Montana - Days 1 & 2

We did something totally different for vacation this year and headed to Lakeside, Montana where we stayed in a beautiful home right on Flathead Lake for the week.  We had a very generous offer from our brother-in-law's family to stay at their lakehouse, and we are so happy we went!

Disclaimer: I was nervous about this vacation.  I get nervous about any new type of situation, and this one was especially unsettling for me because I knew there would be a lot of outdoor time (not always my thing) and I just didn't know what to expect in general.  It was also a long trip to get there, with crappy flight times and a time zone change (they are 2 hours behind us) and I wasn't sure what to expect with the kids.

The good news: I had NOTHING to worry about!!  Everyone had an amazing time (so much so that there were tears from literally everyone, including myself, when we were saying goodbye!) and the kids honestly could not have been better on all of the flights.

We left on Saturday, August 1st and our flight wasn't until 5:30pm; obviously, this isn't ideal as it put us getting into Montana after 11pm, but on the flip side, we didn't have to rush around trying to leave early in the morning.  The kids have only flown once, and it was the fairly short 2.5 hour trip to Orlando, so we tried our best to be upfront with them about how this ride would be much longer and how we'd have to have a layover.

 

 

 

The first flight was just to Chicago, so it was quick and painless.  The kids were really pumped to be on a plane again, and Liam was sitting with Brian and kept saying "is it time for blast off yet?  NOW are we going to blast off?  WHEN IS BLAST OFF??"  :)  We finally blasted off, and as you can see from the picture that Brian snapped, hit quite a bit of turbulence as we got closer to Chicago.  No one was bothered but me, I swear the kids didn't even look up from what they were doing while I was all "SWEET MOTHER OF GOD, WE'RE GOING DOWN!!"  Clearly, we  were ok.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made it to Chicago on time and our next flight was on time as scheduled...we were at O'Hare airport, which was our first time there...holy gigantic airport!!!  It took us awhile after getting off our first plane to make it allllll the way over to our next gate...we were there for about 15 minutes and then they announced a gate change.....10 minutes before we were supposed to start boarding!!  UGH.  So we RACED through the airport, Home Alone style, and made it to the other gate just in time to line up. 

 Thankfully, the flight took off close to the scheduled time....once we took off, we gave the kids the little gifts we had purchased them to keep them occupied for this next leg of the trip...Liam got his coveted newly-released Everest from Paw Patrol and Jake got a set of Pokemon cards.

 

Thankfully, they crashed for the last 2 hours or so of the flight....

 

 Uncle Ben and Aunt Amy picked us up (along with our 4200 pounds of luggage....half of which we didn't need, but more about that later!) and we were off to the lakehouse!  Aside from saying hi to everyone and taking a quick peek at the lake, we didn't do anything that night but CRASH (it was 2am, Pittsburgh time!) 

Our clan kinda-sorta slept in the next day, I think it was 7am there (so 9am at home) and the first thing we did was step out onto the deck with our coffee in hand to admire the view and sunrise.

 

 

 

Gorgeous.  Seeing that every morning never got old!

The kids, of course, were dying to get in the water and get the vacation started!  Brian is a better sport about these things than I am, and while I was helping myself to a 2nd cup of coffee, he was getting the kids in their swim stuff and heading down to the water with them by 9am.  Mommy will be up here with caffeine in hand waving to you, you guys have fun!

These kids amazed me.  All week, every single day.  I have to give them a shout out for their behavior, because despite being exhausted by the end of everyday, they were so, so well behaved for the most part.  In addition to that, they amazed me by what they were willing to try out in that water!  Liam is our daredevil, so it wasn't shocking that he was yelling "FASTER!" while being pulled on a tube by a boat...but Jake?  Jake is more cautious.  But this week?  He threw caution to the wind and he was ALL IN.  :)  It was so much fun to see.

 

The family we stayed with had stand up paddle boards and kayaks....and Jake became obsessed with the kayak, it was his favorite!  In fact, I nicknamed him "Creeper Kayak" partway through the week because I started noticing in pictures you'll see in a future post, that he is in nearly all of them, creeping around the lake on his kayak!

 

 

 

After a day of non-stop fun, the only way to end it is with some s'mores by the campfire!

Stay tuned for the rest of the trip soon!! 

Welcome to the world, Luke!

The other great thing that happened while we were in San Diego was that our new nephew was born!!  Nate and his wife, Katie, were expecting their first child and Luke made his grand entrance earlier this month! 

Adorable, right??

I couldn't wait to meet him, so I took a day off of work, loaded up the boys in the car and set off to get my hands on those squishy little cheeks.  The boys were so excited, but confused when we walked in to find him sleeping in the pack and play.

After nearly dying of anticipation, Luke woke up and the boys were able to hold their new cousin for the first time:

Be still my heart! 

Jake was interested in him, but quickly became more interested in the fact that Uncle Nate and Aunt Katie have Netflix :)  He quickly became engrossed in a show we don't have access to at our house, but Liam continued to obsess over Luke.

Toward the end of our visit, Liam asked if we could take him home and really didn't seem to understand why that couldn't happen :)  It was very sweet, and they have both talked about him since then.  Over the weekend, they found a huge piece of cardboard in the garage and asked if they could bring it to the playroom to color.  I said sure, and they proceeded to decorate it then told me that it was a playmat for baby Luke, that way when he comes to visit they can lay him on it and give him some toys :)  it's the thought that counts!  

