Nora finally got to meet my Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul. It was a great trip! They are fantastic hosts. The only sad part was that the trip was a short one.

It worked out so well that we were able to go at all. Josh had business meetings in Mountain View, which is about an hour and a half away from Carmel, home of Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul. They were available to spend the time with us, so he booked a ticket for me and away we went!

The flight out there was amazing. The flight attendant managed to find us our own row on a full flight! After landing, we got our rental car and car seat, dropped Josh off at his office, and drove down to Carmel.

And then Nora finally got to meet Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul! She loved them right away and started giving them her flirty, squinched up face grins. She also loved exploring their kitchen as we ate lunch. (So many drawers! And cabinets!)

After lunch we went for a walk in downtown Carmel. There were so many doggies. And birds. Aunt Barb and I went from shop to shop and were always able to find Uncle Paul and Nora by listening for the cry of “Hey! Dog gee!” Uncle Paul was very kind and pushed Nora’s stroller while she exclaimed over all the dogs. She also liked to touch the potted flowers. (And maybe even snatched a few during drive-by flower pickings.) She was totally comfortable and didn’t even care that I kept walking away. Instant trust and love for Uncle Paul.

The next day we went to this amazing park (the wildlife kind) where you can look over cliffs and see seals. We even got to see a mother with her baby seal! It was so adorable. The baby swam right next to the mom and sometimes they touched noses like they were kissing! We named them “Mommy” and “Nora.”

Next up — the Dennis the Menace Park. Um. Wow. I really wish every kid could go to a park like this one. It was huge with these gigantic bridges and swings and climbing equipment. Nora loved it when Uncle Paul carried her across the wobbly bridge. Then Mommy took her down the long, bumpy slide.

And Nora’s world came crashing down. She absolutely lost it. She sobbed and wailed and let the tears flow.

So we took her to the swings where she cheered up and loved every minute of it.

Then I thought, “Let’s go to the baby slides. So she doesn’t have a fear of all slides.”

Too late. I held her on my lap and tried going down the 3 ft slide with her, and she was still hysterical. Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul even tried to hold her while she watched me go down the slide. (“Look at me, Nora! Whee!! This is so fun!!!”) Nope. Forget it. It was all too horrible for words.

Back to the swings. Because you can’t leave a park sad.

After she recovered, we headed back to the house. It was time to pack up and leave to drive back to Mountain View. It was sad to leave Nora’s new friends.

Then we went to pick up Josh from work. Uncle Kemble was there so we could all go to dinner. We went to In N Out, because we were in CA and you have to go at least once. (Them’s the rules.) Kemble was making Nora giggle pretty hard, which was impressive given how exhausted she was.

Time for bed. This promised to be interesting because we haven’t attempted to sleep in the same room with Nora since she was an infant. We put her pack n play next to our bed, turned out the light, and hoped she’d go to sleep. Sure enough, I heard the sound I thought I would hear; little hands struggling to find a grip on nylon netting. I saw one hand, then the other, grasp the rail. Finally, a little head popped up and there was Nora, ready to play the “You’re Pretending to Sleep and I’m Going to Get You” Game. She was giggling as she repeatedly tapped my head.

After trying to lay her back down a few times, we decided to try co-sleeping for the first time ever. First she just wanted to play with our noses and hair. Then she would sit up and flop onto one of us. Only to sit up again and flop down on the other one. And there were spontaneous bursts of giggles as she continued to attempt the Wake Up Mommy and Daddy Game.

Back to the pack n play, only this time we moved it as far from our bed as we could. She must have been totally wiped out because she didn’t even make a peep. (I was expecting some major protests.) A few hours later, we were waking up to get on another airplane and back to Seattle we flew.

Nora had such a GREAT time with her (great?) Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul. They took wonderful care of us! They had toys for her, her favorite foods ready to go, and lots and lots of love and attention.

Thanks Aunt Barb and Uncle Paul! We’d love to have you visit Seattle anytime!!

Today Lauren turns 27.

Also, today is the first birthday for our sweet little niece (and Nora’s cousin) Faith! They’re celebrating over here.

