Tales of a Big Dog, Little Baby, & 2 Crazy Parents

Home, Sweet, Decorated Home

2010-12-10T20:06:00.000-05:00

Well, we are finally home. Nothing could ever feel so good--well one thing could. That would be if I arrived home without this nasty virus that is going 4 weeks strong. After two visits to the urgent care and one to an infectious disease specialist, my daily fever, night sweats, chills, headache, and exhaustion have finally been attributed to a mono-like virus called cytomegalovirus, or CMV for short. And for all you googlers out there, I must feel the need to tell you that yes, I know, it is a *gasp* herpes virus. My first thought upon reading this was OHMYGOSHWHATDIDTHOSENASTYSHOWERSGIVEME!!?!?!?!? But, really, you can wipe the fear and disgust off your faces--chicken pox, mono, and shingles are all a part of the same virus group. PHEW. And, wipe that smug little smile off your face because 50-85% of people have acquired this virus before the age of 40, but most have no symptoms. I'm the lucky one who gets to experience these symptoms in full force. This is probably due to the fact that I run on no sleep and lived in a box for four months. I like to consider myself an optimist, and one good thing that has come from this whole awful experience is my wonderful husband has taken over baby duty at night--a freezing, teeth chattering, 103 degree mama is no good at night. Remember, Little likes to wake up anywhere from 3 to a million times a night, but with Sean's help, we have pretty much weaned him from night nursings (yahoo!), and I get to stay in bed and just listen to his wails while Sean walks and walks and walks with him for hours on end. I expect Sean to get sick in T minus 5 minutes from his exhaustion.

So, back to coming home. Home sounded so inviting, so unreal--almost like a distant dream! I couldn't wait to take a shower without shoes and keep my shampoo in the shower. Doing laundry in my very own washer and dryer without lugging my supplies to a laundromat was a luxury.

When it came to Christmas, I had told several people how sad I was that we wouldn't be home enough to really put the effort into decorating our house for Christmas. So this year, Beckett's first Christmas, our house was going to be Christmas-less. No tree, no lights, no stockings. Just barren, cold, boring-ness. As we prepared to get home, I dreaded unloading four months worth of our possessions into our house, while sick--all the while picturing the floors that I neglected to clean before we left. As we pulled up to our house, I looked up to see that someone had put lights and garland up on our balcony and railings. But they didn't stop there, I also saw this:

No porch is complete without Santa!

Michelle put together the arrangement for my boot! So talented!

I looked at Sean, exclaiming about how sweet Michelle was for decorating outside for us! No wonder she had asked me about when our HOA allowed decorations to go up. It all came together now. I was still clueless about the Christmas wonderland awaiting me inside. As we opened the door to go inside, the first thing I noticed was that there was a Christmas tree in our living room. As it turns out, one of my best friends from high school, Elizabeth, drove over four hours to meet Michelle and help clean my house from top to bottom and decorate for Christmas. I will let the pictures speak for themselves (kinda):

That is Michelle's Christmas tree from her house! She refused to let me bring it back to her! Now that is some selfless Christmas spirit! There are presents under the tree, and the white box contains ornaments. They wanted us to enjoy decorating the tree, but not be too stressed, so they left us a small amount to hang!

Elizabeth bought us the stockings. There are even stockings for Cooper and Baby #2. Please, don't jump to conclusions--after our nighttime torture device, Baby #2 is a distant dream at the moment.

Who wouldn't want to eat at that gorgeous table?!

So much Christmas spirit! It makes me so happy! The picture frame in the top right contains a picture of Michelle, Elizabeth, and their puppy dogs, a.k.a. my Christmas elves, as they decorated!

So with tears rolling down my face, I picked up the phone to call Michelle to thank her. That's when I learned about my other elf friend, Elizabeth, who had driven down. At this point I realized that home isn't just a place where you can shower without your shoes on. My home is also a place where I can spend time with some of the best people out there. There are many of those people that don't live here--but thankfully I was able to see most of those people on our little adventure. For now, we are going to settle in, turn the fireplace on, light the tree, turn on some Christmas music, and share in family and friend time. God has truly given us so many blessings--herpes virus or not!

And one last pic from the road....er, parking lot. Vroom Vroom. We've got a little trucker on our hands!

Grandparents are the BEST!

2010-11-15T20:14:00.001-05:00

Today was a very sad day as we said goodbye to a week of relaxation and family. My grandparents live in Arizona, and we get to see them very rarely. It was perfect timing with the race schedule to visit them on our way back home. They had not met Beckett, and we were all so excited for the first meeting! We had barely pulled up when G-mom and G-dad came running out of the house and started knocking on our windows! I could barely get Little out of his carseat before G-mom was trying to get him from me! Of course Cooper tried to make it all about him, but after a little commotion, G-mom was snuggling her great-grandson. Thus started a week of Beckett spending quality time with his G-mom and G-dad. He LOVED them. All he had to do was hear either one of their voices and he'd immediately turn around and grin away at them. Did I mention that my grandmother is full of laughs? We had each other laughing all week. And my grandparents had Sean and I laughing all week as we listened to them go back and forth at each other. It's funny to listen to G-mom repeat everything three times for G-dad. And Chicken Dog, well he was spoiled all week long. G-dad took him for about 6 walks a day. Poor dog thinks his world has changed, and Separation Anxiety Dog was so quick to jump in the RV when it was time to go, but I think he would be much happier staying with his G-dad and living it up on his walks! They even had a toy waiting for him when he arrived. And he didn't let it go his whole time there. They sure know how to spoil their grandkids, great grandkids, and granddogs! We started our week with a delicious dinner where we were joined by my Great Aunt Neina and Great Uncle Ralph. It was so wonderful to see them!

Beckett, quite the fusser and still not sleeping well the beginning of the week made us some tired parents. We spent the first few days relaxing and just enjoying each other. It was perfect! G-mom doted on us hand and foot! She was constantly feeding us, giving me coffee (hooray!), giving us fresh towels, and telling us stories about family. It was so nice to hear about her parents whom I was too young to know. We did get out for a short hike in Madera Canyon in Coronado National Forest, but my camera was MIA, so no pictures! But we got lots of hanging out pictures!

Beckett with his G-dad. G-dad built the room in the background and the patio! He is so talented!

G-dad was constantly on the ground playing with little man!

Beckett is such a help with the laundry!

I told you she is full of laughs! Even Beckett knows!

They love each other!

Little's goal for the week was to capture glasses!

After the first few days, we think the teething subsided--his two bottom teeth finally cut through completely. And now, he was a HAPPY baby! The rest of the week he was such a fun little man to have around. So, in celebration, we took him on his first trip to the zoo! We went to the Reid Park Zoo in Tuscon.

Okay guys, I'm ready to see some animals! (How could you ever say no to that face?)

Beckett and the bear

Hello, Mr. Giraffe!

Beckett was mainly interested in the people at the zoo--not the animals. But, he did like watching the zebras and ostriches.

G-dad even took Sean to the driving range twice. Sean has never been golfing before. He did pretty well, according to G-dad. He's got power, but it seems to curve right. And sometimes he hits cars. And golf carts. And he sends his ball into other people's games. But besides that, he's great!

Before we knew it, the week had gotten away with us, and it was time for a sad goodbye. We are so thankful we were able to spend this precious time with my grandparents. Hopefully, with the continued success of Metro Dash, we will be able to make this a yearly visit. Though, that's not enough! Move back east, G-mom and G-dad!

Saying goodbye outside their beautiful house amidst their awesome landscaping

That's Beckett's face that says, "No leaving!"

We are currently driving and almost to Texas and are looking forward to more family time once we make it back to the right coast.

San Diego, How We Love You!

2010-11-12T19:06:00.001-05:00

So, I have been on a blog vacation. Mainly it's because I have zero energy thanks to our little man who has decided for the past month that it is imperative that he eat every hour at nighttime. I have been living in a foggy haze. However, he actually went two and a half hours between eating last night--hallelujah! I never thought I'd be wishing for a newborn's eating schedule again, but I find myself wishing for my little every three-hour eater to PLEASE come back! I miss you! I have a little more energy today from the 2 consecutive hours of sleep I got last night....so hopefully I will be able to finish this in one sitting.

Our visit to the San Diego area began about an hour north of the city staying with one of my best friends, Cate, and her family. They have an absolutely gorgeous house. We even got our own bedroom complete with attached bathroom. And the best part is that we were a floor apart from them, so at least Beckett's nighttime screaming was muffled a little bit. Cate was my first roommate when I moved to Virginia Beach. We had SO much fun together, and we spent the week reminiscing of the days when we used to go out together--not even getting ready until 10:00 at night. Sadly, neither of us can even stay awake that late anymore. You see, I have my little non-sleeper, and Cate and Jerry have a very energetic two year-old and a 9 week-old. gjfksal;ygjiao;jgyelk;ajtykle;ajyioeahjlahjklajh. Oh, sorry. Fell asleep while typing. I'm back now. So we pretty much wallowed in our exhaustion misery and enjoyed each other's company and this (see below) every day.

Jerry and Cate made me peppermint mocha lattes every morning--complete with chocolate shavings and sprinkles of spices. Bless them.

