First Vacation!

Last spring, Phil had wanted to take a weekend trip to his alma mater-Indiana University.  The only weekend we were available to go, a friend of mine was having a baby shower which I didn't want to miss.  A few weeks ago I suggested that we should go this year instead! I also thought "why not lump a trip to Chicago with a 3 month old in there too!"

Overall, it went very, very well.  We headed out mid morning on Monday, and drove the 3 hours to IU.  Once we were on the campus Phil was instantly nostalgic and we walked and walked and walked around the campus.  We had lunch at Mama Bear's pizza-a fave of his.  We had Noelle in the Ergo and backpack filled to the brim as a diaper bag.  Phil and I traded off carrying the baby vs. backpack.  The backpack was a monster to carry.  Luckily, the next day we wised up a bit and used our city mini also.  We stayed in the Student Union which is the hotel that the university owns and runs.  It was quite a nice hotel, and a far cry above the Super 8 which was where we stayed on our last road trip.

Then we headed to a suburb of Chicago to visit Phil's grandpa and step-grandmother.  We headed in to the city one day.  It was a blast!  We took the Metra train in, then the L, and then a city bus!  Noelle did great all day.  We had our handy dandy Ergo with us, and the City Mini.  I'm always amazed at how easy mass transit is in Chicago.  Totally love it! We wanted to go to the aquarium, but it was a 2 hour wait.  Then we tried to go to the art museum, but it was free admission, spring break, and another very long line.  We decided strolling through Millenium Park would be a better use of time.  Noelle loved her stroller ride over the bumpy bridge in the park and loved looking at her reflection in "the cloud gate" The next day we had lunch with a friend and former coworker at Lou Malnatti's....delish!!!  After lunch, we headed to a local park to visit some elk.  Yep.  Elk.  No, they are not indigenous to Illinois.  Two words.  Roadside America.  Then Phil's aunt, uncle, and a whole bunch of cousins came to his grandparents for dinner.  We had such a nice time and it was great to catch up.  On Friday, the day we left, we swung by Phil's long time BFF from elementary school.  He and is wife had a one week old baby!

The drive home was absolutely miserable.  It took us 9 hours as opposed to 6.  Noelle was super fussy and inconsolable.  We just had to keep stopping to calm her down.  It was quite the ordeal.  Needless to say, we were relieved when we got home.  The trip was so worth it though!  It was a great time! I feel very accomplished by being able to pull this off.  We were even able to cloth diaper for the whole trip! Here's a bit of a photo dump from the vacay.

One year ago....

One year ago, I found out I was pregnant!  It was such a glorious, crazy, shocking, strange day.  We were blessed enough to get pregnant the first month we tried.  I was charting and temping.  Since it was my first cycle, I thought for sure it would never happen the first round.  I remember wanting to wait until the weekend to test because on the off chance it was positive, I would not be able to go in to work right after!  My plan was to test on Sunday the 27th.  On Saturday the 26th however, I woke up...took my temp and just could not go back to sleep.  I was 15 days past ovulation.  I decided, what the heck....I am just going to go and test, find out it's negative....then I can go back to sleep and sleep in on this Saturday morning!

Well, clearly.....I could not go back to sleep.  I came back from the bathroom, woke Phil up and said "honey, I just took a test." Phil started to reach over to rub my back and comfort me because he also thought it would be negative.  Then I said..."and it was positive."  We said a prayer together. I had him recheck the test for me.  Instead of going back to sleep, we headed off to a very early breakfast at our favorite breakfast place.  It's usually packed on Saturday morning, but we were able to beat the crowd.

These weren't actually the first tests that I took, I'm not sure I even have a picture of the very first one.  I know it was an EPT with the plus sign.  In the coming weeks after that first test, I took 11 tests.  Yes, you read right....11.  It wasn't that I didn't believe the tests, I just loved seeing it every.single.time.  



The day we found out, we went over to Phil's parents house for the quarterly birthday celebration of all the family members.  Phil's grandparents were also in town.  We ended up telling everyone there, because all of those people are people we would likely tell if something had happened.  We also called my mom and told her. Luckily, we never had to break any sad news.  The pregnancy was a dream, and now there is a stunningly beautiful, smiley 3 month old who is sleeping away.....for now.  What a tremendously happy year we have had.