Our Little Geekling

My family and I took our first long roadtrip since Eriana’s birth. It was her first time out of Oklahoma, and her first time in the car for a continuous amount of time longer than about an hour-hour-and-a-half. We went to visit the W family in Little Rock, about a six-hour drive from the OKC area. Matt was one of Jim’s best friends in high school, he and his wife, Stacyi, came to see us a couple of months ago when they were in town for a concert, and we got to meet their son, Triston, for the first time. He’s 5 and super spunky. We also got to see the L family, some friends we met when we were stationed at Yokota who are now living in Little Rock. Their daughter, A, was born in May of last year, and it was so fun to see them and meet little A.

Eriana did fantastically, all things considered. She slept the first half of both car rides, and cried for the last 45 minutes or so of each car ride (well, on the way there she cried for about 45 minutes and then fell asleep 20 minutes out from our destination). But, you know, she’s a baby. (At the time of writing, we have been home for about an hour and she has been in the best mood ever.) We slept in Triston’s room on an air mattress, and brought the pack-n-play for Eriana. She slept in our bed the first night and in the pack-n-play until about 5am on the second night. She’s been having some sleep regression issues anyway, so I didn’t really blame her or expect her to be a good sleeper all of a sudden in a new place and in her pack-n-play in the same room as us. Also, her pack-n-play is usually in our bathroom so she can play while I shower, so it’s not really a place she associates with sleep.

We had a great, great time. Man, will it be nice to sleep in our bed tonight, but it was really nice to get away. The W family was awesome. Totally accommodating and great. So accepting of Eriana’s craziness, so great with allowing her to make a mess of their home. They took us to a fancy restaurant and introduced us to the most amazing brownie ever on the Earth, they made us delicious fajitas and a wonderful breakfast (well, Stacyi gets all the credit for both meals), Jim acted like a teenager again and stayed up until 4am talking and giggling with Matt like they were girls. It was awesome to see him with someone who has known him since they were freshmen in high school and who truly knows him. I love that. Plus, Triston and Eriana are equals when it comes to energy levels and ridiculous busyness. So, that was fun.

The L family was amazing, too. They cooked us a super delicious brunch, Eriana got to play with A (and, apparently, show her how much fun crawling is, because A nailed that skill later on in the day) (totally not Eriana’s doing, I know, but it’s fun that it happened that day), and we got to catch up after about 2 years of lots of stuff going on.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend, and we’re really glad to have gotten to go see all of them, spend a weekend away, and get to have some fun outside of the confines of the Oklahoma City metro area.

Here are some pictures from our trip. All were taken/filtered in InstaGram on my phone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Intense “Yo Gabba Gabba” watching in the car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eyelashes. She was super, super grumpy and then finally fell asleep again with 20 minutes till we reached Little Rock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eriana and A playing together. So, so cute. About the same size, even though Eriana has 5 months on A. I adored A’s personality. And her big blue eyes are almost hypnotic!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I discovered that sweet potato tater tots exist (at Sonic), and Eriana passed out mid-bite (tot remains on her belly) after we left the Discovery Museum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eriana and Triston in a rare, quiet and calm moment when we were getting ready to leave. These two together, man, were so, so crazy. Love the spunky kids!

 

Oh, and a big shout-out to my baby sister, Kendal, for hanging out at our house with our pets all weekend! WOOHOO! (Here’s a picture someone took of her that I stole from Facebook that I ADORE. )