Cincinnati trip

A few weeks ago, Logan and I packed our bags and headed to Cincinnati for a week.

The big reason we were going was my BFF Courtney was turning 30 and a few close friends threw her a huge surprise dinner and party in Columbus. Obviously I could not miss it. From being my maid of honor, throwing me showers and parties, coming to visit and shooting our maternity photos... it felt was so great that people were all getting together to celebrate her life!

Anyways, Geoff was working so Logan and I headed to the airport to fly home. While this was his 15th and 16th flights (i think... haha too many to keep up with) and I felt comfortable traveling with him... a toddler is a whole different beast than a baby! We were so lucky that both flights we had an open seat next to us. The flight is a quick 2 hours and I had my ipad ready to go with a few episodes of Sesame Street and Paw Patrol, a few new toys, a matchbox car and more snacks than you can imagine. Logan did fantastic on the flights but by the time we landed, I was exhausted by constant entertaining to keep him happy.

(he is not too happy about posing for a selfie with me, haha)

When my friends with newborns ask my advice on traveling... I tell them to go on trips as soon as possible. Hahaha. It is so much easier to fly with a newborn than a toddler. However, I think toddlers are much more fun at this age... always a trade off.

Anyways, once we landed and my dad picked us up, we headed home for Logan's nap which he completely refused. One look at the crib in my old room had him totally freaked out and crying non stop. This would be something that we battled all week long until the last 2 days of our visit. We don't co-sleep at home. It just doesn't work out for us... Logan sees us and thinks it's time to play or climb on us- no matter what time it is. For some reason this week... the crib was not where he wanted to be so if I laid down in the bed with him, he was out. Because of this, I took a lot of naps with him and enjoyed the extra snuggles. :) The last 2 days, we finally got him to sleep in the crib. (I credit it mostly to my dad who after I tried a few times to get him to re-settle, would go up and sing to him. Eventually he laid down on the ground and pretended to sleep until Logan laid down and went to sleep himself. He's awesome!)

 After my mom got home from work, we headed to one of our favorite places for dinner- Wild Mikes for some wings. There are a few restaurants that we always visit when I am home and this is our top one.

Wednesday during Logan's nap- we headed into the car and drove two hours to Columbus. I timed it that way hoping he would sleep and thankfully he did. We arrived at Cosi a little after 2. We didn't have to be at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for Courtney's surprise dinner until 6 so we had some time to kill. I had looked up kid friendly places to take Logan to run around for a few hours and Cosi was amazing. It was $5 to park, $18 for me to enter and because Logan was under 2, he was free. We went straight to the kid zone and stayed there until they closed at 5. It was amazing. (I apologize for the photo explosions.)

After I drug Logan out of Cosi (literally) kicking and screaming... we got to the car and headed to dinner. I knew we might hit some bad traffic and I was glad to have the hour to make our way over.
The surprise for Courtney went well and hopefully she had a blast surrounded by friends and family that love her.

We left around 10 (way past Logan's bedtime but he was having a blast running around with the other little girl there) and luckily he slept all the way home to Cincinnati and I just put him in bed with me once we arrived at my parents and we were both out like a light.

The next morning, my mom and dad were both off work so we headed over to Newport on the Levee. We had lunch at Tom + Chee which is a grilled cheese restaurant (if you watch Shark Tank you may remember them from the show) and it was so so so good!
We then headed almost next door to the Newport Aquarium. This place rocks! We had so much fun showing Logan all the fish, turtles, sharks, stingrays... he stayed in the stroller for the first bit and then ran around pointing at exhibits the rest of the time. Eventually he passed out in the stroller right before we saw the penguins. I'm pretty sure we all had a blast.

Friday was pretty low-key for us all. We met my friend and her son at the mall to run out some energy, came home to nap and then met another friend with her kids for dinner. We also took a walk to the park at the top of my parents street. This was one of Logan's favorite things and he never forgot about the park. When we would get out of the car, he would always start walking up the street. Silly boy! We even got him to go down the slide all by himself.

 

Saturday we woke up to a visit from my uncle and then I got ready, said goodbye to Logan (he had the whole day with Grandma and Grandpa) and drove to Columbus for the second time. I headed over to my good friend Audra's house to visit with her for the afternoon.
Then around 4, I got ready to leave and drove back into Columbus for the party for Courtney's birthday. This time she knew about the party but that was it. There was catered food and a great band all for us to enjoy. They even had a gluten free cake for her.  It was a really great time and even though I missed Logan, I enjoyed an adult night out. :)

I still had to drive home that evening (left around 11 so got home around 1am- which is super super late for me) because Sunday we had more fun planned. The majority of my girlfriends who I have known forever, got together at Julies house for brunch. There were so many kids running around- I think it was something like 10 girls and 17 kids (with 6 additional babies due to be born this year and next). It was chaotic but so much fun. Logan had only met most of the kids and adults once or twice in his lifetime so it was interesting to see him interact. He wasn't shy like he normally is when we go somewhere new and he was sure to give a lot of the younger girls and boys his bear hugs where he doesn't let go (we are working on it), resulting in a few tears... it's not a party until someone cries from being hugged. haha. I found out later, my parents let him stay up way too late the night before so that may have had a little to do with it too... ;)

All in all we had a fantastic visit home. It flew by and felt way too short but I felt like we got a lot in while we were home. Our next visit will be around late September/early October to snuggle all of the new babies my friends will have had. :)

Columbia, SC

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and start to December!!! We traveled to visit family over the holiday weekend and once we got home, we were in full party planning mode. The whole week was spent prepping cleaning and decoration making! (I'll recap our party next... trying desperately to get caught up before the holiday madness)

Thanksgiving morning, we all got up to finish packing and head straight to the airport for our flight to Charleston, SC. I was hoping that the flight would be fairly empty, but it was full with only 5 seats to spare. Lucky for me, we were able to all sit together since Logan no longer sleeps during flights and takes a lot of work to entertain. It is so so so much easier to have Geoff sitting right next to me than it was on my flights to Cincinnati all by myself. It was also so weird to be able to have my phone on the whole flight and made me realize that a lot has changed since I have been out on leave. (Reality is starting to set in that I'm going back to work in a few short weeks... eeek)

My Dad and my brother Kyle were there to meet us when we landed and we all piled in the car for the drive to Columbia. My Mom and Dad were very thoughtful and brought a car seat & stroller with them so we were able to travel very light.

That night we went to a restaurant that was serving up some Thanksgiving grub! Even though we had already made our family Turkey feast (and eaten left overs)... I couldn't pass up another helping. It was really good. Geoff went a different route and had scallops. Boy oh boy were they perfect! We ended off the night with some apple pie and headed home to put Logan to bed.

This trip, we were all staying at Kyle and his girlfriend Amanda's two bedroom apartment. Learning from the disaster of room sharing with Logan back in Cincinnati, we came up with a fun solution. We stuck the pack and play in the closet of the guestroom (where Geoff and I were staying). He was able to have his own little space, with white noise, his lovey and blanket and we were able to sleep in our room with NO problems!!! Woo hoo.

The next few days were filled with sight seeing, tours of Amanda's work, eating (and more eating) and hanging out. It was so so nice for us all to be together for once and it made me remember once more how much I wish that we all lived closer to each other. What we saw of Columbia seemed really nice and I will be excited to come back and explore more!

It was great to see Logan interact with everyone. The last time Kyle saw him was back in March, and Amanda had yet to meet him. He is at a GREAT stage right now where he is sleeping well (knock on everything wood) and so much fun to play with. He pretty much is in a great mood 90% of the time and it's great for everyone to get to see this fun time in our lives.

The last night, we were lucky enough to all have tickets to the SC vs. Clemson game. I strapped Logan in the Boba and we hit up a tailgate for an hour before the game. It was a much different experience to be tailgating with a baby vs. what I did in college. I guess we all underestimated the chaos that college football games are... (esp big games such as this one). I must have pushed all of that out of my mind and while we fought the crowds to get in, I highly regretted not passing and watching the game from their apartment. We ended up sitting outside for the first 10 minutes of the game and then heading to our seats. Logan wasn't really sure about the crowd and spent the majority of the first half with his head snuggled into my shoulder and taking peeks at the crowd, lights and field.

