As promised, I wanted to share some photos from the beautiful baby shower in Cali last weekend.
Thank you to Mary Beth & Kirby for throwing such a great shower for Mandy and sweet baby L!
Thank you to Chris for taking care of your bedridden wife + four more girls for the weekend,
for allowing us to snuggle & eat dinner in your bed, and for making us Kilroy’s bread sticks at 9am!
It was such a fun trip and we cannot wait to meet baby L!
my weekend started very early friday morning, 4:30am est to be exact.
i headed to the other orange county for a quick trip and stopped over in houston on the way.
we requested to take the scenic route from the airport up the pacific coast highway.
you can see why. absolutely breathtaking.
i had to get my first in and out burger and fries, animal style.
delicious, i tell ya.
the hoosiers played at 9am in cali. 9am. how amazing is that?
we (the girls) watched the game, snuggled up on the couch in our pjs, eating kilroy’s breadsticks.
it was perfect.
that afternoon we celebrated our dear friend mandy and baby l.
many more pictures to come.
mbk and kirby threw the beautiful shower, it was perfect in every way.
meanwhile, greg and the nugget were home watching football.
celeste and i went to work after the shower assembling lots of baby gear for our bedridden friend.
we had entirely too much fun.
while i spent the day traveling across time zones, kenley was home being cute.
***
it was a very quick trip across the country, but it was worth every minute.
i had a great time with the girls and showering mandy with love.
how was your weekend?
since i haven’t had the slightest idea what day it has been for the last week,
i figured this would be a good way to recap our christmas vacation.
have no fear, the my weekend in photos series will continue next year.
first happy meal at the airport!
we headed to indiana in the middle of a snow storm after an hour and a half delay.
overall, kenley was so so good. and slept in the most awkward position on the flight.
she was slightly confused to find a dog when she woke up the next morning.
trying to stay warm with temperatures in the high 20s.
check out that snow outside!
we were able to meet brittney, patrick & will for lunch!
brittney and i have been friends since birth, so it was fun to see our babies together.
it was also will’s first birthday!
katie & ashton were able to come play too!
kenley and ashton are about three weeks apart,
and played together so nicely.
it was fun to watch kenley open presents even though she wasn’t entirely sure what was going on.
we were so thankful that the peña’s braved the weather to come down to visit.
kp, jack & kenley… nothing but trouble!
besties.
cozy on the couch, all snuggled up, home for the holidays.
reading my christmas gift on the way to the airport that inspired us to get to work when we got home.
kenley trying to stay occupied on the way to the airport, too.
yet another awkward sleeping position.
more christmas presents once we got home to florida!
the little apron kills me.
kenley and kyler have been enjoying christmas break.
a trip to homegoods means lunch at which wich! so happy about both.
and an ikea trip means frozen yogurt!
four days worth of clean diapers and one cute helper.
***
we had a wonderful trip to indiana and a great christmas,
and have enjoyed the extra days off to do several house projects,
which i am anxious to share!
how was your holiday? and weekend? (it is the weekend right?)
Thank you so much for the sweet, congratulatory comments about the half marathon.
Ya’ll are awesome!
***
our weekend began on thursday night as we headed to grammy’s house for an early christmas
kenley and her cousins at grammy camp!
no smiles from kenley and cullen. can you tell these two are related?
it was a gorgeous friday & kenley loved strolling on the beach
mama loved it too!
kenley loving her present
the other gilbertson kiddos
testing out the new wheels on our way to breakfast
my store!
adventures in the wagon continued at the beach
cullen teaching kenley how to play in the sand
testing the water…which was freezing
jumping off the dock!
manatees in the water in the distance
adventures in the wagon continued. dinner time downtown.
my favorite niece
***
we had a great, early christmas celebration at grammy’s house,
which is one of our favorite traditions.
now it’s time to unpack and repack!
how was your weekend?
Kenley and I headed up to Indiana for a quick trip this past weekend.
45 hours, to be exact.
We had some fun, family functions we had been invited to,
but I just pulled the trigger last weekend and decided to just go.
This was after a very crazy week, which I will share with you at a later date.
We had SO much fun and saw SO many people during our short visit.
It was awesome to enjoy the first day of fall with the cool, crisp weather.
We celebrated Megan & baby GB on Saturday morning.
Meg didn’t know that Kenley & I were coming in, nor Misha, who came from Seattle!
Later that night, we celebrated Logan & Vanessa who got married in Alaska!
Fail, I didn’t even get a picture of the bride and groom.
Sunday, we had a play date with Katie & Ashton and spent time with the other side of the family.
I like to think that I’ve reached pro traveler status by flying solo with Kenley.
Even though I know moms do it probably all the time, I’m pretty impressed that we did so well.
Kenley was a rock star and flying after bedtime was an excellent idea.
Not to mention, I made it there and back with one carry-on suitcase.
That’s got to be some sort of record!
We had a great weekend in Indiana
and were so thankful to see so many wonderful people in such a short amount of time.
***
How was your weekend?
