East Coast Trip Part One

We left Connecticut on Wednesday morning and miraculously missed traffic in all the major northeast cities. Hayes was a champ for a 7 hour drive. We stopped in Virginia to see and stay with our friends, Kevin and Becky, and their kids. Though it was a short visit, it was a good one! Thank you for letting us stay! Here are the kids: Owen (5), Reese (2 1/2), and Keira (1 1/2).

We left Virginia for North Carolina yesterday and stopped to visit with Casey (Kyle's brother) and Gillian and Lilah. This was our first meeting with Lilah (10 months), who normally has a bit of stranger anxiety. She warmed up to us fairly quickly and we haven't made her cry (yet). She and Hayes have played together some (at least in the general vicinity) and Hayes has now tasted most of Lilah's toys. Lilah is teaching Hayes some dirty tricks---he did a mini crawl (by moving his knees forward twice before falling to his belly) after watching his older and more sophisticated cousin crawl like a champ. Today, we went on a hike, cut short due to the 40 degree temp. Here are a few pics of our stay so far:

in their jammies:
Lilah mid-clap:
Playing with Hayes' hair:

Practicing walking using her table for support:

We're compiling a list of states that Hayes has visited: Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Alabama, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina....