Tag Archives: vacation

Living in a Daydream

The past couple days, I’ve been daydreaming about being somewhere peaceful and warm. It might have something to do with the winter dragging on for what seems like forever (it always feels like forever by the time March rolls around); it might have to do with becoming larger and more pregnant as each day progresses; or it might be due to feeling sick and wanting to teleport elsewhere. Whatever it is, I’ve been thinking a lot about the beach, kayaking and relaxing to the sound of waves crashing against the shore.

Where do your daydreams take you?

Honeymoon pictures from June 2009

Wordless Wednesday: Our Disney World Vacation

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Today’s post is basically a photo dump of some of the highlights of our vacation last week. Yes, there are a few pictures of ice cream. That’s what happens when a pregnant person goes on vacation. What can you do? Ice cream is delicious, and I apologize if any of you have cravings after the viewing of these pictures.

I tried this in TX a few years ago, and HAD to buy it when I saw it in FL!

Waiting in the back of the rental while we tore the tags off the new stroller (we forgot ours at home!).

C broke Hubster’s sunglasses, so he bought this ginormous old-man-ish pair to wear over his glasses.

C was very skeptical about meeting Jake.

A nice couple took this pic of us on the tram back to the parking lot one night.

Ghirardelli sundaes at Downtown Disney!

He LOVES the Mickey bus that we got him.

Waiting for my men while they went on the safari at Animal Kingdom (pregnant women are not allowed).

C and Hubster on the train at Animal Kingdom!

C’s reaction when I told him we were in line to meet Mickey Mouse!

Love this face. Pure joy while coming down this slide.

Nom nom nom. Mickey ice cream sandwich.

Playing the drums in Africa at Animal Kingdom.

A selfie with my love (and my jacked up humidity hair).

Our Disney Photo Pass pic when C met Mickey Mouse for the first time. He was so excited!

All set to leave the hotel for a long day at Magic Kingdom!

Ready to take a dip in the pool!

Hubster and C while we were riding the teacups at Magic Kindom.

Waiting in line for the Winnie the Pooh ride at Magic Kingdom.

C Meets Mickey!

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This is the first time I’ve ever purchased Disney Photo Pass pictures (the downloads are $14.95 each!), but I totally think it was worth it. We visited Disney World’s Animal Kingdom today and had a fantastic time. When most people were eating lunch, we took advantage of a relatively short line to meet Mickey Mouse. C was so excited to meet him. He absolutely adores “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” on Disney Junior. It was fun to see his reaction and get a nice, maybe once-in-a-lifetime family picture with Mickey. These two pics make my day.

C Meets Mickey C Meets Mickey 2

Off We Go!

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We’re taking off this morning, heading to Florida for a week! We’re so excited!

The three of us have never been to Florida, and this is also C’s first time on an airplane. Please send prayers, cross your fingers, do whatever you do in hopes that he won’t scream on the plane! That’s pretty much my worst fear for this trip – that he’ll start defiantly screaming and I won’t be able to get him to stop.

Eeep!

Next week, look for some fun pics from our trip as well as some guest posts. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Geeky Family Pics at Cliche “World’s Biggest” Item

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Yep, we did it. We stopped at one of those items billed as the “World’s Biggest” and took our picture at it. We decided that our first family road trip vacation just wouldn’t be complete without a cliche family picture at the World’s Biggest Authentic Hockey Stick.

In all honesty, we passed a sign for it on the way to our lodge and laughed about it. Then we decided to go get pizza one night and it was around the corner from the pizza place. We couldn’t resist.

We Stopped at the Beach

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Our lodge was located near many miles of hiking trails. While we were out on a walk, we stopped at this beautiful lakeshore.

C thinks Hubster is the most hilarious person in the world!

It was chilly, but C was brave and dipped his toes in the lake.

C and I battled the wind to get a picture together.

Our first family trip to the beach!

C’s First Time at the Pool

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We had a great time on vacation this week, and I’ll be featuring several of our experiences over the next few days. First up is C in the pool. It was his first experience swimming. He wasn’t scared at all, but he got cold pretty quickly and clung to us. Our time in the pool was quite short. We had to warm that little guy back up!

#12 Unplug for a Weekend: 25 Before 25

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I can’t believe it! I convinced Hubster to “unplug” while we were on our two-day vacation! Another one of my 25 Before 25 goals was to unplug for a weekend/two-day span.

I thought that we were going to have a difficult time. We’re very tied into our email, social media and (for Hubster) sports. Much to my surprise, the time flew by and we didn’t really miss being connected at all times. We kept ourselves very busy with vacation things – we enjoyed the resort’s waterpark, theme park, fitness facility and lobby. We explored the monstrous resort’s hallways, convention center and coffee shop. We slept in! Oh, the beauty of a full night of sleep!

