Macy goes to California, Again!

Three days after Stacie left Macy and I flew to California to spend some time with my parents. She did pretty well on the plane (at least well enough that I don't have any real memories of the flight). It was late when we got in to Granny Dot's house but Macy saw all the toys and had to play with them right away. She knew exactly where to go and what to play with. She must have a better memory than I remember.

We stayed at Granny Dot's on Sunday too because my parents and Jill had meetings all day so we wouldn't see much of them anyways. I decided to take Macy into nursery because she was extremely tired from getting up at 4:57 a.m. Nursery would have been easier than walking the halls. I figured people didn't know how old she was anyways. I stayed in with her though because she was grouchy. She was having a lot of fun until the last 5 minutes of church. I think we hit her tired threshold.

Monday morning we visited Dale, the man I worked for in Pasadena. He had never seen Macy so I wanted to say hello. Macy liked their little dog, Sadie, and even found the dog food and fed Sadie little pieces of it.

Then it was off to Yorba Linda. Macy had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Seymour. Like last time, she takes a day or two to get comfortable with them. It took a little longer with Jill because somehow she would always manage to scare Macy by jumping or yelling. Macy explored the house and especially loved Aunt Jill's room with all the "stuff." Macy remember where all her favorite toys are here too, like my dad's record collection. We also started a new memory by putting water in bowls and tossing rocks into the bowls and pouring water out with measuring cups.

Eating toast with Nutella. Or should I say eating Nutella with toast?

Getting glammed up.

This pink bag was the absolute best find in Jill's room. Macy carried it around everywhere all week. I guess it was the perfect accessory for her.

We went to a few parks and to the library. On Thursday we met up with my friend Becca and her two boys Jackson and Sam. We had a great day at the park, Pinkberry, and a splash pad. It took awhile for Macy to want to go near the splash pad but she eventually thought it was fun as long as I was holding her. I really had a good time catching up with an old friend. Even if most of the time we were running in opposite directions after our kids.

I forgot her bathing suit so she is wearing Sam's. Doesn't she look like an old man?

If I'm within 30 miles of a Cafe Rio I have to go. So we went down to Newport, just Grandma and us. Macy loved, loved, loved their black beans and got them all over her face and arms.

Jill and I hung out, got lunch, went to the mall, and saw Water for Elephants. It was a good movie but made even better because I used my 2 movie tickets for $9 from Living Social. Jill being there helped too :)

My Grandma and Grandpa Seymour came to visit and took us out to dinner too.

The trip got better and better as Macy started sleeping in later and later. Her naps got longer too. We had a great week and it's always hard to leave.

Aunt Stacie Comes to Visit

Macy loved having her Aunt Stacie come and visit. Well, loved her after the first day. Macy can be shy went she first meets someone. Of course Stacie quickly won Macy over by dancing around with her, laughing with her, and teaching her how to spit water out of her mouth. I also loved having my sister here to visit. It was fun having someone to watch reruns of Project Runway with while Macy napped. Stacie is also a good running partner. I hope someday I'll be able to live closer to my sisters so I can see them more often.

Here's a recap of our week.

Day 1: Visited Georgetown, got free ice cream at Ben & Jerry's, walked along the canal, and played at Francis Scott Key Park.

Day 2: Went to Macy's music class, played at the park. Went running at Teddy Roosevelt island.

Day 3: Went to the National Zoo.

Day 4: Visited the Torpedo Factory (an active art gallery), walked around Old Town Alexandria. Went running from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capital, walked back past the White House.

The Old Torpedo Factory

Cool cobblestone street

This is where Macy had her 7 month portraits done.

Our best attempt at getting all three of us.

Day 5: Embassy Tour of the World. Totally awesome. We toured 13 embassies.

Indonesian Embassy

Tahiti 

Korea

Japanese Ambassador

Eating food from Ghana- it was kinda weird.

I think this wooden swing was from Pakistan. Macy loved it and didn't want to leave.

Day 6: Sunday, so we went to Church. Stacie was nice enough to take Macy so we could teach our class. She snapped a few shots of Macy lounging.

Day 7: Went to Arlington Cemetery to find a headstone for Ja's aunt. It was actually kind of fun hunting for one tombstone out of the 1000's.

Macy heard the bell tower chime and went down to "pray."

Day 8: Visited the National Cathedral.

Action Shots of Macy

I know, more Macy pictures. She is the center of my world so why shouldn't I post everything I can about her?

I tried getting some better quality pictures, like ones I could hang on the wall, but she is way to active for one person to handle. I need at least two more people to help distract her. I did manage to catch a few good pictures for the "Macy's Daily Activities" album.

We both love her so much and enjoy spending so much one on one time with her.

Typical "I'm-happy-and-see-something-that-I-want" face

Cute giggle face

Another cute laughing face

She loves to pick the berries off the bush.

And tries to eat them.

She still loves sticks.

And loves to put them on this little shelf.

Along with her pile of wood chips.

Mother's Day

I wanted to take some pictures with Macy because 1) it's Mother's Day and 2) she was keeping her headband on. We didn't get any worth framing because I can't really smile with a scabbed lip. But we tried and got a few cute pictures.

See what I mean? Macy was disgusted!

She is such an angel!

Chapped Lips Are Not Good

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I was without chap stick on my flight to Utah. Apparently my lips got really chapped because that night they were bright red like they had be sun burned. I was applying chap stick non-stop. Well, Saturday night a gigantic cold sore grew onto my top lip. I've had plenty of cold sores in my life but I don't think I've ever had one this big. My whole top lip was majorly swollen and covered in blisters. Of course I had to take pictures to document the nastiness.

Day One: There is puss oozing out of the blister. The day I had to meet a bunch of new people at church.

Day 2: We bought Abreva so I was hoping I'd wake up and it would be better but it was worse. I had to fly home this day. I sat in the last row of the plane and I was the last person on so I had to walk past everyone. Embarrassing. 

 This picture shoes how swollen it was.

Day 3: This was the day after taking the prescription my sister-in-law Heather was nice enough to write for me. A little less swollen. 

Day 5: No more swelling, now just a scab.

Day 7: This is today. The scab is almost gone and I can almost smile. I'm starting to feel like I'll never have a normal lip again.

All I can say is I'm never going without chap stick again!

American Mothers, Inc.

Macy and I flew to Utah on April 28th to be with Dorothy and so I could attend the National Mothers Convention. It was a great trip, but almost didn't happen.

We were supposed to fly on April 27th. We get to the airport and no one could find my reservation. Apparently it didn't get booked properly. After talking to the Delta representatives for an hour we came to the conclusion that we would take a flight the next day since it was getting late in the night. I was very hesitant to go because Macy had a runny nose and hadn't been feeling well. It almost came as a relief that I wouldn't have to travel with her. I decided to go to Utah and I was so glad I did. We had a layover on the flight over and it turned out great. Our layover was in Detroit so it was only an hour flight. Macy is pretty good for the first hour of flight so this worked out well. Our  second half of the flight was even better. We sat in front of two little kids, one Macy's age and a four year old girl. They all entertained each other and had a great time. I couldn't have asked for anything better.

The only bad thing was I didn't have any chapstick and my lips got really chapped. I'll explain this more in another post. Oh, and I also forgot Macy's shoes in Virginia. People probably thought I was a terrible mom for letting my daughter walk around the dirty airport and airplane without shoes. My friend Chelsey was nice enough to go and buy us some shoes so Macy could walk in Utah.

As soon as we got to Utah we met up with Chelsey and her son Truman. Here the kiddies are sitting at the Gateway like old buddies. Getting both of them to look at the camera was just too much to ask. They are still cute though!

That night we drove up to "This is the place" Heritage Park for dinner. Macy and I missed out on the festivities because she was having so much fun walking around the front lawn. Unfortunately within the first few minutes of being there Macy tripped and scraped her forehead pretty good. She got over the pain in about 30 seconds.


Now the rest of the weekend was mostly spent Macy free. Since Dorothy used to live in Utah she knew some people to ask to babysit Macy so I could attend the conference. The babysitter, Hannah, came to the hotel (The Little America) and watched Macy in the morning, fed her lunch, put her down for a nap, took her to her house in Salt Lake, fed her dinner, and put her to bed. For two days in a row! It was so nice! Macy did great and slept like a champ. Hannah enjoyed Macy and said she missed her after she left.

I loved being at American Mother's convention and listening to all the great talks about being a mother and motherhood. Everyone is a mother there so we all know what it's like. It was also fun because any time I did have Macy they all loved her and thought she was so cute. It's refreshing to be with such a large group of women that all believe in the importance of being a mother and spending time with your children. So many people I talk so ask what I do and when I tell them I stay at home with Macy they say,  "Oh." And that's the end of the conversation. My life may seem boring so them, but it's rewarding and harder than going to work!

Elaine Dalton, the General Young Women's President, was there because her daughter was the Utah Mother of the Year. I was able to get a picture with this "celebrity."

Chelsey was able to come on Saturday for the lunch and two workshops. John Bytheway spoke during lunch and was so funny! He is great with his love of The Andy Griffith Show and his Barney impersonation.

Matt Townsend spoke during a workshop. He is a "relationship and communication expert." All I know was that he was hilarious! Everyone in the room was laughing hysterically and crying. He had great stories, and I think we learned something too.

The next workshop we went to was Hilary Weeks. She is an LDS singer and sang some of her songs for us. She also explained how she came to wrote them. Her song "If I Only Had Today" had everyone in the room crying. It was really sweet and made me thing of Macy. Chelsey, Dorothy, and I got pictures with Hilary.

Sunday morning we were able to attend Music and The Spoken Word in the Tabernacle. I was able to sit in the fifth row and Dorothy took Macy in the observation room in the back of the Tabernacle. Dorothy said she was amazed at how still Macy was sitting when she realized she was asleep! Macy never would have fallen asleep for me! Granny Dot has the magic touch. Macy then slept through the whole broadcast so there was no interruptions by her :)

Walking around Temple Square

Sunday afternoon we went to church at Dorothy's old ward in Holladay. It was a little embarrassing because of my before mentioned lip problem, but it was fun to meet people. Macy and I were really tired and since I would have spent the next two hours in the halls we decided to take a nap in the car. It was the best.

We spent the rest of Sunday taking our time, eating dinner, and visiting.

We flew out Monday morning. This time we had a non-stop back to Virginia but it was only 3 hours 23 minutes. Much more doable than the 5 hour plan ride to California. Macy did pretty well and we made some friends who even moved their seats so they could sit by us (despite the scariness of my lip). Macy had only minimal crying. We had a great flight and a great weekend!