A Trip

When Emma was 11 weeks old, she took her first flight!  Gardening Mom, Sister Swimmer, little Em and myself trecked across the country all the way to Delaware for my first traveling-with-a-baby experience (Sister Singer had to stay for her classes).
I had always thought traveling with a baby was a little silly, but color me ignorant when we found out that my step-Grandmother (though she's never seemed like a step anything to me) was sick and I couldn't imagine not going to see her with Emma while on my maternity leave.  Between her diagnosis and booking our flights was only a few days, and to be honest, it's a good thing we moved so quickly becuse in the weeks that would pass between booking the trip and actually going on the trip, I mustered up quite a lot of anxiety over the entire thing.

I envisioned turbulence and a flying baby (yes, I flew with her on my lap).  I had nightmares of her screaming the entire flight.  I thought maybe she would enter a growth spurt, and be fussy the entire trip.

What really happened?  Our flights were smooth sailing, she slept almost the entirety of both 5+ hours flights with very short stints of crying when she was hungry, and she was generally a happy baby most of the trip.  Except for the nights.  She really worked me good those nights, waking up almost hourly every night.  Something she didn't even do as a brand-new baby home from the hospital.  Without my Handsome Husband to help out, I was one tired mama.  But alas, I survived.

My little snow baby

 

 

She did have one fun surprise for me in the Philadelphia airport while we waited to board our homeward bound flight.  Mid-breastfeeding, she had a total poopspolsion all.  over.  me.  It soaked out her diaper, through her onesie, through the blanket she was sitting on, and onto my jeans.  Imagine my horror when I realized what had happened.  Luckily I found a "family" restroom, and went to work cleaning us up.  I patted my own back for thinking ahead with not only spare clothes for little miss Em, but a spare outfit for me, too!  I got her naked, and myself changed, and not a moment later did she spit up everywhere.  I was eternally grateful to the Spit Up Gods for having her do it at the best possible moment (if there is ever a great moment for spit up, that is), while she was naked.  Cleaned that mess up, turned around to grab a fresh diaper, and what the fuh, she is lying in a puddle of her own pee.  Seeing that she had sufficiently emptied her body of, well...everything, I picked her up and cleaned up yet another mess of bodily fluids (the joys of motherhood).  Finally, it seemed, I got her dressed and we were on our way.  It was not funny at the time, but gives me a chuckle now that I'm removed from the situation.  In the moment though, I wondered what I did in a previous life to deserve that kind of torture.

In the end, I am so glad we made the trip.  There were difficulties, but it was easier than I thought (especially the flying part!), and Emma got to meet family that it may have been years before she'd gotten a chance to meet otherwise.  My Grandmother's health seems to be improving, so we hope there are lots of visits to come!

The Girls Go to Seattle: Waterfalls and Flying Home

Check out previous Seattle recaps HERE.

On our very last day in Seattle, I managed to wake up tired.  By the end of the trip, I realized that I am not Superwoman (I know, right?!) and that pregnancy really does have an effect on your body.  I found myself more tired, more achy, and generally more ready for my own bed with my husband in it.  Don't get me wrong, the trip was lovely, and I'm so glad we went, because I don't know when we'll get to go on another girls' trip without our newest addition.  But by the end?  I was ready for home.

But we had one more day of Seattle fun to experience before hoping back on a plane to Orange County!  A very kind business associate of Gardening Mom's ended up being our tour guide for the day, and was generous enough to take us a little outside city limits all the way to Snoqualmie Falls, and to the Salish Lodge for lunch. 

After a ridiculously good meal, we went down to get a closer look at the falls. 

 

 

We enjoyed the waterfalls, didn't enjoy people standing in our way when trying to get quality photos like the yoga pose above, and checked out the gift shop. 

We then piled into the car and did some driving around to see the neighborhoods of Seattle.  After seeing our last little bits of the city, we headed to the airport where we had a (fabulously) uneventful flight home. 

Thank you, Gardening Momma, for taking us on such a wonderful getaway weekend, and Sisters Singer and Swimmer for the company and laughs along the way.  I can't wait for my little lady to join us on a girls trip someday!

Is it Fall Yet?

Here we are, jumping into September!  This year is flying by, and I can't believe we will have a baby here in just four short months.

In August...

 

The beginning of August started super fun for me, as we were on our Girls Trip in Seattle!  You can see tons of photos and read all about the girl time in my recaps HERE.

 

We made some big changes with the vehicles in our life - more details to come on that soon!

 

Handsome Husband and I started a baby registry, and the next day I enlisted the opinion of non-Mom but great friend, Cute Apartment to round out the registries with necessities, and of course some cute frilly pink items for our little Princess.

 

We helped warm the new home of our some of our newer friends that HH has met through law school.  The Chicago transplants are loving their new place in Orange County - they are close enough to see Disneyland's fireworks and walk to Angels Stadium!

 

Hat Dad and Gardening Momma invited us over for dinner, and it ended up being just the four of us.  A rare occurance, and though we love big family dinners with Sisters Singer and Swimmer, it's nice to get some one-on-one (or two-on-two, I should say) time with the 'rents.

