mr. bo's wild ride

Well, it wasn't just Mr. Bobo's wild ride . . . it was more like our whole FAMILY's wild ride.  Two weeks hitting the road and suitcase-living at its finest.  Even Moosey was displaced (thanks to our friends for adopting him for the whole 14 days!).

It starts . . . and we will wear that airplane backpack at every opportunity.

We split up at our first layover and Matt flew to my parents to pick up a car they have generously given us, and Bo and I flew to Nashville, where he promptly started sweating and his cheeks turned really pink.  We're not in 65 degree weather anymore, Toto.  He also stepped out of the clingy phase in order to party with his sweet cousins.  

boys, boys, boys.  

I love this picture so much - Pop and his grandsons.  

And there is ANOTHER boy added to that bunch now - my nephew Grant was born yesterday!  

I see fun times ahead, Grant!

After we met up with Matt at his parents' house in KY, we did a little spliteroo and left Bo with Gigi and Pop, where we thought he might be spoiled have more fun than accompanying his parents to meetings in Nashville.  It was harder than I thought to leave him behind!  We are NEVER separated . . . maybe it would be good for both of us to get a little more of that in.  

We checked out our new place in Franklin, TN . . . that's a story in itself . . . I found it online before we left and asked my sister in law to check it out for us.  She ended up having to race across town to put a deposit in for us before the other renter could - and she won!  9 months pregnant, too.  

We're very thankful and super psyched about all of the 'normal' things that are luxuries to us . . . like a garage, fenced yard, central air, and a *dishwasher*.  And everyone in the neighborhood waved when we drove in.  I felt like I was in a parade.  

Bo and I left Matt to his meetings and headed off on some more planes . . .

To Oklahoma.

Showing some Thunder pride with his new Rumble shirt from Uncle Ryan.

And the reason for the season - Elyse's graduation!

It was a really sweet ceremony and I loved watching my little sister give an eloquent speech!  Also the added bonus of seeing my grandma! 

Elyse has waited 10 years (eek!) to reenact the photo we took at my high school graduation:

Bo and Coco in the pool.

Back on the plane . . . 

This time with a Sonic popcorn chicken clutched in his paw.  Would not let that thing go.  Got pretty gross.

Back to Nashville then on to KY for some family fun . . . 

He reminds me of the dancing hippos in this pic:

Lots of time spent with Pop.

Matt and his bro throwing each other in the pool . . . boys are so funny.  

Uncle Adam time:

And then Matt and I left Bo again with Matt's parents (Gigi said she didn't mind!) and went away for a couple nights.  I kept it a secret for five months but spilled the beans immediately after we got into the car for the 3 hour drive to the Smokies - we were meeting Matt's best friend and his wife to celebrate their 30th birthdays.  But first we had to see MY friend and her new baby - so darling:

Love you, Hank! So glad we will live in the same state soon!

The beautiful Smokies . . . 

The sign said that since we were at the highest point in the Smokies, we could actually say we were "on top of old Smoky."  So I did.  

After all of the craziness and separation of the past couple weeks, it was great to get away for a day and not worry about work!  

On our last day in Tennessee we were able to meet up with all of Matt's KY/TN aunts and uncles, most who hadn't seen Bo yet.  And since we hadn't seen him in 3 days, we were shocked by how well he was walking . . . seems he's finally got the hang of it!!

We finally took a flight all together . . . there was no question that Matt would be restraining our sweet child on the flight! 

And here we are.  Back where we belong - together.  

Phew.

No rest for the weary - time to start packing!!!

Mother's Day Urban Adventure

On my second Mother's Day I still found it kind of odd that I fit into the category of women receiving cards and congratulations.  Matt, Bo, and Moose all wrote cards for me (as always), and Matt and Bo worked together to present this breakfast in bed:

I think Bo contributed the chopped-up cheese stick.

As much as I wanted the whole family in bed with me... it just wasn't working.  The boys were too jealous.

So Matt took care of their breakfasts while I enjoyed a rare moment of solitude.

We soon hopped in the car (Matt provided snack mix just to my liking) . . .

and headed into the city!  We normally take the train but it really did go quite fast on a Sunday to drive straight in and park along 5th Avenue.  And the view as we crossed the bridge wasn't half bad.

We were there to meet the Mulandi family and our mutual friend Evelyn, who was visiting from Kenya for a medical conference.  It was her first time to NYC and it was fun to spend that time with her!  We met up in FAO Schwarz where Bo was eyeing the blankey display:

And from there went to the Empire State Building, which is a pretty awesome view on the city and the perfect Sunday activity - absolutely no lines.  

