Natalie's first airplane ride, camping and more

On January 1st, Natalie, Lexi and Sarah flew to Salt Lake City to spend 5 days with Aunt Miriam and family (including Granny and Grandpa who were still there). Natalie did very well on the airplane; in fact, both girls were great travelers. It helped that Lexi was older, it was a direct flight and we checked our luggage. On the flight back, we even received wings for both girls; Lexi promptly asked to pin hers to her shirt. We will save Natalie's for her.

We had a great time in SLC. Lexi really enjoyed playing with her cousins - and playing with all of their toys! She was also not as scared around their dog, even managing to pet Katie at one point though she would often skirt around her to avoid the possibility of brushing up against her. Lexi and cousins went to a farm to check out the animals (and sit on a tractor), walked to the library, visited the aviary and a playground in the park and went to ice skating lessons. Lexi was not thrilled with the ice skating - she said she was cold and started crying and quit early. One day, Grandpa took the Padre ladies up into the mountains so Lexi could see and play in the snow a little bit. There wasn't a ton of snow in the mountains but we did find some to poke around in for a bit.

For New Year's Eve, the Padres went to a Lutheran family camp session. We played games, square danced, did crafts and ate very well. Lexi was very excited about going to camp and enjoyed staying in the cabin though she didn't like the stink bugs in the room. She needed help avoiding them to be able to cross the floor. Sarah also tried the zipline the camp has and decided once was enough. I didn't like it at all - it made me nauseous. With the exception of Natalie, we were all awake to ring in the new year. Our girls were the youngest at the camp and got lots of attention; Lexi caught the attention of the counselors and one of the teens and had a ball with her new "friends".

Once back in DC, Lexi started her swimming lessons. They are for 30 minutes every Saturday through end of February. I was a little worried about her being scared but she did great. It is an adult/child set up so either Mom or Dad will be with her in the water each lesson. She jumped off the side of the pool happily into Mom's arms and even dunked her head under without too much fussing.