Welcome to the world, Luke!  We are so happy to have you here.

San Diego 2015 - Days 1 & 2

7.5 years. 

Actually, a bit longer than that even, if you count the last time that Brian and I had actually gone somewhere together, just the two of us.  The last time Brian and I went anywhere together, outside of the Pittsburgh region, was for our first wedding anniversary....September of 2007.  A few months later, we had Jake and hadn't gone away since then.

It's not that we don't leave the kids....I've gone away for work, and we've both left separately for time with friends....he's gone skiing or fishing, I've gone away for some girls weekends with the bestie.  But together?  Not in SEVEN years. 

A few months ago, I learned that a conference I have attended in the past for work was being held in San Diego....Brian's company has another office in San Diego, and it's actually where his boss lives, so the location could not have been better.  We could both combine work with a trip away for just the two of us!  Perfect!  It was time.

So last Saturday, after some tearful goodbyes Friday night (me, not the kids...they were totally fine, knowing they were going to have a fun week with Nana and PopPop!), we stepped on a plane and took off for the west coast! 

Funny side note- I was telling Liam that I would miss him and his response was "Don't worry, I'll miss you too...but I'll still be alive when you come home!"  Well, ok then. :) 

Airport waiting.

 After a long flight and 1 layover, we arrived!!!  Thanks to the time change, we still had half of the day left; this also meant that we were very early to check into the hotel, so it gave us a chance to walk around and check out the area.  We stayed at the La Jolla Shores hotel and it was great...spacious, clean rooms and the hotel was literally right on the beach.

courtyard area of the hotel

Who let these pale people out in the sun??

 The weather was absolute perfection.  I'm not exaggerating either....70 degrees, sunny, no humidity, slight breeze. 

After checking into our room and getting settled, it was pretty much time to get ready to leave again; we had dinner reservations at Jake's Del Mar (sweet name, right?) with Brian's boss and his wife, which was very nice.  Unfortunately, the jet lag (and just general tiredness, I couldn't sleep the night before we left, I was like a kid at Christmas!) and sinus/ear issues (presumably brought about on the plane) caught up with me at dinner.  I was having trouble hearing most of what was said throughout dinner, which was annoying, and I felt like I could fall asleep into my food.  But dinner was very nice (what I could hear of it, ha!) and the food was delicious, and of course, it was very kind of them to take us out.  I was in bed by 8:30pm...so much for trying to adjust to west coast time! 

We woke up bright and early the next morning after such an early bedtime, and after a very leisurely breakfast (I didn't have to make anyone food!  or pour milk! or remind anyone to brush their teeth!) we headed out to Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve.  When we pulled in, Brian asked the attendant where we should park and she told us it would depend on if we wanted a serious hiking trail or more of a scenic walk....I'll take the scenic walk, thank you very much!!  (also, if that's what they consider a scenic walk, I would have died on the actual hike) 

This ended up being one of the highlights of the trip for us, we LOVED it here. Again, the weather was great, so I was warm once we started walking, but not miserable by any means.  The views were spectacular, I feel like these pictures don't even do it justice, but here they are:

We did a few different trails that all lead to different views; one of the trails had this giant stone staircase that was fun to go down:

YAY, stairs!!  All smiles on the way down...

But the way up?  Not as fun, let me tell you.  I had to stop halfway up (where they very conveniently had this little bench....gee, I wonder why?) and Brian snapped this lovely picture of me:

On the next trail we came across this little bit of um, festive scenery:

He noticed my Pitt hat and told us that he's a huge steelers fan, tries to get out to Pittsburgh sometimes because he loves the city, goes to see the Steelers whenever they play the Chargers in San Diego, etc....super friendly (though also a touch creepy!) bunny.  We do not have any reason as to why he was dressed like that.

After that, we found another trail that led down to the beach....only to get to the other side of the beach where it wasn't nearly as crowded, you had to squeeze through this opening...thank goodness we're not particularly claustrophobic!

squeeze it in there, kids!

But it was worth it once we got to the other side! 

Grown ups only trip, woohoo!!!

 

 
Brian is crazy and decided to jump into the ocean (it was 61 degrees.....BRRR, no thanks!)

 

After all of that hiking, we were starving, so we headed to a place called Gliderport, where crazy brave people jump off of cliffs and paraglide or hang glide over the ocean.  They also happen to serve delicious sandwiches (at the appropriately named Cliffhanger Cafe) there and have picnic tables outside, so this was our view during lunch:

 

 

We had 5pm reservations for kayaking and unfortunately, I don't have those videos or photos uploaded yet (they are on our knockoff Go-Pro camera, I didn't bring my phone) so i'll have to get those posted another time.  But for now, I'll say that we had a great time (and didn't get attacked by sharks, score!) and that we were able to see dolphins and sea lions, so that was really fun. 

We were exhausted after our big day, and quite stuffed from our late lunch, so we decided to skip dinner, walk around the little area by our hotel and have a froyo dinner :)  It was the perfect way to wrap up such a fun day!

Days 3 & 4 recap to come soon.....