Getting Home

The trip to our new home was quite an adventure! Thursday, the night before our 7am flight to Chicago (for Edward and I, Jay would be driving to Vermont) Jay got an email that our flight was cancelled. He spent over an hour on the phone with the airline trying to figure out our options. The soonest they could get us to Vermont was Monday. We ended up rebooking our flight out of Chicago instead. So we got up early Friday morning to drive to Chicago. 

I felt horrible that morning and couldn't even stomach a bagel for breakfast so though I was glad to not be at the airport, stuck in a car wasn't my second choice! Just over an hour into the drive, I puked!! Sorry for the graphic, but oh my, I am glad I had time to grab a couple empty grocery bags from Edwards backpack usually reserved for his potty accident clothes. Volume wise, it was impressive. Jay pulled off the interstate and I was able to buy a toothbrush & toothpaste, Tums, and some Gatorade. Needless to say, it was a long 10-hour drive!! We made it to Chicago and checked into our hotel for the night. 

Another early wake-up and we were at the airport! Jay got us checked in and then got on the road, headed to Vermont. Edward insisted on "helping" for most of the morning:

We made it on the flight to Philly! On the walk down the aisle, Edward walks in front of me while I carry his car seat. This time he decided to sit in someone else's seat, buckle up, and say "bye mama". Since my hands were full, with a line of people trying to get on after me, I was stuck!! A nice gentleman helped me with the car seat so I could grab Edward. The lollipop was my bargaining tool. Whatever it takes when traveling!!

He loved his blue tongue:

Once we got to Philly, we ate lunch and then got to our gate to find out our flight to Burlington was cancelled. So frustrating!! The line for customer service was sooo long, so while I waited, I called and got us rebooked. They couldn't get us to BTV until Monday, so I chose Manchester, NH and prayed for the best. The flight was already delayed, but it was our best chance. I called my mom to let her know she had to get started on a nearly 3 hour road trip to pick us up and that we may or may not be there at the other end!! Luckily Edward got tired and took a 1.5 hour nap. I just leaned him back and enjoyed some "quiet" time as I finally felt the babies kicking like crazy for the first time!

After he woke up we still had a couple more hours to wait so we passed the time playing Frogger:

We finally made it to Manchester around 7:30pm and Edward was so excited to see his Grammy!

We didn't get to Stacy's until 12:30am...and guess who didn't go to sleep till 1:30?! 

Six days later I finally got our bag and the crazy adventure came to a close. 

Now to start our Vermont adventure - we can't wait!

Omaha

The drive to Omaha looked like this:

The roads weren't too bad until we got into town. Jay doesn't have snow tires yet and the plows were few and far between. We went to Jay's friend Dave's house to watch the Nebraska football game and barely made it there! It was a nice visit and Edward enjoyed playing with their older daughter Ella (3). We had chili for lunch and were all happy to have our Cornhuskers win!!

Edward slept on the way to the hotel, so no naps for mommy and daddy. This is how the afternoon looked for us:

We are staying at the Embassy Suites which as a parent I just love! They have free breakfast, separate bedrooms, and a nice atrium. This location has a koi river throughout the first and second floors. The front desk gives Edward food to feed the fish (some are quite large!) and he just loves it!

Our hotel living has made Edward a pro at using the key cards:

We promised a swim in the pool but it was pretty cold so the steps of the spa it was! I stayed out to make sure the babies didn't get cooked. Edward loved being in the "little pool". 

We went to lunch at the Upstreet Brewery and Edward was so good! He waited patiently for his food and ate most of his lunch. To pass the time we worked on his faces. He has his "surprised", "mad", "sad", "silly" and "happy" faces down pretty good. Today he learned "scared" and this was what he came up with:

After lunch we actually all took a nap! Gotta love hotel curtains! Edward slept over 2 hours and when I went to wake him up he just turned over and went back to sleep. Who's child is this?!

By the way we LOVE our new travel bed for Edward! It's by The Shrunks and perfect for this kind of trip! It fits a crib sized sheet and deflates to a pretty small size. 

I caught my boys going down the elevator. Edward was so afraid of it a few days ago he had me hold him the while time. Now he runs inside, pushes the correct button, and runs to the window to watch:

One of my favorite Pinterest inspired ways to entertain Edward at a restaurant. Hide the penny under the sugar packet. He is really good at keeping his eye on the right one and loved playing with Jay, especially when he was able to successfully trick him! 

One more time feeding the fish before dinner:

Jay picked up take out for dinner tonight. An amazing corn chowder and salads and a brownie for dessert! The perfect distraction from the craziness of finding out our flight out of Omaha was cancelled and rescheduled to Monday! Jay spent over an hour on the phone with the airline trying to figure out a plan and as of now we will be driving to Chicago with him and then flying out on Saturday instead. If all goes well. I feel bad for Edward who is no longer impressed with the "excitement" of a road trip... 

To be continued...

Road Trip!!

