A few weekends ago, I headed out to Arizona to see my BFF Elizabeth, her husband Brandon and their new baby girl, Leray. She was 7 weeks old on the day I arrived {Thursday, February 10}! All us girls visited Liz at this time last year and had a blast, so I couldn't wait to go back! Who could have imagined how much all of our lives would change in 1 year!
When I got to the airport, I was so happy to see Liz that I burst into tears. She did the same thing, so I didn't feel quite as nutty. :) We headed off to a delicious Mexican lunch. Sweet Leray was sleeping in her car seat when I arrived, so I didn't have quite the meeting that I had imagined in my head {me embracing her lovingly while Liz snapped precious pictures}. But I did get to hold her when she woke up and I was the recipient of one of her first smiles!! :) Elizabeth said that she had smiled earlier in the week at one of her work friends, but by the end of our weekend, Liz decided that that first "smile" was really more of an Elvis-like lip curl, so I got the title of the REAL first smile! Boo-ya!
 |
| Leray checking out the scene at lunch. |
We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting at home, and when Brandon got home from work we went on a walk around the neighborhood.
Snug as a bug.
See that bunny hiding in the brush? There are all kinds of vermin in AZ that are fascinating to this city girl!
It's funny because whenever we ran into Liz's friends and she would introduce me, the friends would always ask what we had planned for my trip. I think they were always surprised to hear us say, "nothing, we just enjoy sitting around the house, eating and visiting," instead of spouting off a bunch of touristy answers. We don't need {or want} to go go go, we just like catching up.
Thursday night Liz cooked a yummy supper, and since evenings are Leray's fussy times {like most babies}, she and I hung out so Brandon and Liz could enjoy dinner together. I loved every second I got to hog her to myself! :)
Saturday we decided to take Leray on her first road trip and drove up to Sedona. It was so beautiful! We ate a picnic lunch and went on a little hike. Leray was SO good! I miss those newborn days where babies can just fall asleep anywhere!
She was SO excited about our trip!
I did not tweak the color in any of these photos! And this was taken through the front windshield! Beautiful!
This church was built into the side of a mountain.
Stretching after the car ride.
Trying out the Bjorn with Daddy.
Cute family pic!
Saturday evening I spent a great deal of time at the Apple store trying to figure out how to retrieve my nearly 11,000 {!!} pictures before my computer died it's long slow death. On the plane ride out, I was watching a movie on it and knocked my cup, with a teeny amount of Sprite in it, all over my computer {and me and the window}. The man next to me ran to get some paper towels. Unfortunately airlines do not put a lot of money towards paper towels, so they didn't absorb the liquid so much as they pushed it further down into my keyboard/the inside of the computer. My sweet BIL gave us an external hard drive over a year ago, and John had it out for about 2 weeks before my trip telling me to back everything up. Did I? Nope. I wanted to kick myself. Moral of the story: BACK YOUR FILES UP!! And often! The guy at the Apple store sold me another external hard drive and showed me how to back up everything. Then he shut my computer down. Well...it decided to never wake up again before I could get all my pics off. So back to the Apple store I went on Sunday. They took my hard drive out {luckily it wasn't damaged}, hooked it up to one of their computers, and retrieved all my pictures. Thank goodness! I don't know what I would have done if I had lost most of my photos of my little Bug. Anyway...
We were supposed to go out with some of Liz's work friends on Saturday night, but at that point we really didn't fee like it, so we just stopped by to say hey and then got Chick Fil A and went home.
On Sunday we had another lazy day and went to lunch at a good pizza place near the Apple Store. That night I cooked some food to freeze and for us to eat for supper. We got Brandon to stay up really late talking with us, even though he likes to go to bed early on work nights. We had fun telling him funny stories from high school.
A wild coyote! {like there are any other kind}
Trying to get some good snuggle time in before heading to the airport.
I miss those sweet cheeks!!
On Monday we basically just visited at home until it was time to grab a quick lunch and head to the airport. :( I missed John and Curran TERRIBLY, but I was SO sad to be leaving. We both just cried and cried. I know airport workers are probably used to tears, but I still get embarrassed going up to the counter with a red face and runny nose. :) I spent most of Valentine's Day alone in the airport/on a plane and had a very romantic dinner solo at Chili's in Dallas.
John and C came to pick me up {even though it was a little past C's bedtime}, and I was so very happy to see her little self running towards me! She seemed to grow up so much while I was gone! She learned to say her name {and it's not an easy one} so she had fun showing that one off.
We gave her her vday gifts when we got home. I wish I had a picture of her face when she opened her ladybug rain boots. She was seriously ecstatic! She also got a matching ladybug umbrella and two VeggieTales DVDs.
Liz, thank you SO much for a wonderful trip! You and Brand are the best hosts, and I am looking forward to coming out there again soon {I hope}!!
3 comments:
I love her PJ's! Yay! They still fit!! She is SO cute! We need to get her together with Cadham. Maybe the next time we're in town?
Yes, they still fit and we love them!! We definitely need to plan a play date soon!
Ummm, do you have a blog I don't know about?? I tried to click on the Chez Cadham link and it wouldn't let me. :)
love love!!
Post a Comment