Alaska day 1

 My parents and Sean's parents see Penner a lot. We are very blessed to have family so close. Penner spends at least one day a week at our parent's house. If we did not have our parents to watch Penn I would probably have to quit my job and we would figure something else out. As far as I am concerned day care is not an option. My parents were in Vegas the prior week and they were very sad that they would not see Penn for 3 weeks. I know to many people 3 weeks is not a long time, but for our parents, it's an eternity. Our flight left at 9:30 AM and Sean's parents were driving us to the airport so they could say goodbye (mostly to Penn). And my parents flight got back into Chicago at 7 AM so they hurried and came to our house to say goodbye to Penner before we left for an entire 10 days! (insert sarcasm!). So all of the grandparents got to say goodbye before we left.

 I was very worried for months about how Penner would do on the flight.  The flight is about 6 hrs long and he only takes an hour to two hour nap. That leaves four hours of having to sit in the same spot. That is just asking for a screaming Penner. If you know Penn at all, you know that he is very curious and always on the move! So we got on the plane at around 9 AM. I was really hoping that there would be some open seats so that we could have some extra space, but the plane was at full capacity. Penner was so intrigued with everything around him that he was very good for the take off, and the whole time that the seat belt light was on before we were at our coasting height and allowed to start walking around. After that he was getting really sleepy. He fell asleep and took a 3 1/2 hour nap. When he woke up he was very happy and it was almost time to land. Our pilot got us there about a 1/2 hour early. I was so worried about him screaming the entire flight and people giving me dirty looks and yelling at me, but he was just perfect!

Penner playing with the shade. He couldn't decide if he wanted it open or shut. He kept lifting it up, looking out the window. Then slamming it shut and laughing.

Getting ready to take off! Alaska here we come!

My sweet boy sleeping soundly. Penner's "belly butt" is showing.

We were listening to music on my ipod. Sean and I were really excited because they had wifi on the flight and it was only $5. Then when we bought it, we realized why it was so cheap. Because it only works in the continental US, which does not include Alaska and Canada (which is where we were for most of the flight). So we listened to music together while Penn slept. We also played this game line birds and Sean was really bad, I think we were over tired because every time his bird crashed into a wall we could not stop laughing. It was fun. He did kill me in checkers though.

When we got there it would have been 4pm our time but was 1pm their time. It was only a 3 hour time change but it was hard to adjust to. Especially because that night we looked at the clock because we were exhausted and it was11pm, 2 am our time! It was still light out.
Anywho, when we got there Erik and Brittany came to pick us up and we went straight to their kick ball game. It was their last two games for the championship. It was so cold outside and rainy. And we had just come from 90 degree weather so we were not properly dressed for 50 degree weather. Because it was cold and we were undressed Penner and I left with Brittany and Chicago. We let Penner run and play for a while before we left to get out some of his energy.


 He loves to push his stroller around. He doesn't like to sit in it as much as he used to, he likes to get out and walk around and push his stroller instead.

Here's baby Chicago! We finally got to meet him. He is so cute and a very big boy. He is only 5 months old, but already wearing 12 month clothes. Penner can still wear some of his 12 month clothes. I love those cheeks!

Penner was very happy to be running around. But there were bigger kids there that he decided to start throwing his juice at. And then he was trying to run away from me down a hill and kept falling down it. That is when we decided to leave.

Smelling a flower he picked. He loves to pick flowers.

So we went to the apartment after the park, played for a little bit there. The kickaholics (Erik and Brittany's kickball team) won the championship game so we all went out to eat to celebrate!