gigi and pop!

We just live really far from our family.

I just heard everyone overseas sigh and say, "Try a 13 hour time difference and get back to me."  I know, I know, it could be WAY worse.  I've always lived far from family, I never had the privilege of grandparents in the same town (or time zone), but we just got used to it and spent holidays with good friends and saw our family when we saw them.  I actually lived with one set of grandparents for 2 months every summer, so that's kind of special.  Anyway, now that we have a kid of our own, we're really feeling the difference.  I know our parents miss seeing Bo and we so desperately want to share the little moments with them.  Thankfully we do all live in the same country, so we talk and text and email and visit when we can!  We were so happy to have Matt's parents out last week for a few days.  

As far as visits go, we didn't really see anything or go anywhere . . . most of the time was spent staring at Bo.  :)  They watched him while I was at work so that was great for me, although weird to come home and not know what he did for the past two hours.  And then we took that to a whole new level and both Matt and I got on planes and left Gigi and Pop on their own with their littlest grandson.  Ideally, Matt and I would've traveled to the same destination for our first night away from the baby . . . but he had a conference in Chicago and I had a free ticket to Charlotte.  Gigi and Pop were gracious enough to encourage me to use the miles before the expired and stay home with Bo.

So with this little picture pulled up frequently on my phone to remind me what I was missing . . . 

I left for a whirlwind trip.  I was only in Charlotte for 24 hours, so I didn't get to make the full run of visits that I would've liked to, but it was really REALLY great to sit and chat with friends.  I also had some spontaneous crying moments, but it was just out of love.

God is faithful in providing friends everywhere we go, but it's always so sweet to see my old pals again.  And their babies.  :)  There was always a baby close by when my arms felt empty.  I saw sweet and portable Haddon again and met Adler for the first time.  

He's so handsome.

His parents fixed me biscuits and gravy.

Kerry drove out from Knoxville, which was awesome.  

The three of us can always pick up where we left off.  

Which was here:

 Ha ha.

So it was short, but so sweet.  And then I got back on my JetBlue direct flight to JFK and my non-direct train ride back to Stony Brook while Gigi and Pop texted me the following pics . . . that train could not go fast enough.

 Our little guy grew up while we were gone!!

I'm really glad Matt's parents were so willing to watch Baby Bo while we were gone.  I think they even enjoyed it. :)  I could relax, knowing he was in such great hands.  I wish we could've spent more time together - I think they only saw Matt for one afternoon, since his work schedule is a little unforgiving.  We look forward to being less than a plane-ride away!!