Cute Baby and Fun Days

Like to eavesdrop? This is the podast episode for you! We were busy trying to teach you things and ended up in these discussions in which we learned things about each other that we didn't know - and having some communication quandaries in the process. My favorite Spill the Beans moment to date is right here in this episode. I'm still laughing at us! ENJOY!

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Yesterday was my niece's second wedding anniversary, so it feels appropriate today that I get to tell you about getting to meet her new baby for the first time!

It is the worst to live 850 miles away from a new baby. My parents went to visit right after Miss Caroline was born. My other sister went to visit right after my birthday. I was the only one who hadn't been there, and I'd cried buckets of tears over it. I was also 100% terrified that I'd get out there and she wouldn't like me, because I remember well from my babysitting years that little ones hit that stage where if they don't know you, they don't like you. I told Ryan I'd rather just stay home than go and make her cry.

We went. We made her cry. :( The good news is, by the end of our trip, she liked us. The bad news is, you don't get to see that part of the trip today.

It took us about half the day to get from Kansas City over to the part of the state where my sister lives, so we arrived about mid-afternoon. Here is the moment I met Miss Caroline for the first time:

(As you can see, Murphy remembered me! He was ready for some love!)

Shortly after we got there, Lori needed to make Caroline's bottle, so I got to hold her for the very first time. It lasted about 20 seconds before she cried, but Ryan moved quickly, so at least our captured memory is good:

So that was the end of the holding attempts for that day, but we did get to sit near her and watch her play!

After Cassie and Caroline went home for the evening, Lori took us out to eat. (My brother-in-law was out of town for the night at a conference.) We went to one of the few restaurants in the town where they live. DELICIOUS salads for us. Yes! We finally found a place that serves salad!

And then...Lori took us to see a movie! They actually have a one-screen theater in town, and though I'd been past it, I'd never been inside for a movie. It was really nice! We saw Oceans 8. (I'd seen Ocean's 11 and 12 years ago and convinced Ryan to watch them both recently. We hadn't yet gotten to Ocean's 13.)

Saturday morning, we got up and went over to visit Cassie and Caroline at their house. (Cassie's husband was at work all these times we saw them...he really is around, I promise!)

The dogs were very excited to see me. (Murphy and Abby...it was my first time to meet Abby.)

Caroline preferred to just watch me. :)

I uh...don't know if you noticed or not, but Lori and I were twinning:

Yeah. We own basically the same shirt. So we wore them together! And see that striped shirt in my hand? I chose it at the local thrift store. Know who donated it? My sister. Shaking head.

One of the nice things about our trip was that Lori offered to let me do quite a bit of the cooking while we were at their house, so I could eat the things that were helpful to me on my eating plan. (And as you can tell, it was a rough start in the eating out department, so this was a very welcome blessing.)

Ryan helped me make low carb grilled cheese an avocado sandwiches for lunch, and we also cooked the okra and squash our first Airbnb hosts gave us from their garden!

That afternoon, I tried again to hold Caroline. We thought maybe if I gave her a bottle, she'd like me. I mean isn't food the universal peace offering? She made it almost all the way through the bottle and then realized she didn't know me and cried again. I felt horrible!

But we did get a few pictures before the tears:

Ryan and I cooked dinner, too - a breakfast casserole:

And then we went for a walk because we were very behind on steps. It was a gorgeous sunset walk all around town!