Weekend in Dallas

Another wedding, another trip. Few photos to share, but plenty of fun stories. Here it goes.

Thursday night around 8:00 p.m., we fed B a bowl of oatmeal and whatever else I can't remember... and then let him play a bit. He was resistant to the food, so that's why I resorted to oatmeal because it's our go-to meal if he puts up a fight. Should've listened to the cues. He came down with a cold five days prior, but things were on the mend. I sat down to breastfeed him and realized he couldn't breathe, so I grabbed Nose Frida. Apparently the pressure was too much, because he started to gag and then proceeded to projectile vomit all over me, the couch, the Boppy pillow, the blanket, my clothes, and all over himself. I immediately called for Ray and he grabbed him and walked into the kitchen. First time real vomiting on me before, ever. Before this, it had only been spit up.

As I was trying to figure out where to go from there, I heard two consecutive splats of more vomiting. I spent the next 30 minutes following scrubbing down baseboards, walls, cabinets, countertops, clothes and all the items still covered in vomit from the living room while B was fed another bowl of plain oatmeal and given a bath.

Did I mention we had to wake at 3:45 a.m. the following morning to make our 6:30 a.m. flight to Dallas? And that it was Valentine's Day?

Yeah.

B was showing no signs of the flu, but all signs were pointing to a minor case of food poisoning. We carried on with our plans, slept very little, and managed to make our flight. Except, after boarding, our flight was mechanically grounded for an hour.

Did I mention we had to wake the baby up at 3:45 a.m. after only 6.5 hours of sleep (when he normally sleeps 11+ hours?).

Yeah.

Pissed off and tired baby, exhausted parents, rude flight attendants, and of course the plane was full of unsuspecting fools who thought they could sleep on the early morning flight.

Finally, we're off the ground after attaching the baby to a breast and getting him to sleep. No more than 10 minutes into the flight and... you guessed it...

Projectile vomit all over me. Just as I was finishing up the McDonald's hashbrown I bought for B to eat.

I spent the next 2 hours attempting to rid myself of the nastiness, pass a screaming baby back and forth, and cleaning the area so it wouldn't smell like rotten eggs.

At the end of the flight, I handed over a granola bar to our seat partner as a peace offering. He accepted.

Finally, in Dallas. The rest of the trip was a whole lot easier, thankfully. First stop, hotel. Then, lunch with a few pretty cool cats that I felt like I'd known my whole life. We drank beers, ate Mexican food, hung out with rainbow babies toddlers, and talked about Cale and Andrew like it was no big thing. It felt good.

We attended the wedding rehearsal dinner at a sushi restaurant and spent lots of quality time with B's grandparents, aunt, and lots of extended family in which I took basically no photos.

Crawling around the hotel hallways with fun Aunt Samantha & hanging out with Gramie & Grandpa

We had quality hangout time in our amazing hotel suite and enjoyed a lovely wedding, reception, and a little dancing before heading home on another early morning whirlwind of a flight that had us with the entire back five rows of the airplane to ourselves. They definitely lost money on that flight. Let's just say it was a world better than the flight to Dallas. As if you wouldn't have guessed that. There's no question that flying is getting so much harder now that B is more aware and more mobile.

In the car on the way home, B had ditched the toys we gave him {per usual} and since I was in the front seat, I was searching for something to keep him entertained for the last 10 minutes of the ride. We had an Oats & Chocolate Nature Valley Granola Bar (amazing, btw) and knowing how robust and difficult those wrappers are to open, I handed it to him because he enjoys manipulating shiny and crinkly packaging. About 3 blocks from our house, Ray and I both looked back at the same time having realized the baby was eerily quiet and sure enough, he had both granola bars, one in each hand and was covered in chocolate. The rodent baby managed to get that package open and was none too happy we took the bars away from him either. He had a full mouth of the chocolatey goodness. So much for introducing him to chocolate ourselves. This is the shrapnel he left behind.

Wished we had the means to really explore Dallas, but something tells me we'll be back eventually. But hopefully not before we explore Austin.

Stay cool, Dallas.
{No really, stay cool. It was in the 70's days leading and following out visit but in the 50's while we were there. Now we're living in negative wind chills again. What a bust.}

South Padre Island, TX

I've gotta be honest. Ever since I switched over to the iPhone, I've taken nothing but crappy photos because I'm too lazy to bring another camera along with me. When we travel, I have a serious distaste toward lugging around anything but a hand clutch for a purse. I refuse to carry anything over the shoulder unless it's a full-on backpack. Hence the iPhone and not the camera. Perhaps if I had a certain little guy to take photos of (Andrew), I'd give more of a crap. But I don't. And my photos have taken a serious dive.