For the second half of the game, Geoff wore Logan with our Rosk (which is a blanket that attaches to the the carrier) while we walked around and got hot chocolate. Logan fell asleep (since it was bed time) and we finished out the game standing in a section where we had a great view of the field with no crazy crowds around us. It was really fun, but I felt slightly bad for putting Logan in a situation where he was clearly overstimulated. We are lucky that he is such a trooper and has a great attitude even when we make mistakes. This whole first year of parenting is such a learning experience and I will be the first to admit that I am not perfect, and have made mistakes along the way. Someone once told me that it's ok because at this age, they wont remember... which I guess is a blessing. :)

Anyways, we had a wonderful time and I can't wait to have everyone come to visit us once the weather up north is a little warmer.

I know this is a very delayed recap, but I really hope everyone is enjoying the holidays! Cheers.

Seattle

We are home from Seattle and what a fun fun trip we had! It is always so good to spend time with family (and have a few other faces and hands to help entertain Logan). I do have to say that I am so thankful for technology as we facetime with family often and because of this, Logan immediately recognized everyone and was all smiles. It was extremely fun to see him interacting with his cousins again and they were so excited to see him everyday. They would run over and shout "Logan" every time we walked into the room, rubbing his head and giving him hugs. He is much more expressive now then he was when we traveled to Edmonton and they Loved to make him laugh.

While we were there, we did the usual things we always do... relax, eat a ton of food, go to a Mariners game and try to sleep in as best as we could with the time change and baby. We also went to a few new spots this year which was really fun and I already can't wait to take Logan back next year. :)

Here are a few of the Highlights-
Our first full day in Seattle, we headed to the Mariners game. We enjoyed Garlic Fries, Hotdogs and Nachos. This was Logan's first baseball game and while I think he enjoyed the sights and sounds, the fries were definitely his favorite part.

The next day we went over to Alki Beach for the afternoon. I've been here before on past trips and just LOVE Alki Beach. We had lunch at Marination Station (tacos... yum!) overlooking downtown Seattle. It was a gorgeous day out, so we had a great time walking around and sticking our feet into the water- Logan included.  The beach here isn't the soft sand that I've known down in Florida and the Carolinas but that didn't stop us from enjoying the water.

I had not been to Green Lake Park before so when we had more good weather, we decided to spend the afternoon here. We ate delicious chowder at Dukes located across from the park. After we finished we crossed the street and took the walk around the lake. This place was amazing. It has a beautiful lake with lots of people walking, running and biking. There were people playing instruments, others swimming and paddle boarding in the lake and by the beach area, there is a smaller wading pool and a HUGE playground for kids. We watched the nephews run around while Logan napped and then after he was awake, I hit the swings with everyone. I do not remember the last time I was able to really play on a playground and I got excited for the day I can swing with Logan and see who can go the highest. :) We spent all afternoon here and the kids were sad to leave.
(Let's be honest, I was sad to leave as well!)

Another day, we headed over to Magnolia where my brother and sister in law are moving this fall. We got to check out their new house and then headed over to walk around Discovery Park. This is a huge park (I'm pretty sure it is the biggest park in Seattle...) and we popped Logan in the stroller to walk to see the lighthouse and beach area. Little did we know that our route took us up and down stairs. Oops. I ended up wearing Logan in my Boba carrier for the whole walk back while Geoff and his brother carried the stroller. Good to know for the next time we visit! It was a beautiful walk/hike and I can't wait to come back when Logan is running around.

One afternoon, we headed downtown to Pikes Place Market. I love visiting Markets and this one is so much fun to walk around and take in the flowers, produce and watch the guys tossing fish around. We took a few photos over at the bubble gum wall and then walked over to the waterfront where they have a big Ferris Wheel set up. We saw it last year while we were visiting and decided to check it out this time. For the price, you get three rotations on the wheel with some pretty nice views of Seattle and the water. Logan had a minor melt down for the first round but we were able to get him settled for the second two. I know I enjoyed it but not sure if he did. Oops.

As you can see, we lucked out with some lovely weather. It didn't rain at all until our second week in town and even then, it wasn't too much.
We spent a few afternoons letting Logan nap since we had him out and about for full days. I've mentioned this before but we ate out a LOT. The food in Seattle is just too good not to. We started Logan on 3 meals a day once we got here because he definitely does not like to sit there and watch us eat. He wants in on the action and right now he has a BIG appetite.

