Dogs Dogs and More Dogs

This past weekend, we took a trip to Chicago apparently to meet some new dogs!  Ok, really we went for Aria's baptism but Uncle Jason and Aunt Renee have two great Danes (Gracie and Brutus), two beagles (Miley and Bandit) and two cats (Rocky and Peaches) and Drew loved all of them!  (Ok, not Rocky the cat, because he goes MIA whenever there are new people around).

We got in very late Thursday night.  I mistakenly thought that Drew would sleep on the plane because our flight was so late (9:30 pm departure).  Think again, mom!  Drew fell asleep with about 10 minutes left to go or about 11 pm.  Grandma Mary and Grandpa Steve picked us up from the airport and we were on our way to the hotel.

On Friday, we took Drew to the indoor pool at the hotel.  The water was a little chilly for momma and dadda, but Drew loved it!  He had fun splashing us and going up and down the stairs in the water.  Since we don't have stairs at home, he loves practicing when he has access to stairs - even on the ones in the pool!

After lunch, we went to Uncle Jason's and Aunt Renee's house.  Here Drew met all the dogs!  I think he mainly just saw the great Danes (they are big and hard to miss!).


Drew already in love with Brutus

We were able to hang out and let Drew and Aria play!

Uncle Jason even let Drew give the dogs a treat!  Drew gave all four dogs a treat!  He's a pro at feeding animals after the practice with the elephants earlier this year.

Cousins Drew and Aria played well together most of the time.  Drew occasionally tried to take Aria's toy from her, but for the most part they shared well.  Drew even fetched a ball that Aria threw and he gave it back to her!  He also saw her bottle and decided that she needed it so he took it over to her!  What a sweetheart!

On Saturday, we decided to take a train to Chicago for the St Patrick's day festivities.  This was Drew's first train ride!  He had fun, mainly because his older cousins are very good at entertaining him.


Grandma with her grandkids

We had quite the walk from the train station to our designated point.  We made sure to buddle Drew up!  I don't think he liked the cold very much, but we kept him warm enough that he fell asleep in his stroller!

After our excursion downtown, we headed back to Uncle Jason's and Aunt Renee's house.  It was this day that Drew really appreciated the beagles!  He spent a lot of time hugging on Bandit!

Sunday we all headed to Mass and Aria's baptism.  Drew did really well during mass, but he was tired when the baptism service was starting.  Grandma had to take him so Dadda could be photographer and Momma could do the godmother duties.  Luckily Grandma is good at getting Drew to fall asleep and she had him sleeping in her lap before long!

Of course we had to take an entire family picture!  I'm surprised we actually pulled it off!

More picture ops!  It was difficult getting pictures of the cousins because Drew only wanted to sit on Momma's lap and both Drew and Aria are squirmy!  So this was the best we could do.

Drew loved the dog cage.  Here he is loving on Miley some more.  I think he really liked the beagles because he could get his arms around them!  He liked the Great Danes too, but they did knock him over a lot!

We definitely wore Drew out from the travel, late nights and short or no nap days!  But overall he did really well.  I think he had a lot of fun visiting his cousings!  And even more fun with the dogs!

Thanks Jason and Renee for inviting us up!!  Next time I think we will visit when it's not so cold though!