 

This city visit went so well, the babies held it together for a long time and right when I reached that moment where I thought I might pass out from hunger, we found tasty restaurant that sold portable meals so we could enjoy the breeze of Bryant Park and let the little ones free to be covered in city grime.  Somewhere in there I left to retrieve the rest of my Mother's Day gift - shopping time in Anthropologie, during which the alone time was just as valuable as anything I could buy.  

I'm short on pictures of our day, but Jenna wrote two posts with lots of great pictures: here and here.   The boys have matching shirts (thanks Aunt Jenny!) so we brought them along to see if they'd look like twins . . . nothing like a Central Park photo shoot at the end of a perfect day.

I am glad we are leaving our time here with sweet memories of enjoying the things that are unique to our area and seeing precious friends that will soon be farther away than we would like!

sweet friends

So last week, I guess actually by now it's 2 weeks ago, Matt had to go all the way to Baltimore to take his written boards and then stay for a conference.  About an hour after he drove off, my friend called and said, "How'd you like to come to Atlanta tomorrow?"  After weighing my options - staying home alone for 6 days or visiting my friends I never get to see - the choice was clear!  Off to Atlanta!

The one issue - flying standby.  My friends have Delta connections and got me a super cheap ticket, but it was standby.  And I had to take a train 2 hours into JFK with my sweet darling little papoose of a one year old and cross my fingers that they let us on the flight.  So . . . I did it.  And there were all sorts of Long Island stereotypes being broken as people helped me drag my luggage and stroller on and off the train, onto the air train, and then up to the plane . . . where we waited, waited, waited until all the other passengers were on before they said we could go!  Woohoo!  

 

Wild buddy was jammin' until we landed and they unfastened the seatbelt sign.  

Whew.

After that wild ride, it was SO absolutely wonderful to see my friend Allyson pull up at the airport.  We met in Kenya and she was a great friend then, but we've grown even closer through frequent phone calls and VERY infrequent times together.  I saw Todd and Allyson at our wedding and then last year for a couple hours during our trip to Cleveland.  And now they have ANOTHER beautiful baby.  It was just super good for my heart to be with their family.  

And so, I took a few pics and actually took the time to edit a few of them . . . 

{above} little sister Elise and big sister Ava

{below} handsome Tyler

Bo had his first wrestling matches with Ty.  It was hilarious and awesome.

We just hung out and had fun . . . took the kiddos to chick-fil-a, played at the house, went on a walk, and just did life together. 

Ty turned 2 while we visited, and I got to help Allyson prepare for their rocket man party.  Complete with adorable cake:

Ty bringing a giant tub of cheese puffs to his party.

This is the opening prayer where I sniffled and teared up as Todd talked about Ty's rocky start and God's great plans for his life.  Tyler was born with a hemangioma on his liver - his liver was 8 cm long at birth.  With the help of a quick (miraculous) diagnosis and steroids, it shrunk to the typical 1 cm and he is one healthy sweet boy.  I was overjoyed to celebrate his second birthday with their family.  

A surprise for me - our friend Anita, another Kenya connection and one of my bridesmaids, recently moved to South Carolina and she and her husband came out as well.  What a treat, to be together!  I hope that when we move to Nashville we can make this happen a couple times a year.  And with Matt, too.  

We took the EARLY flight out because it has the most seats open.  Bo had his own little seat on that flight (hooray) but we missed the train home by SECONDS (boo).  It was slowly pulling away as I forlornly stood on the platform and contemplated jumping on . . . We took a different line home and got picked up from the stinky trains station and BOY, was I glad to be home.  I think I can write the book on traveling with a 12 month old.  Bo and I will take no less than FIVE flights together this month, without Matt.  Don't ask me how he managed to get out of all that.  But you know what, it doesn't even scare me anymore.  I've faced it all (did I mention he threw up on me last month?!).  I can handle it.  And it's always worth it to see our special friends and family!

bo's buddy kyalo

I'm a little behind on this old blog because of birthday parties and life and impromptu trips across the country. . .  but one special thing I want to remember is the visit from the Mulandi family, who came for Bo's birthday weekend.  We met Jenna and Dexter in Kenya and they have just moved back to the States for further training for Dexter, who's real name is Allan.  Funny story - since he was training to be a dentist and was obviously a science-type guy, his friends called him Dexter because of the cartoon, Dexter's Lab.  And it stuck.  Anyway, they are just a few hours from us for the time being and we so enjoyed seeing them again, and their sweet son, Kyalo (pronounced Cha-low).  

He is so stinking cute.

Man, it was fun to have the boys together.  They are only about 2 weeks apart and so cutely at the same stage.

Bath buddies:

They played pretty well together.  It was adorable.  In fact, I'm going to say that two one-year-olds are a bunch of fun.  Mothers of twins - one will be fun.  (dev, i'm talking to you)

 

and he chews on chicken bones.  I mean, hilarious. 

can we keep you?