How We Survived

Here's how we survived a trip from North America to Southeast Asia with a very sweet (and active) 16 month old baby boy.

Actually Asher was great, so it wasn't really survival. It definitely wasn't fun, but that kind of trip is never fun.

I started taking pictures the afternoon before we left and tried to chronicle our journey from Vancouver to Bangkok.

Waking up from his last nap in Vancouver, we finally had to wake him up after almost 3 hours of sleep.

Our arrival at the airport in Vancouver. Final tally on the luggage: 3 trunks, 6 large duffel bags, 2 car seats, 1 guitar, 2 backpacks, 1 carry on suitcase, 1 small duffel bag, 1 diaper bag and 1 stroller.

Once we strolled through security we let Asher loose so he could burn off some energy before the long flight. The airport was practically empty at midnight, so Asher had plenty of space to run.

He did set down to rest for a few minutes before climbing down and discovering the moving sidewalks. We spent about 15 minutes going the wrong way on one of them.

Hour One.

On the plane and settled into our seats, Asher was exhausted, but wouldn't sleep. The lights were all on and a meal was served right after take-off and that kept him up even longer. He finally crashed about 4 am and slept for about 4 hours.

Hour Eight.

Drinking milk and talking on the phone, Asher seemed to be unaware that anything was different about today.

A video update of Asher's Airplane Adventures. There's something all over his face, I have no idea what it could be. Considering he ate Teddy Grahams almost constantly for 14 hours there's a good chance it could be crumbs.

Hour Ten.

Another video update. Asher took a good nap, he slept from the beginning to the end of, "The Informant." I was holding him at this point and appreciated his thoughtfulness and willingness to not wake up until the credits had started. When he woke up he was quite excited to see that Daddy was nearby.

Hour Twelve.

Almost there and Asher is still happy playing with Daddy, one last video update.

Hour Fifteen.

We made it to Hong Kong and raced through the airport to make our connecting flight. Roger and I were having some serious caffeine withdrawal, but didn't have time to stop for coffee. Asher kept his hands above his head the entire time we were in Hong Kong. I think this is his exhaustion pose.

Hours Sixteen - Eighteen.

Asher and Roger slept almost the whole way from Hong Kong to Bangkok, I read a book. Sorry, no pictures, we were all looking pretty rough.

Hour Nineteen.

Arrival in Bangkok. After being an angel for nineteen hours of travel Asher lost it while we were in line for immigration. Perfect timing. An immigration official came and got us from the back of the line and took us through to the front. Asher is amazing.

Hour Twenty.

Luggage collected and trip over. We finally made it to our new home. Somehow by the end of all of this Asher ended up with a baggage tag on his arm.

Pictures from Bangkok and the new house coming soon.

Whistling

Here are some pictures from our trip to Whistler.

We took a ride in the Peak2Peak gondola, it was really high up and is evidently an engineering marvel. I thought it was pretty neat, Asher didn't really care. He just wanted to run around.

Finally Asher got his chance to run. He seemed to like the snow.

We caught Asher and made him pose for a picture in front of Inukshuk.

We checked out the great views.

And then Asher decided he had enough of the snow.

What Asher Did Yesterday

Here's a preview of how Asher spent yesterday.

Asher, It's Cold Outside

After almost a month of rain we have had almost 2 weeks for sunny days. Vancouver is a beautiful city when it's not raining, there are snow-capped mountains all around us and even in December the grass is still green. Since it hasn't been raining I wanted to take Asher to the park to play. Although it's not raining it is still cold (after all it's December in Canada), so Asher has to bundle up before we go out.

He started out running around in his diaper while I chased him and tried to put clothes on him.

The first layer is his Christmas outfit from Aunt Beth.

Next comes his shirt and blue jeans.

Add on the coat, mittens and froggy hat.

Into the stroller and zip up the Asher bag, ready to walk to the park.

As always we had a great time at the park and we even had a project: collecting pine cones and branches to decorate the house with for Christmas. If you want to see the finished project check out our Journal (www.rogerandcourtney.blogspot.com).

Asher says Hello and Gets a New Hat

Asher has recently picked up a new word and he sounds so cute when he says it. Here is a video of his sweet little voice saying, "Hello!"

