Sunday, November 17, 2013

"Woa! -Ish!"

Along the previously mentioned carpe diem lines, we decided to take a weekend jaunt to San Diego.  It's maybe 6 hours away.  So we thought, why not?  After work on Thursday, we got on the road.  We stopped for the night in El Centro, CA.  Michael worked from the hotel room for a few hours in the morning while Laila and I enjoyed some shopping.  Around lunch time we got back on the road.  Laila enjoyed the ride by napping and by the time she woke up, we were pulling up to our hotel.
We stayed at the Marriott Marquis right on the harbor.  We had a balcony with a beautiful view.


We started exploring the city with a sweet little ride on the surrey.  It was SUPER fun! We rode up and down the water's edge seeing the harbor, the Gas Lamp District, the huge Navy ships and of course, the iconic statue...




We walked around Sea Port Village enjoying the weather, the water and the shopping!  For dinner we enjoyed a fun little restaurant in the Gas Lamp District topped off with dessert at Ghiradelli's! YUMMY! It was the perfect evening.



The next morning was started with a swim for these two...


Then it was off to Sea World.  Our lovely Adelaide loved pointing and squealing "-ish! -ish!" (Fish, fish) everywhere we went.  We went on a few rides with her.  Ate some lunch.  Walked throught the various aquariums and exhibits and went to the Shamu, dolphin, and pet shows.  Laila was enthralled in every show, but during Shamu she would say, "Woa! -ish!"  It was so fun to have this experience with her.  She's just too cute!








Later that evening, we got back on the road to head home.  Short, but sweet weekend.  It really was so perfect.  However, lest anyone think our trip is too idealic, I did survive a rip roaring case of food poisoning the whole drive home.  I'm not going to give details about that, but it was less that glamorous that's for sure.  But I did have a wonderful husband doing anything he possibly could to make me feel better.  He really is amazing- working, organizing, and planning everything so we could have the best weekend retreat!  I'll tell ya, we are very lucky girls in our house!

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Carpe Diem

Michael's new position has had him traveling about once a month since he started in May.  Normally, this would be something that might not be too ideal, but we have realized that we are at a time in our lives that we might not ever be again.  Since I'm not teaching this year, we don't have a school/work schedule to work around and Laila is under 2 (she can still fly free) so we can actually tag along on these business trips at a relatively decent price.  Now that we are aware of this rare phenomenon, we have definitely seized the day and are enjoying the opportunity we have to travel together!
About a week after Michael's family left, we all took off for New Jersey.  I had some flight points that I could use so we decided that Adelaide and I would fly separately. Yep.  5 hour non-stop flight with a toddler by myself.  Fortunately we flew Southwest so I was able to get on and sit in an empty row.  I sat on the aisle and put Laila in the middle seat (even though she's a lap child) as I stowed all our gear.  I had one girl who wanted to sit in the window seat until she saw Laila.  Then she said, "Oh No.  She's cute, but no."  Wow.  Alright then.   Fortunately for us, we had a darling British girl sit by us and although the flight was almost full, we got to have the empty middle seat too.  And true to character, Adelaide was a doll.  She gave high fives, giggled, put her pretzels on her drink straw, watched movies and took a nap.  Definitely a win for us.


Michael had meetings in Morristown at the start of the week so we decided to enjoy NYC on the weekend.  Our good friends, the Hardys, currently live in the city so they graciously agreed to be our tour guides!  It was such a blast to see them and finally meet their little man. Getting around the city is definitely a lot more relaxing when you have people who know what they're doing- what trains to get on, when to get off or transfer, etc.  They took us to the beautiful High Line Park.  Basically it's a high train track turned into a park. We enjoyed lunch at Shake Shack.  Due to some cold, wet babies we took a tour of Marcus' office and warmed up a bit.





Afterwards, we were FINALLY able to get Laila to put on her coat and soon after, she was asleep.  We walked around a fun thrift/antique sale.  I have a tinge of buyer's remorse because we couldn't figure out a way to get a beautiful, Chinese wood carved screen home with us.  *sigh* But what a wonderful day with the Hardy's!






The next morning, we went back into the city to see the Sept 11 memorial.  It is a powerful way to literally represent the giant holes those twin towers left in the beautiful, Manhattan sky line.





We also enjoyed walking around the city a little more and eating some yummy goodies!



We purchased this treasure:






Best $5 we have ever spent.  She calls it her 'roar' and it actually helps keep our poor AZ born child warm. We had fun on our short, little jaunt into NYC.

^Laila LOVED the "choo choos."

The next couple of days were spent in Morristown, NJ as Michael had meetings.  It's definitely a beautiful, New England-esque area.  Laila and I enjoyed hanging out at the hotel, swimming, playing in the leaves and I got my HGTV fix!  Not too shabby! When Michael was done with work we would get some dinner, walk through some fun furniture stores and one night we went bowling.








 We are grateful that we could go and that we got to see the beautiful fall foliage.






We love our little girl and loved being able to be together on a fun adventure!