Easter and South Carolina

Recently BJ, Carter and I took a trip to my home back in South Carolina. My sister Lindsay and Brother-in-law Kell were blessing their baby Grady and so it was time for a visit. Grady was born about 3 or so months ago and so before this trip we hadn't had a chance to see him. He's such a cutie and we were glad to have been able to make it to the blessing. Holding him I was reminiscent of when Carter was that little and made me think about having another.. Then I realized that I probably won't want to have another until I'm done with school (1 more year or less hopefully).

I learned a few things on that trip about traveling with infants, soon to be toddlers. One is that you should bring new toys and plenty of distractions. Carter is in the phase where everything around him visually stimulates him, but after about 2-5 minutes of something new, he moves onto something else. Our flights both going and coming back we're pretty brutal at times.

Our first flight left around 7 AM and so that meant we all were up bright and early around 4 AM. I was expecting that Carter would totally fall back asleep in the car ride to the airport but sadly I was wrong and he ended up staying awake until about 1 hour into the flight. My thought process before getting on the plane was this, "I wonder how an infant, soon to be toddler, would go down for a nap on a plane? It seems logical that if he falls asleep easy in a car that a plane would be almost identical. Yes, I'm sure he'll go down easily on this trip." See, this was the mindset I had going into our first flight and I soon was re-educated in my all to naive thinking. The process of going down for naps was to say the least, stressful. I'm not to sure if it was his ears popping or if he was over-tired (probably was a combination of the two) but it took 30-45 mins of consistant crying and screaming before he finally gave into sleep. We felt so bad for the people around us. You know that time after your plane lands and everyone is in the aisle waiting to get off the plane? Well, BJ and I took this time after each flight to apologize to those fellow passenger for having to put up with our screaming child. Most people were sympathetic and admitted wanting to help us, while there were those who you could tell we're irritated... Oh well, not much else I could've done.

When It came down to getting Carter to sleep,BJ tried his hardest to help but I guess it just takes a mommy's touch because Carter would only fall asleep on me. When he finally took his nap, he was much better behaved so at least we had some relief afterwards. The picture below is of him looking out of the plane right before we boarded. Oh, about that.. I also learned that having children will bump you to the front of the line in airports which is a very nice thing. I remember we got into SLC airport and the line to go through security was backed up all the way to the baggage claim. BJ and I just looked at each other and were like, "There's no way we're going to make it.." But to our surprise, the kind airport workers informed us of a "special" line that we were allowed to go through. So, instead of spending forever long in a regular line, we were through security in about 20 minutes. And, before every boarding, we were given the privilege of boarding first. I cannot tell you how helpful that was to get on first and get situated with Carter before everyone else boarded. It helped a bunch!

Once we got into South Carolina, we all went out to dinner as a family (minus Ashlee and family :( ) which was so nice. Simple things like going to dinner make me so very happy. Times like that don't happen very often for me but when they do, I relish in them as much as possible.

The following day was spent sleeping in and hanging out at home. Carter had some sweet Grandma and Grandpa time while I got to sleep in. We tried to take a walk during the day but I sadly forgot how hot it is there and our walk turned more so into a 5 minute stroll. That night we went over to Lindsay's mother-in-laws home and had a BBQ. There were so many people there that I had grown up with and former leaders who have added so much value to my life. It was really good to see everyone and to be able to again spend time with family. I'll spare you all the sappy details :)

Sunday was blessing day and it was a good day. Call me crazy but there are some people in this world who know how to talk to Heavenly Father and know how to give a great blessings. I'll be the first to admit that sometimes I don't completely and intently listen to every prayer but there are some people who just know how to invite the spirit and who are so in tune with the spirit that you can't help but listen to every word. My brother-in-law is that way; he invites the spirit when he speaks and gave a beautiful blessing.

Me, Carter, Mom, Lindsay and Grady

Group picture complete with people looking in various directions

Carter and how he spent some of his time in the pack-n-play.

After the blessing we had very limited time till we needed to leave for home. Lindsay had a fun idea and thought that since Easter was so close, she thought that we should take cousin pictures. So, we each went and bought white onesies, put bunny tails and ears on them and had a photo shoot. I dont think they turned out as "professional looking" as I think we had hoped but they aren't to bad.

I bet you can't tell which one of Carter :)

Cousin loves

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Our model in the making

All in all the trip was a good time and we're really glad we were able to go. We do wish we had more time but I think my family will be coming out soon for Carters birthday so it wont be to long.

I promise we're alive..

So whenever something happens in our family, I always have the greatest intentions to blog but those good intentions often don't materialize into much as you can tell by my lack of blogging. I hopefully will do much better this summer and document more. I don't know why I dont blog more, I find writing my thoughts and life happenings to be therapeutic in a way. Anyways, here are just a few things that have been happening lately in our crazy, oh so busy lives.

Carter is growing up so fast! I know every parent says that it feels like yesterday that their child was born. For me, my feelings aren't any different. He is growing, moving, and doing all kinds of new things. He has recently started saying "daddy" at random times and ironicly often yells out "ma ma" when he needs something or wants something.

Carter has also learned how to climb the stairs and loves to climb on anything and everything he can get his hands on. We've already had our moments of tumbles and falls. Just the other day, Carter climbed up and leaned on the gate that protects him from going down a set of stairs in our house. We'll I guess I failed to secure the gate tight enough and Carter ended of taking a tumble down the flight of stairs. Can we say horrible mom award? But, I'm quickly learning that he's a tough little kid and that he has little to no fear. He was right back to leaning up against the gate no less than a couple minutes later (with mom close behind this time).

Carter will turn 1 in a little over a month. I completely plan on being an over-the-top mom and making his cake out of fondant. Truth be told, its always been my dream to own my own baking/cake shop so now is a perfect time to practice those skills. Curious George is the theme and this is kind of the design I'm thinking of:

While is doesn't look extremely difficult, I think it will take some good practice beforehand. I just hope that it turns out.

Recently BJ took a trip to South Africa for his MBA. To finish his Masters, he needed to take a class that focused on international business. If there's one thing you have to know about BJ its that he LOVES animals so the minute he found out those going on the South Africa trip would also get to go on a safari, he was hooked. I originally was going to join him on the trip but the idea of spending all my vacation inside business instead of out touring the area didn't really appeal to be nor did it make me want to shell out $3000. Ironically, (and stupidly I might add..if stupidly is even a word), the trip left the weekend before Easter and so when they got to SA, they found that most of the business they were going to tour were closed. This meant that the class would have a majority of the time in SA to tour and do fun things they wanted to do. Needless to say, I was a little bummed hearing all the fun things he got to go and do but I was happy that he got to go. Here are some of the pics from his trip.

He swam with Great White Sharks.. so jealous!

Was able to pet adult cheetahs. The cheetah wasn't tranquilized, just asleep.

He was able to visit an orphanage while there. A bunch of the people in his class and BJ bought soccer balls to bring and give to the kids. I guess they just kick balled up trash around for fun. I told BJ that if he wanted to, he could bring one of them home!

Yeap, he was close to that giraffe. Again, I'm jealous..

Here he is visiting a lion exhibit. This 'baby' was only 3 months old.

While BJ was off have an adventure, I was here taking care of Carter. It actually wasn't as rough as I thought it would be but I was ready for him to be home.

So here's hopefully one of many posts to come. I'll post some South Carolina trip and Easter stuff soon. :)