 

We officially hit the half-way mark in this pregnancy!  20 more weeks (less now!) and this little girl better be on her way!  You can read weekly Bumpdates HERE.



 

Handsome Husband is officially back in school - a bittersweet time, for sure.  Sad for the summer to be over, happy to be inching closer to that finish line.

 

Cute Apartment and I took after the Real Housewives of Orange County when we took a painting class at a local restaurant.  We both walked away with some pretty pictures, and it was a fun middle-of-the-week night out!

 

We had a big birthday party weekend, with MIL Red's fiance, Mr. Bear's, 50th birthday and Cousin Ronomon's 30th birthday parties squeezed into one fun weekend!

 

And tomorrow we will end the month spending the day with some of our very favorite people, watching one of our HH's very favorite sports - we're heading to a Galaxy Game with our friends, Twin Oh Yeah and Future Dr. Babies.

With our friends all the way back in October 2011



The Girls Go to Seattle: Seattle Center

This post is going to be mostly photos because I took a ton throughout the day we spent at Seattle Center. 

We started the day off with brunch at Sky City 360, the rotating restaurant at the top of the Space Needle.  As a way to see great views, avoid the lines, and get a yummy brunch - I totally recommend Sky City 360. If I'm being honest, there were a few times I felt a little dizzy, and maybe even a little queasy, but only when my eyes fixated on a point in the restaurant that really accentuated the movement going on.

After brunch we entered Chihuly Garden and Glass, a museum Twin Unicorn had strongly recommended we stop by.  I was a little skeptical at first, but I am so glad we went.  It was truly one of my favorite things we did in Seattle, and everything was beautiful and breathtaking.

Our final muesum of the day was the Experience Music Project, an interactive place to see exhibits on famous artists, listen to fantastic music, and my personal favorite - check out some costumes of Women Who Rock!  While it was so fun to get away with just the girls, I couldn't help but think how fascinated Hat Dad would have been with this musuem, and hope he makes his way there sometime.

We hopped back on the monorail after visiting EMP, and stopped for some shopping in downtown before heading back to our hotel.  Nearing the end of our trip, I was more exhausted than normal, and I'd like to direct the cause of that to the small human I'm growing.  While it was frustrating to feel more tired and sore than usual, how could I truly complain?  I am so overjoyed to be having a baby, and can't wait for this little girl to join Gardening Mom, Sister Singer and Sister Swimmer and their future little ladies on girls trips for years to come.

My last recap from our trip to Seattle coming next week!

The Girls Go to Seattle: Shopping, Ferry Rides, and Bainbridge Island

Read about Day 1 of our trip HERE.

On Saturday, we woke up, had a not-that-impressive breakfast of room service in the hotel (sorry, Hotel Monaco), and headed into the shopping area of Downtown to take a looksie around.

We stopped into Nordstrom and a funny little mall that was so skinny and tall - things are different in cities!  After a stop in to Forever 21, we decided it was time to head towards the ocean so we could board a ferry to check out Bainbridge Island and get some lunch!

We trecked it down to the ferry station (I have no idea what the proper name is for this...), and after a little bit of waiting, he hopped on the ferry for a quick 30 minute trip over to the island.

Some of us did some sight-seeing, all of us did some chatting, and more than one of us spent some time browsing the web on our phones (how did we kill time pre-iPhone?!).

 

When we got to the island, there was a little bit of a hike to the restaurant we had chosen (another gift from the iPhone, Yelp browsing while waiting for our ferry!), but when we got to Docs Marina Grill we were treated with lovely outdoor seating right on the harbor, gorgeous weather, and very yummy food! 

 

After a fabulous late lunch, we were a little sad to find out many of the shops had already closed for the day, but we poked around the ones that were still open.

After seeing all we could of the little town (and making plans for a visit to our own little local island, Catalina), back to the ferry we went.

 

Next? A trip to Seattle Center, including brunch on top of the Space Needle, Chihuly Garden & Glass, and The Experience Music Project! 

The Girls Go to Seattle: Pike Place Market, Seattle Aquarium and Wild Ginger

In lieu of a full-on family vacation this summer (HH and Hat Dad's loss!), Gardening Mom came up with the great idea of a little girls trip.  Our destination needed to be somewhere relatively close (we didn't want a whole day of travel), and preferably a new place.  While I've been to Seattle to visit Best Friend Cute Apartment before, Sisters Singer and Swimmer and Gardening Mom had never seen the city, so off to Seattle we went!

We flew in late on a Thursday evening, with an uneventful (in a good way!) flight and transport to our hotel.  We stayed at Hotel Monaco, which was lovely, but seriously needs to revamp their Room Service procedures.  Other than that, I would highly recommend this hotel.  We all bunked up in one room (something that HH and Hat Dad both scoffed at), and it was nice and roomy, with lots of space for all of our crap.

