Have binkie, will travel

This past weekend we ventured out on our first plane flight with Austin.  We have to thank my good friend Heather for inviting us to her wedding in New Hampshire, as it gave us an excuse to test out traveling with a baby.  I'm not sure we would have taken a trip quite this early if it hadn't been for her wedding!  Our flight was around Austin's bedtime, so we thought we'd board, nurse him, and then hope he sleeps during the flight.  Our plan was thwarted though when we got to the gate and found out we had over an hour delay!  So, change of plans - we swaddled him, I nursed him in the gate area, and got him to fall asleep in my arms before boarding.  He pretty much stayed asleep for the duration of the flight...even with some crazy drunk baseball fans on board (lucky us, they all sat within a few rows of us).  We met Grandma at the airport and drove up to New Hampshire to our hotel.  Even the crazy Boston traffic didn't wake up Austin - we sat in traffic for nearly an hour at midnight...classic Boston. 

Arrival at the airport - quite a few more pieces of luggage than we are used to!

Grandma was a big help, and gave us some well needed time to ourselves at times over the weekend.  We came back from breakfast to find her and Austin taking a snooze...

Cozy

We took Austin to the wedding and then brought him back to the hotel to hang with Grandma so that we could enjoy the reception. Heather and Greg got married at Searles Castle in Windham, NH.  It was quite a beautiful setting.  We had a bottle all prepped so that as soon as the quartet started playing, he would be busy eating.  The plan was a success...he didn't make a peep during the whole wedding! 

All dressed up!

The next day we drove out to Portsmouth, NH to hang out by the water.  Portsmouth is usually a quaint little New England town, but we happened to arrive during a very busy festival so it was much more packed than we've ever experienced.  We still walked around a bit and took in some water views:

Afterwards we drove along the coast, and stopped for lunch at Petey's - a favorite restaurant of our friends Jim and Colleen (and site of their rehearsal dinner)

Water, beer, and a bottle....we have everything we need!

Austin drank his fill...and took a nap

On our way back to the Boston airport, we stopped in Swampscott for lunch at a beach cafe and took in the views.  If you look really hard you can see the Boston skyline way in the background.

On the way home, Austin only really slept for about half of the flight, but woke up happy and alert and was actually content laying in my arms, smiling and chatting.  We were quite impressed at how well he traveled!  All in all, it was a fabulous trip.  We are very thankful that Grandma Ellen could join us - it made traveling a little less crazy.  And, as an added bonus we got a few evenings (and mornings) to ourselves...quite a treat given that we haven't been able to do that since before Austin was born.