Wilkinsonland

So we just got back last week from a little less than three week trip to Europe with my parents! We had a blast! We started out with a Mediterranean cruise leaving from Rome and going to Croatia, Corfu, Olympia, Santorini, and Athens, Greece, as well as Ephesus in Turkey and Sicily on the way back to Rome. We then traveled into the Tuscan countryside to hang out in Tuscany for a couple of days where we bathed in natural Roman bath hot springs, saw Siena and Florence and otherwise just relaxed. We then drove to Rome and spent a few days there exploring all that amazing city has to offer. We pretty much saw and did SOOO much I can’t even begin to tell you except that it was amazing. It was a bit of a challenge traveling with Ethan, but he did really well and charmed the pants off all the little old ladies on the cruise as well as all the little old Italian ladies in Italy! So he was our ticket to getting good treatment wherever we went!! So actually, maybe he made travel a little easier for us!! : ) And of course we had lots of help from the grandparents, so between the four of us, it was generally a breeze ( I say ‘generally’ after some time and distance from the 15 hr flight over and back…) But overall, we had a really great time and it is an experience we won’t ever forget! And now we can show Ethan pictures when he gets older and say “See, here you are at the Acropolis!” while he rolls his eyes at us!! But oh so fun…

Our little family on board the cruise ship

Our fam in the hall outside our deluxe suite that we got upgraded to

Ethan at the ruins of Ephesus in Turkey...the most amazing, well-preserved, ancient ruins I have ever seen. Absolutely incredible...

Ethan testing out the Turkish carpets for us…unfortunately, somehow we were convinced to purchase some of these beautiful carpets…I guess we all had “Sucker” written on our foreheads, and some people’s yearly salary later, the Haynes and Wilkinson families were the proud owners of seven, yes SEVEN, Turkish carpets!! (We only got two, I guess my dad had the bigger ’sucker’ plastered on his forehead…that and the bigger salary!!) But they were beautiful carpets and someday will be great family heirlooms (or at least that’s what Ephram told us!!)

Dale and I get dolled up for the Captain's dinner. It was kind of fun to get dressed up a little and have a "night out", even though it was just a short walk down the hall!

Ethan enjoying the cruise food!

Ethan "dancing" on the rooftop of our restaurant in Santorini.

Our family in Tuscany...beautiful views in the background.

In a little town called Casa di Pari...the cutest, most deserted little Italian village in the hills of Tuscany. This is right down the street from our 'Tuscan villa' we stayed in that we LOVED. We were wishing we could stay there another week!

The natural hot springs and Roman baths we hung out in! Smelled like rotten eggs!!

Eating lunch at the Piazza in Siena.

At the fountains in the piazza in Siena.

In Florence, in front of the Ponte Vecchia.

Ethan playing at the Coloseum in Rome.

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So we went to Las Vegas last weekend with my parents! We had a fun time, a little bit of time out on the town and a lot of time just relaxing and hanging out with Ethan and the grandparents!! So here are a few pics…our camera memory cards are full, so we had to rely on pics from the grandparents…which turned out really well most of them! So here are a couple to peruse…

Lounging on the pool lounger...a true baby model!!

At M&M world!!

Ethan chillin in his turtle at the fake sand beach!

Having fun with Grandpa!

Sunscreen smeared all over his face, but still cute!!

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Here are some pics of Ethan that we never got around to posting that we thought were cute…to make amends for not posting enough!!

Naked baby

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So I know it’s been a really long time!! I’m not that good about keeping on it for sure! The hardest part for us is actually going through and downloading the multitude of pictures that we always have! If it weren’t for that tedious task, this site would be updated much more frequently!! In any case, here are some pics we think are cute of Ethan and some pics of Ethan and Noah opening presents at Christmas at the Sanders home!

Ethan trying to help Noah open his Christmas present

Ethan loved his present...and especially the paper!!

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Ethan's first taste of snow! After our little snow day adventure...

So today it snowed in socal! yay! It was especially exciting because Dale got the day off of work because the entire freeway was shut down and at a dead stand still from the snow in the pass he was supposed to commute through. So we had a snow day! We took Ethan up to Forest Falls to see his first snow! Of course we ended up hitting a few bumps in the road (almost literally). We ran into the chains checkpoint and of course didn’t have any chains, so we asked the caltrans guy if we could go just two miles further to Forest Falls to show our son some snow. It looked clear and there wasn’t that much snow right there, so we thought we were good. The caltrans guy was like “well I’m not an enforcer, I’m not gonna give you a ticket, but I wouldn’t if I were you”. Dale and I took that as a ‘yes’. We got almost all the way there and we were crossing a bridge when all of a sudden we hit some slushy ice and started sliding. We slid almost all of the way across the bridge while Dale got the car under control. On the other side we had started going up a hill and it just wasn’t happening. Our tires started spinning and there was nowhere for us to go because there was snow on both sides of us. So we had to hit the brakes and Dale jumped out while I drove and Dale tried to push so we could turn around and get the heck out of there. Well, that wasn’t working either. We were sliding around everywhere and not in the direction we were hoping for. I was soooo scared. I started getting tears in my eyes, I thought we were done for. But Dale got back in the drivers seat and managed to back up and turn around somehow. I was trying to take Ethan out of the car because I was sure we were going to crash! But Dale was calm and collected and assured me that he could get us out of the mess we were in. And he was right! Somehow we got turned around and managed to start going back down the hill. Everything seemed ok (except my heart was beating a hundred miles an hour) until we got going a little ways down the hill and came to the stop sign intersection. Dale tried to stop and he couldn’t. We started sliding everywhere again and we literally slid all the way through the intersection, blazing by one of the caltrans workers. We were sooo lucky we did not crash. And how foolish of us to disregard the recommendation of the caltrans people. Especially with our little baby in the car! Luckily for all of us, Dale is a really good driver or we could have had a different outcome. I was praying the whole way and God was definitely watching out for us. Little Ethan didn’t know a thing that was happening thank goodness, and we were able to stop just a bit ahead and take him out to see the snow. It wasn’t as deep and magnificent at the spot we stopped at as it had been further up, but at least it was safe! So we took a few pics, Ethan held snow in his fingers for a moment, and then we hopped back in the car and headed back down the mountain. It was definitely a snow day adventure!