Here’s some images from our latest ultrasound. The technician did that helpful thing where she labeled each picture. She’s also the only person who claims to know the sex of the baby. Tantalizing! 

Baby Face

The baby is facing the camera with an arm on each cheek.

The Crossed Feet 

If it’s a girl, she’s a lady already.

The Arms 

The left arm is a little easier to make out. The right one is quite blurry.

And… The Ever So Gracefully Extended Leg 

This little leg is the cause of some of those kicks I’ve been feeling.

If all goes well, this is the last we’ll see of Baby Teague until we get to meet him/her! That’s approximately 120 days away. =)

We’re here! We’re here! Well, okay, we arrived last Sunday, but here’s a summary… :)

To see the entire album from each day, click on the Destination photos.

Day 1
Destination: St. Louis

After shoving two huge suitcases, our airbed, feather mattress, my terrarium, four pillows, a dog bed, a bag of books, Josh’s laptop, and of course, our car sick prone dog, Remy, we left Mom’s house and took off on the beginning of our great Road Trip ’08.

We got one block away before we had to turn around and go back to get some stuff (yup, even more) that we realized we forgot. So we were only an hour late meeting our Tennessee friends for breakfast. Thanks Davy, Emily, Kirby, Kristin, and Robbie! These were the guys (sans Kevin) with whom Josh won the trip to Paris a while back.

Several hours later, we did get to see some of flooding in Illinois that was all over the news this spring. It was so sad to see the tops of soccer goals and baseball field lights peeking out over feet and feet of water.

After driving about 6 hours, we arrived south of St. Louis- a whole hour earlier than we thought we would!! Our Garmen GPS didn’t include the time zone change when giving an estimated time of arrival. We were so excited — we were able to take a NAP before sightseeing! Luxury, luxury.

We then went down the famous arch. The Gateway Arch. There’s a really pretty park that we walked through. And three guys that I’m pretty sure were smoking marijuana. Either that, or they just wanted gullible people like me to think they were smoking marijuana. Hmm.

Anyway, we didn’t go up into the arch because it was going to take an hour and well, we were too hungry for that. But we did get to see the museum underneath the arch. There were some creepy animated “people” that moved around and told about the Lewis and Clark expedition. I didn’t like those guys. And, there wasn’t one for Sacajawea. My first disappointment of the trip.

 
Day 2
Destination: Sioux City, Iowa

Probably the coolest thing that happened on this day was upon our arrival in Sioux City. When we got to our hotel, Josh went in to check us in and came back saying the room was “pretty rough.”

Now. Family. Friends. If Josh, thinks a room is rough, well, then I wouldn’t be comfortable walking around in it. Let alone using their supposedly laundered sheets. Turns out, they wanted to place us in a dimly-lit smoking room at the back of the motel. No thanks.

So being the good husband that he is, he agreed to drive around and see if we could find a better room. The tricky part: finding hotels that allow pets. Consulting Garmen and the iPhone, we found a Regency Inn nearby that allowed dogs. Well, we found where it was supposed to be. Actually finding it took awhile.  When we did… Yikes. Nobody could be serious about it being a hotel. We were about to call it quits and go back to the Pretty Rough Room when we saw a Marina Conference Center. It looked gorgeous.

Not only did it allow pets, and not only was there a room available, but it had the nicest staff who checked in with us every time we walked by the concierge. And the room was fancy nice. Easily the best place we stayed in the entire trip. 
 
Day 3
Destination: Buffalo, Wyoming

The highlights of the drive this day were Corn Palace and 1880 Town. We saw a lot of billboards for it when we were in SD two years ago, and this time, I was determined to check it out.

It’s a building with sides that are decorated with murals made of corn. They change it every year. When you go inside the Corn Palace, there’s a photo history that shows the themes for each year (2008-Everyday Heroes). There’s also vendors selling souvenirs. But the town also using it as a community center — basketball games, meetings, even proms. We really couldn’t figure this place out. Is it supposed to be serious? It seemed like more of a funny landmark than a historical one. We were laughing the whole time. I hope that wasn’t rude. Is this how people who are visiting Georgia feel about The Big Chicken?