Apparently this post has been much anticipated, so I hope it can live up to the expectations.
Obviously, I mentioned several times that we traveled with Kenley a couple weeks ago.
Flying
Growing up, we didn’t travel much by plane. Our family drove everywhere.
We had a great van(s) with the works, so we were able to stretch out and get comfy.
Greg, on the other hand, had been flying since he was a kid.
Once we moved to Florida though, we became frequent flyers.
Our flight experiences consisted of getting to the airport right on time, or near right on time,
with everything packed nicely in our carry-on luggage, grabbing a beer, and boarding our flight.
Oh, how times have changed.
They’ve even changed since Kenley’s first flight.
This time around we didn’t even pack the Ergo, but opted for our new super-light umbrella stroller,
which turned out to be a great purchase and very convenient.
We try to travel light with our carry-on luggage. I packed the diaper bag to the brim with the necessities
and Greg carried our camera bag with the small, fragile items. These two bags are easy to carry on our person,
so we have two free hands to deal with a squirmy child, if need be.
The flights were only two hours each way and they were a challenge.
She was by no means bad on either flight, but due to her age and her very busy nature,
it was a struggle on our part to keep her occupied in the small space we had available.
I was able to get her to sleep on both flights for about 45-50 minutes :: cue angels singing ::
and no matter how bad my arm hurt holding nearly 20 pounds of dead weight,
I wasn’t going to move it for the life of me. Let’s go back to rule #1…never wake a sleeping baby.
The flight attendants, on the other hand, couldn’t care less that we had a sleeping baby on our hands.
They were the first to let us know we were at cruising altitude and we were free to use our portable electronics.
Mmmmkay, thanks.
While she was awake, it was an reenactment of a WWF wrestling match.
Kenley was up and down, then would crawl over to Greg, then back to me.
She was curious to see what was going on. She had no interest in the toys we brought her,
then ended up on the floor every time we gave them to her. Then that turned into a game in itself.
We had a snack and some puffs to pass the time.
Thankfully, on the way back, there was a sweet little boy in the seat in front of us who kept
putting his hand through the seat when he heard Kenley get fussy.
She loved it and it distracted her for a short bit.
Greg occupied another five minutes by clicking the reading light on and off… on and off.
She was enthralled by it. It’s the little things I guess.
Like I said, she really was good on both flights, but it was exhausting.
Greg gets stressed out easily in situations like that and gets worried about the people around us,
which, in turn, makes me stress out more about Greg than Kenley.
I kid you not, once we were back in the Orlando airport, I said to Greg that we are not having any more kids.
Obviously, the moment has passed and we can laugh about it now and needless to say, we were ready to get home.
Car Riding
We were very fortunate that my parents had an infant car seat, which means we didn’t have to bring one.
Big win.
Kenley is usually pretty good in the car & car seat. After flying 2 hours, we had to drive about an hour
to get back to my parents’ house. I used this time to feed her a snack to pass the time.
It was nice to always have someone in the back seat with her to help keep her entertained.
We didn’t travel very far once we arrived at our destination, so the next long trip was back to the airport to go home.
Simplifying Life
We took advantage of the fact that we were going to be on vacation and opted to use disposable diapers.
It was one less thing to worry about and much less to pack in our suitcase.
It was nice and a good break from diaper laundry, but it didn’t change our mind about using cloth back home.
We also decided to get jars and pouches of baby food.
These Boon spoons were clutch all week when we were on the go. They attach directly to the food pouch.
Genius I tell ya.
We love making Kenley’s baby food at home,
but knew that it would be silly to do that on vacation. Again, a nice little break for us.
We tried to stay our normal schedule as much as we could, but we knew we were going to be flexible.
The first night Kenley was up about two hours past her bedtime and we honestly didn’t even mind.
It was a special occasion and we were cognoscente of the fact that people wanted to see her.
The rest of the week was more normal. While it was a little more difficult for her to sleep in a pack-n-play,
she ended up taking an extra nap every day while we were there, which was fine with us.
Rolling with the Punches
Of course, we were bound to forget something. Unfortunately, it was Kenley’s lovies that she sleeps with every night.
We improvised and purchased the next best thing at Marshall’s as soon as we arrived. This one had a rattle in it,
so I preformed some surgery on the little guy, opening him up, removing the silly noise maker, and sewing him back together.
He worked out great all week for her cuddling needs and now acts as a back-up at home.
After the hour+ car ride back to the airport and knowing she was going to be cooped up on the plane,
we let her crawl all over the dirty airport floor. When push comes to shove, you realize it’s not the end of the world.
Whatever it takes to keep your sanity.
So, there you have it, our travel experience with an (almost) 9 month old.
Do you have any tips for traveling with a tot?
While some may not consider a trip to Indiana a “summer vacation”, it was for us.
Who would have thought that when we booked our trip months ago
that it would be hotter in Indiana than it was in Florida.
No joke, it was over 100* the entire time we were there.
