So, I started this blog by first adding ALL the pictures I wanted to include. I told myself that in the past it's always the last step of going through and adding the pictures that keeps me from posting the blogpost. So I figured if I started with pictures it'd go up much sooner. Turns out it's not just the pictures holding me back haha. Obviously the blog is not my highest priority, but I enjoy having it so... better late than never right??
CHRISTMAS TIME!! The BEST time of the year. SO fun and magical and I love it! This Christmas time did have a few stressful moments, but what part of life doesn't have stress. We tried to enjoy the season, even though we still had a big test score of Ben's hanging over our heads. We had purchased a little mini tree last year and it was so fun to pull it out again. We don't have a ton of ornaments, but the ones we do have are very sentimental so I love looking at them. Of course, this year the trick was to keep Riley away from the tree. Surprisingly, she didn't show a ton of interest in the tree until just a few days before we were headed out of town so all of the ornaments survived to hang another year! My very favorite ornament we have is a fat Santa that I probably bought at Walmart for like $5. I couldn't quite put my finger on why I loved it so much, but Ben pointed out it was probably because it reminded me of these following videos and it totally hit the nail on the head.
I really hope you enjoyed that. Back to my cute family...
Look at this sweet baby!!
Our first stop (and really the main reason we decided we should/could drive to Utah/Idaho this year) was Albuquerque, New Mexico to see the Messerlys! When I found out that they were pretty sure they were moving to Albuquerque I started hatching a plan. Ben had 2 months that he could take off during 4th year. Those months are usually used for studying for boards or traveling for interviews which is what he used his first month for. He didn't have a plan for using the 2nd month so I started dreaming about an extended Christmas vacation! Albuquerque is almost exactly half way between Fort Worth and Springville. It would be a LONG drive with a baby, but if we could get a month vacation with family it would totally be worth it! So we got to hang out with ERMM for a day or two on the way there and back. Macey was so cute with Riley, wanting to be involved in almost all her care. Of course, no one wanted to help with messy diapers, but they almost had to! At one point in the trip it cracked me up that M & M's punishment for using crude words was going to be changing a poopy diaper. Unfortunately, Riley didn't perform when we needed her too, although that was probably best for everyone haha. Sorry to all you other Aunts and Uncles out there, but this stop solidified Ben as McKays favorite person ever. McKay has been playing PokemonGo and Ben has much Pokemon knowledge so McKay basically worshiped him.
Once we had the strength to make a second 8.5 hr drive we packed up our stuff and headed to Springville! Britt was also visiting so we had some fun sister time at the gym. We arrived the day before Christmas Eve and were having a grand old time until some holiday crashers knocked on the door Christmas Eve night! But really the Thompsons showing up TOTALLY unexpectedly was the BEST moment of Christmas. Not only that it happened as we were all sitting down to Christmas Eve dinner so it was a total callback to our favorite Christmas movie, but also seeing everyone's immediate reactions. All three sisters leaping out of their chairs to run to the door, Matt voicing concern that Ana about upended the table she stood with such force, Riley bursting into tears at all the commotion, Ana and Mom starting to water down the gravy and peal some more potatoes...it was chaos and I LOVED it.
Britty always with the pose and Ana always trying to learn how to pose
Just learning the tricks of the trade
So much family in one house! Calvin may have had to sleep in Mom and Dad's closet, but it all worked!
All the heart eyes!!
Otter books!! Mom definitely wins for best unexpected present! And one is in Spanish!
Back when Riley let strangers hold her...sigh.
You know Ana is a sucker for a good photo op so of course we needed a Riley and Andrew moment. The first Christmas for both!
This little machine book thing that Ty got was AWESOME
Cal and his Mickey pants! He was cracking everyone up with his Hot Dog dance!
Riley's new toy from Gma and Gpa was very popular.
The FUNNIEST game of codenames ever played. Matt was the group consultant. He was adamant he didn't want to play, but he didn't mind sitting on the sidelines and shouting some opinions to the players. In this game you have to get your teammate to guess specific words on the board, but avoid others depending on the 'map' you pick out at the beginning of the game. We didn't explain it very well to Matt at first and he went through the first half of the game thinking we were morons. Giving these 2 or 3 word clues. He said, "I can see like 5 words that go together right now." Haha that's exactly the problem Matt. We started the game with Britt, but she tagged Dad in about half way through. So we took some time explaining the status of the game and what Dad's job was. After like a 10 minute explanation he says, "So what am I supposed to guess?"
Frozen 2!! Little did I know I would be listening to this on repeat for the next 8 months (and counting) of my life. Admittedly, I did do it to myself.
All four sisters somehow snuck into the gym. I think it was kosher.
Model pose or trying to intimidate someone?
Model pose or please sir can I have some more?
I mean I try, but she's the master
All too soon it was time for Ben and I to drive up to Rexburg to be with Ben's family. We were coming back to Utah for a few weeks afterwards, but Mel and Britt would be gone by then. It was sad to say goodbye and sad to have to get in a car again, but luckily we don't have a hard time keeping in touch even when separated by 3 time zones.
Passed out after some seriously impressive crying on the way. Poor girl.
