A Grandparents' Visit, plus Savannah

Grandma and Grandpa Hartman came to visit us before Thanksgiving!  

We introduced them to Chick-Fil-A.  Which they absolutely LOVED (good thing because we do, too!)

They went to the Delta Flight Museum

We spend some time at the airfield, flying Jeff's plane

There were snuggles

And...we all went to SAVANNAH!

We went to River Street for shopping and dinner, where the Gator Bites were not as well received as the Pralines!

We did a trolley tour AND a house tour at the Davenport House.

We walked to City Market, a perfect little collection of artsy shops, tourist stuff, and restaurants.

Ethan and Daddy, hamming it up

Grandma even got to see her beloved college football projected onto the side of a building.

Ethan was such a trouper - mama and baby plus Ergo meant staying up WAY past his bed time.  Worth it, for Leopold's Ice Cream!

Grandma saw her famous statue at Forsyth Park

 And also saw the old Fort Pulaski outside of town

We even managed to make our way to Tybee Island to put our toes in the sand.

Beach selfie!

Family time is FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN

4th of July Family Vacation - Part 2

What happened to the past few months.  Seriously.  It seems like we were JUST on vacation for 4th of July (E was 4 months old)...and I am just now putting up pictures?!? #mommybloggerfail

First we had to survive the road trip across the state (6 hours from Sioux Falls to the cabin with minimal stops, made it an 8+ hour trip with the baby).  He did great until he melted down at Wall.  PS, there are no baby changing stations in the freaking bathrooms of the gas stations.

Before going all the way to the cabin, we stopped to have dinner with Jason and Bobbie at a sports bar.  Now, we don't let the baby watch TV but in a place like that it is inevitable.  He was in heaven.

Then onward to the cabin.  Aka the happiest place on earth.  We had a super wonderful time.  No visits to Mt. Rushmore.  No 1880 train rides.  No gambling in Deadwood.  We were just a family.

...cooking breakfast...eating together...playing with the baby...

...celebrating summer...more eating...grandma babysitting for the first time...

...spending time on the deck watching deer and playing with the baby...

.................And off roading............

#Butfirstletmetakeaselfie

...Spearfish Canyon Lodge, an old rail bed, snowmobile trails and beautiful overlooks...

...where we happened upon this terrifyingly steep waterfall that had no guardrails...

...even Ethan was indoctrinated (thanks Grandpa!!)...

...I love my family...

...and we were in God's Country for sure.

4th of July Family Vacation - Part 1

We packed up the baby and headed HOME to South Dakota for the week of 4th of July!!!!!!!!

We spent the first part of the week in Sioux Falls, seeing lots of family and friends.  We stayed with Jeff's sister's family, and had a wonderful time...we saw Ethan's aunties, uncles, cousins, and grandma and grandpa, and then Mommy's friends and their babies, and also Mommy's aunt and uncle and cousins (and girlfriends)!

Oldest cousin Nick, Grandma, and Ethan (in mommy's favorite Little Duck jammies) 

(ps - the baby literally never got put down!!)

Here's Ben!  The boys love Uncle Jeff because he plays with them like crazy!  

Auntie Jen loves baby bath time - we were more than happy to let her do it.

Grandpa and Baby - that right arm gets a firm grip on the chubby thigh!

Mommy's friend Emily, snuggling a baby that could be a twin to her own baby Max!

Little Miley (she is a Spit.Fire.) and Max

Marne, Miley, Mommy, Ethan, Max, and Emily

It was so fun to chat and watch the kiddos play - it's still hard for me to believe we are all mommies!!!!!!!!!!

This was soooo adorable - these 2 babies were cheesing at each other.  One would grin, which would make the other one grin, and on and on :)

Jeff took the boys on an adventure and found a turtle.  Because, of course they did.

Aunt Kathy was so in love immediately!!!  She would stroke his little hands - a perfect doting auntie.

Uncle Bill of course got thrown up on.  

They graciously hosted us for a dinner at the farm, with my cousins and girlfriends.  

It was so nice to catch up with everyone and introduce Ethan to so many people!  It was wild, and hectic - and this was only the first half of the trip!  We spent the 2nd half in the Hills (more to come).

All of this does make me wish we lived closer to family...and therefore we contemplate moving home every time we visit.  We need to visit when it's yucky - 20 below and snowy - because South Dakota is really wonderful in the summertime!

I'm so nervous to fly.

We are traveling with the baby.  Not camping.  Not a road trip. TRAVELING.  IN A PLANE.

So for all of you non-chubby bunnies out there, let me tell you - nothing is more nerve inducing than being a large-bodied, standby (unconfirmed) flyer.

First, let me be clear.  Flying standby is an amazing PRIVILEGE of being an airline employee.  I realize most people would cut off their arm to be able to have access to the opportunities we have had.  I am so thankful to work for such a great company with perks like this.

That being said, I am SOOOOO super nervous about being my post-baby size and flying with the baby in my lap.

Number 1 - you don't know if you will get a seat on the plane.  So you show up hoping the flight isn't full.

Number 2 - you almost always will get a middle seat (if you get a seat at all) because those are the last seats assigned to revenue passengers.