There was no sightseeing, no shopping, no nothing but enjoying each other's company! It was awesome and perfect! Cate is a great cook, and she made us delicious meals. Did I mention that Jerry is an incredible piano player? He treated us several times to amazing mini-concerts. He even played us Christmas music and Beckett and I sang along. I wish I were there right now! We did venture out once to go to a Japanese steakhouse. Cate and Jerry treated us to an amazing dinner. Tristan, their adorable two year-old, was fascinated with the chef cooking right in front of us. He was giggling up a storm--it was SO cute! Beckett, on the other hand was fascinated by the chef and his tall, white hat until he started clanging his spatulas around. And his little lip stuck out, his forehead crinkled up, and he started wailing. Sean picked him right up out of the high chair (can you believe our baby can fit into a restaurant high chair now!?!?) and he enjoyed the rest of the show from the comfort of Daddy's arms. Now let's talk about Emily. Oh Emily, I just wanted to steal you away from your parents! She must be one of the most beautiful little girls I have ever seen! She has a head full of dark, thick hair--just like her mommy! She has this tiny little face! Oh I want her! Beckett made his first of several California girlfriends this week.

Luckily, Emily's daddy didn't break out the guns when he saw Beckett putting the moves on his little girl! :)

Mini-Sean and Mini-Cate. Love at first site! :)

My beautiful Cate and Emily! I love them! Even exhausted, she looks amazing!

Just hanging out!

A face I could kiss forever!

The only picture I could capture of Tristan--sorry buddy--caught you when you weren't ready! :) Still got those gorgeous eyes you had when I saw you as a baby!

Tristan was even kind enough to share his toys with Beckett who felt like such a big boy! Tristan was SO sweet. You'd think he would have been possessive over his toys, but he didn't bat an eye. He was so gentle with Beckett! Beckett even got a kiss!

Vroom, Vroom!

Enough with the pictures! Can we go now!?!?

My 3 boys off for a walk

Choo Choo! Slow down, little fella!

When we sadly had to leave Cate's, we headed off to San Diego. We spent Halloween with another of our favorite familes we met in Virginia Beach, the Wilson's! They have four sweet children and one on the way! I don't know if you can handle all the cuteness on this page. But, it's coming whether you are ready or not! We trick-or-treated down the main street on Coronado. If you have never been there, trust me when I tell you it is one of the most beautiful places I have visited in our country. I want to live there! :) The businesses give out candy to kids, and I have never seen so many costumes in one place! It was fun, but a little crazy trying to keep up with all the kids! So we headed back to the Wilson's neighborhood where we did some more trick-or-treating. Our little dragon tuckered out and slept for most of his first trick-or-treating experience. We got to see the Wilson's two more times while we were there. I hate how far away we are from so many of our close friends!

Little Miss Charley preferred trick-or-treating sans costume.

Trick or treat!

These little cuties have two of the best daddies!

Charley was SO sweet! She loves babies! She was obsessed with Beckett! She kept petting him. She is ready for her new baby brother!

All she wanted to do when we laid him down to sleep was give him kisses! It was precious! He slept through it all! He'll regret that when he gets older! She's a cutie!

To make the week even more fun, I was lucky enough to be a bridesmaid in my great friend, Amanda's, wedding. I spent some much needed girl time with Amanda, her sisters, and the other bridesmaids. We had a great time, and they were all amazing about the fact that I had to cart my little man everywhere while Sean worked. He even got to see the breathtaking bride get ready in the bridal suite!


Amanda and her beautiful sisters at the nail salon! They were such a help while I got mine done! :)

Reunion! Beckett and I have been in Michelle withdrawal! We got to spend so much time together!

Mr. and Mrs. Justus with the most beautiful wedding party! I mean, look at those girls!

Beckett with his Godmommy, Michelle. They love each other so much! Michelle's mom bought him the jacket, among many other things! :)

We are currently enjoying beautiful Arizona with my awesome grandparents. I don't want to leave them--wish we could take them with us! But we get to go home soon--I can't wait to be home and get this child of mine in his own room! Please say some prayers for him to sleep so I don't arrive home as a crazy woman! Thank you!

Pacific Coast Highway

2010-10-29T23:56:00.001-04:00

Upon leaving Portland, Stephanie suggested we take the longer route to San Francisco and later to San Diego to enjoy the breathtaking views of the Pacific Coast Highway. Thankfully, we decided to follow her advice and take the slower, longer, windier route down the coast of Oregon and California. For the trip to San Francisco, we got a somewhat late start, but had just enough daylight to catch some amazing ocean views, complete with cliffs and even some ocean spray on the windshield in the lower spots. We opted to leave the PCH for a 31-mile stretch of the old Highway 101 now lovingly called Avenue of the Giants, which parallels the PCH. And giants we saw. Huge, awe-inspiring redwoods on every side of the vehicle. It was very slow going, but so worth it. Unfortunately, we didn't stop to take pictures until it started getting dark, so they aren't that great. But, I will never forget standing at the base of the giant and staring up with my head as far back as I could get it in order to see the top. Some facts about coastal redwoods for your reading enjoyment: They are the tallest trees in the world, reaching as much as 350 feet or more. Some weigh as much as 500 tons! Most live 500-700 years, with some living as long as 2,000 years! They only live on the west coast of the United States. Okay, now that I am done with my little science report, here are some pictures that we were able to capture with our finicky camera.

Monster Tree!

There's that tongue again!

We also enjoyed viewing Sonoma Valley and all the beautiful grapes from the RV with sadly no stops. Are they generally accepting of babies and big dogs at wineries? We thought not, so we carried on. Our stay in San Francisco was largely uneventful. Partly because I was in mourning for leaving my nice house and friends behind in Portland, and also because of the foggy, cold, rainy-ness of it all. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge with me singing the theme song to Full House and Sean directing me to "clench your fist and punch yourself in the face as hard as you can." He even showed me the motions as he described it. Stand back ladies, he's all mine. Sadly, we couldn't see much from the bridge, and the fog persisted much of the week. We were both happy to hit the road again after the event in San Francisco. Back to the PCH it was for us. I spoke with a competitor's wife, who lives in Monterey, who urged us not to take the PCH through Big Sur. She told us it would be a nightmare with our large vehicle and trailer with all the hairpin twists, turns, and up and downs. We didn't listen. And despite the drenching rain for the next two days as we drove through, which made it difficult to see much of anything, we were still happy we took the PCH for two excellent events that transpired. First, we drove by an overlook that gave us a view of a cove at the base of huge cliffs. The water in the cove was turquoise blue like you would see in the Caribbean. And to top it all off, there was even a waterfall as I exclaimed to Sean that was "straight out of Lost." Okay, it was more of a squeal than an exclamation. In any case, I insisted that we turn around, find a spot to park, and hike down to the waterfall despite the drenching rain because you only live once. Lucky for me, Sean shares this philosophy on life (hence our crazy, somewhat risky adventure). As it turns out, you can't hike down to the waterfall. Something about trying to preserve it for all to see and enjoy. And, Sean did make fun of me for calling it straight out of Lost, as it is somewhat narrow, and it does look like it could be coming from a drainage pipe with all the pouring rain. BUT, I did win that debate because it is in fact created by a spring-fed creek. And it is gorgeous! So even though visions of standing beneath the waterfall mist were crushed, there was a nice trail that led around to a perfect picture-taking view of the falls. It really was beautiful--even in the yucky, cold weather. In case you are interested, the falls is called McWay Falls located in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Hiking out to the overlook. Daddy and baby in his rain covering.

So wet!

McWay Falls

Not quite as pretty as in person!

Fun in the rain

My loves and the waterfall!

On the way back to the RV

Another of the reasons that we were happy we took the PCH was because on our way to just another RV park for the night, we glanced down from the highway to a road that paralleled the ocean. Parked along this road were many, many RV's. We're talking oceanfront property. We saw it and had to stop. The sites had no electric, water, or sewer hook-up. Thus the cheap $27 per night price tag. Rincon Parkway, can we stay forever? We picked a spot, parked, and enjoyed this view from my seat in the RV:

No zooming in--this was what we looked out our window to for two days!

If he didn't love the beach so much, he probably wouldn't have made it. He went halfway down and back up several times.

Throughout our time there, we took several walks on the beach:

Little's Little's first trip to the Pacific Ocean

Cooper got to give the death stare to lots of seagulls:

My favorite part of Rincon Parkway was that we had the opportunity to see the sunset because the rain finally stopped for the day that we spent there. I am a tad embarrassed to say that I can't recall a time I ever really watched the sun set. And I am quite positive that I have never seen a sunset over the Pacific Ocean. So, I insisted that we pull out some chairs and enjoy the incredible sunset. And of course, we couldn't do that without Sean throwing together some appetizers. He put together some veggies and a yogurt dill dip as well as crackers with jalapeno jelly and mascarpone cheese. Oh my goodness. Have you ever had that jelly and cheese combo? It is like heaven in your mouth. It was the perfect little day (oh, I forgot to mention I actually slept every time the baby slept that day. That was a first, and it helped this exhausted mama immensely.) And of course, we enjoyed an amazing ending as the sun slipped beneath the horizon. We count our blessings every day.

Our sunset and snacks!

It wasn't really that cold, but Sean dug out the suitcase from the trailer for something, and it was like Christmas! Yay warm, snuggly coat!

My favorite snuggle buddy

Okay, bear with me. I took a lot of pictures of my first sunset!

So high up in the sky, but it set so fast!

My favorite pic!

Don't go yet!

Almost gone

View of Channel Islands National Park. We thought they were clouds the first night we were there.

Finally, before we left to visit our great friends, Cate and Jerry and their sweet kids outside of San Diego, Sean had to jump in the COLD ocean for a quick swim.

Doubting his decision as he quickly lost feeling in his calves. Chicken dog making a great decision to stay put.

And, he's in!

We will be heading to San Diego this weekend for more fun times after a great week with Cate and Jerry's family. It's always so hard to leave our friends! But, we are enjoying every minute!

