HOT Family Reunion

Last night was a success!!

We woke to a beautiful sunrise!

My uncle had a nice fan that he let us borrow and it made a world of difference! The low was 78*, not exactly camping weather, and the air in the tent was stagnate. That fan kept the air moving around us and we slept as well as you can in a tent. Ayden did great too! I tried putting him in his own little bed but he woke up scared for his first feeding so we co-slept for the rest of the night. I didn't sleep with any covers so I was able to sleep worry free.

 

Ayden was up and at 'em at around 6 am so we enjoyed our usual Saturday morning hang out time.

And then started our day of hanging out and keeping cool!

Ayden's "pool" was the talk of the reunion :)

There is always a big pot luck on Saturday but the majority of the selection is far from healthy so David and I enjoyed salads with chicken seasoned with our favorite loco rub that I cooked on Thursday. The funny part is that we didn't even miss any of it! Our bodies probably thanked us too because the heat was already putting them under enough stress. They didn't need to worry about processing a bunch of junk.

After we ate, the rest of the afternoon was spent keeping cool. Ayden napped even more than usual, I suppose sleep was his escape from the heat.

I also made sure that I nursed him more often than usual so he'd stay hydrated and let him try some water from a bottle first time, which he loved!

The best part of the weekend was that most of my extended family got to meet Ayden for the first time. Since I can pretty much get him to smile on command, they've all seen tons of smiley pictures of him on Facebook and everyone's first question was, "is he ALWAYS happy?" Our answer is always, "Oh he has his moments! We just don't think it's as fun to take/post pictures of him during those moments." He had plenty of smiles for everyone today, though, and melted everyone's hearts.

We ended up cutting our weekend short. The heat drove everybody home early and we didn't want to be the only ones left camping tonight. We were bummed but decided having a full day at home tomorrow was more appealing than camping another night all alone. As we were packing everything up, David and I were reflecting on how well Ayden did. Considering that we were in 104* weather (we stayed in shade and there was an amazing breeze that took the edge off, but still...), he slept well, napped well, ate well and stayed in a relatively good mood the whole time. The more we do this kind of thing the more conditioned he'll become to enduring a little less than comfortable conditions in the name of fun and adventure.

~Sarah