On Friday morning, we took our time getting up and getting ready, and started to head down to Pike Place Market for the day.  We stopped for breakfast on the way, and soon we found ourselves in front of the big sign that everyone equates with the city of Seattle.

Unfortunately for us, we got some pretty typical Seattle weather on our first day in the city, so we headed directly inside the Market to get some cover from the spinkling outside.

Upon entrance, we were greeted with a strong stench of fish and realized we were at the very iconic fish market already!  It was super crowded, so we didn't stay long, but I remember watching them catch fish (and even getting to go behind the counter and catch a few myself!) during my last trip when visiting Cute Apartment.

 

We weaved in and out of stores and shops looking at little treasures, but it was the floral area that really had us all impressed.  The bouquets they had were so beautiful, and so insanely CHEAP!  We're talking $15 for a bouquet I would see sold for $150 here!  We were all struck, and so badly wished there was a way we could take some of these pretty flowers home with us.

They even had $5 smaller bouquets!

After spending an inordinate amount of time flower-gasing, we stepped outside and headed into the First Starbucks Store!  Sister Swimmer and I were excited to pick up a souvenir for our beaus - Sister Swimmer's BF YOLO is a 'Bucks employee himself, and my Handsome Hubs is a big fan.

Coffee and hot chocolate in hand, we wandered around the Market a bit more, stopping for some macaroons and meringues to take back with us for a sweet treat at the hotel later.  We headed down an insane amount of stairs to the Seattle Aquarium where we got to come face to face with some colorful fish, a creepy looking octopus, a couple cute sea otters, and my personal favorite - the river otters.  After a hellish hike back up those stairs (I thought about quitting half-way through, but realized I'd be forever stranded in the middle of an outdoor staircase in Seattle), a quick stop for lunch at a local Brewery, and a pitstop at Target for the necessities (toothpaste, pretzels, and Hot Tamales, obviously), we were back at the hotel for a few hours of downtime before dinner.

For dinner, we went to a very highly rated downtown restaurant, Wild Ginger (which of course had me thining of my very own wild ginger at home - my sweet HH).  Wild Ginger's food was fantastic, and by the end of the trip, we all rated it our favorite place we ate the entire trip!

Next?  We do some shopping, hop on a ferry boat, and see Bainbridge Island!

The Emerald City

I'm off in Seattle for a little getaway with the ladies in my family - Gardening Mom, Sister Singer and Sister Swimmer.  I can't wait to see the sights with my favorite gals.

On top of the space needle in 2007, visiting Best Friend Cute Apartment in her home state!

 

I won't be back until late Monday night, but if you're wondering whether or not I'll be picking a pink or blue onesie with SEATTLE all over it, you're in luck, because I'll be sharing the gender of our little New Years Baby right here on the blog bright and early on Monday morning!  Come back and see! 

Aloha August!

Double month recap time!  Oh yeah oh yeah!

In June...

We started off the month with birthday celebrations - dinner at Goofy's Kitchen for Sisters Singer and Swimmer, and a local Italian restaurant for Gardening Mom.

 

I had a long overdue meeting with an old friend, filled with catching up and apologies, forgiveness and moving forward.

 

We headed to the San Clemente pier to one of our favorite restaurants for a perfect Saturday lunch with Cute Apartment and her Boyfriend Number Cruncher.

 

Arizona was calling our names, and we finally got back out on the boat!  The whole family went out for Father's Day and it was so nice to spend some time in one of our favorite places (especially with the addition of brand new air conditioning!).

There was lots more family fun to be had when Uncle Firefighter, Nurse Auntie, and Cousin Snapshot and her darling kiddos came to visit!  We had two lovely dinners, and it was nice to see family that we don't get to see as often as we'd like.

We finally revealed to family that there was a little BABY in our future!  It was so fun to tell all of our family, and a relief to have the secret OUT!

I got to get some more practice in with my camera when I took some photos of Mother-in-Law Red, and Mr. Bear.

I graduated from 1st trimester to the 2nd trimester of my pregnancy - time is flying!

In July...

Handsome Husband spent some time at the International Negotiation Conference, negotiating with law students from all over the world!

We celebrated the 4th of July by hosting our friends for beers, bbq and a big surprise!

 

Best Cousin and I headed to the fair to see Colbie Callait, and I was inspired to write my first letter to our little baby on the way.

We got to see all of our favorite future lawyers at a Vegas-themed birthday bash!

HH and I spent the day with Cousin Study Buddy and company - breakfast followed by a fun-filled day at our neighborhood water park and pool!

Handsome Husband's family finally got together for another Poker Tournament!  It had been long overdue, and I was so happy (almost as happy as I would have been had I won again) that Tutor Girl took home the prize!

We got another little peak our our sweet New Years baby on the way, and a few days later held a Gender Reveal party to find out whether we are expecting a baby boy or a baby girl!  I can't wait to share with all of you in just a few days!

In August? The ladies in my family head to Seattle for a long weekend, there are lots of birthdays to celebrate, HH goes back to school, and we'll get to see our little Baby M again!