Perfection in Portland

2010-10-22T18:50:00.000-04:00

From the start of our trip, Portland has been a little Mecca we have been looking forward to. Besides the excitement of taking in the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, Portland is home to one of my very best friends. Stephanie is one of those forever friends. You know the type--the kind of friend you could talk to three times a week or once every six months and though one phone call may last longer than the other, you are always in the same, comfy best friend place. I have been blessed to have quite a few forever friends--you know who you are--and I love you all! I can't quite put my finger on exactly when Stephanie and I met, but we grew up going to the same church, serving on Appalachia Service Project together each summer, and playing field hockey in high school on the same team. With the arrival of my Little Little, and some big transitions in Stephanie's life, we haven't been as in touch as we would have liked. So, my entire week last week was spent having girl time and catching up. To put it plainly, it was perfect! We were also finally able to meet Isaac, Stephanie's boyfriend, after only hearing wonderful things about him since they met. How great are these two--they actually installed a 30 amp electrical outlet on the outside of their house so that we would be able to stay with them and keep the RV charged. Who does that?!?! Well besides my mom and dad, who else does that!? We arrived late Sunday afternoon and were excited to find out that Stephanie and Isaac would be hosting the weekly dinner they enjoy with their friends every Sunday night. Of course, Little Little had to get ready for the party, so a bath was in order. In fact, this was the first time he took a bath like a big boy without his ~~baby~~ ~~bathtub~~ tiny little basin. (On a side note, Stephanie is an extremely talented and humble photographer. She will always blame her incredible shots on either her camera lens or just dumb luck. All of the pictures in this blog except maybe one or two were taken by Stephanie, and I am sure you will agree with me that she is amazing!)

Steph, though she has no children, instantly recognized the need for "first big-boy bath" documentation. A natural!

All dressed and ready for the party, Beckett discovered a new toy!

I love this toy! Thanks, Dad!

Gimme!

I could not figure out how to close the toy once I opened it. When given just a minute, Beckett promptly closed it!

We enjoyed a fabulous dinner of chicken cordon bleu, cooked by Isaac, and had a wonderful time meeting some of Stephanie and Isaac's closest friends. It was so nice to be in a house and meet some fun, new people.

Throughout the week, we started our mornings late, took our time getting ready, and had fun playing with Little Little, who was quite cranky due to the arrival of his first two teeth. (I think we managed to convince Stephanie and Isaac not to have kids for about 12 years :) )

Family time with Coop keeping guard

Assuming the typical mealtime position

Swings are for naps, not cute little smiles, Little Little!

But, who needs a swing, when you have Stephanie? She is WAY more comfortable!

I wish I could keep her. Beckett does too.

And since it is fall and all, Beckett had to have his first playtime in the raked leaf pile.

What is this???

Leaf pile changed to big, green blanket once the leaf pile became a baby snack

Mama's get tired sometimes, too. Thank goodness for comfy boxer butts!

Flying baby!

One of the highlights of our visit to Portland was when Stephanie and Isaac took us hiking to Multnomah Falls, the second highest (at 620 feet) year-round waterfall in the United States. This was the most breathtaking hike yet. Chicken Dog started the trip showing his true colors, terrified in the covered bed of Isaac's truck, with his head as far through the window as he could make it.

Poor Chicken Dog

Looking up at the amazing view

Standing on the bridge seen in the picture above

This is the top of that gorgeous waterfall. Quite dizzying if you ask me.


Trying to get Chicken Dog to drink from the little pool of water. Sadly, he lived up to his name. No water for him.

Ok, so here is where this blog entry becomes painful. The hundreds of gorgeous pictures Stephanie took are clearly too many to post on this blog that is quickly becoming its own book. So, I am forcing myself to only choose a handful. But to make myself feel better, I will post some more of my favorites on Facebook later. Ok, back to prettiness! After we reached the top of the falls, we ventured off on another trail that was completely off the beaten path. We left the tourists behind and entered a world of solitary beauty. Our eyes were met with moss covered rocks, bubbling creeks, and what seemed like endless waterfalls. Oh, just look--pictures are much better than my banter!

Green-ness and waterfalls everywhere you look!

My forever friend

Little loves the outdoors and his cool ride!

Doesn't it seem like it's from a storybook?!? It doesn't seem real!

One of the many waterfalls we enjoyed on our hike

The hike provided amazing views of Columbia River Gorge below

Looking at these pictures make me want to go back again right now! Sadly, we had to leave, but more fun was to be had! This fun involved baking homemade chocolate chip cookies for Isaac and the other firefighters at the station.

Steph pretty much did it all, and I snacked on the dough and fresh, out-of-the-oven-best-cookies-I've-ever-tasted while trying to keep my fusser happy.

I even got a nice tour of the firehouse and Beckett got to see the firetruck and engine close up. Lucky baby! Another of my favorite events was when Stephanie and I took Little Little to pick out a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch. I am a firm believer in picking the perfect pumpkin at all costs. We were there to get Beckett his first pumpkin, so since he isn't yet at a good age to pick his own, I took this responsibility very seriously. My rules for a good pumpkin are that it must be orange (no green!), it must be round enough so that it can sit up on its own (no crookedness allowed!), and it must have a nice stem. It took us a while, but we finally found Beckett the perfect little pumpkin--straight off the vine. Have you ever picked a pumpkin from the vine? It's prickly! Owie!

Even the pumpkin patches are beautiful in Portland!

That's a lotta pumpkins!

My lil' punkin

Some Beckett sized pumpkins!

The fun just continued as Stephanie and Isaac adopted a sweet, little puppy whom they named Camden. Beckett and Camden became friends...until puppy discovered baby fingers are fun to gnaw on. After that, Chicken Dog gladly took over as number one puppy friend.

Puppy, meet Beckett. But, be careful--don't nibble too much! Sometimes he's a dragon!

Watch out little puppy! I am a fire-breathing dragon!

Mommy got me the perfect pumpkin!

Enough with the paparazzi! I am trying to focus here.


And of course, my favorite! He never stuck his tongue out until this week when he started getting his two bottom teeth. Perfect timing for his costume, of course!

If you made it through this book, thank you! As you can see, Portland was a fantastic time for our family. Thank you, Stephanie, Isaac, and Camden for welcoming us into your home, cooking for us, giving us a big, comfy bed, an awesome shower, and pretending that you didn't hear our screaming baby every 2-3 hours each night for a week. You are the best!

You Win Some, You Lose Some

2010-10-17T21:42:00.003-04:00

While in Seattle, we made sure to make time to get out and enjoy the beauty of the mountains around us. Unfortunately, we have been disappointed to find that all the National Parks we have wanted to visit do not allow dogs on the trails. Part of the fun of bringing chicken dog on our adventure was to let him enjoy the beauty of our country as well. I think we get as much enjoyment out of it as he does. So while the non dog owners out there might not understand why we pass up some beautiful hikes, we have opted to find other hikes in National Forests (yay National Forests for your dog friendly ways!) that are beautiful as well as dog friendly. It is quite overwhelming to try to pick a day hike in a place that has so many! I tried looking online, quickly felt overwhelmed, and promptly brought up Google Maps. I looked for the closest National Forest, went to their website, put their address into the GPS, and off we went! When we arrived, we were happy to see that we didn't even have to pay an entrance fee. Free fun! We jumped out of the RV, made sure we had everything, and we were off!

Hey, dad, move your big head! What's a kid gotta do to see what's going on here!

The hike started out nicely with not too much uphill. We had missed the colorful leaves, as they were scattered all over the ground. We even had to make way for a horse and rider who came trotting by. Chicken Dog was appropriately spooked, while our Little Little stared in amazement. Chicken Dog decided later he'd pretend to be a horse to save face.

Nice one, Chicken Dog!

About halfway up, the hike changed. There were gates preventing horses from going any further up the mountain. It became a much more strenuous hike. I'm not going to lie--I thought I might die. Although the hike was very pretty with lush, green vegetation, we had yet to find any points where you could stop and take in the view. I kept hoping we'd see something. Somehow it just wasn't quite what I pictured when I pictured hiking in the Pacific Northwest. Where were the waterfalls and streams? I told myself to keep on trucking. We had been going so hard for so long that I figured the view from the top would simply be breathtaking. As I got more and more tired, I kept telling myself to keep going for the view. It was getting later and darker under the cover of trees (we got a pretty late start), and the poor night's sleep the night before thanks to Little Little was starting to rear it's ugly head. I started having images of the four of us huddled together after dark trying to stay warm and eating vegetation to avoid starvation. Just as I thought we'd never get there, two and a half hours later, we finally reached a clearing! And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what we saw:

Beautiful cell phone tower!

Yes, this is it. This is what we hiked for so long to see. From every angle around the towers, all we saw were trees directly blocking any view of anything beautiful. Imagine our disappointment. Our hopes and dreams of a climactic ending to our hike were shattered. We didn't even have the heart to hike back down the way we came, so we hiked down the access road because it would be a faster route down with the dwindling sunlight. Unfortunately, it was gravel and extraordinarily steep. After going up for so long, I thought going down would be a welcome relief, but it was worse because it was so steep. We stopped halfway down to feed the baby and give our quads a break.

Look at me in my hiking boots and jacket! Thanks Miss Bennetta and Aunt Paula and Uncle Brent!

After safely making it back to our campground, we decided from here on out we would only go on hikes recommended by people who could vouch for them! Oh, and free fun does not always equal great fun. Thankfully we were rescued when my wonderful friend, Stephanie, who you will hear all about in my next blog post, recommended we hike up to Lake Serene and Bridal Veil Falls. We are so thankful she told us about this amazing hike. It was much more challenging than our cell phone tower hike, but it was worth every step of the 7.2 miles and 2,000 foot elevation gain.

A view from the parking lot of where we were heading. By the time we made it up, there wasn't a cloud in the crystal blue sky.

The bridge that Chicken Dog was terrified to cross because the slats were so far apart.

Coop loved being able to drink from all the streams we crossed! (I promise we feed him!)


