Thanksgiving in West Virginia

Thanksgiving in Morgantown, West Virginia, with my college roommate Amy and her family was so much fun.  It was great to be out of the city and with "family" :)  Marcus loved the trees especially, while Chase was a huge fan of all the unexplored closets and drawers.  Made for an exciting weekend with lots of fun memories.

Plus we were spoiled rotten by the DeLawders.  We stayed in their home just outside of Morgantown.  Like Marcus said, we had forgotten Chase's bed, so he slept on a futon mattress on the floor.  He did a great job and didn't even wander in the morning when he woke up.

We attended two Thanksgiving meals -- a family one on Thursday and another family/ward one on Friday.  Most of the pictures below come from the second meal on Friday at the DeLawders' home.

Amy playing with the cage Chase became attached to

Where's Chase?

Of course... Finding treats.

Over and over.  Let's say he had a couple pretzels...

Marcus and his cuddle buddy, Cooper

Love my face here - ha

One of his favorite finds

Making a veggie tray

Thanks for the idea, Pinterest.  See, Amy can "cook" :)

Marcus' artistic shot

It was fun to venture somewhere new and see friends we've missed for a long time.  Hopefully we'll be back again to see Morgantown again, maybe in the spring when everything is in bloom.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hardy Thanksgiving Ride 2014 - AKA The Hell Ride

Some stories go down in family history; and some go down in family infamy.

The ride out to Morgantown, West Virginia in November of 2014 falls into the latter camp.

Everything was plotted out and made ready the day before. We borrowed a car seat. I (Marcus) confirmed the rental car registration. I stayed late to make sure I could leave at 1:00 p.m. sharp the next day to go pick up the card and get us going.

And everything went well - at first.

Our phone GPS got us down to Brooklyn and then over into Manhattan. Despite considerably increased blood pressure due to the stress of driving in the city, we made it through and to the tunnel into New Jersey without incident.

When we got about three-quarters of the way through the tunnel, we realize that in our rush to leave (which involved much four-letter-wording of the borrowed car seat from me as I tried to install it in slushy / icy conditions), we had forgotten Chase's Pack-and-Play bed.

So no bed for our baby. How Christmasy.

We breathed a sigh of relieve and moved on with the trip: next stop, dinner.

A satisfying option just wouldn't present itself. I was determined to not eat a a McDonald's. But exit after exit, that was all that would present itself. Mickey-D's. The Golden Arches. Over and over again.

Finally, at Erica's urging and Chase's need, we stopped off and got some dinner. And it was alright...we gassed up the Focus and moved on.

For about 10 minutes. I heard Chase making strange noises in the back seat and turned around to help him. And then it came.

The vomit. The hot, steaming french-fry-and-nugget infused spew. Everywhere. On my hands. In the hamburger holder I grabbed and held in front of him. Then to the brim of it. Then everywhere else. My hands. The car seat. The car.

Oh...expletive.

The poor kid. I was shocked and maybe a bit scared at this happening on our first car trip. He starts to whimper. I try to be nice...it's hard. I'm covered in puke. Just to be perfectly clear, I love him completely.

Enough to get out of the car on the side of the freeway, in the snow, to help him out of his seat. And when we determined that the only spare clothes are in the trunk in the suitcase, I move to get that. 

Watch for semi trucks!

Crap...it's zipped at the bottom...will have to pull it out. Which means pulling other stuff out. Oh look. Another semi! This is kind of scary.

Better take the suitcase up to the front of the car to avoid being hit.

Man, this is really scary. Where are the PJs...there they are.

Okay - cleaned up the puke as best we could (you're a champ Erica), boy in clean clothing and new diaper. Puke filled burger holder littered on side of the road...

Dang it I stepped in it. Thank you for being there for my shoes and hands, on snow.

Okay. Kid clean. Carseat at car...sort of clean. Off we go.

And things were pretty uneventful from that point on. Until we followed Google's lead onto a little road called "Route 9" and wound up in the boondocks of West Virginia with no signal and no way to find our destination.

But thanks to a nice woman at a gas station, and occasional contact with Erica's friend Amy, who we were going to visit, we made it by about 1:00 a.m. - 12 hours after the adventure kicked off.

And after washing the car seat by hand once and in a machine twice. And spending a few days cleaning the car and detailing the car seat a few more times - we wound up having a pretty great time!

Laundry in the Rain

Today, we were in desperate need of some clean laundry.  That of course meant it had to rain.  Chase was game to take on the rain.

He got to carry his own umbrella,
my old yellow duck umbrella.

He got attached.

He wouldn't let me close it, even in the laundromat.
Good thing they like him there!

Keeping fresh laundry dry!  ha ;)

While the little guy gets wet.

Not sure he really understands how umbrellas keep you dry...

But he had a blast!

YW in Excellence

 I wanted to save some pictures from our Young Women in Excellence program this weekend.  Sadly I don't have pictures of most of the girls, but I have some of our set up.  We were highlighting the individual girls and all they accomplish.  They displayed items about themselves next to their pictures.  We also had them each decorate a small treasure box, where everyone could write them sweet notes to keep.

The invites I made.

The tables.

Checking out the tables.

Lenzci posing with her stuff.

Apparently the YW here like squinting and peace signs...
That's Alikka.  She just completed her Personal Progress this past week!!!
Also, little Pippa looks like she has a spout mustache.
And yes, those are keys in the beverage dispenser.  They were helping weigh down the lid.

I think the night went well.  All the girls had big smiles, and so did their parents.  We'll take that :) 

A Studly Buttmunch

Chase is quite the character.  He has a ton of personality that just seems to explode out of him :)  He is also a fantastic two year old.  Whenever I turn around, he's into something else.  This is his recent discovery.  While Marcus and I were getting his church clothes out, he found a new treasure.

But it was worth the time to get ready.  Chase's outfit was super cute.  He looked very studly!  So much so that he had to check himself out in the mirror a few times :)

Complete with adorable bowtie

Connecticut

One of the schools I teach at is called the Suzuki Music School of Westport and is located in Westport, Connecticut.  It is a really beautiful town -- makes the long commute a little nicer.  When we got the date for the concert, I thought it would be fun to have Marcus and Chase come out and see the school and the city.  Plus I normally only go from the train station directly to the school, so I've never made it downtown at all.  We were able to make the trip happen thanks to some great friends (with a car).   

We decided to make a day of it and drive out to Westport in the morning, have lunch downtown, and attend the concert.  It was a really nice trip, especially if you ignore the fact that once again, Chase puked in the car...  

Marcus really enjoyed being by the water and had fun taking pictures with his camera.

It was pretty chilly!

Check it out, an open Crumbs!  Of course we went in :)

The concert was technically in Southport, a short drive from the music school.  It was at a church there that is almost 300 years old.  It was beautiful inside and out.  Chase particularly loved... exploring.

Watching from the balcony

I had four students playing in the recital.  In between Chase's shenanigans, Marcus was able to snap pictures of three of them.  The only one missing here is Elysse, who rocked Tarantella!

Ebba is just learning to play Twinkle -- we did a duet

Jasmine played Rigadoon, accompanied by her mom on violin

Tomaso played Breval

Right after the concert we had to head back to the city.  Marcus had a Priesthood meeting before Stake Conference.  We didn't have much time to spare, but the drive was also beautiful.  It was hard to get a good picture of it while we were moving.  The trees were all kinds of amazing fall colors.  It's amazing how different it looks just an hour away.

And then we were back in the Concrete Jungle...