The 1st and 4th

This last weekend was not only the 4^th of July, but also our first wedding anniversary. We of course decided to have a fun filled weekend, and Kayley was able to celebrate with us!

We started off the weekend with a little family BBQ on our deck. Well actually Andrew and I did try to have it be just the two of us outside cooking our hot dogs camping style (we were pretending our little BBQ was actually a campfire). We had Kayley inside on her bouncer and used our baby monitor for the first time. Little Miss Kayley was enjoying herself bouncing up and down and babbling until she realized we weren’t right there and started doing her “where did you go” cry.  So we brought her outside with us and I had her on my lap while we cooked, ate dinner and had smores. To make it feel more like a family camping trip, I taught Andrew some of the campfire songs I grew up with; like “The Second Story Window” and “Eddie-Gutch-A-Gatch-A-Gamma-Tosa-Nerra-Tosa-Nokka-Samma-Camma-Wacky-Brown”. We had a fun time and Kayley seemed to enjoy herself too.

I love smores!

How to make a smore

The next morning we got up and got ready to leave for Leavenworth, a Barvarian themed town east of the Cascades. We took the more scenic route there (highway 2) and enjoyed the beautiful mountain range and river. We even stopped to take a few snap shots on our drive, and to buy buffalo jerky. We discovered that it’s very tasty.

Leavenworth

Buffalo jerky

This was also our longest trip with Kayley thus far. We had no idea how she was going to do being strapped into her car seat for so long. We figured she’d fall asleep for most the drive, since she usually does that on car rides, but we didn’t know for how long. Plus we knew that would throw off her activity schedule for the day (she usually has wake time in the morning to early afternoon and then takes a nice long nap). She was great on the drive! We made sure to stop at a rest stop and feed her at her normal time. And we walked around a bit to let her soak in some of the sunshine we had, and to get some fresh air.

When we got to Leavenworth we were able to check into our hotel, and then walk around town a bit. Kayley was even looked around at the world and enjoying the sights and sounds. We took a nice little stroll to a park where we fed her again before having dinner ourselves. We were hoping she’d have an after dinner nap like she sometimes does. And sure enough, she slept through our whole meal.

Now our meal I really have to tell you about. We decided to have German food since we of course were in a German themed town. We ate at a place called King Ludwig’s Gasthaus. Andrew had what I can only describe as one huge chunk of meat! It was a joint from a large pig, cooked to perfection and brought out with a knife stuck in it. We both had no idea how he was supposed to eat it so we asked a waitress for some tips. I had literally half a duck cooked and served with a delicate plum sauce. Our meals were both so good! We couldn’t believe how much food it was, especially how much food Andrew got.

Huge chunk of meat!

Half a duck

The next day, for the 4^th of July, Kayley wore red, I wore white and Andrew wore blue as we started the day of our first wedding anniversary. We headed into town to enjoy Kinderfest, which had free food, activities and events for kids. If Kayley was older I think she would have loved it, but instead she slept through the whole thing. We enjoyed watching the families and imagining doing something similar with Kayley one day. And we also enjoyed watching the clown and looking at some of the people who were dressed in traditional German clothes.

Red, white and blue

Kinderfest

After that we checked out the rest of the little shops we were interested in. We both had fun putting on different hats at the hat shop, and putting fun headbands on our sleeping snoring daughter. We ended our day in Leavenworth with lunch before heading home via 90. 

Cowgirl Jessie from Toy Story

My knight in shinning armor

Our patriotic daughter

Since Kayley slept so much during the morning and early afternoon, she was wide awake for the first half of our drive home, and not happy about being in her car seat. It made for an interesting first half of a drive with me sitting in back trying to sooth and entertain her. Thankfully after stopping to feed her she dozed off into sleep for the rest of the drive. This makes us wonder what next weekend’s trip will be like with her. We’re driving down to the coast of southern Oregon for a friend’s wedding, and have no idea how long the drive will take with a baby. We’re praying for a good trip like this last weekend.

One of our gorgeous views driving home

Anyway! We had a great weekend celebrating our first wedding anniversary and look forward to the many more to come!

Photo by Cindy

Photo by Dina