If you are new to our journey to parenthood then let me fill you in briefly so this blog makes sense. My husband and I tried for many years to become parents before switching to adoption. It is an incredible gift that we now have to be able to call Hunter our son and we also gained many new extended family members through his open adoption.
Each year we take turns traveling between Seattle or Chicago to celebrate Hunter's birthday. For his second birthday, it was our turn to travel back to Seattle. I be honest, a four hour flight with a two year old was a little stressful, but he did well and I had my Mom there to help out.
The first couple days of we spent with his birth family. Hunter's biological maternal grandma graciously hosted us at her home, which was incredibly kind. They also put together a big birthday party with about twenty guests all excited to meet or see Hunter again. Hunter was a little overwhelmed at times, but he had fun too. We also visited the zoo. I always make it a point to check out any zoos I have never been to because I love animals so much. It also allowed his birth parents a little more one on one time. It's the time I step back and let them spend quality time with him without me interfering. It is not always easy, but I know in my heart it is the right thing to do.
After our visit with his birth family we took a road trip to Olympic National Park. We road a ferry boat for the first time, visited a lavender farm, saw Forks and Twilight (that was a disappointment!) and checked off another national park off our must see list. In the future we plan to take more road trips with the hope to visit most of the the National Parks in America.
It was a wonderful trip. The Washington coastline is stunning. We had a few unexpected hiccups with Hunter getting sick in the rental car twice and then again on the flight home. At first we thought it was motion sickness, but now think it was a stomach bug. Gotta build that immune system after.
Side Note: The photos are shared are a mix of my cell phone and camera. Normally I would never share phone photos, but in this case I felt like it told more of a story since I only brought my camera for more of the scenic photos. I also protected people's privacy and only shared faces of people that gave me permission.