So pretty!

Unfortunately, we had to skip the turn-off to see Bridal Veil Falls because we got a late start and wanted to make sure we made it up to the top before it got dark. However, we were happy to see that there were other beautiful waterfalls on the way.


My cute little family enjoying the waterfall!

And though we missed out on pretty views on our cell phone tower hike, there were plenty of gorgeous views to enjoy the whole way up.

Lake Serene surrounded by the 3000 foot vertical walls of Mount Index

Snow!

My love!

Exploring!

All of the trees under the bridge are floating in the lake!

Our big boy!

Even at the top of the mountain, wishing Gram a happy 89th birthday!

Sad to leave our little oasis

We ended our week in Seattle with smiles from my favorite little man.

And of course, have to share our colorful produce display from Thursday's grocery trip. (Every time we drive we have to put all of this on the bed so it doesn't slide off or take Beckett out when braking. Oh how I dream of bigger RV's!)

I am excited to share the amazing photos from our time in Portland with good friends, Stephanie and Isaac, as soon as I am done getting the Metro Dash Portland pictures posted to our Facebook page. We are currently on our way to San Fransisco for the race this weekend. Fun times ahead!

My Little System Recharge

2010-10-05T02:48:00.002-04:00

The highlight of our journey thus far arrived in Salt Lake City when we met up with my childhood friend, Kim, her new husband, Tim, and their doggy friends Delaney, Echo, and Onyx (who was just adopted by their friend, and they happened to be doggy-sitting).

Jo, Tim, & Kim!

We were in kindergarten together, and some of my most fond elementary school memories involve her mid-October birthday parties, which always included pumpkin carving, seed fights, and archery. We lost touch after elementary school and from there, neither one of us can distinctly remember the last time we really connected. However, our moms have remained very close friends, and the prospect of getting us together became their mission. I think they must have been more excited than us at first—giddy probably describes it well. Sean, Beckett, Coop, and I are so grateful that they started the ball rolling because we had a blast! I told Kim that it was crazy that although it had been so long since we had been in touch, it was so easy to talk and talk and talk. I don’t think we shut-up for more than a few seconds at a time! Kim, Tim, and pup friends treated us to an absolutely gorgeous hike at Wasatch-Cache National Forest. In preparation for our hike, Sean went to REI and purchased a Deuter Kid Comfort III hiking backpack for Beckett.

Sean's fake smile and Beckett's little pod. Soon he won't have to look out the sides--he'll be tall enough to look out the front!

After using it for a few hours hiking, we highly recommend this pack to anyone looking for a high-quality pack. Beckett loved it! He refused to fall asleep until the very end.

Sleepy man--we tightened him in so he'd be secure as he slept. Otherwise, it has tons of room!

It’s made so that he is actually in a seated position. He has full head support, a five-point harness, and it even has a built-in sun shade!

Little hand on his knee :) Digging his new ride.

Throughout the entire hike, he was looking all around at the gorgeous views, iridescent yellow leaves, and bubbling streams. Kim said we were there right at the peak of the changing trees. How perfect!

Our old camera doesn't do it justice!

Beautiful yellows!

The fam!

Cooper was in heaven with his three girlfriends: a german shepherd, a husky, and a lab. The best part was, as I mentioned previously, that they were actually allowed to be off leash on odd-numbered days. Otherwise, on even-numbered days, just watch out for the mountain bikes coming at ya! The dogs were loving life-- running ahead, creating their own trails, chasing each other, and drinking the fresh water from the streams.

Best shot I could get of the pups--they move too fast!

Coop making sure everyone is present and accounted for!

Echo, the husky, decided as Kim informed us is the norm, to go off on her own for about two-thirds of the hike. She rejoined us, safely at the end. She decided to have her own adventure. At the peak of the hike was a beautiful lake, Dog Lake, which was full of big dogs swimming, chasing each other, and running around. Beckett enjoyed watching the dogs play. Our goal is to make him a little nature-lovin’ baby, and I’m pretty sure after this trip, he is on his way!

Dog Lake!

Kim decided last minute she’d join us for the Salt Lake City Metro Dash, and bright and early the next morning she showed up to get her map and have some Metro Dashin’ fun. Let me just tell you, she was in one of the middle heats of the pack, and she was still the second girl to finish. She did awesome—so proud of her!

Up and over!

Loving those slam balls!

Power Ropes!

She still managed a smile at the finish!

Beckett's Utah girlfriend!

The event went off well, and afterwards, we hit the road. After a short night’s sleep in Oregon (thanks to our little one who has decided it is imperative he eats at least once every two hours at nighttime or he screams like you are cutting off his leg), we hit the road again for another long drive to Seattle.

This is the part of our trip we have been looking forward to the most. Neither Sean or I have ever visited the Pacific Northwest. Sadly, my ideas of what it looks like stem primarily from watching Dante’s Peak and of course Twilight (duh). Let’s not even get into the sad fact that I have secretly been wishing to see the Cullen’s in the woods ever since we got here. *Sigh* Oh, and I have also been searching for Seattle Grace and McDreamy. Also a no-go. Sean just shakes his head at me. So unsupportive! So once we crossed the state line from Idaho into Oregon, and then from Oregon to Washington, I kept looking for the signs that we had finally reached the Pacific Northwest. There were mountains and plateaus and valleys. But they all looked so dry and desolate. Where were the lush forests filled with sparkling vampires? Sometime about an hour out of Seattle, it was like we crossed an imaginary line. There were mountains of tall evergreen trees, gigantic snow capped mountains in the distance, and mist hovering among the trees giving them a mystical appearance. We had finally reached the Pacific Northwest, and it was breathtaking!

Today we spent the day in downtown Seattle. Our main objective was to scout out pre-planned event points, but for the first time since we began our journey in the land-yacht (see below),

we gladly took on the role of tourists. Sean even humored me and happily took me to the two places on my list of things to do.

1. Go to the world-famous Pike Place Fish Market.


Mom and baby waiting for some action!

I have wanted to go to the fish market for a while now, but my desire to go there was multiplied after I read the quick and easy read, Fish!, about five years ago.

Now, it may look boring, but I promise if you read it with an open mind, and take what it says to heart, it can change your life! It did mine! This book is based off of the philosophies of Pike Place Fish Market. Themes like, "Choose Your Attitude," and "Make Their Day," are the foundations of the fish market. These are the goals of the people who work at the market. They aim to help people while selling them fish. Now after saying all this, I must say I was a little bit underwhelmed by the fish market. I was so hoping they'd throw my fish, but no dice. My mom suggested that maybe it was our timing. After all, we did visit around 4:00 on a Monday afternoon. Maybe they reserve their best fish throwing for weekends and tourist high times? We did, however, get to see one chunk of wrapped fish thrown, and one of the workers jump up on the freezer case shouting out something undetectable, but that's it. Although, the man who got my fish did engage me in a conversation about Beckett--he had a one year-old at home whose name is Colbin. So, we talked about choosing original names for a bit. Maybe that was his way of "making my day." I must admit, I did use Beckett as a little pawn in my game to get some special attention and some possible fish-throwing action. I mean, how cute can you be in your little dragon beanie? I think it worked against me. I will say, however, the fresh-caught salmon was delicious, and we enjoyed it for dinner!

2. My second to-do while in Seattle was to go to the original Starbucks and get a pumpkin spice latte. I even made myself forgo my morning cup of coffee in anticipation of this event. Now that, my friends, is serious. And when I say “Sean happily took me,” what I really mean is that “Sean was scared what might happen if I didn’t get a little caffeine in my system after a week and a half of waking at least every two hours to feed the baby, so he really had no choice.” That Sean, he’s a smart man.

Pumpkin spice latte = pure bliss

Another added benefit of today’s excursion included a nice walk around the waterfront:

Woops, sorry to cut you out, little man!

We also stopped on a whim for a pastry because the ~~smart~~ evil owners vent the ovens directly onto the street so all you can smell is cinnamon apple bun goodness. Another incredible highlight was lunch out at a restaurant for the first time since August. Today was the first time it was cool enough at 60 degrees to leave Cooper in the RV without it running. After a walk around Seattle with Cooper, so he wouldn’t feel left out, we brought him back to the RV, where he sat in the driver seat the whole time, guarding his home. I can’t tell you how freeing it was for all three of us to go into a public place together. It was just what I needed to reset my system and feel like a normal person. Love ya, Mr. Coopsters, but unfortunately everyone doesn’t love you as much as I do, so sometimes ya gotta stay in the RV so your mom doesn’t go crazy. I think that’s a small price to pay.

We hope to get some hiking in this week--Beckett keeps bugging us about getting in his new pack again. So hopefully we'll have some more fun pictures to share soon!

Yummy Goodness

2010-09-30T17:19:00.001-04:00

So I am writing this post for any of you out there that think maybe we are wasting away and surviving off of PB & J for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We have been asked several times, "what do you eat?" So I thought I'd share a little of the day to day with you. If you know Sean, you know that he would scoff at the idea of eating peanut butter and jelly for lunch or *gasp* cereal for breakfast. He is the man, after all, that after days of pleading with him, he only went out and bought his pregnant wife pop-tarts because he found them in an organic variety. In the past year I have slowly said goodbye to cereal (extraordinarily painful for a girl who would happily eat cereal for dinner 3 times a week) But, I can't complain, because although I can follow a recipe and cook up some yummy goodness, Sean is gifted with cooking healthy meals from scratch with no recipe. He just makes them up. Salmon with fresh ginger and balsamic glaze? Check. Buffalo tacos with fresh mangoes and homemade to-die-for guac? (Thanks, Mich!) No problem. So I gladly have coffee, laundry, and baby duty, which includes entertaining cutie, making his food, changing diapers, etc. I happily take on these responsibilities when I do not have to lift a finger in the kitchen. I mean, he actually enjoys grocery shopping! I have offered to do it, but he always turns me down. So on our drive to one of our first races, we decided we needed to make a menu and shopping list for the week. Here is our dinner menu. Yummy :) For lunch, we usually eat leftovers (except fish!).