The drive to Kansas City from grandma and grandpas is about 9 hours not including stops. While Jay thought of it as a fun adventure and "no big deal", the thought of a pregnant woman and a 2-year old on a 9+ hour road trip to me sounded like a nightmare. Luckily I was proven wrong!!

Edward did so much better than we both expected and kept himself entertained with his new cars, stickers, books and a very short amount of screen time on "his" iPhone watching videos.  

Grandma and grandpa got him this great travel tray for the trip and it worked out great!! It's nice and soft yet stable enough to roll his cars around on it. 

It also makes for a great sun shield when the sun first comes up over the horizon. "Too bright" he said and this is what we saw. What a goofball. 

Kansas. Flat. Boring. 

We had a "mommy poop in my underpants!" scare along the way and this happened in the parking lot of a gas station somewhere in the middle of America:

False alarm. Boo! He really did great with the whole potty training thing for the whole trip. Used the big pottys and urinals like daddy does. I just put a diaper on him when he was supposed to be napping (which of course did not happen - I mean...road trip!!!!! Why would he?!)

He is such a good traveler! He even would exclaim "road trip!" every now and then. 

We had a great run at one of the rest stops which I thought would for sure tire him out enough for a snooze. 

We made it in 10 hours - about two

hours shorter than we had planned and happily enjoyed dinner and some catching up with Jays brother and his family before heading off to bed. 

Weekend Update: 2 Weekends Ago...(part 2)

Friday night we ate dinner at the hotel - Jay got a panini and I had a sandwich of some sort. I can't remember the exact details because we shared a side of macaroni & cheese and omgitwassogoooood.

There was a wedding going on at the pool outside of our room, so while we talked ourselves out of crashing it, we watched movies and I danced around the room and the patio to the tunes. 

Saturday was my birthday & we got up very early thanks to my alarm on my phone (and forgetting that it was MONDAY, not Sunday). Not my favorite part of the day, but I did enjoy putting on some long sleeves since it was a cloudy & chilly morning, and heading over to Koffi across the street for some pastry & coffee. We sat there & watched the old people reading their newspapers and the M-F workers grab their cuppa Joe before work. I always love that reminder of being on vacation - these other people are going to work & I am not. 

It was now time for our massage! Jay suggested a couples massage which was a nice treat! Afterwards we enjoyed the sauna for a bit before heading back to the pool. Even though it was still a little cloudy, I think we got the best part of our tans on this day. It was a great time to read & people watch...but soon enough we were hungry again & I was craving a burger! 

We found this place online called Tyler's (can't find their website but this blog post explains it pretty well) and set out to downtown Palm Springs to find it. After a few wrong-turns, we finally found this cute little place in the middle of a parking lot. I got sliders (delicious!), Jay got a cheeseburger and we shared a basket of fries. The lemonade was homemade and hit the spot. I loved the patio seating and the casual location.

We were so full we decided to take a walk. The downtown was super cute. Described by Jay as "Spanish Revival...1920s & 1930s..."(don't act like you aren't impressed...). I liked the Walk of Stars - just like in Hollywood...names like Elvis Presley & Bob Hope lined the streets. There were old photos of Rock Hudson & other celebrities enjoying the area from several decades ago. Palm Springs definitely prides itself on  its history which was really nice!

We got back to the hotel around mid-afternoon & had a coffee break at the hotel's casual restaurant. 

It was very diner-like and I liked it! Plus, how cute are the creamer & sugar containers? And these stools?

I started feeling artsy. I need to learn bokeh on my camera. I want to really bad. Maybe my friend Joe will help me?

Heading back to the room, Jay actually smiled for the picture but all I got was this...

Room 531. You walked through this wooden door to our patio & then into our room. I loved the door. 

Aren't the fixtures cute? Rustic. I like that too. 

And then it was time for dinner! I was so excited because the place we selected - Castelli's - was highly recommended to us by the CFO at my work. She goes every year and gave it rave reviews. We were definitely not disappointed! We shared the Fried Artichoke Hearts to start and then for the main course we each had one of their specialties. I had the Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and Jay had the Osso Bucco. Both were delicious! 

And the wine. Ahhhh the wine. It deserves it's own paragraph. We splurged on a bottle of Bolla Amarone and I was in heaven. It was absolutely delicious. Yummy. Just thinking of it is making me salivate. 

                                                

It made Jay feel sexy...

                                                

And why do I love my husband so much? Because he isn't afraid to splurge on the finer things in life and he makes me laugh. A lot. 

For dessert Jay had the Creme Brulee (of course) and I had attempted eating a slice of cheesecake. We shared two different glasses of port wine and some coffee before calling it a night. Our fabulous waiter gave us a tour of the restaurant (I was ready for a mobster to walk out of the shadows at any minute) and then handed us a check along with a shot each (including himself!) of Sambucca. What a night!

Thanks hun for a wonderful birthday!!!