Winter activities in Rexburg with a one year old are pretty limited, but we loved the aquarium!
Must've been quite the bump on the head!
Things at the Jack house we overall a lot quieter. We were there with a few other cousins for a few days, but we stayed a lot longer than everyone else. It was so fun for Riley to be able to get a little more comfortable and come out of her shell a bit. She LOVED their dog Dobby, but we made sure to not let her love him too much. Meredith had just gotten a Cricut machine for Christmas and they gave me a scrapbook that I wanted to use for Riley's first year of life. The craft store in Rexburg just happened to be going out of business so we made at least two trips there in a week. So much money was spent.
If you know your Pixar trivia you'll understand why Ben HAD to buy this doll he found at DI for Riley.
It was such a wonderful, wonderful break. Even if the last 45 minutes of the drive home were filled with heart-breaking sobs from Riley. We also got to celebrate her first birthday in Utah, but that's for another blog. Maybe I'll get it finished before she turns 2. :)
After visiting Washington Ben and I split up for a bit. I headed to Utah and Ben went to Hawaii. A pretty fair deal :) Navigating the airport with Riley and the stroller, carseat, 2 checked bags, two diaper bags, and a backpack was quite a task. I got pretty good at it near the end, but there were also a lot of nice people who insisted on helping me even when I promised I had a system and could manage.
My stop in Utah was kind of a treat to myself for the hard two months we had just experienced and I figured it only added one extra ticket so why not?! It also made it so I got to see all my siblings, except Rich and Loren, in this adventure of ours. I was going to see Loren at first, but then he went and got himself a job, but I still got to hangout with Elise. One big surprise was that Britt was in Utah when I arrived!! All these excuses she was making as to why I couldn't see her during my time in Oregon was because she was going to be in Utah and would be waiting for me when I arrived! Such a fun surprise! Again, we had 3 of the 4 Messerly sisters united and we had a blast! I was not as proactive as Ana in getting Britt to hold my child so I don't actually think she held Riley the entire trip...but at least they met!
Our time in Utah was awesome. I got to start going back to the gym regularly with Mom as the awesome babysitter. (I hadn't been able to get to a gym in Washington other than once with Mel). Riley had been showing signs of separation anxiety, not wanting anyone, but me or Ben. It was so nice to have Mom playing with Riley and getting her to accept someone else's company. Riley's life also got a little more thrilling after meeting her cousin Emmitt. We were both new to the feeling of constantly being on guard for danger, but we did a pretty good job moving Riley out of the way of any flailing limbs and Riley and Emmitt ended up with only positive interactions. Elena was so funny with Riley and created a someone unconventional love story between Riley and Andrew. (Although that's coming from the girl who thought marrying her brother was the right move so I guess we can't be too shocked) ;)
My last weekend in Utah Elise came down to visit. It was so fun seeing her! We had a fun girls trip and got pedicures. We went out to lunch at panda and I discovered their new Honey Sesame Chicken is the bomb and my new go to instead of Orange Chicken. We worked on a puzzle together. We sang songs. It was just an awesome weekend. After a week and a half in Utah it was time to head back to Texas. Sad to say goodbye, but glad to know we'd be seeing everyone again in December or January.
A few picture from the trip:
Ana was pretty impressed that Riley was content on my lap the whole time. We'd been through a few plane rides together.
My time in Tacoma is broken up into two portions. The first two weeks living in a tiny hotel room with Ben and the baby, and the last two weeks living large with Mel and family.
So, after a month in DC we got up EARLY on a Saturday morning and took a taxi to the airport. (A taxi that was actually allowed on base this time.) Once we got to the airport we had to wrangle all our bags again and get through security. That went fine and we found our way to our gate. Once we were at the gate we were on the lookout for the airline people to make an appearance. See, Ben could only know what flight he'd be booked on after he got his orders and although we got the orders to go to DC about 2 months in advance the ones to Tacoma only got to use a month before the flight! So when Ben booked his ticket he could only get a middle seat and so I just got the middle seat right in front of him. Oh and this is a 6 hr flight. Across the country. With a baby. Who will need to be nursed during the flight. In a tiny space. Between two strangers. To say I was anxious about it is an understatement. I'd called the airline a few times to check if there was anything that opened up, but they told me I'd just have to try day of. So when we saw the lady get to the desk we rushed her and were third in line. When we got up there we found out there were basically no free seat to move to. There was an aisle seat I could get, but there was no guarantee I would keep it because that person just hadn't checked in yet and might show up. Thank goodness the lady told us the first person in line had a bunch of tickets she was trying to get together and they were around our seats. So it ended up just telling her she could sit in Ben's seat and we took one of hers that was next to me! SUCH a blessing. I was able to feed Riley without and issue and she slept long enough for Ben and I to get through two movies so fun was had by all!
Getting to our hotel was a little smoother this time around because we had a rental car, but to get the rental you had to take a shuttle a little ways from the airport so I hunkered down with our bags at the airport and Ben went to collect the car. So by the time we were actually driving down to Tacoma from Seattle Riley was not feeling it, but we made it alright. As we drove to Tacoma Ben and I both expressed feeling like Washington was a breath of fresh air compared to DC. It just felt more like home.