Have you ever unplugged? Was it easy for you?

Vacation with Hubster!

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Hubster and I are on our way to a two-day getaway! I’m so excited to hang out with him and have fun as a couple. I even convinced him to “unplug” for those two days so that we have more quality time together (and to complete one of my 25 Before 25!). I’m sure we’re going to miss our smiley little C, but uninterrupted sleep will be truly devine.

Happy Wednesday!

Chicago, 2009

My Vacation!

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I suppose that when you’re a stay-at-home mom and your child is staying with his grandparents for the week, you can consider it a vacation right?!

Well, I guess I’m on vacation! After visiting my parents last weekend, we decided to leave C with them for the week since I was planning on coming back next weekend. They get time to bond with C and I get some time to myself. It’s a win-win, really.

Other parents seem to react to this in one of two ways. Either they tip their head a little, narrow their eyes and say, “Wow, I could never leave my child for a whole week.” Or they say, “Awesome! Are you enjoying your freedom? Enjoy it while you can, girl!”

The first reaction makes me feel like the worst mother in the world and is, quite frankly, a bit judgmental. Of course I miss my son! But on the other hand, I had a horrible pregnancy, an awful delivery experience ending in an emergency c-section, then two months of C’s colic followed by the high needs personality that has emerged in him. I love my son dearly, but sometimes I get really burned out. I have a feeling that the people who react this way don’t have a high needs baby and/or have a job outside of the home where they get the adult interaction that SAHMs crave so badly.

The majority of people with the second reaction have been fellow SAHMs who totally understand the need for alone time. It was awesome to excitedly share with them some of the things I’ve been up to while C is with his grandparents.

On Monday night, Hubster and I finally got to see “The Lion King 3D” and it was AMAZING! It was my favorite movie as a kid, and now I also was able to catch the humor that Disney throws in for adults. We had a great time, and followed it up with wine and an appetizer at Olive Garden. So fun.

Yesterday afternoon, I took at 3.5 hour nap. It was glorious.

Today, I went to the salon for a haircut and then went shopping. Leisurely. Alone.

I miss C’s little snuggles and open-mouthed kisses that fill your face with slobber. I miss those laughs that brighten up my day. But I am very much enjoying this time to be on my own schedule, and I don’t think I should feel guilty about that.

Home Sweet Home

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*Insert Relaxed Sigh Here*

We went to visit family and friends over the holiday weekend and just got home!

I love getting home after being away. Anything longer than a 7-day trip gets a bit exhausting. We LOVE seeing all of our family and friends and fill as many time slots on our schedule as possible. But it’s difficult not having your own bed, bathroom, kitchen…your own routine in general – especially for C! Hubster and I are both people who need a little alone time to be able to function at 100%.

C did pretty well for the majority of the trip. There were several fussy times caused by overstimulation and exhaustion, but he only had one difficult night of sleep. I was impressed by his happy disposition. I’m still amazed by how different his personality is now that he’s on formula instead of breastmilk.

We would consider our 9-day trip to visit family a major success! We managed to spend some quality time with a bunch of family and friends and even went on a date – dinner and a concert! It was a blast. It made us miss living close to all of them

Our ideal place to live would be close enough to be able to drive to visit for the day, but go home at night. Then it wouldn’t be disruptive to C’s schedule and we would be able to see all of our loved ones more often. It seems like no matter how much you try to fit everyone and everything in, you’re only there for a short period of time – on a rigid schedule – and someone inevitably ends up hurt or upset. We hate when that happens because we try so hard to make everything work! Hopefully after Hubster is done with grad school, we’ll be able to get to that ideal location.

Weekly Update

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31 weeks

Size of baby: Head of Lettuce (18 in., 3.2 lbs) (he was bigger than that at the ultrasound a couple weeks ago)

Newly craved food: Chips & salsa, shamrock shake

Food aversions: Beef, fried foods

What do you miss: Going on vacations with the hubster. I was actually starting to look into a Carribbean vacation for us this spring/summer when I found out we were expecting

What are you looking forward to: We had to cancel massages since we left our vacation early over the weekend, but we’re planning on scheduling some at a salon in town. I can’t wait until I can get a massage and hopefully release some muscle tension!

What was the BEST part of last week? We had a great Friday night and Saturday on vacation before we had to leave early and come home Saturday night due to a snowstorm. Spent the entire day Saturday walking around the Mall of America. It was super fun hanging out together, and I finally got an incredible night of sleep after walking for a whole day!

What was the WORST part of last week? The fact that our weekend away was cut short because of weather. :’(

Here I am, freshly back from the salon. I had several inches chopped off my hair, which totally brought my curls back to life. And getting my hair shampooed was heavenly.