West Coast Adventures: Elko

Part two of our Semester Break trip: Visiting Matt's parents in Elko.  This was the most relaxing week we've had in a long time.  John slept like a dream in his ultra-dark basement room, he ate well (not the norm lately), and we all relaxed in a true vacation mode.  Our main goal was to enjoy time with Matt's parents, and we ate like Kings (numerous restaurants as well as delicious meals at home) and thoroughly enjoyed cooler yet sunny weather.

Here are some of the fun activities we enjoyed:

• Riding the ATV- John enjoyed going around the block with us, then Matt and I went out for some real riding in the dirt hills.

• Enjoying being outside- I love these pictures of John exploring the backyard 

• Exploring the historic train downtown

• Visiting the Museum (twice) to look at the animal exhibit

Greeting the animals

Imitating the Grizzly

Testing the sharpness

And demonstrating his latest favorite silly pose (surfer?)

• Playing at the two main local parks

• Eating chocolate- this is John's enthusiastic gorilla impression, while covered in Nutella

• Playing with new toys- Matt's mom saw this fun idea on Pinterest: putting glow sticks in the bath and turning off the lights during bath time.  John loved those light sticks.

• Loving so much time with Matt- we are fully soaking up these two months of time off!

• We also hit a bucket of balls at the Golf range, went on several walks, visited Dad's optometric practice, watched fun movies and shows at home, and went out on a double date with Matt's parents to see The Avengers.

Minor damper of this week: John took an intentional dive off a chair and landed on the corner of a fireplace, on his head.  Honestly, I'm just really glad it was our first trip to the E.R.  The doctor there superglued his skin back together with DermaBond, and 2.5 hrs, a few major tears, and a few packets of M&Ms later, we were back to playing.  John remembered that the fireplace hurt, as indicated by pointing, furrowing his brow, and declaring "Ow" for the next few days.  However, he didn't generalize the danger of head-first endeavors at all... he was back to trying head-first approaches to stairs and couches a few hours later.  I really don't want to repeat an ER trip any time soon, so I'm just praying my little guy stays safe!

What a fun and relaxing week!  We got in some great family time. While we're very grateful that Matt's parents are in the position to come visit us several times while we are in CT, we will sure miss being within a drive of them!