Catch up #5 (November Part One - First Plane Ride)

At the beginning of November, Mike, Ethan and I all went down to Arizona for my grandpa's surprise 80th birthday party. My dad and Pam were already down there visiting and most of the rest of my family came down the day after we arrived. It was Ethan's first big trip and I think he had a lot of fun. We were really worried about the plane ride. Luckily, the lady who checked us in found us a row where there was and extra seat. We were in the very back of the plane but at least we had the extra seat. It allowed Ethan to move around and play without disturbing anyone. Although we were expecting him to play with his toys, he was much more interested in looking out the window and playing with the seat belt.
Eventually, it was time to nap. He drank his bottle and went straight down for a nap without any problem.
When he woke up, he played for a bit, but was ready to get off the plane. We landed shortly after but had to wait on the tarmac for a whole hour. Mike entertained Ethan with peek-a-boo and sticking out his tongue and luckily it worked! We only had a couple of little fusses but fortunately the people around us were more than understanding.
Needless to say, Ethan was happy to have landed and be able to be outside (especially since it was almost 80 degrees).
After landing, we spent one night at the hotel with my dad and Pam. The next day, the entire family went over to my grandparent's house while they were out shopping. When they returned, we all jumped out from behind a big bush in their back yard and surprised them. We spent the day playing games and chatting. We had a birthday party and of course took a bunch of pictures of the entire family since it doesn't happen very often that almost everyone is together.
The whole crew..Just the cousins...It had been over a month since we had seen my dad and Pam. Ethan was really excited to see them and spent most of the week we were there attached to my dad.
As you can tell from this pic, it was pretty warm in Arizona. Ethan was exhausted from all of the traveling and took a 2 hour nap the first day. This is what he looked like when he got up :)
Throughout the week, we all spent a lot of time just hanging out. This was on Sunday, when the Packers played the Cowboys. We had a lot of fun rooting our Pack on! Ethan had fun clapping and yelling for them too.
During the first game, Mike and Ethan were having fun running and kicking a small foam ball to Dean, my uncle.
Here he is standing for the first time all by himself!!
The next day, a group of us went to a fall league baseball game where young players from major league teams play in the off season to gear up for the real thing. There were players from the Brewers, White Sox, Reds, etc there.
Here is our group (minus myself).
Ethan got a little restless during the game because he is always wanting to MOVE! Mike and my dad took him way out into the outfield to burn off some energy. As you can see, it was a really nice and new stadium.Toward the end of the game, Ethan got really tired. I fed him a bottle and he was out! My uncle Rick had been working all week to be able to hold him. This was his chance and he jumped on it. Ethan spent the rest of the game sleeping on Rick's shoulder. P.S. This is also the uncle that taught Ethan how to rub his hands together (which soon became one of his favorite ways of showing off)
Every night after dinner, we would head back to the hotel so Ethan could have some quiet time. In the morning my dad and Pam would come to the hotel to have breakfast then we would go out for more family time. Here is a pic of Pam and Ethan one night just hanging out. We thought he looked like quite the grown up in this pic.
I'm pretty sure one of Ethan's favorite parts of the trip was playing I'm gonna get you every night. One of us would "get him" by tickling him and he would giggle like crazy. Here's a pic of his grandpa getting him.On one of the afternoons spent in the hotel room, Ethan decided to take his first steps. He walked from Mike to my dad for a total of about 3 steps!!

On the last full day we spent in Arizona, we went to the Phoenix Zoo which was unlike any other zoo we had been to. The exhibits were set up like their natural habitat so they had the giraffes in with a bunch of other animals in a really large exhibit. It was a huge zoo with sprawling exhibits. It was definitely some good exercise along with being lots of fun!

Overall, we had a really great trip. We were a little worried when we checked in on the way home because we did not have the extra seat we had on the way down. Luckily, the lady next to us was really nice and Ethan loved her! She even held him so he could look out the window on the way up. So, we definitely won't be as worried for our next trip since Ethan did so well on this one!