Our last day in town, I wanted some family photos of us since I get a lot of Logan but not enough of the three of us. Adel took our engagement photos for us two years ago in Seattle so I was excited to have him take more of us. I can't wait to get those once he is done editing them!

Anyways, that is what we have been up to for the past two weeks! Hope everyone is having a great start to August!

Hello from beautiful Seattle

We are in the middle of two weeks in Seattle with family! We have lucked out with some amazing weather and have been filling our days with lots of food and lots of fun. I'll be back with stories soon but just wanted to stop in and say hello. :)

if you want to see more photos of what's going on... Follow me on instagram!

Hope everyone is having a great end of July... I can not believe its already August!

Logans first trip to Edmonton, Alberta

So a few weeks ago we traveled to Edmonton, Alberta in Canada to finally have Logan meet the rest of his family! Woo Hoo. Logan got his first stamp in his passport and we all survived a whole day of flying, time changes and co-sleeping (not what we planned for but it is what worked for us). That my friends, right there, is a successful trip... all the fun we had with family was "icing on the cake". (Cause lets be honest, as fun as I might make it sound... traveling with a baby is hard work.)

For the flight out- we flew Boston to Newark, switched terminals and then flew Newark to Edmonton. 5 hour flight taking off at 8pm- aka Logan's bedtime. I was Scared!!!! It went better than expected. I nursed on take off and then Logan was ready for bed. However, he was not in his crib so he was confused! It took a good 3 minutes of hard crying, loud shhhhhhing and a few kisses for him to promptly pass out on my chest for the rest of the flight. Those three minutes felt like 3 hours to us but really he held it together really well.

What wasn't so swell was when he woke up for deplaning, customs, the 40 minute ride "home" and then staying up for another hour to visit with family. By that time it was around 4am at home and now we wanted him to sleep? In a strange pack and play all by himself? Nope. Not going to happen. This is how we ended up sleeping with Logan in the middle of the bed and Geoff and myself perched on the edges for the rest of the trip. (No room for us since he was all marshmallowman-like in his Sleepsuit.) Whatever works, right?

The rest of the trip was wonderful. We hung out, played, went for walks, ate lots and lots of good food and enjoyed having Geoff's mom help out with Logan. She even watched him for us while we all went to see Star Trek in the movie theater. It was glorious to be out for a short while but I missed him like crazy!

We took him to the park one day and he had his first trip down the slide and first time in a swing. I think we were more excited than he was. 

The nephews were so so good with Logan. It was wonderful to see how much they loved him already. I can't wait until they can all run around and play together. Makes me excited for Logan to eventually have a brother or sister (even though I am no where near ready for another... yikes!)

I'm glad our boy is such a great little traveler thus far since we have trips to Cincinnati and Seattle coming up!

Sanur, Bali & Tanah Lot

Okay... lets finish this trip recap up! We left Pemuteran early in the morning to get started on our drive down to Sanur. It was quite a long drive but made a few sight seeing stops along the way to break it up and stretch our legs. Here are some beautiful views (one of many that we saw from the car) of rice paddy fields.

We had arranged for our driver to make a big stop at Tanah Lot on the way there. We tried to figure out a way to get there for sunset (to get some good photos) but it would pretty much eat up an extra day to do it, so we decided the afternoon was good enough. It worked out well that way because we had overcast skies and light rain, our sunset photos probably would have looked similar to those we took.

 Tanah Lot means "Land in the middle of the sea" and is thought to be the work of Nirartha, a 15th-century priest. It is a beautiful rock temple that holds a place in Balinese mythology and we loved it! (I'm only showing you a small amount of the photos we took!)

Once we made it to Sanur, we checked into our hotel, which was right by the water and went walking along the main road for dinner. Our hotel was just a walk away from quite a few restaurants, cafes and bars. I had a huge craving for queso and chips (which we did not get) and McDonald's chicken nuggets (which we did get). Besides eating, we relaxed at the pool, laid by the beach and I sipped on many fresh squeezed juice combos. Yum! 

I had wanted to do a few things here, especially swimming with the dolphins but they cautioned against it, being pregnant... maybe next time!

 We had an amazing time in Bali! I hope some day we will get to come back and show Logan around!