Two Weeks of Missouri

Plane ride

Claire's first time on a plane! She did very well for the first flight that was only and hour and was VERY early (5am) because she slept straight through and the flight wasn't full so I had a whole row to myself. I got pampered and didn't even have to try, but the next 2 hour flight was a little more what I expected from my over active 1 year old. She wanted to move and didn't like being confined to my lap, she played with the people next to us, even if they didn't want to be messed with, and she screamed in complaint sometimes. We had a 5 hour layover in Denver which was mostly keeping her away from the escalator and letting her get all the crawling and wiggling out before the next flight. She met a cute puppy who likes to lick her face while we were there too and she LOVED him even through she ran when it tried to climb on her.

Chicago

The first adventure my bestest friend and I went on was a trip to Chicago! I don't like to mention unhappy babies, but I'll say that the last hour of the 5 hour drive there was not very fun.We were so relieved to get to the hotel we simply relaxed and watched a movie after we put our kiddos to sleep! On the first full day of being there we walked quite a far distance to get to Millennium Park and played with different statues around the city and the park. We learned about a free trolley system that was only two blocks away from our hotel after we had walked all the way back and planned a better way of getting around the rest of the trip because we got to go to the Navy Pier and ride their big Ferris Wheel. We got the cart to ourselves and Claire had fun roaming around the dirty floor...yay.

The second day started off rough with sleeping in too long due to being overworked the previous days and another case of crying babies. We still got to see the Skydeck and see my brave baby girl not be scared one bit from the height! If you haven't noticed yet the adorable outfits from the pictures...LOOK AGAIN! My very amazing and talented friend made them easily just a day and a half before we went to Chicago! We got a lot of attention because we were so well matched too and I don't doubt many people thought we were a couple, but we both love matching our own families and couldn't help match here together.

Photo Shoot

Claire turned 1 year old before I left for Missouri and since I was running around in Montana and trying to be prepared for our first flight together her birthday wasn't all that special. She actually had a bum of a birthday with getting shots from the doctor after driving for 6 hours! But I made up for that by letter her eat this huge cupcake and play in her mess all she wanted as I worried and fretted about her getting dirty behind the camera. My super awesome and cool best friend took these pictures as she destroyed her cake and cleaned up in the tub outside.

Relaxing

As fun as it is to do adventurous things and take tons of pictures, sometimes it is nice to relax and enjoy the company of a fantastic friend. We got to watch movies together, sew some fun outfits, eat yummy food, and catch up on all the things we have missed. The funnest part was watching our little kids play with each other and learn from each other as they hung out every day for 2 weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed the relaxing part of my vacation because I took time off working and worrying about life to really focus on Claire. Making myself take this time off to get enough sleep and rest my overworked body during this time, made me ready to start up working out and helping around the house now that I'm home.

Homecoming

The flights home were similar to the other flights to Missouri and Claire was able to sleep some of the way, but was wiggly and wanted to move when she couldn't. We sat next to a really nice lady on our 2 hour flight and Claire had fun making faces and playing with her, and even let her hold her for a minute while I was getting her snacks out. Chris, who had been at training at Camp Williams, Utah while I was off 1,000 miles away, came to pick us up at the airport! It was one of his last days of training and he was able to leave base to come save us and we stayed there together at the base hotel for the two nights he had left. Claire and I went to see him graduate his training and we very happy to reunited after 3 weeks we spent all his free time cuddling and being together. Now we plan to get back to normal life as soon as possible and hopefully not have to be separated again for a good long time!