Road Trip. Part Solitude. Part 2.

Lola went for her first run in the snowy mountains and loved it. Although it almost killed me.


Towards the end of our week, John's sisters and the twin came up and stayed with us since we were blessing Lo in Church that Sunday. Lara, Jennie, and I all have girls that were 1.5 months, 4 months, and 7 months in this pictures. So crazy to think how much Lola will grow in just a couple months.

Lola wore her first dress for her blessing. She was so excited. Just kidding. She hated those tights and crapped her way out of them. John and I were just a little late to church that morning so we did 95 down the freeway only to walk into church right up to the stand to give the blessing. Oops?

Lola's mom is pretty crazy about her...

And thus ended our time at Solitude.

Road Trip. Part Solitude

During the month of November, we rented our place out to some strangers. Good idea? Probably not. Especially when we checked back in and found packs of cigarettes, stained sheets, and a dirty fat guy sleeping on our couch without any sheets. But it was an easy 1300 bones so we said what the H. So for the first week of November we rented a little condo up at Solitude. The first thing we did was have a Halloween party.

John and I were cat burglars and baby was our bag of moneys.

Our loot

A last minute addition to the party was a Halloween gift exchange which was awesome. so funny. Some of the highlights was Hassen getting the complete series of Twilight, a jumbo pack of pads, some old grapes, and some shredded cheese with cigarette butts in it.

How great is Tanner as Honest Abe? Kills me every time.

John and I also spent some time in the solitude hot tub (my first tubbing in almost a year? Pitiful).

We built a little cave for Lola so she could come along too. She can't wait to 'tub.

Road Trip. Part Nebraska

My sister and her fam moved from Tahoe (Yay!) to Nebraska (Boo!) so the end of October we decided we should probably go visit them at least once and so why not now when it's still pretty easy. Plus Lola was getting super antsy to see the Midwest. Who could blame her? Unfortunately, once we got there, Lola decided she did NOT like the Midwest and cried non-stop for the first 3 days we were there. Maybe it was the super spicy food I kept eating but...probably not. After I cut everything out of my diet except bread, squash, applesauce, and water she loved the Midwest again!

Lola's first flight - she actually slept the whole way so thank goodness (says the man sitting next to us).

While in Nebraska Lola....

Took a bath!

Compared head sizes with her (cute) big-headed cousin!

Wore a cat hat!

Watched her dad cut pumpkins with her other cousin!

Went for a walk while her dad went to this Nebraska game!

Even with Lo's breakdowns, it was still a great trip. I love spending time with my sister and her fam. Wish I could do it a lot more. We just might have to make it out there again to redeem ourselves since Lola made us look so bad with all her wah wah wahing.

We were on a boat.

I thought after I had a kid, my blogging skills would greatly improve. Documenting someone else's life might make me feel a little less awkward about such a public display of the documentation process all together. But like most plans in my life, they fell by the wayside. Now with New Years coming up and a new running list of intentions, lets get this going while the enthusiasm is running hot since this fire will probably only burn for about 2 months if I'm lucky.

So after 2 weeks of sitting around the house, waiting to heal from baby ripping my body in half, I was starting to lose it a little. I was pretty helpless and frustrated and hating the recovery process (why didn't anyone tell me this part was 50 times worse than any part of the pregnancy? It's like mans greatest secret. Well words out ladies, a sore, fragile body, with major constipation, zero energy, being light-headed, engorged boobs, raw nipples, little sleep, and a leaking, night sweating body sucks. hard.). So when some friends invited us on a pretty much expense-less trip to Lake Powell, we decided to jump on it and take our 2 week old baby and introduce everyone to nights with a crying baby. Fun! The doctor said I couldn't even get in the water which sounded a little unbearable but I figured if we went, I could hold this trip over John's head and get a list of favors and loot out of it, cause that's really what marriage is about. bratty negotiations. er I mean, compromise. Anyway, it turned out to be a great trip and Lola did pretty well. I mean, all they do is sleep at this stage with just a touch of inconsolable crying so why not take a trip?




I recognize that this picture makes me look like a pretty negligent mother with my new born directly in the sunlight but I swear she was only outside for 5 minutes just to take these pictures. Plus, Lola realllly needed a tan.


It's crazy to look at these pictures and see how tiny she was. Especially compared to the little Jabba the Hut she is now. Baby's first trip - a slam dunk!

Whatever Lola wants

I'm not the type that is all "my baby is cuter than your baby" but...my baby is way cuter than your baby.

Short Term Memory

It's an amazing thing what a baby can do to your memory. When you have a night where baby is up from 2-6am crying and there is no consoling her, or when she constantly needs to be held and bounced during the day, leaving you a few minutes to run to the bathroom and think about brushing your teeth but then you reconsider because baby is crying and you aren't to the point where you can just let her do that yet, you think, why did we do this? How can I be honestly happy and feel fulfilled in this position? When will John and I have time for just John and I, without worrying about baby and giving all our attention to her? And then you come back to am I really that happy with this? And then the next day she is amazing. Happy, sleeping well and it seems like nothing has ever made you happier. Like nothing has ever done better things for your relationship, like there truly could not be a greater role than being a mother to this little girl and all you can remember is how great things are with this little stranger who is quickly becoming less and less of a stranger. And then you have a tough day again and you fall back but not quite as deep this time, but still have doubts and question what your life has come to, if you are really that satisfied. And then baby starts smiling and not just when she's falling asleep, we can actually make her smile when she's wide awake. Me smiling makes her smile and that alone makes me feel like I have the greatest power on earth. And she's really looking at us, looking right at me and when I move my head, she moves her eyes to follow me. She grabs my shirt when I feed her and nothing is greater than when she falls asleep on my chest. And again, you feel like this whole parenthood thing has been nothing but bliss the last 7 weeks. Anyway, the point is, it's not. But when baby girl lays her head in between your neck and your shoulder and puts her hand on your chest, the hard seems like the easiest thing when that is the reward.

Lola Jane aka Baby.

Baby. is. here. And she didn't exactly come how we expected - it was longer and harder and more wonderful and emotional than I expected. No need for the bloody details but I will say, I couldn't have ever prepared myself for the moment she popped out of my bod. I guess I thought it would have been more like a slow crawl out - a little bit at a time, but I guess when you have spent an extra 17 days crammed someone else body, you don't slowly crawl out. You jump. It was like a jack-in-the-box. She sprung out and it made me scream and then bawl. There is nothing like that moment. And then to have them hand her to me and snuggle her up to my chest...unreal. And now little baby has made herself comfortable in our downtown digs. We haven't been able to call her Lola yet - we've been calling her baby for the last 9 months so it's a difficult transition to refer to her as something different. We'll see how long this lasts - could be anywhere from a few weeks to a few years. We love baby. And all her red, mullet hair.

Right after baby was born

Little red

Post bath shot

Baby loves to sleep