

(complete with a few psych patients-- it felt just like home!)

Oregon Zoo

the 2nd cousins meet

feeding the ducks on the Willamette River

the happy couple

the boys

(check out Noah's shiner that he got the day before -- just in time for the wedding pics!)

taking his post at the beach

lovin' it

he loved splashing in the water, even though it was freezing!

so cute!

hooray for vacation!