I was downtown shopping recently and found a new hat for Asher. He had been refusing to wear hats since last spring, but I was determined to get him to wear one when it was really cold outside. The first few days he would only tolerate the hat for a few minutes at a time. Then one day morning he brought it over to me and let me put it on his head. We immediately took him outside to take pictures of him and his froggy hat.

Asher and his froggy hat.

Serious Asher.

Asher, cheesin' for the camera.

The curl is still there, poking out from under his hat.

Maplewood Farm

On one of the rare sunny days we have had Asher and I headed off to Maplewood Farm to see some animals. I didn't think Asher would really get it or have fun, but he proved me wrong. He quacked at the ducks, chased some birds and petted a few goats. Here are some pictures from the day.

The morning commuter nap. Asher was all warm and snuggly in his stroller, he stayed awake for the whole train ride, but fell asleep as soon as we got on the first bus.

Asher loves to quack like a duck and evidently he also likes to chase the ducks. He would get scared when they would start to chase him back.

After a while he got tired from all the running and petting and quacking, he took a quick rest in the sling and was ready to go again.

One of my favorite parts of the day was going into the goat pen. All of the goats were walking around and all of the toddlers were petting/hitting/harassing the animals. Luckily the animals were very good natured.

Asher was calm at first, but once he got excited the goats were in trouble.

Finally, we were back on the bus heading for home and he was out. He slept the whole way home.

Boys Day In - a rare posting by daddy

It's a closely guarded secret what us men do when we've got the castle to ourselves. But on this rare occasion, we've decided to draw the curtain back a bit and reveal what happens when Mommy leaves us home alone...but just a little bit, we're not about to let the world know all of the happenings of the Secret Society of Hampton Men's Club (that would be most atrocious).

I managed to rig the camera to take pictures at random times throughout the day to give you a glimpse of what happens when we're holding down the fort. Warning: you may want to stop reading this post, you may become extremely jealous that you are not a Hampton man and are not privy to this secret society.

The day started on a skytrain ride to downtown Vancouver. The whole family was together, and unbeknownst to Mommy -- Asher and Daddy jumped off the train, went back to the apartment, and had a fun filled day of being men!

Setting the camera up in a good spot

Sometimes men just gotta hug

All this playing around requires a drink of water

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?

Boys like to wrastle

So that's what he does when no one is looking.

Nap Time!

It has been a long day, but a fun day. There are lots of other pictures that were taken to chronicle the day; far too many to post on here. Not that we'd even agree to post all the pictures (as stated before, Privacy is something that is highly valued in the Secret Society of Hampton Men's Club). We hope that Momma had a fun day downtown while us boys were at the club having a great time of our own.

Science World

We took Asher to Science World in Vancouver recently. He was too little to really do much, but we had a good time playing and he really liked touching everything. Our favorite part was the toddler play area, Asher got to run around and explore all of the toys.

He really liked watching the light follow his hand, I was hoping it would be one of those things that makes your hair stand straight up.

Our little Piano Man played us a song, actually he just ran back and forth making a lot of noise.

Asher had fun with Daddy building towers with the giant Legos and then knocking them down.

The worst part of the day was when Asher discovered these stairs. Up until that point he had enjoyed playing with the Legos and walking around, after he saw the stairs we spent a lot of time climbing up and jumping down.

At the end of our trip we went into the play area for babies, it was pretty much just a padded cage. We let Asher run wild and he had a lot of fun falling down and trying to crawl over things.

Halloween in Canada

This year we didn't make any Halloween plans until the last minute, so I hadn't thought much about a costume for Asher. In the end this really worked out for me because I got his costume for 50% off and his candy bucket for 70% off. Procrastination pays.

We really didn't do much, we just dressed up Asher, took a lot of pictures and then went over to the mall to Trick or Treat with some friends. Roger and I enjoyed getting candy and showing off Asher and Asher seemed to enjoy chewing on a sucker (while the wrapper was still on) and seeing all of the people at the mall.

As usual we took about a billion pictures, so we have had to narrow it down to the best.

At the end of the night Asher bear returned to Asher baby, he brushed his teeth and went to bed.