Weekend Update: 2 Weekends Ago...(part 1)

Two weekends ago, my husband came home!! It had been a long, LONG time, so it was so nice to see the countdown on my phone get closer and closer to the big day :) Also interesting to note: Scottsdale had rain on 10/21?! 

Jay came home Friday afternoon & we enjoyed a nice little late night dinner at Crust. Saturday I had acupuncture & then Jay went to yoga with me! Of course, after watching some Nebraska football!

Sunday morning we got up, packed, and got on the road. It was a nice slightly overcast morning and the drive to Palm Springs just flew by. Ok, it really didn't. It sucked. It felt like it took forever. 

But we made it! We had gotten a great deal via TravelZoo (have you ever tried it? We got a great deal for our Montreal trip here too) at the Ace Hotel & Swim Club.

The hotel is an old-school motel that has been renovated into a funky retro hotel. We had a patio room that felt very "surfer" to me...

I loved that we had our own private patio to enjoy...

And can you tell that it's a party hotel? They had quite the stash available to us...

Once we checked in, we immediately got into our bathing suits to lay out by the pool. They have a pool party on Sundays with a DJ, so we laid out a bit and Jay got us come cocktails. The drink menu had some interesting items on it so Jay started us off with a drink called a Figa. It's made with house-infused fig vodka, earl grey tea & honey tangerine. Um. It was gross. So guess what? Jay drank both of them. 

Then, he ordered me a Caphirina (cachaca muddled with lime & kiwi) and I didn't like that one either. So...Jay drank it! I thought it was pretty funny: 

(I'm wearing a beautiful shirt that Jay brought home for me! I look super fat in it here, but it's real cute in real life!)

And THEN, I ordered a margarita (below) and was happy! Jay, on the other hand...was drunk :)

Lesson learned: Order the margarita. 

Weekend Update: Easter

We started this weekend off with some grocery shopping & errands on Friday night. It was great getting the errands out of the way so we could relax the rest of the weekend! One of the stops we made was to the library & Jay picked out this book. We got home & he made himself comfortable on the couch for most of the night reading about everything from building a 1-acre farm to canning to composting to raising pigs. 

I got The Help and am really enjoying it! Today I looked forward to going to the park to read a few chapters!

Saturday we had a pretty lazy morning before deciding to go for an afternoon drive. When heading out to the car, I noticed that birds had built a nest up under our roof. You can barely see it here (of course the birds put their heads down as I was taking the picture!), but it's right under that top branch of the bougainvillea up in that corner. I'll have to check back some other time to see if I can get a better picture. 

So, we decided to head south and check out Casa Grande first. There really isn't much there except for some outlet stores that we stopped in. We picked up something perfect for a future "From our Kitchen" post. Anyone have any guesses? 

Next we headed to Eloy to relax a bit at the airport. Can you believe from this sign that it's one of the busiest in the world? 

Well, for this it is:

Can you see 'em now? 

Just as we arrived, 20-30 skydivers jumped out of a plane above us. 

They look really slow until they speed past you in the landing area. 

According to Jay (as you know he's usually right w/these things), Eloy is one of the (if not THE) busiest skydiving airports in the world. Both of us used to fly down to Eloy during flight school for various training flights (hi Ryan!).

We had a beer and appetizer at The Bent Prop Saloon and then sat out on the lawn for a while just watching all of the activity while another round of divers made their way down. It's definitely a hang out spot for people other than skydivers - it's most likely the only place where anything is going on in this very small town!  

Next we headed to Coolidge - another town we've both flown into. Let's just say there wasn't much going on in downtown Coolidge on this Saturday afternoon. I wonder if everyone goes up to "The Big City" on the weekends? It was like a ghost town. 

We also went to Florence which might as well be the same picture as above. Florence had a bit more character though as (I think) it's a bit closer to Phoenix. 

Sunday morning, Jay slept in (till 9!!) while I got up at 7. Talk about role reversal! Due to that, we went to the 10:30 mass. Well let's just say that next Easter, we're going to the 7:00 or 8:30 options! It was crazy packed & we had to stand the whole time. It was a beautiful service & we both really enjoyed the homily. 

We saw Erika & Raelyn along with the Coy family in the courtyard afterwards. Erika was gracious enough to invite us over for a bit and it was so nice catching up! I wish I got a picture of Erika & Raelyn but did snap this great picture of Kelly, Chris, Lyla and Jacob. 

As soon as we got home, I got to cooking. We made ham, corn, these homemade rolls, potatoes, and for dessert, Pioneer Woman's pineapple upside down cake!

Lets just say the cake didn't TURN OUT quite as we planned. Get it? TURN OUT. (I know, I'm hilarious).

It tasted real good but what a sticky mess to clean up! That cast iron pan is just so heavy & next time, instead of trying to help Jay do the flip, I think I'll just let him do it all himself :) 

We hope you and your families had a wonderful Easter weekend and took some time to remember the reason we celebrate it every spring!

xoxo