the journey

We were so excited to be able to travel to Cincinnati for Jude's first birthday. We were even MORE excited that we were going to be able to celebrate his birthday with both sides of our family! We drove the nine hours from Winston-Salem to my hometown on Thursday and celebrated Jude's birthday on Saturday. We've traveled quite a bit since Jude's been born, and it seems like it's a toss up as to how he'll do. It turns out that this trip was - by far- the easiest we've had with him because:


1. We could turn his car seat around. It was awesome to be able to see him, hand him toys, and play peek a boo with him when he started getting cranky!


2. I wasn't breastfeeding. We didn't have to stop every 2-3 hours for me to feed him! We could just hand him graham crackers (his new favorite food), or a sippy and be good to go.


3. No reflux. This translated into him NOT screaming for an hour before falling asleep. That was always the worst for me - feeling trapped in a car with him screaming and knowing there wasn't anything I could do about it or anyway to get away from it.


4. No postpartum depression. This is kind of related to #3 and why that stressed me out so much. I noticed that I was much more relaxed about this trip and Jude's fussing didn't get under my skin like it had previously.

Shawn and I really enjoy traveling together and love that our time in the car is time we're able to focus on conversation with each other, listening to sermons together, or just holding hands and enjoying being with one another. Because both of our families live far away, we use all of our vacation time to go see them. We try to focus on relaxing and resting when we're with family, because it's the closest thing to a vacation that we get. Even though our weekend was packed with activities, we definitely came back feeling filled up!




Jude chillaxin' in his carseat. Ida heaped tons of rain on us before we left, but it was beautiful up north!

We made a pit stop at Bob Evans. Shawn and I miss many things about the north, and I think Shawn would say Bob Evans makes his top ten list.

...crosseyed

We had Jude's birthday at my great uncle's beautiful and historic Bed and Breakfast, which is in Covington, KY (literally right across the river from Cincinnati). Shawn, Jude, and I stayed at the B&B Friday night, and Jude enjoyed crawling around that king size bed (and I apparently enjoyed looking kind of evil).

He has the sweetest sleepy face I've ever seen

We took a walk around the area surrounding the Bed and Breakfast. Oh Cincinnati, how I love you. I love your Bengals, your Skyline chili, your German roots, your weird fascination with pigs, your White Castle (in theory), your convoluted highway system, your gheotta (again, in theory) and your grit and determination.

Shawn, however, is notsomuchinlove with Cincinnati. His choice of outfit for Jude on this particular morning was his way of giving the finger to the city.

The Ohio river, and the semi-famous Cincinnati steamboats.

And this, my friends, is the ONE picture we got of Jude's birthday party. I'm not even kidding. And those are not even his presents with which he's playing - they're his cousin Asher's toys. If any of you reading this were in attendance and got pictures, I'd LOVE to have them since I appear to be a camera slacker.

Jude's party was an absolute blast! My great uncle kindly cooked a turkey, gravy, and stuffing, and we had our guests bring a side dish or dessert. Shawn and I figured that since we wouldn't be able to travel for Thanksgiving this year, we'd turn Jude's birthday party into a pseudo-Thanksgiving! We had so much fun hanging out with our parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, uncles, aunts, and anyone else to whom we were remotely related. :)

See, I grew up surrounded by my extended family. With only one or two exceptions (including us), ALL of my family lives in the greater Cincinnati area. Every holiday and birthday in my childhood was spent with family, and my Uncles/Aunts/Great Uncles/Great Aunts/etc, had incredible influence on who I am today. I love North Carolina, and I love Pinedale even more, but I'm sad that Jude won't have that kind of community in his life. We travel to see the Maurers and the Pohlmans as much as we financially can, and my prayer is that Jude's grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins, etc., and will nonetheless have a huge impact on his life.

The fact that we (and Jude) were able to be surrounded by family to celebrate Jude's first birthday meant more to us than we could possibly relate.

Believe it or not, I actually have more pictures to come (not of his actual birthday party, of course) soon!