Weekend at Grandma and PawPaw's house

Last month, Olivia and I traveled up to the Cincinnati area to see my family.  My brother Scott graduated from high school this year and he was celebrating with his graduation open house, so it was a good opportunity for a visit.  We left Geoff at home which meant traveling alone with my active baby.  Olivia did okay on the flights there and back, but boy, was it stressful.  I had to transport a baby + stroller + car seat + suitcase throughout airports with only two hands.  While I did manage to figure out a system that worked to get us and our stuff from point A to point B and everywhere in between, I was pleasantly surprised how many nice people stopped to offer me help.  Olivia did have her moments on the plane, like when I wouldn't let her crawl under all the seats, and I did get looks from some people.  However, once again I was surprised at how many others tried to distract her by making funny faces or talking to her.  I'm relieved that we won't be flying again with her until Christmas and that Geoff will be along for those flights.

With Uncle Doug

Can't believe this beauty is my baby sister (!!!)



So much new stuff to explore



Since no one from my family was going to be traveling down for Olivia's first birthday party, we had a early birthday celebration for her along with a party for Stephen's 16th b-day.

 

All of my siblings were there for the weekend too which is always nice.  The older we get, the more we spreadout (Texas, New York, Indiana, Virgina and Kentucky) so I appreciate it even more when we are all together.  I read something recently about the importance of relationships with your siblings.  Afterall, they end up being in your life for the largest percentage of it.  We typically don't have our parents for the last third to half of our lives.  Conversely, children typically aren't  in our lives for the first third to half of it.  However, siblings are typically with us 80-90% of our lives.  I'm so thankful for my siblings.  They are all really cool and I'm proud to be able to say that they are my brothers and sister.

Uncle Jason, Olivia and a ping pong ball

the graduate: Scott

Steve

Aunie Em

I'm pretty sure Olivia's favorite of the trip was not the birthday cake and presents or hanging out with her aunts and uncles but rather exploring all the new things to see in Grandma and PawPaw's house and playing outside in the grass since the weather was actually cool enough to be outside...a much welcomed break from the Houston furnance.

 

 early evening treat

Take me out to the ballgame

A couple weeks ago, Geoff was given tickets to an Astros baseball game.  Even though I had just gotten back that afternoon from New York City where I had been for work and we were leaving first thing the next morning to head up to the Fort Worth area for the weekend, the tickets and opportunity to take Olivia to her first baseball game were too good to pass up.  Our tickets were in the Diamond Club area of the park, which is the seating area directly behind home plate.  The price on the ticket stub for a single seat was a hefty $375!  Plus, our tickets gave us access to a nice buffet dinner and drinks/snacks during the game. 

This was the view from our seats - second row, directly behind home plate.  We were on TV during the broadcast of the game every time the pitcher made his pitch.  So Geoff and I had to make sure we were on our best behavior; definitely didn't want to be caught picking our nose or doing something stupid.

For the most part, Olivia did pretty well during the game.  At times, she wanted to crawl on the ground around our seats, which we didn't want her to do since it was dirty, so she got a little frustrated by that.  She enjoyed looking, smiling and trying to touch the stuff of the other people in the seats around ours.   The Astros are terrible this year, so I think the people enjoyed the distraction.  It ultimately got to be her bed time, so we had to leave the game early.  Hopefully she is not too spoiled now and won't expect front row seats when we attend games in the future. :)