Whimsical September

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Jessica’s Baby Shower in New Hampshire & Easter Sunday Fun

I have a few friends that I’ve met as an adult that I can’t figure out how I grew up without, and Jessica is one of them! We met shortly after both being hired to teach at the same high school in Tennessee in 2012, and we quickly became inseparable. 
During my pregnancy she took me to the ER at 15 weeks and stayed with me all night, helped throw me two baby showers, had lesson plans prepared for weeks in case I went into labor before Jamie got home from Afghanistan, and was the first person to the hospital besides our parents to meet Hadley. She was so present.
Now she’s the one that’s pregnant with a sweet little girl, and even though we live 600 miles apart, I’ve known for months that I would try to make it to her baby shower. I couldn’t imagine missing it! I knew the travel with Hadley might be exhausting, but I also knew that in a few years when we’re talking about her shower I’d remember more about being there to celebrate and less about the nuisance of traveling. That’s kind of my motto with traveling in general. The memories are always worth it!
Her shower was this past Saturday in Jessica’s hometown in New Hampshire, so a couple months ago I came up with a plan to use my Southwest Companion Pass to bring my mom with me to Boston and make a mini-getaway out of it. After Mom broke her ankle a few weeks ago, our trip went out the window (such a bummer!). After changing our plans around a little bit, Hadley and I decided to still make the trip and celebrate Jessica and baby Mia!
We met Jessica & Nick at the Nashville airport and flew directly to Boston. We had a row to ourselves, so Hadley enjoyed bopping around from person to person the whole flight. She is the biggest wiggle worm on airplanes. Sigh. The highlight of the flight for Hadley was slobbering all over Jessica’s apple until she gave in and let Hadley have it altogether.

She loved sitting with Uncle Nick while we descended into Boston.

For this trip, I brought our umbrella stroller for the airport, Hadley’s Britax convertible carseat, and a small duffle bag. Jessica’s mom borrowed a pack-n-play for us to use that helped so much! For airplane entertainment, I brought my cell phone loaded up with Mickey Mouse episodes. I can’t stand to juggle tons of toys, books, crayons, etc. Drives me nuts to have so much stuff floating around our small space.

Hadley was so excited to be in New England for the first time that she passed out shortly after getting in the car. 🙂

We played a little bit at Jessica’s parent’s house before heading to dinner at the Bamberg’s that night.

On Saturday we slept in a bit before running around to get ready for the shower.

Hadley hung out around this door every chance she could get. She loves to see new places! Now that she’s crossed off seeing MA and NH, she’s been to 19 states! She’s a busy girl.

Jessica’s sweet dad offered Hadley a chocolate munchkin doughnut hole, and she ate it in two bites. She couldn’t leave New England without trying Dunkin Donuts. 😉

At 11 a.m. it was baby shower brunch time! How awesome does Jessica look at 28 weeks pregnant?

Hadley napped for the first half of the shower, but once she woke up she looooooved running around and smiling at everyone and trying to get into everything she could.

By 2 that afternoon, we packed up, changed clothes, and headed back to the airport! Quick, quick 36 hour trip. We had a layover in Baltimore this time, which I didn’t mind because it was a welcomed chance for Hadley to get out and stretch her legs. On our flight from Baltimore to Nashville there were only 25 people on a 146 seat plane, so needless to say we had the entire back of the plane to ourselves to play and hang with the fabulous flight attendants.

When we got back to Nashville, we realized that the umbrella stroller didn’t make it, so I carried Hadley on one side, the duffle bag on the other, and had help from others with carrying the carseat once we picked it up from baggage claim. Having the help made getting back to the car a breeze!

Hadley hung out in the front seat playing with my parking ticket (which I didn’t know about) while I hooked her carseat back in. Once I drove off to pay for parking, I realized my ticket had gone missing somewhere in the car and absolutely could not find it. Losing the ticket cost me about 10 extra minutes with the parking attendant, but by 8 p.m. we were on the road back to Alabama. I’d picked Hadley up some milk in the airport for her bottle, so she drank that in her carseat and then slept the whole two hour drive.

By 10 p.m. we were back home with my parents and ready to get some sleep before Easter Sunday.

On Sunday morning we got up, got dressed, and went to the 10:45 service at my parent’s church in Huntsville. After church we went home to relax before Hadley and I met up with Ashley and her parents at Panera for a bit. I am in love with this picture of Ashley and Hadley. Ash was spinning her around, and Hadley was loving it!

Later that afternoon we took some family Easter pics before my dad put together an egg hunt.

Look at what a mess her basket is! She’s been playing with her basket ever since we got home from the egg hunt we went to last weekend, so it was looking a little used and abused by Easter morning. 🙂

Mom was a trooper and enjoyed watching all the fun from the front porch. Silly ankle.

All of the eggs were blue which made the egg hunt really easy for Hadley to get in to. It was a blast to watch her scan the yard for eggs, spot an egg, and go sprinting!

After three rounds, she was done!

We missed having Jamie around, but we were glad that we finally got to talk to him on Saturday for the first time in two weeks and we get to see him later this week. Absolutely cannot wait!

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