Pretty much the only adventuring around Tacoma we did was walking by this little lake.
When we walked in our hotel room our fears were confirmed...this was a typical Motel 6 type of room...alright maybe a little higher quality, but not much more space! We didn't have anywhere we could put Riley's pack-n-play that would give her her own space. So, we got ready for a rough month. Luckily, as I said I basically stayed with Mel half our time in Tacoma so we ended up only having to get through 2 weeks like that...which was plenty!
Oh I almost forgot to mention. Obviously during our time in Tacoma we wanted to see Mel and fam and Britty. Mel was definitely going to happen, but Britt was telling me she wasn't actually going to be around much and we probably wouldn't see each other. Then Mel tells me that Britt does actually have one weekend where she will be in Portland...the weekend we arrive. So. After getting up SUPER early and traveling on a plane 6 hrs, driving 2 hrs, we got to the hotel, unpacked a few nonessentials, and got back in the car to drive 2.5 hrs to Portland just to drive back 24 hrs later! It was a little crazy, but that was going to be our only chance to see Britty (or so we thought). I'm so glad we decided to go down, it's always fun to get the sisters together. So having 3 of the 4 together was pretty close to perfect! We took pictures, stole Mel's clothes, played the monkey game, ate yummy Hawaiian food. It was fabulous.
This video is evidence that if we drive to see you we must really love you! She was really done with traveling at this point.
So we got to Portland Saturday night and then headed back on Sunday night because Ben was starting his rotation bright and early Monday morning! Tacoma is obviously more spread out than DC so Riley and I didn't get to have very exciting days. We were pretty much at the hotel all day with an occasional trip to the grocery store that was a 5 minute walk. We did venture to the splash pad on base a few times, but this is Washington, it wasn't always swimming weather. So after two weeks stuck with a baby in a hotel room I was SO ready to get some more space!
Mel and I had a mutual agreement during my time there. I helped out with some child care here and there and she gave me a room for my child to sleep in where she could cry it out if necessary. Riley's sleep habits had hit an all time low after a month and a half in a hotel room. Trying to be considerate I was probably over careful about not letting Riley cry. By the time we arrived at Mel's I was rocking Riley to sleep for every nap and at bedtime we had to try 3 or 4 times putting her down before it stuck. Within a few days at Mel's and letting Riley cry it out for 5 or 10 minutes it was a LOT easier to put her down.
Ben was only there on the weekends that he didn't work, but it didn't take long for him to win over Ty and Brady. He played catch in the back yard with them which was pretty adorable. Once, when Brady made a good catch Mel and I tapped on the window to show him that we were cheering for them. Of course that made them both very aware that we were watching. So every time Ty and Brady would do something impressive they'd look back to get confirmation that we were very impressed.
On one Saturday Ty had a soccer game right during Cal and Riley's naps. Ben and I were planning to stay at the house with the sleeping babies but Ty really wanted Ben to be at his game, so Ben went and cheered him on even though he was running on no sleep.
Of course probably the funnest thing about visiting was seeing how the boys reacted to Riley. Brady enjoyed playing with her during church, but at the house usually had other more pressing matters to attend to. Ty seemed to really enjoy playing with Riley and had some really sweet moments. He was intrigued by breast feeding asking insightful questions like, "What does it feel like? Does it hurt?!" He also was surprised by her strength saying causing my own little overheard at the Thompson's moment :
Ty: Oh my gosh! She can hold that?? But her hands are so tiny!
Brady: Of course she can! She has been drinking milk that makes her bones strong.
Ty was so cute with Riley, but he always stopped whenever he saw me recording!
Cal was definitely the most affected by Riley's presence. Giving up his crib to her occasionally if her nap came at a time when the boys would want the play room. Also giving up his nickname of baby to her. Since we were referring to Riley as baby if anyone called Cal baby he'd reply, "No, not baby. I Calvin!" Throughout the day Cal didn't seem to mind Riley, but every morning Kip reported that Cal would say, "No baby," when he woke up. If she ever touch him he would say, "Oops," in the cutest little voice, which is why this picture is the way it is:
I couldn't get him to sit any closer than this.
Although I did capture an adorable candid moment:
We were visiting right at the end of summer right before their school started so we tagged along to a bunch of potluck/parties. We went to their ward potluck where we stationed ourselves close enough to the table to spot any new, desirable dishes arriving. We went to the boy scouts activity where we lamented as the woman in charge of busting out the dessert seemed to talk endlessly with other ward members. We attended a neighbor hood party with snow cones where I chose a pina colada flavored syrup which happened to be white so Brady and Ty thought I just missed the whole you add your own syrup thing and was just eating ice.
Yes, we had a great time in Washington/Oregon. Sadly, while we were there we determined that we wouldn't be ranking that program number 1 which means we probably won't end up there for residency. There are a few reasons we made that decision, but overall it was just the feeling we both had that DC was supposed to be our number 1 that finalized that decision.
It's so crazy doing this blog 6 months later...she is such a different baby!!
Saying goodbye to the cousins, one of my favorite pictures of Riley.