Monday	Grilled Fish	Edamame Salad
Tuesday	Chicken Tacos	Guacamole
Wednesday	Turkey & Cheese	Broccoli
Thursday	Buffalo Burgers	Sweet Potatoes & Salad
Friday	Grilled Fish	Fruit Salad
Saturday	Chicken Tzatziki	Asparagus & Peppers
Sunday	Barbecue Chicken	Veggie Skewers

So Monday and Thursday we make our way to the nearest Whole Foods (if we can find one) and Sean goes in, armed with our pre-made grocery list to purchase our food for the next few days. We eat the same thing every morning for breakfast...which some might think gets old, but look at it!

The bowl contains plain organic yogurt, agave nectar for sweetening, granola, and fresh fruit which in this case happens to be strawberries, raspberries, and peaches. We switch the fruit up as the seasons change.

Here is our fruit salad:

Seriously? In a melon bowl? Presentation is everything to this man. It's the little things in life, people.

Mmmmm....salmon night!

Grilled Salmon and veggies, a side salad, and a bonus of shrimp :)

And....


Oh woops :) How'd that get in there? Mama can cook too! We've got chicken, yellow squash, carrots, and bananas, which he won't eat unless they are all mixed together!

And of course, my favorite part is s'mores. Unfortunately, we haven't hit a lot of campfire friendly places lately, so we have had plenty of time to perfect our raw s'more technique. Though Sean and I disagree on this front. Please see below for what Sean calls the "Squirrel Method."

In this method, you put the s'more together like you would if you had a campfire to make it. The difference is it doesn't stick together, and you must hold it together very carefully so as not to lose graham cracker in the process. Thus the "squirrel." Not attractive, but it is effective.

Then we have Sean's method. He thinks it is much less wasteful.

Here, Sean uses one quarter of a graham cracker, one piece of chocolate, and he has since modified it to half a marshmallow. He puts it all in at once. Less mess, less waste....but somehow, not as fun.

So, enough about food. We are still in Salt Lake. A couple of days ago, we needed to scout out the city to pick out the points for the challenge. Usually Sean drives us around to check it out. However, we are staying very close to downtown, and I was going stir-crazy, so we decided to walk around the city with the baby and chicken dog. Sean warned me it would be about 7 miles, but I didn't care. He didn't however, warn me about the gigantic, San Francisco-like hill we had to hike up to get to the Capital Building. But, it was fun, and we really enjoyed seeing the city on foot. It's a very nice city, surrounded by beautiful mountains. We really didn't happen across any bad parts of town, and it is very walkable. Five hours later, we made it back to our home in the dark. Here are a couple of highlights:

After the long walk up the hill, we made it to the Capital Building!

Please note sign. They are very safety conscious here. Orange flags on the street corners to cross the street with. Safety first!

Giddy-up Chicken Dog!

Consequently, Chicken Dog became quite the guard dog earlier this morning. There is a rogue dog that has escaped from his site 3 times now, and each time he has made a beeline for Cooper. He also peed all over the grass and driveway while running around--we don't even let Cooper pee in our clean little area. The first two times, Cooper was friendly. However, the third, and final time, Coop attacked. I had to pull them apart (while the obnoxious owners came lolly gagging behind). The only difference between the other times Rogue Dog came over was that Beckett was out playing in his exersaucer this morning. Coop decided he needed to protect his baby. :) He's such a good dog! I rewarded him with doggy treats and told him that we'd take him hiking tomorrow. He's very excited! And the best part is that you are allowed to have your dog off the leash on odd numbered days. Hooray! Pics to come!

The Adventure Continues...

2010-09-27T18:31:00.001-04:00

So much has changed since my last post. I have been held captive to such things as taking Metro Dash footage and turning it into hundreds of snapshots, searching out gyms in each city we go to to find email addresses for marketing, and of course playing mommy to my little cutie. So sadly, my blog has been placed on the back burner, but I am back! While in Houston, we discovered the RV Resort we were staying at had an amazing pool complete with palm trees and a "water feature" as the signs which told us to stay away put it. It was a welcome respite if you went after 5:00 when the sun wasn't as strong, if you faced away from the field of endless power lines, and could ignore the high-pitched, ear pinging sound that came every 5 seconds to keep the mosquitoes away. Beckett didn't seem to mind any of these minor annoyances and had a blast swimming away with his mom and dad.

Notice water feature in the background

Our little swimmer

Swimming with mom is the best!

I'm an alien!

Keeping warm when the sun goes down!

The Houston event went off wonderfully with a great turnout--over 260 people. We even got to meet up with our friend, Emilie, which put the icing on the cake and made the heat of Houston worth it! I even had a little helper who helped me count the medals when it was all over.

A whole new world has emerged now that little man can sit up on his own!

Denver. Oh Denver. How we love you! Denver was filled with mornings of mom drinking coffee outside, while baby, all bundled up, sat up and played with his toys. And of course, Cooper snuggled up to mom or baby to make sure everything was going smoothly. The mornings were crisp and cool. A sweatshirt and pants were all you needed to be comfortable. Then the afternoon brought with it warmer temperatures in the upper 70s and low 80s. No humidity, and we were free from the tiny RV we call home. It was a wonderful week!


Mama's big boy (and no, I'm not talking about that glorious RV in the background--though I can't tell you how much I wish it were ours!) Look at that belly!

Our little guard dog


We even made time to read! Baby's favorite book--thanks Auntie Paula and Uncle Brentee!

As the week in Denver went on, we discovered a beautiful lake at the park we were staying at. It took about 30 minutes to walk to from our site, but the walk was beautiful, and it was so nice to be outside and not withering in the heat! We had the beach to ourselves, and Cooper went nuts over the chance to run around off leash. And of course, he LOVES beaches! There was a tiny floating dock that we walked out on. Cooper loves water, but only if he can walk in it. Chicken dog is NOT a swimmer. He is also not a fan of narrow, bobbing docks. But, he did discover that even at the far end of the dock, the water went up to his elbows. We managed to lure him out onto the end of the dock, where he became a dock-diving dog. He loved jumping off into the shallow water and doing it all over again. It must have been quite a site to see from afar. Beckett also got to enjoy his first time sitting up on his own and playing in the sand. Amazingly enough, he didn't even try to put it in his mouth!

Chicken dog exploring the water next to the dock

The slow walk out

Chicken dog diving into the shallow water

The view from our private beach. Downtown Denver and mountains beyond.

One happy doggy

Standing in the sand!

Most kissable cheeks EVER

As the week in Denver came to an end, I knew it was time for the trip to my favorite place (no, not the showers!):

Now these particular laundry facilities in Denver were outside under a covered overhang. There were three washers (YES!) but one was broken (BOO!). Not such a big deal, because I had four loads to do anyway. I passed the time by reading Beckett my most recent book, Marley and Me. Now I am pretty sure I am the only person this has ever happened to. As my two loads of wash were coming to an end, and while standing next to a pile of dirty towels and sheets and a pile of dirty baby stuff, I was approached by a man and woman. Their smiles of greeting quickly dropped from their faces when they saw me and all my stuff. Over the sounds of two machines spinning, they asked me if I was still doing wash. Despite all the sarcastic comments that flashed through my mind, I told them that I had two loads about to go in the dryer and two more to be washed. They then informed me that they were there to unhook the washers and dryers because the building was going to be torn down. Imagine the look of ~~dismay~~ sheer panic on this mama's face with dirty sheets, no clean baby clothes, washcloths, bibs, etc., and two loads of wet laundry. Thankfully, they took pity on me and told me that they would let me finish my laundry before they unhooked anything. Sometime during this exchange two things happened: the laundry in the washing machines finished and my once pleasant baby began crying. So now, feeling guilty for making them wait, (even though there was no sign posted or park staff announcement about this catastrophic event) I began frantically transferring my wash to the dryer. Don't forget about the fusser on my hip! And my new laundry friends just stood there and watched me. They WATCHED me, and they watched my purple undies and black bra, which of course HAD to fall on the ground amidst my frenzied clothes transfer. WHY did it have to be the underwear? No, it couldn't possibly be Sean's t-shirt or my running shorts. And why are they staring at me? Why is Beckett screaming? How did I get to this place again???? So, even though there were now two free washers for my two loads of laundry, Washer Machine man asked me why I wasn't using the washer with the large sign that said "OUT OF ORDER." Yes, that is how my day was going. When I explained to him my reasoning, (it was crazy, I know) he threw some quarters in it, looked at the stream of water, declared it a functioning washer, and told me to use it. With great hesitation, I put the detergent and clothes in and closed the lid. My clothes promptly started spinning. For those of you who aren't laundry experts, the spin cycle is the LAST cycle of a load of laundry. You know, after the washing machine fills with water, after the clothes have been washed, and after the clothes have been rinsed. Lucky for me, I had a free load of wash from my washing machine friend. However unlucky for me all I was going to end up with was a bunch of dirty, dizzy clothes. Thankfully, he made some adjustments and fixed it--I think the look I gave him made his life flash before his eyes. After about 3 hours, my laundry adventure was over and all washers and dryers at Cherry Creek State Park were out of commission for a few months.

