In mid February over Pres. Day weekend we traveled to the east coast to visit family. This was Elin's second flight and first cross country flight. I had a lot of trepidation about traveling 6 hours on a plane with a 7 month old. I should have known that my super traveler baby would do just fine.
Elin is a really social baby and loves to have people talk to her, smile at her and pay attention to her. We have learned that she gets easily bored and loves to be out and about. So, a plane full of strangers was right up her alley. She smiled, cooed and flirted until she had everyone charmed. She was even too busy with her fans to take a nap so she was really tired by the time we got to Baltimore. But even at the end, when she was so tired she could hardly see straight, she was still smiling and babbling to anyone that would listen.
We stayed for the first two nights at National Harbor in Washington DC. On Saturday we got together with some of my family. Pentti, my brother, and Amy live just across the Potomac.
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| Pentti, Amy and Elin |
My brother Erek and his family came from Kentucky.
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| Laci, Elin, Kijanna, Kali & Erek |
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| Kijanna, Elin & Kali |
My cousin Lee lives close by and came with his family. Lee and Melina have 10 month old twins boys and Elin loves little people her size. She was very interested in everything the boys were doing.
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| Veikko, Elin & Aarni |
We had a great day just relaxing, shopping, swimming, eating and catching up.
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| Peeps store @ National Harbor. Maija, Elin, Mr. Peeps & Amy |
On Sunday, we had breakfast with Pentti & Amy and Erek's family then hung out with Pentti & Amy for the afternoon.
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| Elin |
We introduced Elin to Pentti & Amy's "fur babies" Mia & Rocco. Elin thought they were super fun...I don't think the dogs thought she was quite as great.
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| Elin, Mia & Rocco |
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| Elin & Aunt Amy |
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| Elin & Uncle Pentti |
We went to Old Town Alexandria.....
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| James & Maija |
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| Pentti & Amy |
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| Pentti, James, Amy & Elin -"Sunnies on all" |
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| Original cobblestone street |
...then went to lunch at Cactus Cantina (YUM!) in Washington DC before heading up to Westminster MD.
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| Elin |
We spent Monday and Tuesday in Westminster MD with James' sister Laurie's and her family. Elin really loved playing with her cousins. Landon would sing his special song for her called "Elin Girl". She laughed every time he would sing it...and it is a really amusing song that he makes up new words for every time.
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| Landon, Elin, Madison & Kiely |
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| Landon & Elin |
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| Kiely & Elin |
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| Madison & Elin |
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| Baker family: Brian, Landon, Laurie, Madison & Kiely |
On Wednesday we took a 7am flight from Baltimore back to Seattle and once again, Elin did great even after we woke her up at 5 am to get to the airport. Luckily, the flights were not full and we were able to take her car seat so she could sleep a little.
It looks like we got just what we asked for, a good baby that will travel with us. I am still amazed at how great she was for the entire 5 day trip and I'm so glad that we went. It was fun to finally introduce Elin to our east coast family.
Maija