Another fun fact, it stays light so late up there. Like, the sun set at 9:15pm,
so there were nights that we went to bed and it was still light outside. Yeah, winners.
This trip to Indiana was the perfect mix of relaxing and seeing family & friends.
We got to see most of our family & friends on the first night we were there!
Michael & Rachel were down from Chi-town for a few days, so it was great to see them.
For some reason, it took Kenley a little to warm up to Michael,
which was strange since she had just seen him over Mother’s Day weekend.
All of the Lower great-grandkids were in one place at one time!
David & Jodi made the trip to Indiana for the week too, so it worked out nicely.
It was so good to see the majority of our cousins & their kids,
even though we did miss the ones who couldn’t make it.
Megan also made the trip up from Btown to snuggle Miss Kenley.
Over the course of the night, Kenley was passed from one person to the next
and didn’t make one peep about it. She was so good and stayed up way past her bedtime,
which her father and I paid for later,
but that was okay since it meant she got to see a lot of different people.
We spent the following days swimming and playing outside as much as we could.
Greg and I also hit up our local favorites like Dortee’s, the Mexican restaurant, and the Curve.
We celebrated the 4th of July with a trip out on the boat.
Due to the insane heat and lack of rain, the lake was being drained by the day,
so it was crazy low and was one of the last days the boat was actually in the water.
Pretty crazy, but luckily we were able to head out for a short bit.
Greg and I stayed under the umbrella with Kenley and jumped in when we could.
We didn’t see one firework while we were there also due to the heat and dryness.
Cameron and Kenley got to play together afterwards!
Greg and I celebrated our 4th anniversary while we were vacationing.
We played golf in the morning. Kenley came along for the ride and loved it!
After bedtime, we headed to dinner just the two of us.
It was great having grandma and grandpa there to babysit.
I had big plans to blog about our wedding day to commemorate our anniversary,
but that clearly didn’t get done, so look for that post in the future.
Overall, Kenley did wonderful. We tried to stay on schedule as much as possible,
and she even ended up taking an extra nap every day we were there.
It was so fun for Greg and I to spend the week with her.
She’s changing every day and learning new things and we were able to watch her explore
her new surroundings which was great.
More on traveling with a tot later.
I think it’s safe to say Kenley enjoyed her time at Grandma & Grandpa’s house.
this weekend was the tail end of our summer vaca.
my first trip to the container store. i was in organization heaven.
i finally got to meet sweet baby hayden and those pretty blue eyes
our little zeta legacies. can you believe hayden and addy are sisters?
half of our group together in indiana with our babies, missing our other half.
kenley and holden playing together
he was so sweet and patient with her
one last swim before it was time to leave
leaving the insanely hot weather while downing five shots of espresso between greg and i
allowing our child to play on the dirty airport floors. judge away.
strange clouds coming into orlando. more on our flight and traveling later.
after errands and grocery shopping, we headed over to the jenkinson’s
kyler can sit up now and play with kenley
as i pulled out my computer to start blogging,
i realized this is what happens when you check your computer in your luggage.
there were tears.
hindsight it was a bad move even though we’ve done this many times,
but that’s easy to say now.
***
a full vaca recap is to follow this week. we’re back to the real world tomorrow.
how was your weekend?
mani/pedi after work to kick off vacation right
kyler came to play before we left
kenley’s second trip to indiana was a success, just a little more difficult than when she was just a 2 month old
more on that later, i’m sure.
party time at grandma & grandpa’s house
kenley with her great-grandma lower
michael & rachel
reunited with my bestie
the youngest babes of the lower cousins
jack – 18 months, kenley – 8 months, frankie – 15 months, landon – 10 months
flashback of when they were all together over Christmas
all the great-grandkiddos
sweet samantha loving on kenley
swimming at grandma & grandpa’s for the first time
fun in the sun before the storms moved in
a perfect size chair
bananas! she got a few in her mouth, not bad for the first time
relaxing and enjoying a beautiful evening
***
how was your weekend?
Kenley hit the beach for the first time this past weekend.
We were lucky that the hotel had cabanas included with our rooms, they were first come, first serve.
Good thing we have a human alarm clock that gets us up early.
We were able to snag five of them with the amount of people we had in our parties.
What is this stuff?
Ohhh, it’s wet. I wonder how it tastes.
Playing defense. A daily game in our household.
Of course her bathing suit bottoms and swim diaper were filled with sand.
Luckily, we packed more than enough to take down to the beach with us, including diapers.
Hanging out with the girls in the sun.
The pack-n-play was a last minute decision in case there wasn’t a crib in our hotel room.
It definitely came in handy. We were hoping she would take a snooze in it,
but she obviously didn’t want to miss anything, so that didn’t happen.
It was nice though not to have to hold her the entire time or worry about her getting too much sun, eating sand, etc.
The tide coming in. She loves the water and splashed around a bit.
Overall, the first beach experience was a success.
It definitely helped having great amenities, but now we know, for the most part,
what to expect and what to pack/not to pack for our next beach excursion.
Oh, the perks of Florida living.
