Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We got back on Sunday from our first road trip with two kids. We headed west to Columbus to spend Thanksgiving with Jason's parents. It was a good trip. Both Hayden and Eliza were excellent car travelers. The trip there was great; the trip back less great, but mainly because of traffic, not because of difficult kids. Not sure why we have to pay toll money to sit in traffic!

Anyway, took a few pictures along the way to document the weekend. Hayden had a great time with so much family around; she was a bit shy at first when everyone arrived for Thanksgiving, but quickly warmed up to Uncle Rich, Poppa and Ammi. She passed off brown chex (I no like) to Uncle Rich and had him reading her stories after dinner. Though I know she would have liked the turkey, Hayden stuck to starches for the big meal. Chex mix, a few bites of mashed potatoes and a roll made up her meal, followed up with ice cream for dessert.

She did crack me up, at least twice when we made our chocolate bourbon pecan pie on Wednesday before hitting the road. First, she was willing to try just about anything we put in the pie, including plain pecans. (she's showing off her mouthful in the first picture.) I think she probably would have eaen the corn syrup had I let her, or even tried the dash of vinegar that went in the crust. Then, when I let her smell the bourbon (we often smell ingredients), she busted out with a big grin and said "yummy!" For the record, I did NOT let her try it! :)

We got in to Columbus at a reasonable hour (8:30ish) and everyone went to bed smoothly. Next morning, I was ready for holiday mode. At her first diaper change in the daylight, Eliza was dressed for the occassion!
As per tradition, we turned on the big parade. Hayden made herself comfortable, for about 2 minutes, before jumping up to find something else to do. She made us pull the stool close enough to the chair so she could put her legs on it. And then she put the pillow behind her back. so funny!
Later in the morning, after a very impressive tantrum, we all managed to get dressed to go for a little walk with the rest of the neighborhood. Hayden was pretty tickled by the giant turkey we found nearby.
And she liked pushing her baby in the stroller, for about 5 minutes. This picture shows her showing the baby the leaves, just like I do for her when we go walking and Hayden is in the stroller.
Grammy and Granddad have a pretty good supply of leaves too. After the walk, Hayden and Granddad did some frolicking in the leaves.

When we got back from our walk, everyone got dressed for dinner (which was planned for early afternoon). We even managed a family picture! I was thinking we could use this for Christmas cards, then realized that Eliza has a thanksgiving bib on and that just wouldn't work. And to give you a little 'behind the scenes', right after we finished smiling, Eliza decided to have one of her projectile vomiting episodes and the thanksgiving bib was retired for the day. Amazingly neither her clothes, nor mine, were harmed!
We had quite the group for Thanksgiving dinner. Ammi, Poppa, Uncle Rich, Norma, and cousin Kim came down from Michigan and the Wesps joined us as well. We even got to talk to the West coast DeRousie contigent via Skype. Not the coolest photo but I love that this picture shows Ammi, Jason and Eliza skyping with Jen and family in Portland. Talk about intergenerational family connections!
Thanksgiving dinner was delicious. Grammy did a wonderful job with the preparations. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, fresh cranberry sauce, gravy, stuffing, apple pie, pumpkin pie and ice cream. I contributed rolls and the chocolate bourbon pecan pie. YUM! As I said, Hayden stuck with the starches until dessert time when Grammy tried to introduce her to the glories of Thanksgiving pies. Hayden decided she preferred ice cream without the pie.

The annual DeRousie family Thanksgiving potrait.
Thanks to Mr. Wesp for his photography skills!

After the big meal, we just enjoyed our time in Columbus. There was some shopping done by Grammy and Daddy on black friday. There was lots of book reading, baby snuggling, and sport watching. Jason and I got to catch up with a couple old friends. Eliza really enjoyed "talking" to Grammy and Granddad, showing off her new skills of cooing and smiling. Hayden even got to try some of Grammy's eye makeup - can you see it?!

