End of Week 27: Successful Trip Home

Okay everyone, prepare for a very long update on the last few days!

Thursday
When I got home from work we discovered a few packages:

Holy cow, a Pack n' Play!

My bestie and her mom had purchased a Graco Pack n' Play from our registry-how awesome are they?!  Yeah, very cool.  I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful friend.

AND after checking the mail that night I found she also sent me:

Yum!

The card was absolutely hilarious and I've already eaten a couple chocolates from the cute lunch box.  Heehee...I'm saving the frogs for the weekend.  : )  And the book is too cute!  I've already gone through half of it; has some very good advice.

Friday
I woke up at my normal weekday work time and got ready to...sit in traffic.  Since JetBlue flies only out of Long Beach to Seattle, we had to sit through the normal weekday traffic to get down there.  It took us about an hour and forty minutes-not as bad as we thought, but it was still frustrating for the hubs.  I treated him to a fatty breakfast at BK once we got to Long Beach.  :)

Flight was great and the first thing we did when my pa picked me up was hit up Chang's Mongolian Grill...I've been craving that place for so long!  My favorite is the rice wraps, and I can't seem to find any other Mongolian Grill that serves them.

Second plate of food...hungry pregnant lady!

My pa and our waiter giving the thumbs up...he was very accommodating of  our constant requests of rice and rice wraps!

After filling our bellies to the brim, we sat in more traffic back to Tacoma.  That evening was spent going through a lot of my storage I left at home and either taking a few things or donating the rest to goodwill.  I found a couple things that I had bought for my "future baby" from Holland back in 2007...I should have taken pictures, but one is a little elephant that plays music and the other is a stuffed sheep.  I know I'm weird, but I wanted to be able to say, "I bought this for you when I was in Europe!"  I also snapped a photo of my "Record of Birth" hanging in the room I was sleeping in:

Let's hope Baby H is around the same weight as me!

Later that evening hubby sent pictures of two boxes that Nana and my sister sent him so he wouldn't feel left out opening presents...

Missy Box!  Homemade cart cover, towels and bibs.  And from our registry, a Chicco carrier for when we go on hikes/outings!

Nana box: Seahawk and Sounder onesies and homemade blanket and hat, how adorable!

Saturday
Baby Shower Day!!!  I had such a great time, and it was really nice seeing all my friends and family again.  I was sad that some couldn't make it due to understandable circumstances, but Nana and my sister did a great job-I have such a loving family!

That little guy on the left was made by my other "grandmother's" daughter, and the middle basket was made by my cousin!  

Sister set up a "photo booth" and we added the polaroids to our wedding guest book since it was only half full.

My Aunt Penny and Cousin Lisa (who my mom couldn't stop gushing about!)

My mom and me :)

Sister Missy, Bestie's mom Kay, Nana and Lola

My mom and Aunt Kathy

I also have to tell you that this was my first time trying french macarons...OMG.  I'm in love.  I think I ate about 12 of them on Saturday...whoops.

After the baby shower, we headed over to Redmond to meet my immediate family for dinner at Spazzos.  Dinner was meh (which I will be yelping shortly!), but it was really nice to see everyone.

Top left: My oldest brother John and 5-year old niece Sydney
Top right: My FIL & MIL
Bottom left: My folks and nephew Lance (who tried to look serious, but I think he ended up cross-eyed, ha!)
Bottom right: My brother Avery, wife Amy and 2 1/2-year old niece Ari

Ari is such a cute kid!  And my sister is the greatest sister.  :)

As we were leaving the restaurant, it made me miss my hubby as "his" restaurant was across the way, haha:

When we got home, I ate more macarons and a yummy carrot cupcake Nana made for the shower and watched USC get pummeled by ASU.  That was a fun game.  I don't like USC, or $UC as we call them...

Sunday
The weekend flew by and Sunday arrived rather quickly.  After getting ready and eating some leftover fruit from the shower, I sat on the couch with sister and Bella, the cutest cat/dog (she's sort of cat-like because she doesn't act like a crazy dog...or at least, like our crazy dogs!).  But she was shaking and then stared at me for a long time.  It was quite unusual...maybe she finally sensed Baby H inside me?

Bella also likes to stick her tongue out.

I told my MIL and sister about the few things I wanted to gather before I left Washington and after packing up we headed out to the University Village next to the University of Washington.

Organic Washington Apples?  Check.
Fair Scone Mix?  Check.
Top Pot Donuts?

Check.  Starbucks was an extra perk!

Last on my list was Stumptown Coffee for my co-worker/friend who will be the one to drive me to the hospital if I should go into labor at work...Stumptown is my FAVORITE coffee and I would have bought some for myself but alas, I'm not allowed too much coffee (and I'd rather just not take the chance!).  We couldn't find it within the U-Village in the short amount of time, so I settled with Top Pot Coffee since it's local.  He tried it today and said it was yummy!

We made it to the airport with plenty of time and my MIL and sis took me in since my Baby Luggage was heavy (46 lbs. to be exact!).  The security line was insanely long, but it moved pretty quickly.  After we said our goodbyes, I ended up getting randomly selected for a new line where people do not have to take their shoes off, remove their toiletries or laptops!  I don't know why that made me so excited, but it did.  Unfortunately I still had to take my boots off because there are studs that go along the zipper, but I didn't mind.

I grabbed a Beecher's Grilled Cheese and tomato soup for my flight out and got to my gate when it was supposed to be boarding...and waited.  And waited.  The pilots were stuck on another flight and we were waiting for them to head over.  An hour later we were able to board and I shut my eyes as we pushed out to the tarmac...and waited.  And...went back to the gate.  Apparently they had refueled one wing but not the other, and so we had to go back and fill up again.  WTF.  I was fine with this but the lady sitting across the aisle was freaking out and kept talking loudly, and then two people hurried off the plane.  Did I mention we only had one bathroom working?

Fortunately we took off about two and a half hours later and made it back to Long Beach by 6:30pm.  Not too shabby.  Good thing to come of all of that was I got a few emails from JetBlue with a new account and $50 credit due to the problems.  That's going towards our flights to New York in August!  Woohoo.

So all in all, it was a really successful trip back home.  I did not miss the gray, rainy weather which stayed the entire weekend, but it was a nice change from the heat here.  But the next time I'll be seeing my family won't be for another few months.  My parents are actually talking about driving down for Thanksgiving and staying until Baby H is born since they'll both be retired by then!  That's neat.

Events to look forward to now: My last trip to Disneyland alone with the hubby which should happen in the next couple weeks...Baby Shower #2 thrown by my co-workers...and the arrival of Baby H!  Events that are kind of sad: Coltrane leaving our family.  The French Bulldog Rescue Organization have been in contact with me and they'll be talking about her case this week (it never happened last week, one of the ladies still had questions about her which I finally got a hold of last night).  So she may be leaving us within the next couple weeks.  We're both really sad about this, but she still has been showing the same behavioral problems...she even acted out a few times last night.  But we feel she will get the training/dedication that she just can't get from us since nothing has worked on her.

Tomorrow is the third prepared childbirth class...I'll be keeping you posted on that soon!