Trip to PA

It doesn't make a lot of sense that I'm up at 5:45am while all the rest of the family slumbers, including Alida who just roused to get a dry diaper and went peacefully back to sleep. But my mind is swirling and I'm not sure I could squeeze back in between Jason and Alida without waking them, so here I am.

We arrived home late yesterday afternoon from our first "big trip" with Alida to the Benner home place in PA. Going into it we were a bit apprehensive (with good reason) about how it would go, as Alida has yet to become a great friend of her carseat. It normally takes at least 4 1/2 hours to get there. It took 7 on the way up and 8 hours on the way home, both times requiring 5 stops. Thankfully we had allotted most of a day for the trip there and home so were able to attempt to relax about the many stops (I was most impressed with the Virginia rest area completely equipped with the first "family restroom" I've ever used!).

Alida just sneezed and woke herself up so we'll see how long a sleepy daddy can entertain her.

Kali was a trooper in the car - helping to entertain Alida, singing to her to help her fall asleep, and being really patient with the long trip. She didn't even dip into her "entertainment bag" much. But as we were leaving PA she did moan about how boring our home was going to be and how short our time in PA was. She had such a good time with her cousins and all the family around. Alida did also and was well loved and doted on the whole time. As we drove up the driveway upon our initial arrival, I felt a flood of emotions. I felt so grateful to be making the trek with Alida for the first time and felt sad that we never were able to do the same with and for Nora.

Now home I'm gearing up for my first entrance back into my "work life" with a two day working retreat we are hosting here at our home today and tomorrow. We'll see if I'm ready for this, and how Alida feels about joining me for two days of meetings. While she has played around with the bottle a few times at home and on the car trip, she hasn't used it as a means for getting a "decent meal" yet.

Well, she is ready for Mommy!!! Two quick final things worth noting. The week before we left on our trip we enjoyed three rainbows in the time span of 24-36 hours. It was the one benefit of our stormy weather and while Kali enjoyed the rainbows thoroughly, I'm not sure if she would say it was worth the storms (she seems to be following in her mother's footsteps with her apprehension of storms).

And on a different note, we harvested, shelled and froze the first hull peas from our garden which was exciting!! The garden is booming and hopefully the groundhog who is feeling very tantalized by the green beans growing right inside the fence will not be successful in entering as we are enjoying the bountiful harvest of green goodness from within the fence! Instead we are attempting to trap and harvest it to add to the growing amount of groundhog sausage in our freezer, which Kali loves!