So now, here we are in Salt Lake City, enjoying "unseasonably hot" weather. Thankfully, it is nothing compared to the oppressive heat of Houston. We are looking forward to some fun times here--we are getting together with Kimberly, a friend made in Kindergarten that I haven't seen in years. Looks like baby is going on his first hiking trip! Stay tuned for pictures! :)

Crematoria, Crazy Costumes, and Cruising

2010-09-12T16:12:00.003-04:00

Sean and I watched a movie last night—Chronicles of Riddick. Cheesy, but entertaining enough. In the movie there is a planet, Crematoria, whose temperature rises to 700 degrees during the day. Clearly, nobody goes outside during the day. I’m pretty sure we are on Crematoria here at the good old Lakeview RV Resort in Houston.

Our good ole' not-quite 6 foot wide home.

Nice little walking trail around the lake except it's hotter than Hades and dogs aren't allowed. Such hooey.

Our home from behind with nice views of our neighbors and power lines. We are missing the "campground" experience when compared to the "resort" experience. Except for one little exception....coming up--keep reading!

Because it’s 700 degrees here, we stay in the RV during the day with all the sun shades drawn and the AC continuously running. The AC never turns off because there is no shade here and the sun beats in on the RV all day long from every direction. And there’s not a cloud in the sky. You always wonder what’s wrong when pulling into an RV park or campground when NOBODY is outside. Well, here it’s the heat, we figured. So we decided we would tough it out in our TINY home all day, watch a movie, drink some wine, play with the baby, do some work, and then wait for the sun to go down. And wait we did….wait, wait, wait, wait.

Home, looking back. Wait, wait, wait. Swing, swing, swing.

Home, looking forward. Still waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Come on sun! Set already!

Finally the sun set! Hallelujah! Even the chicken dog was chomping at the bit to get out of this thing for the great outdoors. So we hopped outside, sat down, kicked back, (it was only 300 degrees now), and started to enjoy being outside. That is until the mosquitoes discovered the only 4 living beings ~~brave~~ dumb enough to exit an air conditioned/bug free dwelling. Ahh…the second reason nobody was outside. And they started to feast. I tried to tough it out. Really, I did. But after 5 bites on me and even Sean being attacked for once, we ran for cover back to our home, sweet, home. All that anticipation of a nice evening in the great outdoors was squashed. So Sean proceeded to cook dinner inside (he usually cooks outside on the grill)—and what is the only thing we had? Tacos. So now we smell like a dirty Mexican restaurant and we’re itchy. But you know what we trade for loss of shady goodness and cooler temps? Take a look below. Pure bliss.

Dear shower, you are the cleanest shower I have set foot in on this journey. I don't even have to wear shower shoes when I step into you. (But I still do, cause you never know what kinda foot fungus these strangers might have.) I love you. Please let me put you in my pocket and take you with me wherever we go. Love, Jo

Just in case you need a reminder of previous bathrooms. Note hole in wall by knob and chipped paint.

Alright, so enough complaining. I would like to rewind a bit to share some highlights of our Labor Day weekend. It started with Metro Dash Atlanta right in the heart of the city.

Awesome backdrop for the race.

Little did we know that Dragon*Con, “the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe!"(dragoncon.org), was actually starting their parade on the street bordering our start/finish. We are talking 35,000 people dressed up in costumes ranging from Star Wars characters, comic book heroes, Shrek characters, Spartans, girls in costumes that left nothing to the imagination, etc… I even saw the Ghostbusters car. It was CRAZY! I mean these were 35,000 grown adults dressed up in costumes marching around. As the competitors ran through the streets, the convention-goers jumped out the way and cheered them on. In our survey feedback, instead of competitors being annoyed about being slowed down, they actually thought we did it on purpose and thanked us for the quirky distraction. Thank you Dragon*Con, ya big bunch of weirdos! (No disrespect intended if you’re into that sorta thing!)

Not quite sure where Shrek was.

10 points if you can figure out who the lady in white is. (besides scary)

And no parade is complete without the man on his ostrich.

Pinky and the Brain hours later having trouble hanging up the costume.

On Sunday, we got a big treat. Sean’s good friend from his childhood days, Jen, invited us out on her boat with her husband and adorable 4 year-old daughter. Our only problem was what to do with chicken dog. He was invited on the boat, but since he’s scared of deep water, we were scared of what he’d do to the boat. So Sean walked up to the camp store to talk to Marcia, our new friend, the campground manager. He asked her if she knew of any kennels we could bring Cooper to for the day. We technically could leave him in the RV, since the AC runs all the time—we were just worried about leaving him alone all day. Marcia and her husband took a liking to Sean the week we were there, and she enthusiastically offered to watch Cooper, while she worked in the store. So we had a date with a boat, and Cooper had a date with Marcia in the camp store.

I'm ready to go on the boat!

So when it was time for our fun in the sun, I’m talking right to our doorstep kinda service. They picked us up in the boat pretty much at our campsite. We hopped on the boat, and headed out for some fun in a quiet little cove on Lake Lanier. As soon as the boat started moving, Beckett passed out, despite the life jacket that he HATED wearing.

I'm on a boat!

When we arrived at the cove, baby and daddy enjoyed swimming around in the water. Beckett even made a new girlfriend who made him laugh uncontrollably.

Ready to go swimming, Mama, but can you take this dumb thing off of me, please?!?!?

Can somebody get this thing off my face, please?!?!

My boys bonding

Beckett makes a new girlfriend. A girl in every state is his goal.

After a great day on the water, we returned to our campsite and grilled steaks and veggies while slurping down fresh summer fruit. And we can't forget the s'mores. Oh, and of course we got Cooper back--and all the campers kept coming up to our site to say hi to him. He was quite popular after spending his day in the store greeting all the customers. And Charlie, Marcia's husband, kept saying something about Cooper eating a peanut butter granola bar. Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure he snagged it off the shelf as opposed to being offered it. That's our chicken dog, always the gracious guest. What a perfect weekend it was!

So, I will be reflecting on the cool lake waters while I shower in delightfully clean showers and hide out in the RV to escape the Crematoria like temps. and blood-sucking mosquitoes.

Creepy Crawlies

2010-09-10T18:47:00.000-04:00

Ok, guys, Ms. Drama is back. Bear with me, please. So just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. I told myself I would stop harping on the bathrooms, but then after the experience I just had, I wouldn't feel right if I didn't share it with those of you out there kind enough to read this blog. Lemme explain to you a little something I have discovered after staying in at least 6 consecutive campgrounds. You always enter the bathroom with a sense of hopeful trepidation. It's a hope that maybe, just maybe this one might be better than the last. More often than not, you enter the bathroom, only to declare that this is the worst, most disgusting one yet. But then, as the week goes on, and the bathroom isn't cleaned, your disgust turns into a sense of recognition. Like, "I recognize that clump of hair in the drain--it's MINE!" Or, "I recognize that dead cricket in the left corner of the shower, he's been there for 6 days! His name is Fred." And the sense of disgust turns into a peaceful recognition. But this one, well, it takes the cake. No peaceful recognition here.

Where to begin....We made it to a campground/RV park in Shreveport, LA this afternoon. We will arrive in Texas tomorrow. Sean warned me that the showers were scary at the RV park in Mississippi yesterday, so I told myself I'd skip the shower and take one today. I immediately regret that decision. Is it acceptable to go 2 full days without shower, when waiting till tomorrow will make it 3??? What if it's been like a million degrees outside with 100% humidity? Can I somehow manage to fit into this?

Maybe if I squeeze myself nice and small, I will fit?!!?

So, I went for a nice long walk with Beckett and Cooper around the campground and decided it was time to check out the bathrooms. I dropped off baby and chicken dog with daddy, and made the trek to the bathroom. As I cut through the grass, hundreds of tiny fly mosquito hybrids attacked me. Ahhh....nature. I love you. As I arrived at the bathroom, a blue, yes, a blue lizard was frantically trying to get into the bathroom. WHY would any living creature in it's right mind (insects not included) want to make it's way into the bathroom? I would soon have my answer. The floor was crusted with thousands of fly mosquitoes. And what was that sound???? A ~~LOUD~~ deafening fan was sitting in the only window doing nothing for air circulation and blocking any sunlight that might happen to come in.

Ok, so I had to document this on camera for you. I mean, have you ever heard the expression, "it made my toes curl?" I never really understood it until I realized that while in the bathroom, my toes were unconsciously curling. So here is my disclaimer...if you have a weak stomach, scroll fast. I will help distract you from your horror with happy pictures in between.

My first sight. Sink with dead fly mosquito hybrids. Not so bad. I can handle it.

Bonding boys

Wait...what is on the shower floor.....

Look at me, I'm cute, and not scary like shower floors!


WHAT IN THE WORLD

Big boy outfit and no scary bugs in sight

Avert your eyes, AVERT!!!!!!!!!! (Do you know how close I had to get to that thing to get this shot!?!?)

Look at me!!!! Take as much time as you need to recover!

And a little treat as I frantically ran for the exit. A dying daddy longleg.


If you made it this far, thank you.

The happy family :)

Alright, I must go figure out how to get clean. Don't worry--I assure you it won't be in that shower. Until then, I wish you clean showers and uncurled toes.

Lost

2010-09-09T10:13:00.000-04:00

Well, we are off to Texas for our Houston Metro Dash challenge on September 18. Our goal is to get there by Sunday, so we are staying in Mississippi tonight. It was bittersweet to leave our fabulous campground--we prolonged our stay there because we loved it so much. But, we are ready to move on to new adventures.

The other day was quite the adventure after Sean got a little work done. (Sean says I'm overly dramatic, but just hear me out :) )We spent some more time at our favorite hidden beach for some splash time, fun in the sun, and of course more picture time. The light at that time of day is just too beautiful to resist.

