Quick Before I Get Sidetrack'd

So, did you even know I was gone?

Last Tuesday Matt, Little, and I left town headed to Matt’s parents’ house; we were gone for seven days (returned home Tuesday afternoon). It is so nice to be home and back in our beds and back in our routine; I’ve finally recovered enough to get back to this thing known as a blog. We took this little ten hour trip in order to attend the wedding of Matt’s younger brother. The wedding was Saturday night, but Matt had a job interview on Wednesday (more on that in another post) so we headed out a few days early.

Little travelled very well. We drove three hours Tuesday afternoon, and she was fine. Thursday morning, we got up early and headed south. She played in her carseat, slept a lot, and ate some snacks. We made the 6-7 hour trip only making one stop; I thought that was great for travelling with a 10 month old. She was not thrilled about getting back into her seat after the stop, but she eventually went back to sleep. We broke the trip up the same way coming home (6-7 hours first day, 3 hours next day), and although she didn’t do quite as well as going, she still did better than I expected.

We stayed with Matt’s parents, so Little was surrounded by grandparents, aunts and uncles, great grandparents, and various other extended family members for several days. She really enjoyed playing with her Auntie Lu and cousin Bubbie and spending lots of time with her Nana and Pops. It was fun being with everyone since Christmas was the last time we were there.

But, back to the wedding. In order to have a candlelight ceremony, the wedding was scheduled for eight o’clock Saturday night. We were a bit concerned about the little ones, as that is right around bedtime, but they both did fine – fortunately, the ceremony was only about 30 minutes long.

The church was decorated with lots of candles and red roses. The ceremony was performed by a friend of both the bride and groom, so it was very sweet and personal. The bride was beautiful (she’s a very pretty girl anyway) dolled up in her wedding gown with long train and veil. She really looked like a princess.

Following the ceremony, they had a dessert reception with about 15 kinds of cakes, pies, and other desserts in addition to the wedding cake and groom’s cake. In fact, with all of the other goodies the wedding cake was kind of ignored after the cake cutting (it was on a separate table in a different part of the room). I overheard someone in line refer to the dessert table as “the table of sin.” I prefer to not think about how many calories were represented.

Anyway, the wedding was beautiful, the visit with family was great (even if it was a bit hectic), and the road trip was, well, it was a road trip with a baby. We are glad to be home, but have lots to do over the next few weeks (more on that in another post)!

I am a Daddy’s girl, through and through; as a child I believed I could do anything as long as Daddy was close by. I had faith that if I slipped, he would catch me; if I was hurt, he would make it better; if I needed him, he would come running. I knew that he loved me in a big way and that nothing would change that.

I believe that Little feels this way about Matt. She can’t yet verbalize it, but you can already see it in her eyes; she knows she can rely on him. She is blessed to have the best kind of Daddy – the kind that fears God and only wants the best for his baby girl.

Happy father’s day and I love you to the two most important men in my life!

Matt’s parents came to visit this weekend. With a 10-hour trip from their house to ours we don’t get to see them as often as we would like. We didn’t really do anything very exciting, but it was nice just to get to spend time together relaxing, talking, enjoying Little. Little lapped up all of the attention and had fun playing with and performing for people other than Mommy and Daddy. It rained most of the day Saturday, but we were able to get out Sunday afternoon to take a walk and enjoy the beautiful Spring weather. I have truly been blessed with wonderful in-laws.

Other than the first few months after our marriage, Matt and I have not lived closer to our family than a 3-hour drive; this is both good and bad. Early on, it was good for the two of us to have to rely on each other and God. We had to figure out the whole marriage/finances (Matt was in grad school and I was working full-time)/church/friends thing on our own. Through that we built a strong relationship, really enjoyed time together, and learned a lot about God and ourselves. I don’t know how our marriage would be different if we had been in the same city with family, but I’m sure it would be.

Now that Little has come along, it would be nice to live closer to family in some ways. Growing up, I lived within a few miles of both sets of my grandparents and most of my extended family. I spent lots of time with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins; I would love for Little to have the opportunity to have a day-to-day relationship with her extended family as well. It would also be nice to have the close-by babysitting that comes with living near relatives.

For now, we are called to live and work where we are which means being separated from family by many miles. When we have the opportunity to visit with family – either at our house or theirs – we enjoy it while we can; we talk, we laugh, we drink coffee, we linger over meals, we overstimulate Little and she won’t nap (but that’s okay). The physical distance between us makes our gatherings that much sweeter.