I am promising to learn how to use our fancy camera. So what if it's been 13 months since we purchased the dang thing and I've literally held it in my hands about 3 times. Return on investment at this point is definitely in the negatives.

Anyway, enough about that. I was just providing a disclaimer as to why our photos from our trip suck so incredibly bad. That, and it was a distraction/avoidance trip to get us through the holidays more than anything, to be honest. Much like everysingletrip we've taken this year, especially our cruise to the Bahamas. Bittersweet for sure. But thankful we even have the funds to take trips, I know. That is not lost to us.

Without further adieu...

A stone's throw from Mexico.

We visited a Birding Center and there were actually, surprisingly, quite a few birds to be seen. Not really into birds all that much, but when the weather is Scheiße, you must find things to do. Hence the birds.

Some nice lady gave us a scavenger hunt sheet and we probably managed to check off about 8 of the 20 birds. Not bad.

Notice the jackets we're wearing in nearly every photo. As we landed in Harlingen, the flight attendant commented about us being allowed to grab our luggage and coats. Then she made a remark about not knowing why we'd need coats because we did just land in Harlingen, TX. She really should've checked the weather report that had 50's and raining about 75% of our trip. We found this sandcastle in front of Clayton's Bar & Grill. I can just picture the spring breakers sitting on that deck... and yet thankful that I'm no longer one of them.

You don't suppose the Hilton could've sprung for a capital letter for the ol' "T" in Texas, eh? Guess not.

Our very last day and just hours before we found ourselves back on a plane. The first time it jumped over 60 degrees.

We spent lots of our time indoors at this lovely joint.

Dinner at a Mexican joint.

Dinner on Christmas night at Padreritaville. Those would be chocolate nachos. That's right. Cinnamon chips topped with drizzled chocolate, shaved chocolate pieces, and whipped cream. So good.

The weather was attempting to warm up and the husband was being brave. Over on Port Isabel just wandering around shrimping boats and various randomness.

We seem to find these often! Our last getaway from the world trip to the Bahamas in February landed us on a beach where we saw Portuguese Man-of-War for the first time. We had lots of beach walks on our trip totaling probably around 12ish miles. That's always a bit therapeutic since I'm often reminded by my husband that before the Germany>Chicago move, I'd never lived more than 5 miles from a beach in my life.

We also ran into jellyfish all over the beach. Foot = size reference.

Quick story about our luck with rental cars. First car was a little red rollerskate. We drove away with a rattling rear-view mirror. As soon as Ray attempted to adjust said mirror, it broke off in his hand. We drove 30-some miles back to tell them and the lady was rude... but gave us another vehicle. We get 10 miles away from the rental car place and the maintenance light flashes on. Are. you. kidding. me. HERTZ is not a favorite. Thankfully, their lovely supervisor was there when we finally returned the second car on Tuesday and assumed we just had bad luck. You said it lady. You said it. We rented a Jeep SUV once in Colorado about 2 years ago and the dang thing wouldn't even make it up the mountain. We were going 20mph at full speed. To say our luck sucks with rentals is totally underestimated. Hah.

To wrap up, we had a fine time getting out of dodge, but obviously we'd have given anything to have a normal, bubbly Christmas like we anticipated just over a year ago. Stockings, excited-about-life toddler, Christmas lights, etc. etc. It was only fitting that it rained a good portion of our time there. We always enjoy the chance to get away together, but not as much when it feels like we're running away from the life that should've been. It's so hard to break free of that possibility of life being so much fuller... so much richer. Here's to hoping 2012 doesn't suck as bad as the end of 2010 and all of 2011-- aside from Flip's existence.

No New Year's resolutions or whatnot. Just glad the year from hell is finally over.

Traveling as a Paranoid, Pregnant BLM

Yep, the doppler. Last time we traveled without it, we were both in tears and contemplating a trip to the hospital. Thirty minutes later, a kick ended our absolute terror. No more chances being taken even if this babe is large and bulgy in my belly as of now. In other news, Texas is cold and rainy. Not exactly what we had in mind breaking out of (unseasonably warm, yet cold) Chicago.

And the only Christmas you'll be seeing on this blog for the 2011 year is coming at you right now. The airport had free Santa pictures. I wasn't interested in taking advantage until they told me we'd get a $20 discount on our next booked Southwest flight. I didn't find out until after that the code is only good for a bracket of time that still has me gestating this little one.

Basically, I am just a massive dork. Picture proof.

Not planned. And I also look like a whale. That's an extra present from me to you. Cheers.

Also, completely unrelated, but my husband has no recollection of the show Charles in Charge. He asked me if it was on cable because he didn't have cable growing up. Gasp.