1880 Town has a two prong approach to nab tourists’ attention. 1) A museum of memorabilia and props from the film Dances with Wolves. 2) Original buildings from the frontier that have been preserved and moved into one location. It did feel weird when you caught your first glimpse of the town. Like a ghost town — only one that has been pieced together manually.

 
Day 4
Destination: Bozeman, Montana

This was the best day on the road. We left early so we could get to Yellowstone with time to look around. On the drive towards the park, Remy started making some gagging sounds.

By the way, Remy was a trooper on the trip! He only got sick one time, when weak Lauren fed him a french fry. But other than that, he just dealt with the long hours. He did crack us up with his sitting habits. He rarely sat in the bed we put in the back seat for him. No, Remy preferred to sit on the armrest between Josh and I. He’d gradually push himself back until he was blocking our view of each other. He also liked sitting on top of the luggage we had in the back seat. Or laying on the floor behind the seat. But no matter the place he choose, the position was the same — face the back of the car. It was like he was on timeout the whole trip. But it worked. 

Anyway, so he was making gagging sounds and Josh decided to pull over at the next side road. Which happened to be at the most breathtaking mountain lake shore we’ve ever seen. Remy was magically and instantly cured when we stopped the car. He took off and got to explore the water and grass and wildflowers growing. It’s just impossible to describe how absolutely beautiful this place was. The pictures don’t even come close to doing it justice. It was the best part of the whole trip.

Then on to Yellowstone! Yellowstone was of course, incredible impressive. Just driving through it was amazing. Waterfalls on the side of the road and lakes and snow we could get out and touch right there next to our car. One area we were looking forward to seeing was this trail that led to hot springs. I had Remy on his leash and heard two different people whisper, “I didn’t think you could have dogs on this trail.” Josh was off getting close-ups of a bison — that people were literally running to go see. I started waving him down with panic and gestured that we had to get out of there. Sure enough, there was this dopey little sign at the very beginning of the trail that showed about 6 things that shouldn’t happen on the trail — including dogs. I felt so guilty. I mean, Remy’s not exactly the kind of dog to take on a bison (the reason behind the rules), but still. I would have cried like a kindergartner if a Park Ranger had reprimanded me.

As we drove to Old Faithful, we were thrilled to see a crowd building. The geyser goes off every 90 minutes or so, so if we’d missed it, we’d be there until almost nightfall. There must have been 300 people there. It was crowded. But we got to see it go off in all its faithful glory after only waiting about 10 minutes. 

On the way out of the park, Josh lamented that he hadn’t seen much wildlife. In front of us, traffic slowed and people were parking their cars and running to the side of the road with cameras. I can empathize with people who live near Loch Ness. Of course, we parked our car and Josh took his camera. Guess what it was? We’re actually not sure if it was a deer, an elk, or a moose. But he  some good shots of whatever it was.

Then there was a second traffic jam. The one was caused by a herd of buffalo. There was a river on one side of the road and a mountain on the other, so I have no idea where they came from. Perhaps they just traveled down the highway for awhile. But that was a fun adventure. And even Josh’s expectations for wildlife spotting were met. He didn’t even slow the car down when we saw some deer a few minutes later.

That night was the most interesting (and by interesting I mean depressing) night in terms of hotels. It was our last night on the road, and the only other time that booking online meant getting stuck with a smoking room. It seems that when you book online to get a the better price, you also agree to getting whichever kind of room is available upon check in. And let me tell you — it was horrible. The room itself looked fine, but REEKED. We were too exhausted to search for another room and decided to deal with it and sleep. But both of us had a hard time sleeping and breathing the stale air. So. Let that be a warning to everyone who books online — always call afterward and confirm that you are a nonsmoker. Unless, I guess, you’re a smoker. It was the only time I busted out the sheets I’d brought to use in the new apartment. And our (personal, of course) pillows still smelled the next day.

 
Day 5
Destination: Seattle!!!

Not too much to report from this day. The last hour of driving seemed to take longer than the rest of the trip combined. But it’s amazing — even a short half an hour away from a bustling city, and you’d never know. It’s just trees and ice capped mountains and pure nature. 

Then we finally arrived home In Kirkland. Our new home and a new start.

It was a great trip.