Vacation Part I

John and I spent last week on an 8 day, 2 part vacation. I am going to try not to overload posts with TOO many pictures... So I am splitting my recap into two days!

The first part of our Vacation, Friday night-Tuesday morning, was spent in Seattle! 

John was born in Seattle and lived there until he was 7. 

His parents met at UW, where they were both studying for their PhD. 

I have never been to the Pacific North West & John has a terrible memory, so we were more or less in a completely unfamiliar place.

This was good and bad. John and I had fun exploring together. 

But we aren't really "city people", so we basically figured out how to go to one place and just went there. 

Saturday was spent exploring the market! We woke up early but felt well rested and ready to go.

(Thank you 3 hour time difference!) 

We were able to walk around in peace, as there weren't many people out and about just yet!

We enjoyed a few cups of coffee (duh)

A spectacular breakfast (I want it again, right now!)

And the general splendor that is Pike's Place.

We also made our way down to the pier and enjoyed the beautiful views!

Saturday night we made our way back to the pier & had a fantastic meal at Elliot's Oyster House. 

This might have been the best meal we had the whole trip!

From the oysters to my fresh market halibut on parmesan polenta,

everything about that meal was heaven. 

Including the company :) 

On Sunday, John's uncle picked us up and drove us out to the "suburbs" for a hike & dinner. 

It was nice to get out of the city and enjoy the outdoors, 

although we brought the heat with us and spent our whole vacation in a Washington heat wave!

John has two cousins that are younger (5 years and 21 months) so it was also nice to get in a baby fix! We talked late and learned some awesome family history from John's uncle. 

 

Monday, our last day in the city, John had a good friend come up from Portland. 

We decided to have our own little bar crawl. 

Let's discuss how well this went for me...

In bed by 8:30 PM friends. Like a champion. 

I blame it on the shot of Underberg... it's like Jager, but worse! 

Sorry this got a little long, but I wanted to make sure I properly documented everything for my future self! Check back in tomorrow for a recap on my favorite part of vacation :) 

Catching Up

Let's catch up. 

It's been a while since I have been on this blog in real time. 

And thanks to my inability to find the motivation to upload pictures last night, here I am!

Soooooo.... where to begin?!

Saturday night around 1 am, John and I arrived home from our 8 day vacation! 

It was fantastic and I cannot wait to load this blog down with pictures tomorrow & Thursday.

Sunday I was reunited with my baby boy. 

He is sporting a brand new haircut and looks like he is about to start high school.

It was not his first haircut, but it was definitely drastic, and DEFINITELY necessary!

He gave me so many sweet snuggles it was enough to make my heart sing. 

That baby doesn't snuggle. 

So those sweet little love hugs said everything - he missed me! 

Am I weird in the fact that I had a deep fear that he wouldn't?! 

Bubba had a great time with my parents (Baba & Dee Dee) 

But we were happy to get him home,

and they were happy to give him to us :) 

We will be back their way over the weekend for a party at the lake!

Yesterday, Jack turned one.

We had a semi normal day of unpacking, laundry, & grocery shopping. 

Oh yeah, party time!

But headed out to John's parents for a really nice dinner party in Jack's honor. 

I am not sure if Jack was able to appreciate the three course meal, 

but I know he liked the tiny sliver of cake he received after presents....

just prepping for that smash cake on Sunday!

Tomorrow starts day one of orientation hell for this girl. 

I cannot wait to start school... but wish I could skip all of the orientating. 

I have ZERO desire to drop Jack off at the babysitter.

I fear he will never forgive me for leaving him again so soon! 

To cap off this "catch up" I will leave you with plenty of birthday pictures 

(unedited)

Leave me alone, I'm lazy. 

John's parents found his old tricycle and brought it upstairs to show him. Jack claimed it as his own and was pushing it around all night

It was far past bedtime by cake & present time. So someone was snuggling with Mama when we sang "Happy Birthday"

 He was so good at opening presents... clearly takes after his mother.

 

 So, like the rest of the universe, Jack is a fan of buttercream frosting. No lie, he was trying to lick it off of his high chair tray. 

Cheers!

We Made It!

On this day, one year ago, my little boy came into this world.

