Early Start

I just want to preface this post by saying that I've just finished editing all the pictures that I'll be posting, and it literally took me TWO days!! I guess the point of telling you that is to guilt you into reading all the upcoming posts and looking at all of the aforementioned pictures. Moving on...

Okay, so, going back to last week, I'll start with Tuesday real quick. The only thing worth mentioning is that I got my hair cut...FINALLY! I've been going to the same hair salon for a few years, and I can't get myself to go anywhere else. My second mom, Holli, is so talented and so fun to talk to while she does my hair. What an amazing woman! For all of my Utah friends, she's the owner of Tangles Salon in Fort Union. This time around, when she asked me what I wanted done, I just said "You choose. Just do something cute." Basically it just needed a trim, so I let her add layers and mess with my bangs. I love it. 

We called it an early night that evening, since we had an early flight the next morning. Unfortunately, our neighbors messed that up. On the record, I HATE our downstairs neighbors. They're a bunch of college students, and they love to listen to ridiculously loud music until the wee hours of the morning, and start back up way too early. Ugh! I've already had to call the cops on them twice...with no change in behavior. They won't answer their door when we try to go down and ask them to turn it down, so I have to send the big guns their way. Anyway, Wednesday morning, I was woken up at 3:00 AM by strange banging. I thought it was the sound of one of the cats who got stuck in a room. If they get stuck, they stick their paws under the door and pull the door until it bangs. Well, after getting up and going into each and every room, opening all the doors in the house, I determined that it was the downstairs neighbors. At that point, we were up, so we got moving early. 

We were nervous about how Lilly would handle the flight, seeing as she hates sitting still. I booked an early flight, hoping that it would make her sleepy enough to nap the whole way. But, once again, Lilly proved that she's the little engine that could. She loved running around the terminal with Ryan while we waited for our flight. Once we took off, I gave her a bottle to help with the pressure change. She fell asleep right as we took off, but suddenly decided to fight the sleep and play the entire flight. Half way through the flight, she needed to be changed. Being a large woman, I'll admit that I steer clear of the bathrooms on planes, simply out of fear of not fitting. Ha! I braved the trip to the bathroom with Lilly, only to realize that my butt's a lot bigger than I remembered it being. I was leaning over to pull down the changing table, when my butt nudged the door, causing it to fly open. I think the people in the front of the plane thought that I was trying to go to the bathroom. Wow, I don't remember the bathrooms being so insanely small. But, the good news is that for the first time in years, the seat belt actually fit. WOO!

Landing was a bit hard on all of us. The change in pressure was hurting Lilly's ears pretty badly. It was even hurting mine and giving me a headache, so I knew it must have been hard on her. She calmed down right before we landed. There was a newborn in the row next to us, so she sat and said "baby...baby...baby..." over and over until we landed. Thankfully we survived. I will say this though, we will rethink any trip that requires a flight longer than 2 hours. 

As is tradition, we went straight to Pike's Market. I've been more times than I can count, and I'm just as entertained as I was the first time. My favorite is seeing the hundreds and hundreds of gorgeous bouquets of flowers. I've been to the market every season of the year, and gotten to see all the different flowers. Spring is tulips, Summer is lilies and sweet peas, Fall is sunflowers, and Winter is poinsettias. I've always wanted to buy one of the bouquets, and I finally got to this trip. I got what would have cost at least $80 at a flower shop at home, for only $10. For lunch, we had the obligatory hombows (giant, fluffy rolls, filled with Chinese pork). My dad and I shared one, and even just eating a couple bites was too much for my tummy. Ryan got fish and chips and shared with Lilly. Dad enjoyed getting to feed Lilly some fries. 

We headed home after that point, and I have to be honest, I was dragging. I was so tired, I literally couldn't see straight. I'm not sure if I'm ashamed or proud to say that I managed to survive the day without a nap. 

Lilly fell asleep on the way home from the salon, and stayed asleep on the trip into the house, so I got some rare snuggles.

We stopped for breakfast, so Lilly compared foot size with Ryan.

Waiting for our flight, getting some important work done before leaving. 

"Lilly, are you going to be a good girl?"...."Yes, mommy!"

My little piggy. She's in a funny eating phase right now. She either spits food out if she doesn't like it, or she stuffs as much as she can in her mouth. They brought her some pretzels, and she immediately grabbed as many as she could and shoved them all in her mouth. Chipmunk cheeks!

Such a beautiful day! 65 and sunny! We always end up bringing the Utah sun with us when we visit. 

She was given a slice of a "damn good peach." I wished I liked peaches, because it looked so juicy and yummy.

Again, shoving in as many fries as she could.

Seriously? $10? Just the lilies alone would have cost $10.

Dad sent Lilly "Curious George and the Puppies" for her birthday, and asked me to bring it with me so that he could read it to her. I will never forget moments like this.