Summer Vacation

July has been filled with a few developmental milestones for Liana - including clapping, standing (while holding on to something, of course), babbling and waving "bye bye". We have had lots of fun seeing her interact with and laugh at other children - especially all of her cousins, who are great at making her giggle. There has been a lot of family hangout time recently, as we were away on a 10-day vacation - first to NJ to visit the Bonacorsa side, then to Illinois to catch up with the Maciukenas crew. It was definitely challenging traveling with a very active 8-month old baby - out of her routine, low on sleep, constantly being shuttled here and there - but honestly Liana was a real trooper and despite everything was still full of smiles for everyone.


We first spent five nights in New Jersey, arriving just in time for the extremely hot and humid weather! Since our June/early July weather in Portland had been so cool and rainy (heck, people were wearing jackets at our fourth of July BBQ!) I think it really took me a while to get used to the temperature difference. Fortunately, thanks to air conditioning and the beautiful community pool near my sister's house, we all got some relief from the heat. I did also welcome a little bit of color on my pasty white skin. :-) The main highlight of the trip was Liana's baptism (somewhat belated). We were a little anxious about how antsy she would be during the ceremony, but there were multiple rattles and bracelets to keep her sufficiently distracted most of the time. Lia's gorgeous dress and bonnet were sewn by her super-talented Babi (my mom), and this made it very special for all of us. Babi really needs to go into business!! Sewing, baking, cooking - the possibilities are endless! Here are a few photos from the week.

After NJ, we hopped on over to Illinois for (you guessed it!) some more hot and humid weather. Our week in Illinois was quite busy, as we had plans most every day. Liana got to meet her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins Nathan, Elizabeth, Emily and Harper. Some highlights of the trip included:

• Sightseeing in Chicago, especially the Shedd Aquarium and the GIANT eyeball. Chicago is a really great city with so much to do.
• Tom's trip down memory lane, visiting his old high school and even finding his cross country photo on the wall in the lobby!
• Hanging out on the beach along Lake Michigan. Lia's first sand!
• BBQ-ing with the family in Jim, Tanya and Harper's backyard in Evanston.

As previously mentioned, traveling with a baby was not always easy and we definitely arrived home quite exhausted, but this is the price we pay for living far away from family, I guess. Many great memories were made during the trip though, so it was all totally worth it. We took a lot of photos from both places, all of which can be seen at our Picasa site here.

Finally, to finish off this extra-long blog post (thanks for reading!), here is a cute video of Liana laughing at her 3+ year old cousin, Harper.