love love love

wow, time is just flying by. i cannot believe it has already been almost 4 weeks since the new year and february is almost here. with that said, we have a lot to update you on!!

as each week passes, we continue to be amazed with elias; he has the most adorable personality and it astounds me that we can continually have more and more love for him each day.

my boys hanging out.

elias loves daddy...and he loves bandit. i mean who wouldn't love this dog-

whenever bandit comes near, elias' eyes follow and he has a big smile on his face. and bandit is so gentle, especially when he goes in for the kisses.


and when daddy starts playing his guitar, elias' attention is captured. eli really likes the guitar :)





as for milestones...
eli has started eating solid foods! we started out with some baby rice cereal and baby oatmeal.



'forget the spoon, give me the cup!'

it is hard to see but that is oatmeal all over his bib and face...can you see some flecks of food on his right eyelashes?
eli helped clean off his face :)


we have also ventured to the sweet potato. eli was not too sure about it.

to see a few more clips of our adorable elias take his first bites of solid food check out the links below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=runOuT2flWg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I52nm01lwYk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAC9tdbswDs

another big milestone is that elias has begun to sit up without much support.




he is also pushing himself up to his knees and any moment now he is going to figure out how to coordinate his arms and legs for a full-fledged crawl!

we are excited to share with you his crawling skills so tune in for that upcoming blog post! in the meantime, here are some of the first crawl attempts :)

another go-around

use the URLs below to check out some video clips. he is getting there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmKNyjkv6oA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwAOO83aKEw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bYSDJy041s



we love elias and could not imagine our lives without him. thank you God for the blessing you have given us.

olympic new year!

and we are off to start this new year! we were looking for some adventure so we packed an overnight bag (just in case) and loaded up the car to set out west. we took a 30 minute ferry ride to kingston and i think eli really enjoyed it.



then it was off to the olympic national park.

here is elias hanging out in the back seat...for some reason one sock always comes off :)



we made it to the town of port angeles and drove up to the entrance to hurricane ridge. unfortunately the sun was setting fast and we were pretty hungry so we decided to head back to town and have some pizza.



as with many of our garrett family adventures the sun had set and we needed to find a place to stay! we easily found a nice cozy room for the night and rested-

the pincer grasp is starting to become quite an accomplished developmental milestone!

after a decent night's sleep, we woke up early and started back on our journey. the mission- to reach cape flattery...the most northwest point of the contiguous united states. we saw some beautiful creation.






this is up towards the top of our list of pretty places we have seen. this is lake crescent, a glacial lake.

there were quite a few eagles out and about on this nice winter day. pictured above is a bald eagle gracefully soaring over the water; just below are two perched in a tree right on the side of the road.

now entering olympic national park...


bandit was patiently waiting to get out of the car and go hiking!




we found the trail head and bundled up for the 38 degree weather we were about to hike in. yes...those are socks on eli's hands :)


it was a beautiful little hike. we really liked the pathways.

almost to the end point!

this picture doesn't really capture what we saw. we were pretty high up on this cliff and to the right there is a huge sea cave.


we made it! here we are just taking in the view.

we even spotted a sea lion in the water right below us!

another bald eagle soaring right above us. it was so pretty...but also pretty cold.

we walked briskly back to the car to warm up and then headed into the town of forks, wa ...and no we did not see any vampire or werewolves! apparently this is where parts of the twilight movie was filmed. aaron asked the hostess at the restaurant if weirdos come in to eat. she told us that some people think the characters in the movie are real!

after some pizza (yes, we really like pizza) we headed towards rialto beach to catch the sunset.



another garrett family adventure for the blog! it was a wonderful weekend and a wonderful way to start the new year. and many times during the drive i smiled because i was so thankful for the family God has blessed me with. He is so good.