On Saturday evening, we headed over to the Columbus Zoo to catch out their lights. I'm not the best nighttime photographer (christmas list hint - photography class!), but you get the jist. The whole place was decked out in an amazing amount of lights. Hayden seemed to like it, especially eating snacks in the stroller. I think she would have liked to have seen more animals, since we told her we were going to the zoo, but most of them were sleeping.
We did get into a barn in the North American area and got to check out goats and sheep, and some honey bees.
Plus, there were various light animals around the zoo. I took a picture of the hippo in honor of Poppop.
Right before we left, we managed to catch the light show around the lake. The lights flashed on and off in time to 3 christmas songs. Hayden loved the lights and even danced to the music. Then it was time to head home cuz it was late and chilly. See how bundled up we are!
As I said, Sunday's drive home was not quite as smooth as the drive to Columbus, due to the traffic on the turnpike. But everyone hung in there, and we made it home safe and sound. I took pictures of happy kid faces to prove it!
And with our Thanksgiving roadtrip over - I think we just might be ready for our three prong Christmas trip (SC to Durham to Columbus to SC)!Happy Holidays!!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everybody!

I hope the Easter Bunny delivered lots of chocolate eggs and you were able to spend Easter with family on a sunshine and flower-filled day. We ended up having Easter in Richmond, Virginia in a hotel room with Poppop. One of my college friends (roommate, teammate, etc) had lost her father to cancer in March and her family scheduled a memorial service for him on the Saturday of Easter weekend. Though I didn't know him all that well (my main memory of him is a wonderfully touching father-daughter dance at her wedding, still brings tears to my eyes), I wanted to go to the service to support Amelia. Since Richmond is much closer than her current home of California (soon to be Oregon), and another college friend I hadn't seen in a couple years was also making the trip, we decided to make the drive down. As an added bonus, Richmond is south of State College, so we'd get to have some warmer weather, spring flowers and a visit from Poppop (Grandma had to work all day Saturday) for our Easter celebration.

We didn't end up taking all that many pictures for the weekend. Despite gathering with people we hadn't seen in a while, it just doesn't seem quite right to take pictures at a memorial service. Amelia did absolutely amazing with her organization of a wonderful slide show (set to music) of her dad's life and gave a heart-warming, tear-inducing speech. I gave her the biggest hug I could, but I know she's got a lot of healing ahead of her. Hayden didn't make it through much of the service (she did like the slide show, pointing out bikes and dogs) but luckily, the service was at the botanical gardens, so Jason had lots of space to let her wander around. And then during a reception afterwards, Hayden quickly warmed up to my college friends and spent most of the time running around, eating pretzels and strawberries, and giving out hugs and smiles. I think she was a well-needed distraction. She even managed to stay in decent spirits when we went back to Amelia's house for more food and socializing, despite it being right in the middle of naptime. She never did nap on Saturday, (5 minutes in the car on the way to dinner doesn't count), but somehow she survived and there was only a minor breakdown at bedtime. Admittedly it seemed bad at the time, but in retrospect, it wasn't all that bad.

Easter morning we enjoyed our second complimentary buffet breakfast at the hotel and then headed back upstairs to stage a 28 egg hunt in the living room portion of our hotel room. (we had a lovely 2 room suite - a great find!). Twenty-eight eggs is a lot for a 21 month old in a small space but she made it through finding most of them, while only getting a little bit distracted along the way. I've included a video to showcase part of the fun. Please note the distraction and redirection, the egg dancing/shaking (gotta test what's inside), and the request for a "bite" of candy towards the end.



We also took a few regular photos to document, but it really wasn't the most festive Easter. No pretty dresses. No siblings/cousins to compete against in the egg hunt. No gorging on Easter candy. No church. But I'm very glad we came to support Amelia and to get to see Poppop. Hayden really enjoyed spending time with him. And lest you think, she's only an "in the moment" child, when we saw Poppop, she gave him a big hug, then stepped back and stared at him quizzically and asked, "grandma?" knowing he was missing someone. Very cute.

Not even furniture can stop her...

I don't think I want to eat this. (it's a Peep.)

Look at that knee bend, complete with a steadying hand.

The post-hunt spaceout. Note the chocolatey mouth.

Hayden shares an egg with Poppop.

A day without a nap makes for a sleepy toddler when packing up.
How soon can I nap in the car?

The family on Easter morning.

And as one final Easter video bonus, here's Hayden trying a peanut butter egg.



She's still trying to figure out peanut butter. She doesn't completely dislike it, but she doesn't always want to eat it. I think Poppop gets lots of grandpa points for accepting her mushy chocolate "offering" without complaint!

