I took my first Uber ride by myself (I've always been with other people who've called it before) to the airport and am now practically an expert on installing and un-installing the carseat in different cars. My pickup was delayed after the first driver dropped me and I didn't notice right away, but the second driver finally made it to pick us up, and although I was stressing a bit, we were making okay time when I realized I forgot the kindle. 911!!!!!! It was too late to turn around and get it. Sweet 8 lb 9 oz baby jesus.... we had a 10 hour travel day ahead of us and I had nothing to entertain my toddler except approximately 6 books. I freaked out for a second and, realizing there was nothing I could do about it, decided to hope for the best.
Amazingly, it was probably for the best that I didn't have it. Valerie was actually incredibly well behaved the entire day, only expressed anger very briefly when I told her there was no kindle, and was totally happy with the 6 books, snacks, a nap, and running around the SLC airport between flights. I could not believe my stupendous good luck. The trip out was a smashing success, with the biggest challenge being getting from the Uber to the check-in desk with two suitcases, a stroller, a car seat, a purse, a child backpack, and a Valerie. We are a sight with all our stuff. Once I checked the large suitcase and the car seat, and then the smaller suitcase at the gate, I had a manageable amount of stuff.
When we arrived in Cincinnati, my mom and stepdad were in the airport to help us bring our stuff to the car and boy were we happy to see them. Traveling alone with a toddler is no joke. Especially on a two-week trip to a cold destination requiring coats, boots, heavy sweaters... basically hundreds of pounds of stuff. It probably looked like I was taking my child on an expedition to the Arctic.
I need to learn to pack light.
We made it, and the next morning Rich made it with our rental car, and tried to squeeze in a couple hours of sleep before we had to drive to Lima for a friend's wedding at 1:30. He squeezed in a bit more sleep than we had time for, and we raced about 90 mph north to the wedding but of course did not make it to the church on time, and followed the bride into the nave around 1:32. So close!
It was the biggest wedding and the most people I've ever seen in a church. Someone said there were 380 people there. Both the bride and groom grew up in this small town and their parents still live there, so I guess that makes it probably the biggest wedding I'll ever see.
We knew more people than we expected and were so happy to see old friends and celebrate. It was a great party that went on for hours, with tons of dancing, including square dancing, cheesecake with toppings, stunning flower centerpieces, and seven different speeches from all the maids of honor and best men. Whew! We had a blast but didn't make it to the karaoke after party; by midnight poor Rich was dying on 2 hours of sleep.
The next morning we hurried back to my mom's to get Valerie and start making the rounds seeing friends. It was so wonderful to see and hug so many people we'd been missing so dearly. Valerie was in heaven seeing all her friends and favorite babies.
I was shocked to see how much all the babies had grown in 4 months, and all the men had grown beards. I hardly recognized some of them and felt sad to miss out on so much. Time has been flying by so fast, it's hard to believe our stay here is nearly half over already!
Our visit flew by in no time as we raced from visiting friends, to appointments (I got my hair cut and my tooth fixed, and I feel like a new woman these days!) and spending time with family. It was so great to see my nephew Carter, who has grown up so much in the last few months, into a sweet boy full of hugs and smiles and lots of babbling and talking.
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| Carter and me :) |
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| sweet cousins eating their Thanksgiving dinner |
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| Thanksgiving with family <3 |
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| Nana with Valerie and Carter <3 |
The kids helped decorate my mom's house for Christmas and she got them Hershey's kiss advent calendars so we can count down the days til Santa comes... although the concept of counting down the days may not be entirely clear to Valerie yet. She still wants to see her friends and open presents and ride the train and sit on Santa's lap and do everything fun NOW.
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| Cassie, Sam and Valerie hang ornaments on the tree |
She had the best two weeks visiting Nana and Papa; she got to play with play dough, see the trains at the museum center, eat lots of treats and lollipops, watch Mother Goose Club, pet Lucy the cat, and go shopping for sparkly new shoes.
We went to the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo one mild Thursday night and got to ride the train, see the elephants and reindeer and sit on Santa's lap. We couldn't believe she actually sat on his lap this year! She was petrified and when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said "I don't know"... she always has an answer when we ask her! Haha. I think she did it all for the candy cane... she saw the bowl of candy canes by Santa and knew she'd get one. She was terrified of Elsa and Anna at the Frozen display and of the gingerbread man by the entrance so we were sure she wouldn't go near Santa again, but she surprised us and did great.
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| she did not crack a smile with Santa though. |
One of my favorite moments was when she held baby Wesley, who's only six weeks old, when we visited his family one day. I got the cutest video ever ... it makes my ovaries hurt. :)
We had a blast seeing all our friends on this trip. We miss everyone so much and can't wait to be reunited next summer.
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| these three just could not be cuter! |
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| Harper came over to play on Thanksgiving |
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| so much fun playing with Wesley's big brother, Max! |
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| holding Wesley <3 |
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a rare sweet moment with Hannah - these two love each other to death and also fight like cats and dogs!     |
We made it to the rental car drop-off, and the very nice man at Alamo found me a luggage rack to load my two suitcases and the car seat on. It didn't go super well though. The car seat kept falling off the rack, no matter which way I loaded it. Valerie and I were a barely mobile struggle bus, making our way from the rental car return to the Delta check-in counter. My faith in humanity was strong this day, though, as no less than five different kind strangers offered to help me push my luggage rack along our way to the counter. Such nice people in Indianapolis!
We made it to the counter, ditched the rack, checked our bags and car seat, fumbled through security (where Valerie threw herself on the floor fussing that she didn't want to get out of the stroller) and finally made it to our gate intact. A big thank you to the man behind us in the security line who told me Valerie is still really cute as she threw a nasty fit on the floor. This time, we had the kindle, but I had spent all our travel luck on the trip out. Valerie was absolutely terrible on the way home, fussing and crying for daddy and shredding my nerves to threads.
As we got ready to disembark from our second and final plane, she went for the grand finale, hurling herself on the floor of the aisle rather than walking off the plane when our turn came. I arranged my purse, her backpack, and our coats on one arm, picked her up with the other arm, and hauled her off the plane, beyond thankful that we were nearly home. Neither of us was ever so glad to see Rich waiting for us at baggage claim. Valerie made an immediate, miraculous recovery and ran to hug daddy, and I nearly collapsed with relief.
Boy was it good to be home!
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