Date Night

I love date night. I love the company of Kurt. I think dates when you're married are so much better than when you're actually dating. I love to people watch while we're on a date and decide who's on a "first date". You know, you see the uncomfortable shifting in the chair, frantic looks to keep up conversation, over-smiling. And then I'm so thankful to have someone great, who thinks I'm great, and we just sit and relax.

This date landed us at one of our top favorite restaurants, Pho Grand and then warm drinks at the coffeshop/gelateria next door where we looked at magazines together and made lists on Kurt's crackberry. Then we drove around the neighborhood and looked at houses and talked about where Weston might go to school. Perfect. I love this guy.

Top Ten Things I Learned on Vacation

I just can't help it. I have to make a list. And what better way to end our vacation posts than a list.

In no particular order...

10. The only thing that makes traveling by plane with a child under 2 do-able is the fact that it is free.

9. The rocks in Sedona are red because of iron.

8. St. Louis still has my favorite restaurants.

7. Getting lost with a toddler in the backseat is not a marriage-builder.

6. A Chevy Impala is a pretty decent car.

5. God's creation is AMAZING.

4. In & Out burger is only good if eaten there (according to our friendly skycap)

3. Fried cactus tastes like an earthy french fry.

2. 10 days is the perfect amount of time for vacation

1. I would really like to have a king size bed.

Grand Canyon

This is the only picture of the Grand Canyon I'll post. Why? Because pictures don't do the Grand Canyon justice. There is just no way to capture the magnitude of it. It was nothing like I thought it would be.

I knew Weston was too little to understand the enormity of what we were seeing, but I felt the need to still have him experience it. As I'm holding him, I'm pointing to the Grand Canyon explaining, "Weston, this is the Grand Canyon..." La, la, la, I went on for a few more seconds. His resonse? "Wa-wa" (flower)...and pointing...to the flowered shirt on the lady in front of us. Love it. Maybe next time kiddo.

Peace out Sedona...and frenulum

The morning we left Sedona Weston tripped on the carpet and landed on his mouth on the fireplace hearth. Lots of blood, lots of tears and very scary. But he is such a trooper...this fall was after he hit his eye on the corner of a wall and fell and scraped his knees. It was enough injuries for a month, let alone one morning.

I took this picture of him sleeping on the way up to the Grand Canyon. It breaks my heart. He had a little residual blood coming out of his mouth, a puffy eye and crazy hair. When we arrived at the Grand Canyon gate, I felt the need to fully explain the circumstances of the morning to the lady collecting money lest she think we beat our child.

As it turns out, he no longer has a frenulum now. It's that piece of skin that connects the upper lip to the gums. You would think that this loss would have landed us in some urgent care getting stitches, but the pediatrician said popsicles instead. Much nicer. Apparantly, frenulums are useless...who knew? Not me, but this mom is glad.

Sedona Part 4

Wow. This vacation is getting lengthy. Just a few more posts, I promise. Perhaps I'm a little over zealous in my detail. Next time, I'll definitely go for one post with top 5 favorite vacation pics. Maybe.

I especially love this picture. Not because its very sweet and cuddly, but because my husband took this picture himself. He loves it when Weston falls asleep on his shoulder.


This chapel was built into the rock. I should know more about it, but I don't. I was a little winded when we finally got to the top, so I was distracted.


This is my favorite picture of Weston from the trip. He's sporting his new t-shirt we bought him on our date and he looks like such a big boy.


Riding on the vacuum with Papa...


Playground date with dad while mom had a little time to herself...

Sedona Part 3

We spent a morning in a little town set in the mountains 30 minutes from Sedona. It has a lot of history and is a little "granola" which I like. We ate lunch at the Jerome Grand Hotel which used to be an asylum. Of course, we ate outside and the weather was heavenly.






I went into this store below approximately 5 times and managed to beat the temptation to purchase a crocheted hat and a very cute skirt. Too many fabulous things in this store for me to handle. We tried to get a picture of Weston in this fun little kid chair, but he was much more interested in getting the much cooler truck.


My parents graciously babysat Weston that evening and Kurt and I had a night on the town to ourselves which was so nice. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring the camera. Dang it. It's all about Westie, isn't it? So I'll have to give you the picture: shopped around cute little Sedona downtown strip, holding hands and talking at a normal volume level with no interruptions. Dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Drove around in the car looking at some places we hadn't been to yet, again, talking at a normal volume level with no interruptions. I utilize the seat warmers in the rental car and note that its a little unusual, and slightly worrying, to have your pants feel so warm. And finished up with hot chocolate and a frozen mocha outside a little ice cream shop (we were too stuffed for a treat).

Sedona Part 2

One of our favorite mornings was at a park called Crescent Moon. The water was unusually high due to some flash flooding that had occurred the day before we got there, so we could not take advantage of playing in the popular water spots. However, Weston thoroughly enjoyed wandering around, swinging his arms and talking about (literally) only the Lord knows what. This video Kurt captured pretty much summarizes Weston in the outdoors. It makes me smile every time I watch it.





And here's some last pictures from our morning...then it was back to the condo for nap time. Kurt and I took turns getting to lay out at the pool, workout, etc. while Weston slept. It was so nice to not even have the option to do housework. Man, I could get used to someone else cleaning up my mess. Anyone know a good housekeeper? Or maybe the term "housekeeper" isn't PC anymore...it's probably called something like a residential sanitation engineer now. Regardless, I wish I could have one every once in a while.