Memorial Day weekend adventures

I now have a married sibling.  The good news about this fact is that I now have a new sister which is great as the girl/boy balance in my family continues to shift with a granddaughter and now a sister-in-law.  The bad news is having a married sibling makes me feel old.  The wedding was up in northwest Indiana over Memorial Day weekend so we headed up north to make a long weekend out of it.  We flew up there and Olivia did great on the flights.  I was a little worried just because she's much more mobile now than the last time we flew and I didn't know how she would react to being cooped up on a plane for several hours.   No problem-o.  Flying up, she slept the entire flight.  Flying back, she managed to destroyed an airline magazine, but it and a few other toys kept her occupied the whole time.

Now that my parents no longer live in northwest Indiana, we have few opportunities to visit Chicago anymore.  So we flew up a few days early to spend a little time in the city.  I love Chicago and always enjoy taking in the sites there.  It was fairly cold for end of May weather.  Before we left, I had to go out and buy Olivia jackets and sweaters so she would stay warm.  Nowadays around Houston, she lives in tank tops, shorts and sundresses.  We had a great time walking around the city and doing a little shopping.  

Olivia loved exploring our hotel room and finding all the new and exciting things she could get into.  Unfortunately for her parents, the new environment with it's different smells and sounds coupled with a different bed resulted in a baby that did not sleep very well for the duration of the trip.  Hopefully the people in the rooms on either side of us were heavy sleepers.  Otherwise, I'm sure they weren't sleeping well either.

 

Dining out also proved to be more wearing than I had anticipated.  We have obviously dined out with Olivia before but those occasions are relatively infrequent so not that bad.  However, traveling and eating all of your meals out at restaurants with a baby was not easy between feeding her, feeding ourselves, keeping her occupied and attempting to keep the table/floor around us relatively clean.  All in all, she did really good.

 

Yum...ribs!

The wedding for my brother Brian and Jessica was beautiful.  They had it at the same facility Geoff and I got married at eight years prior.  The place has a large terrace outback which we used for the ceremony and then moved inside to the building for the reception.  The day Geoff and I got married, the weather was perfect for an outside ceremony...bright blue sky, temperature in the low 70s...ideal.  Unfortunately, it was not to be for Brian and Jessica.  Shortly before the ceremony, a heavy band of storms moved through.  There were even tornado sirens going off at one point beforehand.  So, they had to move it inside.  It was still beautiful though and the reception was a blast.  I enjoyed getting to see all my family and much of my extended family as I don't see them very much living way down in Texas.  

  

 

Getting some love from cousin Mallory

 

With Aunt Emily

Mesmerized by Uncle Doug

  

Getting jiggy with Daddy on the dance floor

Whole family the day after the wedding

Splish Splash

 To get a little relief for the scorching heat last weekend, we headed downtown to Discovery Green park.  They have a splash pad area there so we thought we would let Olivia check it out and see how she liked the water.  She loved it!  We will definitely be making more return trips this summer.

Marriage...true love

This past Tuesday, Geoff and I celebrated 2,922 days of marriage.  That's 8 years for those of you who aren't super quick on the math.  It's really hard for me to believe it's been that long already.  It's flown by.  It seems like just yesterday we were kids starting our future, our new life, together.  Neither one of us are the same people that got married back then.  We've both changed and I hope in good ways.  I remember within the first couple weeks of our wedding being shocked at the revelation of just what a selfish person I was.  I was used to everything revolving around my needs and wants and then suddenly, I was being called to serve Geoff's needs and wants over my own.  While I certainly have not perfected this by any means and daily have to choose to put aside my own desires, I am thankful God has used our marriage (and also later parenthood) to expose and flush out the internal focus off of me and onto others.

Last weekend, my brother Brian got married and had his ceremony and reception at the same facility in northern Indiana that we did eight years prior. (Separate post to come on that later.)  It was fun to go back and remember our day, especially with it being so close to our anniversary.  Many memories and emotions were remembered.

As a small way to honor Geoff for the great husband he has been for eight years, I figured I would highlight just a few of the many things I admire/like about him:

G - Generous: He is always willing to give to others, whether it's his time, resources or finances.  I love his big heart to help those around him.
E - Excellence: He likes to get things right and do them to the best of his ability.  He seems to excel in everything he does.  And when times come when he's not satisfied with the results, he works harder.
O - Obliging: Geoff is always willing to help out with whatever I ask him to do, even the stuff he's not too keen on...doing the dishes, getting up to rock Olivia at 4:00am, changing stinky diapers, etc.
F - Funny: For those of you that know Geoff well, you know that he has a pretty quirky sense of humor.  He always make me laugh or at least roll my eyes and groan at him.
F - Fast:  This guy can run pretty fast.  Actually, really fast.  I admire his discipline to his sport, to put in the grueling training day after day, as well as his passion for running.  He truly loves running and it's fun to see the enjoyment he gets out of it.
R - Research:  It must be his analytical, engineering mind or something.  Geoff loves to research stuff - new cars, baby strollers, stocks and various investments, vacation destinations, wines, creationism...you name it.  I love this because I know that whatever we purchase, do or have a discussion about, he has made an informed decision that I can trust.
E - Easygoing:  Nothing really seems to phase him.  I have difficulty remembering many times when he has gotten upset at anything. 
Y - Yappy:  Ok...I'm stretching to come up with a good "Y" word.  Geoff loves to share lots of details when he gets into his storytelling mode.  (I'm sure this is shocking for his mom to read who can easily recall many conversations with him where he provided very limited detail much to her disappointment! :) )  This always makes for interesting conversations around the dinner table and opportunity for me to practice my listening skills as I try to keep up with all of them.

Here are some of my favorite photos of us over the years

Chicago 2003

Seattle 2004

Celebrating anniversary #2 2005

Halloween 2006

Hawaii 2007

Brazil 2008

Boston 2009

New York City 2010

I love you, Geoff.  Thanks for being the best husband I could ask for and my best friend.  I'm so thankful that you chose me as your wife and I can't think of anyone else I would want to be stuck with for the rest of my life.