Baby likes fishy faces


The famous daddy walk that works wonders to knock baby out (see below)

Thanks for the loin cloth (aka burp cloth) mom! You are so crafty! :)

After beach time, it was time for my favorite part of the day—“Jo, let’s go for a run, and when you ask me how much longer, I will always answer that I don’t know.” So off we went for our first run with the AMAZING Bob jogging stroller sans infant car seat. (Thanks mom and dad!) Lemme just tell you—I kicked that run’s butt. Well, I kicked its butt for the first 6 min. 34 sec. until the downhill disappeared. At that point in time I declared two things:

My brand new Baby-G’s stopwatch was crap. We had to have been running for at least 15 minutes.
Sean was now in charge of pushing baby.

I love you Baby-G! Now when I am up 3 times a night feeding the baby, all I have to do is look at your beautiful face to know the correct time. SO much better than asking Sean what time it is, have him pretend to look at his watch, and make up a time.

We stumbled upon a fun path that appeared to go around the lake. Perfect! Well, it seemed perfect until we discovered that the path was actually bordering an old, unused golf course. The debris and plants growing straight out of the asphalt path made it too bumpy and hazardous to run on with Beckett. He finally stopped his bobble-headedness, and we’d like to keep it that way. But the path was too fun and adventurous to turn around, so we kept walking. (Imagine my disappointment that we had to walk for the "safety of the baby." Anything can be turned my way if it involves the well being of the baby. Daddy is such a softy. It's my secret weapon.) It was so bad that Sean made me walk in front of the stroller, so that I could use my body as a human spider web collector to protect little man. Yes, chivalry goes straight out the window when baby enters the world. And mom will do anything to protect baby--even stand in the path of spiders. Now that is love.

When it seemed that we might never find an end to the twisting, overgrown path through the woods and 8 foot tall weeds, Sean made me run up over the hill to see what I could see. With hawks screeching in the background (waiting for me to die so that they could eat me), I made it to the top of the hill. Everywhere I looked, I saw winding paths, hills of weeds, and trees. I started to picture the Others from Lost coming out the trees to capture us. Fortunately, we were spared and hopped back on the path a little further up and found our way back to civilization.

Wilderness, I tell you.

Lucky for me, Sean promptly resumed our, “I don’t know how much longer” run--he even found a big hill to run up and down. Too bad someone had to stay with the baby. I'm such a martyr.

Home is Where the RV (and all the Baby Gear) is

2010-09-03T14:48:00.002-04:00

So when preparing for this trip, Sean and I decided that we would do everything in our power to make sure that the baby didn’t suffer at all from our craziness. (The following blog is not written to put down any parenting choices—just sharing what I am blessed to be able to do with the extra free time I have being a stay-at-home-on-the-road mama) Thus, we I am still cloth diapering and wiping (hey, we spent enough money on the durn things—we better still be using them!) Sometimes we have to steal our neighboring campsite’s sun spots to dry the dipes! Thank goodness they finally left this morning so we could do some laundry. Sheesh. The nerve of them to stay so long and hog all the sun.

Cooper guarding our valuables, with our home in the background

And, I am making all his food with the FABULOUS Beaba Babycook bought for me by my awesome girlfriends for my birthday. (Thank you so much to my girlfriend mamas out there who told me about it!)

Steaming some yellow squash

Organic peaches and sweet potato

It’s funny how when you have a baby, birthdays, Christmas, and anniversaries turn into the fabulous opportunity to request baby items. No more clothes (for mom), makeup, and jewelry. Hello travel cribs, baby food making devices, and strollers. Trust me, I’m not complaining—I mean what mom of an infant (who is still not sleeping through the night) has the time or energy to get dressed up or put on makeup? And jewelry--well we all know necklace + baby = instant mommy choke out. So it’s Babycooks and baby clothes for this happy mom’s birthday! Beckett has been thoroughly enjoying his meals twice a day, which range from peas, carrots, yellow squash, avocado, peaches, pears, and banana.

Typical morning--breakfast in his jammies!

He has had sweet potato, but it causes uncontrollable gagging episodes, so despite mom and dad's amusement, we have been avoiding it at all costs. That is, he hated sweet potato until I used my Babycook to steam the sweet potato and then blend it with peach and banana, and.....SUCCESS! (The cute little green machine does BOTH things, so I only have to clean one machine. This is crucial when you have a kitchen roughly the size of, oh, let’s say your dresser drawer.) Although, he did give me a few side glances the other day when I was feeding him—as if to say, “Hey lady, you think you’re being smooth, but I know what this really is….I’ll let it slide this time!”

Even though Beckett is getting the benefit of fresh air and being outside all day, we couldn’t deprive him of all the fabulous baby toys out there by leaving them behind. (Ok, fine, who am I kidding. We didn’t have the heart to leave our expensive baby toys that specialize in giving mom a break behind.) Take a view of our outdoor baby paradise:

Exersaucer for playtime

(and of course, there is dad, hard at work in his outdoor office)

Swing for nap time

(Ahem, yoohoo... Beckett....swing is for NAP time!)

Bumbo for mealtime

Perfection, except for all the stinking bugs. Lucky for Sean, baby, and chicken dog, they only like to bite me. Sweet.

Water, Water, Everywhere, and Not a Drop to Swim In!

2010-09-01T00:01:00.000-04:00

Best picture EVER!

So, if you know my husband, you know that he is not happy unless he has a body of water close to him that he can jump in at any time. If he doesn't jump in it, it doesn't matter--he just feels better knowing that it is there at his beck and call. So imagine his disappointment when two of the campgrounds we have been to have lakes--beautiful lakes, but entering those lakes is forbidden. Not that that would usually stop him; but you know--we have a kid now, and we'd like to try to avoid hard jail time.

A "forbidden" lake in Boston. Looky, but no touchy! As we arrived, a group of teenagers was leaving, one of whom was named "Beckett!"

So, his main requirement for the campground in Atlanta was that it had to have a lake, and he had to be allowed in it. Well we found one, and we highly recommend it (bathrooms NOT included in high accolades, of course). It's on Lake Lanier, outside of Atlanta. In fact, we are one of only four campsites here being used because we timed it just right with school going back in session. We have a lake view, easy access to the lake, and nice, quiet, private beaches! It's SO nice! My favorite: Mama gets to strip down to feed the baby without worrying about nursing covers! AND the lake is so warm! If you know me at all, you know I am NOT a swimmer. In fact, I am the opposite of Sean. But it has gorgeous blue-green water, warm temps, and a soft sandy bottom that I can SEE (that is a requirement for me to enter a lake. I mean, there could be sharks or giant alligators or anacondas or something. Haven't you ever seen those movies???) Shockingly, even I couldn't keep out of the water. I even tried to get the little fishies that were swimming everywhere to nibble the dead skin on my feet for a nice little pedicure. Sadly, they weren't interested. Although, they did nip Cooper's toes a couple times, which resulted in a chicken dog hightailing out of the water.

Chicken dog right before being attacked by little fish. I know the water looks murky--I promise, it's not!

Chicken dog not sure if he wants to commit


Daddy sharing his love of the water with Beckett


Swim little man, swim!


Relaxing on the beach!

Pudgy Wudgy loves playtime in the sand and water!

And a perfect end to a perfect day with best buds being entertained by mom and dad with their kettlebells, slam balls, and TRX! Well actually the perfect end was the 3 s'mores I ate for dessert....but who's counting?!?!

We Aren't THAT Different!

2010-08-30T09:42:00.000-04:00

So we arrived to Atlanta today, and upon check-in to our lovely lakeside campsite, I decided that my day really isn't that much different than yours! Really!

We go for walks.

Hanging out in Charlotte

Sometimes on our walks, we do silly things.

Cooper likes to join in on the fun, too. Can't you tell?

We also take time to work out. We just have to be a little creative with our "gym."

I know you can't hear it, but Beckett is in the background saying "3, 2, 1, work!"

Can't forget to stay clean! We must take our baths!


Poor little guy is wondering, "What happened to my whale bathtub??!? It's WAY cooler than this little basin. That's it, I want new parents!!!!"


And...just to keep it in perspective...just how small it is. Poor little guy....we surely win parents of the year for this one!

See, it's not that bad!


All clean and snuggly!

And amidst all the work we do; yes, we do work :) ; we take time to explore and have fun!


Even Cooper takes time for himself with his busy schedule. We found the perfect secluded spot on Lake Lanier outside of Atlanta, and Cooper even found himself a toy!


Mommy kisses are THE BEST!


Cooper, pretending he is swimming. (Don't be fooled, he just splashes around hoping the frisbee will float his way--remember, he is a chicken!)

And last, but not least, I spend countless hours playing with and gazing at the little man. His eyes can't decide whether they want to be blue or hazel, so they are both for now. Blue around the outside, hazel on the inside. This proud mama thinks they are gorgeous!

His newest obsession is playing with water bottles. Good luck drinking out of one when he is within arm's reach

And, this is what happens when a nervous mama takes away his water bottle to remove the lid because she is scared of him choking on it.

Child knows what he wants!

So, you see, we aren't that much different than you...just living out of a much smaller space and sharing showers with strangers. That's all! :)

Wait, so this is REAL?

