Our Traveling Son

One thing that BJ and I have always enjoyed doing together is traveling. As young lovebirds we had visions of seeing the world, and we have managed to get some of the world under our belts in eight years of marriage. We dream of future trips to places we would love to visit; BJ gets pretty excited about the prospects of seeing Italy, and I feel personal callings to Paris and Hawaii as well. I've already told BJ that I would love for our 20th or 25th wedding anniversary to be a trip for us and our children to Paris. Wouldn't that be spectacular?

In keeping with this spirit, we did not let our travel slack off after giving birth to Silas. We always said that, while we understand that children are going to require a lot of flexibility on our parts, we also expected that our children will be joining the lifestyle that WE have created for them. Silas has been an adventurous traveling companion to numerous places now, and one of my friends joked that he likely has more frequent flier miles than she does. Destination trips have been to Kansas City at two months, Minnesota at three months, Dallas at three months, Los Angeles at seven months, Seattle at eleven months, and Maine/Massachusetts/New Hampshire at 14 months, as well as a few different places in Oklahoma throughout his lifespan. Tickets have also been purchased for trips to Portland, Oregon, and Indianapolis (to meet the great-grandparents!) later this year before I say "enough is enough" as a large pregnant woman. Once the second baby is several months old we'll be able to get going again. I made this map to illustrate Silas' travels as they will occur in the first 17 months of his life:

In all fairness, some of these states are airport-layover states, but I still always count those.

He seems to have a lot of fun with us on our journeys, which is exactly what we hope for.

Except for when he falls into the water.

Or gets toted around on the shoulders of Dada.

But it can't all be fun and games, right?