Number 3 - there are no requests to the gate agent for an "open" seat next to you (because the plane is usually full and because again, it's a privilege).

Number 4 - a lot of times a non-revver will get an exit row seat assigned if there are not enough upgrades. BUT if you have to use a seatbelt extender you can't sit in the exit row.  And because our seats are assigned 0.5 seconds before the door is closed there is a big flurry of activity to move people and re-seat...no inconspicuousness there.

Number 5 - our flight is on a regional jet which has super small seats and aisles to begin with.  I'm afraid my post-baby tush alone will encroach on my neighbor.  Who is most definitely not going to be my husband because as previously mentioned, we take what we get and seats are not usually together.

Number 6 - While my post-baby tush "might" encroach, FOR SURE my squirmy 4-month old (!) and giant chest will certainly have elbows in my neighbors air space and armrest.

Number 7 - I am a nursing mommy.  But I will not even think about trying it in flight, even if it might be better for baby's ears, hunger, disposition, etc...we are bringing a billion BM bottles.  Which will be cold.  And E doesn't drink cold milk.  So I will have to figure out how to jam it between between my legs, or under my arm, or in a scalding hot paper cup of water from the FA (yeah, not doing that one).  And then feeding it to him while again, not encroaching as much as possible.

Number 8 - this particular flight has been late leaving ATL super consistently for whatever reason (probably all the storms at our destination).  So a 3-hour flight could easily turn into a 6-hour flight with a diversion (as my parents experienced 2 weekends ago on the same route).

Number 9 - Where the heck do you change a baby on a plane?

Number 10 - As a standby passenger, our bags are not guaranteed to get to our destination...so we have ALWAYS only traveled with carry-ons.  Yeah.  This time we have 2 giant checked bags packed.  I hope they show up.

GAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  But I'm sure all will work out fine.  It will be worth it to get to see our families and friends when we arrive.

Beach Vaca

We took our camping "on the road"...to the BEACH!!!

We went to St. Joseph Peninsula State Park in sunny Florida.  This park is located on the Gulf side, about an hour south of Panama City Beach.

After about a 6.5 hour drive, we pulled into our camping spot about 5PM on Thursday.  The drive took us a little longer than anticipated - between 2 gas stops, a lunch stop, and the HOT weather (95 degrees) limiting our speed of towing (no faster than about 62MPH).

And this is probably gross - but somewheres around Eufala, AL we hit a LOT of bugs...yuck...

Anyway, after we arrived, we set up pretty fast, cooked up a quick dinner, and then walked over to see how close the ocean waves were...it was probably less than a 5min walk from our site!!

We walked down just in time to watch the sunset over the calm water.  It was beautiful.

Also of course, being a peninsula, there is a bay side as well.  The bay is super shallow a long way out in places (we'll get to that later) but it is not walkable from the campground.

On Friday, we woke up to birds chirping and (G-D) yellow flies buzzing.  Those suckers BITE!  So we cranked on our A/C and had breakfast inside the camper...lame, I know, but it was already really hot and the bugs were impervious to Deet.

Our friend Anna came down from Tallahassee with her almost-4-year-old Owen and spent the day at the beach with us.  We had a ball!!!  Owen and Jeff were two peas in a pod - they both LOVE LOVE LOVE the water and don't want to come out if they don't have to.

We floated on rafts, jumped waves, chatted, and totally relaxed.  And - not too sunburned!

On Friday night, the bugs were having none of it so we decided to go into Port St Joe for a "date night".

We went to dinner at Sunset Coastal Grill.  You can see why it's named that!

In addition to the view being absolutely amazing, the food was so incredibly good.  Jeff had some sort of local white fish and I had the most excellent fried shrimp EVER.  I don't usually order that dish (anti-fried) but it sounded good and was a specialty.  I did not regret it!  So, so yummy.  So fresh and crisp and delicious...I'm hungry just thinking about it.

On Saturday, I learned to snorkel.  We headed to the bay side and (upon advice of someone who had been there) walked a small hiking trail to a secluded beach area.  We parked our stuff and waded in.  Boy, was I glad for the water shoes!  Those sea urchins were sharp - and the bay extended really really really far, so you could walk out and not hardly get more than waist deep.

We snorkeled, and snorkeled, and snorkeled...and snorkeled.  We came up really often to talk and exclaim how much fun we were having.  And, we took one break to eat a bit of our picnic lunch and reapply sunscreen back on shore (note to self for next time, put it almost IN the private bits because your tush literally sticks in the air the whole time).  (Also note - not really photo of me and Jeff but wanted to illustrate the tush idea.)

After probably 6 hours in the water, we were pooped.  We showered and headed into town again (damn bugs) to hit up Joe Mama's Wood Fired Pizza.  So good!  Food always tastes better when you're starving, but this was truly yummy.

On Sunday we woke up mega-early to mostly tear down so we could - you guessed it - snorkel some more!  We went to a different area of the bay, and saw TONS of stingrays - one so big it startled Jeff really bad...but luckily no real "encounters".

We had soooo much fun and feel super lucky to have the beach only 6 hours drive away.  It was a perfect way to spend a perfect weekend!  We can't wait to go back soon.