Happy to be safely out of the car!

For those of you inquiring, I still do not have a computer. Again I am borrowing Dale’s. My computer seems to be completely dead and beyond resurrection. Several people have looked at it to no avail. Now I am simply hoping that they can get the information off of it as it has all of Ethan’s baby pictures on there! If I lost those it would be completely devastating! So, now I am starting to look to see if I can get a new computer. It’s so hard though to choose, especially when it’s Christmas time and all of our money is going to presents and such…it’s so tempting to get the cheapest one I can find. But I have to remind myself that this is for long-term so I have to think about functionality, practicality and the like…etc, etc. So anyways, long story is that it may be a while before I get a new computer and have full access to post more pics and stuff. I’m sorry everyone! And I’m sorry I rambled on too! I’ll try to be more succinct in coming posts!

Merry Christmas everyone!

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Sorry we haven’t posted in the longest time!! We’ve been having some computer issues here at the Wilkinson house. My computer still is dysfunctional…but now that Dale is at work, I’m stealing his newly fixed computer for a quick post of a few pics of Ethan from about a month ago or so. So this should give you a few new pics to look at. And trust me, I have a lot more to go up soon…as soon as my computer is working I’ll have much more access to post. So for now…

Ecstatic!! Wish it wasn't so blurry!

Doesn't he look just like Dale? He's got his little frown going on...Funniest picture ever!

So concentrated...I love that face!!

Ethan and Noah get their stare on...

Ecstatic again!!

Eating an apple from our apple tree!!

A clockwork orange...little psycho baby!!

Our sweet Chloe kitty...

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I’ve been meaning to put up a post about our trip to San Diego to visit Grandma and Grandpa recently. I have so many pictures to put up!! We had so much fun! We went to Sabbath school and hung around the house with my parents and Grandma. The highlight of our trip was when we were able to go to the symphony and see Lang Lang perform with my parents and Ted. It was the first time I left Ethan with someone besides my mom for any length of time. He stayed with my Grandma and some of my parents friends from church. We were only gone for two hours, but it was definitely nerve-racking! We put him to sleep before we left, hoping that he would sleep the whole time, but he woke up about a half an hour before we got home. Luckily, they were able to entertain him until we got home and he wasn’t too upset. So overall it went remarkably smoothly! And Lang Lang was amazing!! It was a seriously awe-inspiring concert! So here are some pics from our weekend…

Grandpa and Ethan

Great-Grandma Harriss with Ethan on her lap. Both of her wrists were broken, so she couldn't hold him! How sad : (

Ethan with some crazy sunglasses on at Sabbath school!

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So for the past couple of weeks we have been trying to get Ethan to start eating some solid foods. We have been having varying degrees of success. For the first week or so he would grimace and just let the food dribble out of his mouth. That was rice cereal. Then we tried buckwheat cereal and he seemed to like that a little bit better. He would at least open his mouth once in a while and on occasion he would even dive for it like he really loved it! Then I decided to make some pureed acorn squash and see if he would like something besides just cereal! This was his reaction…

He was not too thrilled. At least at first. After some time and a little persistence, this was the result…

Amazingly he finished the entire bowl!! We were very impressed! However, since then he still seems to prefer the buckwheat, so we’ll see. Dale seems to think it’s very funny that his son likes buckwheat. I’m not really sure why…

Here’s another cute picture of Ethan ready for his bath…

And here he is exploring for something!! He’s so curious…

And here he is looking cute in an outfit from Grandpa Cecil and Grandma Ann…

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This past weekend Dale and I headed down to Temecula to our friend Tori’s house for a Halloween costume party. Dale and I got all dressed up! We went political this year…I dressed up as Sarah Palin and Dale dressed up as Obamessiah!! That’s “obama gonna save us from ourselves” in layman’s terms. A bit of a controversial costume I admit. But too good to refuse…Dale and I weren’t sure who we would offend more, Christians or liberals. We’re hoping liberals. : ) Our cute little baby dressed up as a chick-a-dee…when he was awake that is. Lucky for us, he actually fell asleep in Tori’s baby’s crib and slept the whole time pretty much. We had a lot of fun and can’t wait for actual Halloween so we can take our baby out in his little costume again!

Obamessiah...Dale was voted most original costume and he won a prize!!

Sarah Palin and our little chick-a-dee. Everyone let me know that I looked like a real nerd! Thanks guys!

Obama and our baby chick...he was scared of Daddy's mask, so Dale could only wear it when Ethan wasn't looking!

With our lovely host who dressed up as Cinderella in a gorgeous Cinderella dress!

One of the kids at the party...he won best kid's costume! His face was done with spackling paste!

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