Ethan gets ready for the beach!

Ethan is totally excited for his upcoming beach trip, as you can see! He's going to have his first plane trip, some playtime in the sand, and he's already gotten a headstart on the cool beach gear. Every year, Brian's family heads to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. When Brian and I first met, the entire family was there for two weeks - Brian, his parents, his brother & sister, their spouses, and 4 nephews. It took a big house to contain everyone! Now that many of the nephews are older and have jobs, schedules, and lives of their own, the numbers have dwindled a bit. Ethan will be the only little boy there! We're set with swim diapers, sunscreen, a beach tent, a little inflatable (that we can obviously hold on to), a beach blanket...and a LONG list of things to pack.

We're not sure how this plane trip is going to go. Luckily, it's a short one (2 hours) and we have no connections to try to make or anything. But I know I had ear pain as a little one, and I don't want Mr. Ethan to be hurting on the way to the beach! (I asked his doctor awhile back about giving him something to make him feel better - his reply, "A pacifier." Nothing stronger than that???) I've also seen suggestions to nurse him on the ascent and descent, which is fine by me, but shouldn't he be strapped in his car seat during that time? (I mean, I'm flexible, but there are limits...) So we'll punt. Ethan is pretty impervious to pain a lot of the time, so he'll probably be just fine. Tough little guy.