2010-08-29T23:30:00.000-04:00

**I wrote this post last week on Thursday, but had trouble getting it posted until today!**

So it is finally hitting me that this dream of Sean's is really happening, and in turn so is mine. Before school let out, it didn't hit me that I'd be staying at home with my little love for good because it just felt like I had an extra long maternity leave. But now that all my teacher friends are headed back to school, it is finally sinking in that I get to stay ~~home~~ on a four month tour of the country in an RV with my little man. Hey, so we had to mesh Sean's and my dreams to make it work. No big deal. We are so thankful and blessed with the success of Metro Dash. The past month has been an amazing blur of bouncing from house to house and spending lots of time with our family. It's been awesome. Sean told me today that the girl who cuts his hair said, "man you must really love each other," in response to his description of the next three months. I am pretty sure that the craziness of it all is going to really help us appreciate the little things in life (like the ability to have two people moving in a room at once--our home is tiny, people!; or not having ankles and feet that look I have chicken pox from neverending bug bites; oh! or not having to pull some random boxer briefs out of the campground washing machine in order to wash my baby's diapers without contaminating them with stranger cooties) But I promise, we are having fun, and don't regret it for a minute! (even if I seem to complain sometimes! ;) )

So we made it safely to Charlotte after a long day on the road yesterday. We are slowly teaching our ~~big chicken~~ dog, Cooper, how to smoothly transition from the scary campground to the scary city all in one day, but there are so many things to be afraid of. I mean, take today's experience....while walking by a crowded bus stop, a man jumps out of his seat and immediately starts petting Cooper. Then, his questionably pregnant lady friend comes to pet him too. She sees Beckett's little toes poking out from under his sun shield on the stroller, points to him, and says, "I got me two of them coming." Before we could wrap our minds around her statement, someone sitting about ten feet away decided to bark at Cooper. SomeONE, not some DOG, someONE. Keep it classy, Charlotte. Keep it classy. We are ready for Metro Dash this weekend, and hopefully will get some free time tomorrow to explore the nature trails.

Sean and Cooper shortly before we were accosted at the bus stop

So let's rewind a bit....we had a fabulous week last week staying with Sean's mom and stepdad in New Jersey. We spent lots of time with his siblings and their families and enjoyed getting the babies together.

Beckett got LOTS of snuggle time in with MeMa and Pop Pop Jerry.

Beckett also got to visit with his Great Grandmother 3 times and make her day as she recovers from her broken hip. It was the first time she got to see both boys together! What a special time it was!

We also got some rays in at his Aunt Kelly and Uncle Bob's pool. Ryder even shared his police float with Beckett. Beckett LOVED kicking and splashing in the water. It was the first time he actually showed that he liked it instead of just being neutral. We were lucky enough to spend the day with Bob's sister and her absolutely precious daughter, Lily (who is FULL of personality) and her 7 week old cutie, Molly.

We ended the week on a celebratory note, celebrating Aunt Erica's birthday at a great seafood restaurant. We even had the baby.....in a bar!

Unfortunately, just about everyone who ordered the wahoo got food poisoning. Thankfully I was a lucky one, but the wahoo took Sean as a casualty. However, our sweet Beckett likes to keep things fair, so while Sean was up late night doing very un-fun things, I was up late night with a HYSTERICALLY screaming baby who only wanted daddy (who was REALLY not available to soothe a screaming baby.) That was a fun night.

The night before the Philly race we stayed at a campground that provided us our first experience with a trailer park. We were used to nature, trees, privacy. Nope, not here. Hello to your neighbor who is about ten feet away from you. We got some funny looks when we unloaded 15 5-gallon jugs of water, and 3 40-pound boxes of bananas from our RV. No big deal.

The set-up at the race in Philly was awesome. We parked the RV and trailer on the sidewalk directly next to where we set up the Gauntlet. This sidewalk was on the grassy area in front of the Liberty Bell, Constitution Hall, and the Federal Reserve. Should we be worried that nobody said two words to us about our parking job OR what was in our big scary van and trailer between the hours of 4:00 a.m. and noon? Hey, I won't complain, just saying.


Cooper, overseeing the setup

The Gauntlet, with our home in the background :)

It was another great event, and we even got to cheer for Uncle Bob and cousin Ryder!

After the race in Philly, we got to stop back home to see Mormor and Gramps again! Yay!!! We got to spend a wonderful evening and half the day on Sunday with them before we sadly had to hit the road again. We spent a whirlwind two days in VB. It was awesome, though! Somehow a group of us girls were able to get together on a Tuesday morning for breakfast to celebrate our dear friend, Michelle's belated birthday. It was awesome to see Andrea, quite possibly one of the cutest pregnant ladies ever. I lucked out because she was visiting from Hawaii. It was also wonderful to see Jules and Amanda! Yay for girl time!

My beautiful besties! I LOVE them!

I also attended a bachelorette party, dinner with our FUN neighbors, Caleb, Jenna, and sweet baby Brylee (Beckett and Brylee are in love--Beckett has multiple girlfriends these days!) We also had to do laundry and take lots of showers to enjoy it while we could! And my favorite was repacking everything in the RV now that we know what we really need since we will be gone from home until the end of November. Oh, and Beckett's doctor's appointment. All jammed into two days! I wish we could have stayed longer, but the races are calling us.

Our adventure has begun, and now I must head off for my first shower experience in Charlotte. *sigh*

Family Time!

2010-08-14T18:42:00.000-04:00

Thankfully, we have 2 weeks between our Boston and Philly races, which means two weeks in Jersey with some of our favorite people! We have spent a week with Sean's Dad. I'm talking pure bliss here, people. No shower shoes, no spiders, no dirt, and a queen size bed! (Our sleeping situation deserves it's own blog post to come soon). Not to mention the fact that Beckett loves his Poppy time! Well, now he enjoys his Poppy time. It wasn't always like that. Some first experiences with Poppy included his cute little lip, which popped out, his forehead crinkling up, and lots of WAILS. We think Poppy looks like a strange version of Beckett's daddy, and that was just a bit too much. But now he LOVES him! All Poppy needs to do is look at the little guy, and he busts out in a smile!

Oh let's not forget the food of this week either. Poppy's new roommate is an AMAZING cook! I'm pretty sure Fernando's only goal in life is to make our little family a BIG family whose cumulative weight is 1,200 pounds before we leave Jersey. I'm pretty sure he is succeeding in that goal. I mean, look at dessert. He pretty much whipped four of those bad boys up in about 2 minutes. I'm fairly certain that Fernando is a Portuguese angel sent down from heaven. We're talking 4 course meals here--with napkins folded into little shapes on your salad plate. How do I get some more Fernando in my life??? Sean and I ponder this question daily.
So to people who aren't going to be living at a campground for four months, campgrounds seem adventurous, rustic, outdoorsy, fun. I guess this is how on my fourth night of freedom from one of them, I ended up back there again. Sigh. At least this time we had some great company. And with the promise of s'mores at the end of the night, I was *kinda* ok with it. Beckett finally decided that he likes avocados. I'm fairly certain he only decided that because he had his beautiful Aunt Erica feeding him. Look at that face--he's totally thinking, "I would even eat lima beans if she feeds me! She's way cooler than Mom!"

Happy Birthday, Sean!

We spent awesome quality time with Poppy, Fernando, Sean's brother, sister, their spouses, and of course sweet little baby Ryder. We ate, laughed, walked around the campground, cooked s'mores, and even celebrated Sean's birthday a little early with some chocolate cake. One of the huge blessings of Metro Dash is that we make our own schedule, and we have been able to spend time with our families since July 13. We are having a blast and savoring every minute with our families!

Guy bonding time.

I am not the only s'more lover! :)

S'more time!

Mini Me!


Enjoying the beautiful night by the campfire! :)

Sacrifice

2010-08-11T00:17:00.000-04:00

So, as it turns out, there are certain sacrifices one must make when living in a 24 foot long RV bouncing from campground to campground. In order to remain positive here, let's reflect on the good too. How about we alternate? Oh where to begin....

Let's start with laundry. As all you mamas out there know, babies are synonymous with laundry. Then, when you use cloth diapers and cloth wipes, that doubles your load. So since it had been almost a week since our last laundromat experience, I of course had 6 loads of laundry. But how to transport laundry AND baby to the campground laundry room? Lucky for me, I can think on my feet, and thanks to Baby B's stroller and the Baby Bjorn (thanks Allison! :) ) I was able to make it successfully to my destination. And here begins the adventure. Let's just say I will choose public laundromats over campground ones any day. In my public laundromat experience I did not experience spiders in the washer, dirt in the washer AND dryer, and 90 plus degree temperatures in the facility. Never thought I'd say it, but sketchy laundromat in nowheresville town Massachusetts--oh how I miss you!

Now for the good--how can it get any better than that? Here is the view from our bed--looking out to the great outdoors. Little man on the bed, hubby putting away groceries, mama enjoying the view. Too bad back doors being open is a rare occurrence--umm...hello bugs!

Showering. I miss my shower at home so very much. There is nothing fancy about it. Perhaps my favorite part is that I don't have to wear shoes, or I don't have a small heart attack every time I bump into the wall with my naked showering self, or I don't have an experience like I had about an hour ago. Let's just say it involved a cold shower, a curtain that no matter which way you moved it, you were visible to anyone in the bathroom, and water that wouldn't turn off so I was forced into squeezing myself into a tiny space between the scary wall and cold shower spray to kind of dry off. Oh, and let's not forget the part where I flashed the poor tween who was sitting on the bench keeping her aunt company while she showered. Really, lady? You need a 12 year old to keep you company while you shower??? Now she's been scarred for life. Hope you're happy.

Ok, back to the positive! Must stay positive! Happy, happy, happy! Sean and I were blessed to have his mom and soon-to-be step-dad fly to Boston to help us with the baby during Metro Dash. We culminated an awesome race day by walking along the Boston Harbor Walk, and eating at a great outdoor, dog-friendly restaurant (for our big doofy friend) on the water. So, I got a cute baby and a list of fun cities...who out there has a plane ticket and an itch to babysit??? Any takers???

Well, I think we will end on a positive note. After all, this trip is already unforgettable! We are having fun in our teeny, tiny home. Hopefully the big dog, little baby, and 2 crazy parents will make it home happy and in one piece come November. Until next time, I will be showering in a New Jersey campground bathroom with strangers and spiders!