It's hard to describe that moment. The moment you become a mother.
For me there was a mingling sense of sweet sweet relief and awe.

The hours of Jack's birth day went quickly & slowly all at once.
With no sense of time or "real life" we grew into our places as a family of three.

Tired & bleary eyed after a sleepless night,
we snuggled and stared at our sweet baby Bubba the whole day through.

This past year has been full of so many ups.
I am so blessed to have a baby as happy as Jack.

He is smart, fiercely independent, & always on the go.
While snuggles are few and far between, he makes his affections known!
Each day spent at home with him is a blessing.

I cannot believe it has been a whole year.
But this walking, talking, busy boy is proof that we have come a long way!

I firmly believe without all the love, help, support, and kindness we have been shown as a family this past year- we would not be as solid as we are, the three of us!

This post is far from the sentimental and simple symbol of love I was hoping it would be, but words are failing me today! I am so blessed to have this child in my world.

I will just leave the rest to pictures.
Forgive my limited skill with iMovie!

An Irrational Parenting Fear.

I'm assuming it's a relatively normal thing as a parent to feel like your child is beautiful.
I may be biased, but I really do think Jack is an EXCEPTIONALLY cute baby.  It cannot be denied. But I have a confession to make.  I REALLY really did not want him to get teeth.  I mean, once he started teething... I wanted those suckers out Just for the sake of mine and Bubba's sanity Homeboy was GRUMPY. But in general, I didn't want him to have teeth. I was scared it would ruin everything. And by everything, I mean his adorableness. This is extremely vain, I know. But I felt like teeth would take him from adorable little baby to Chucky in zero point two seconds. So the bottom ones poked through. I was nervous. But really - they weren't so bad!  They were cute even... Then - the top two started poking out. I had fear in my heart. Here comes Chucky!
But, ALAS! I think Bubba is EVEN CUTER (is that possible?!)  Okay, maybe just to me.  I love those little teeth and the personality that has come along with them. I love that Bubba grins from ear to ear showing off those pearly whites. I love that he has the freedom to eat new and different foods because he has those teeth.  In all seriousness, I am grateful that he is a happy healthy little boy. But am I the only parent in the world that feared their child would be LESS cute with teeth? Anyone else have vain, irrational parenting fears?!  Just me? Okay... just keep a lookout for us on Toddlers and Tiaras in 3 years. Bubba will be the one in the bedazzled tuxedo.. with flippers in :)

Marriage Talk.

Hello Kayla's readers! Isn't she fabulous!? And that Jack! He's just the cutest fella in the world!

My name is Sarah and while Kay and John are off on their honeymoon, I volunteered to do a guest post to give the newlywed perspective of taking time for relationships and marriages.

My husband, Andrew, and I have been married for a year.

He's really just the best! 

We don't have any kids yet, so both of us are pretty focused on our jobs right now and where those might take us in the future.

We love the movies. We love everything about them and so we blog about them! Our movie review blog is one of our favorite things to do together, but it does feel more like a job. Plus, movies require you to be silent. So we make time for each other in a number of different ways.

We make it an important part of our day to sit and look at each other and ask about each other's day. Just asking this simple little question has helped keep the lines of communication open. It is so easy to just come home from work, exhausted, and just shut off for the night. Being married doesn't allow you to have that luxury every day.

We also like to go out to dinner, and have "date nights." Sometimes this includes a movie to add to our ever-growing blog, but it always includes a phone-free zone at dinner. We have some of our best talks over dinner. We dream a little about our future, where we want to see ourselves in five years, or just enjoy our very comfortable silence. We take the random road trip every once in a while, too, so that's another great opportunity to just sit and chat or jam out to the music. Strangely enough, we still enjoy each other's company!

Taking time for your relationship is so important. We have found that communicating is the key to keeping us on the same page. So to wrap it up, I'm going to share with you some pictures of our adventures!

Hitting the road for our Honeymoon to Vermont!

Visiting Rhode Island in the fog.

Celebrating at Kay and John's Wedding

1st Christmas in the Big Apple 

Connecticut Hot Dog Tour for Andrew's 25th

Thanks for joining me today and be sure to check out my blog, Fashion on the Fly!