Orlando with Aunt Lacey, Jay and Uncle "T"

Sometimes I think this blog is more about documenting our trips and big events than it is about capturing little bits of our life. Or maybe the little bits of our life are actually just big trips and events. I don't know. But I'm here again to tell you about our trip to Orlando. Jason had a conference to go to and Hayden and I tagged along so we could experience some warmth and sunshine. It was planned back in the fall, but given how cold and snowy this winter has been, it was an excellent idea! We were gone for quite a while, Friday thru Wed, and our trip can be broken into two parts - the Harrison visit and the rest of the trip. To try and keep my blog entries from running on forever, this one covers the Harrisons visit.

The day after we arrived, we met up with Lacey, JT and Jay who drove down from Georgia. Such fun to get the cousins together again! We had quite the breakfast at IHOP, complete with a man who made us a balloon dog. Not the best balloon dog I've ever seen but the kids (and adults) were quite taken with the process.After breakfast, we headed out to shop out the outlets (who knew Orlando was an outlet shopping mecca?!). The adults were excited about it, the kids probably not so much, but everyone survived. The kids took turn being worn on backs, or riding in the stroller. Sometimes they were carried like footballs.
Eventually we grabbed some lunch (outside!) and then did the necessary carseat manuevering to get everyone back to hotels for naptime.In the above photo, Hayden and Jay take a load off while we wait for Jason to bring the other car around. Hayden really liked lounging in the parking lot. Other people looking for a parking space did not like us lounging quite so much. :)

After naptime, we rendezvoused at our pool so the kids could swim. Hayden was a little bit hesitant (as were most of the adults) since it wasn't THAT warm, just low 70s. Jay had little hesitation and just loved the water. He showed off his new trick from swim class - swimming on his back! He loved it! Can you see the grin? Hayden had a similar smile, because it was so fun to watch Jay and Uncle JT in the water! Even after they had left, she would point to the pool and say "T!"
After a full day of pancakes, outlet shopping, naps in strange hotels and swimming, you might think dinner would be a challenge with two toddlers. Amazingly enough, we actually had a GREAT dinner at this really cool tapas restaurant (that's TAPAS, not TOPLESS - as everyone asks when we've told about our trip!). The food was great. The restaurant was baby-friendly (how can you feel bad about babies when the table is chipped) and had a great atmosphere (think funky art on the walls, loud music). There was even fabulous entertainment... We had a flamenco dancer come by our table, a belly dancer, and then Hayden and Jason performed their very own spoon tricks!



After dinner, the gentlemen headed back to put babies to bed while Lacey and I got to do some more outlet shopping without anyone in tow. It was lovely! But we were pretty tired ourselves so didn't do anything too crazy. A wasted opportunity I'm sure. :)

Next morning Jason started his conference while Hayden and I met up with Lacey and Jay to hang out while JT packed up the hotel room. We just hung out by the pool, enjoying the sunshine and warm weather. The kids were quite well occupied wandering around until suddenly they both decided that sitting on the edge of the pool, CLOSE to each other, was exactly what they wanted to do. It was the PERFECT picture opportunity! We took many, of Lacey and the kids, me and the kids, just the kids and luckily some nice woman took one of all of us. I won't post them all, but here's two cute ones.
It seemed like the posing lasted forever, but they were soon on their way, exploring and checking things out. And then asking for snacks. Jay got snacks first, and then Hayden asked Jay for some snacks. He wasn't great at sharing on his own, but he didn't mind when Lacey would take some out of his cup. Finally Hayden decided to just dig in on her own.
The final culmination of the visit with Aunt Lacey and company was lunch at a Mexican place. The food wasn't very good but we did learn that you can safely stack three high chairs to use. Why they couldn't just have had ONE table that was normal high chair height, I don't know, but we managed. The extra height just made the drop game that much more fun!
We were definitely sad to see the Harrison contingent head home. Hanging in the sunshine after lunch, Hayden made a round of goodbye hugs, hugging Aunt Lacey and Uncle JT's knees. And then she pointed out where Jay's belly button was. Very fun.

For the rest of our trip, Hayden asked about "T" and Jay a lot whenever we visited the pool. I think she really like watching them splash around. Luckily we'll get to see them again in a month! So check back in March for yet another trip blog!