Outdoorsy

Being back in the Poconos a few weeks ago made me miss spending a lot of time outdoors. Growing up I pretty much lived outside. I was constantly playing in the woods and my family was always hiking or fishing. In the winter we even spend a lot of weekends outside snowmobiling and sledding. It became a huge part of who I was. Then when I was old enough to work I got a job at a four season resort as part of their activities staff. I led hikes and bike rides in the summer to waterfalls and mountain tops. In the winter I led snow shoe outings and worked at the ski slope.


My favorite flowers from home~ Black Eyed Susans



Morning Dew


The landscape in Florida is much different. There are no mountains or waterfalls and certainly no snow. Florida does have it's charms though. It has gorgeous beaches and lakes. I still have a hard time getting over the fact that I can drive 10 minutes and hit the Gulf of Mexico. Florida also has amazing flowers and trees. There are hundreds of types of palm trees, before I moved here I thought there was just one. Oh and the flowers! Some of them look like they belong on another planet.



Sea Pine in my backyard



Also in my backyard- the odd but beautiful flower that only blooms every other year.


I have yet to really embrace the Florida outdoors. I'm too hung up on it not being what I grew up with and that needs to change. Being outside makes me happy, I'm always in a better mood when I've spent a few hours in nature. I need to keep the two place separate in my mind. I need to go to the beach more. I need to go to state parks and botanical gardens more. Now if October would just get here already so that I can spend more than a couple of hours outside.

Home

I wish I could tell you that the photo above was Aubs kissing the ground when we arrived home but I can't. It's actually of her a couple of days ago at my parents house up north having a fit because she clearly was ready to go home. I have learned that taking a 17 month old out of their environment for nearly 2 weeks is a recipe for disaster. With that said we are back on our hot sticky Florida soil.

It's strange how some time away from home can make you appreciate it so much more. It may only last a week or so but that week is golden. Don't get me wrong, it was great to be back in my hometown around familiar faces and places. I just should of cut it a week short- live and learn. That's why I always call Aubs my practice baby, I mean someone's gotta do it right?

On top of everything else we really really missed the best pup on the planet. How can you not love a face like that?




Today I am linking up with Carissa at lowercase letters and Blogs Tea & Me. Click the buttons below and check them out.

No Words Just Cute

I have some really cute shots of Aubs at the park the other day eating some fruit leather. I wasn't going to post them because I really don't have any clever words to go along with them. Then I stumbled upon Wordless Wednesdays. Perfect!

Sick Baby

For the past couple of weeks I have been linking up on Wednesdays with Hill at Capturing Motherhood. She hosts a link up called picture me {im}perfectly. In the blog world it's easy to get discouraged when you see all the other Moms out there who seem to be doing everything right. You think to yourself how can that woman possibly have made cupcakes from scratch, sewn all new throw pillows, have perfectly blown out hair and wrangle 3 children under 5 all before dinner time. Thanks to Hill we can now showcase that we don't have it all together all the time and embrace other woman who are in the same boat as us.

I thought this week that I would have nothing to post for Picture Me {Im}perfectly. That all changed when the baby woke up around 1:15 am yesterday morning and did not want to go back to sleep. This is very unusual for Aubs. She has slept through the night since she was 10 weeks old. The only reasons she has woken in the night since then have been when she was first teething, when she has a stuffed up nose and that one horrendous time she had a night terror. I got her back to sleep after about an hour but then she woke up in the morning feeling warmer than usual.

Having a sick baby is never fun but it is especially challenging when you are away from home. I only get to see my extended family about once a year. The day that Aubrey woke up not feeling well also happened to be the day that my whole family was getting together for dinner. The beginning of the evening started out fine. Aubs was a little bit fussy but nothing over the top. Then as the night went on she got progressively worse. She grew more tired and her fever rose. She didn't want to eat or play, all she wanted to do was curl up on my chest on the couch. So I spend the entire evening snuggling with her until she was ready for bed. I love the extra snuggles because she is usually too busy exploring to sit still but it couldn't have come at a more inconvenient time. She is still not feeling herself but her temperature has gone down and she slept through the night last night. I guess we always have next year.


I did manage to get a few good pictures of Aubrey with her Great Nana before she starting crying and flinging her body on the ground.



Then she started to crack....

The Fair

My parents and I took Aubs to her first fair over the weekend.
I love fairs, always have.
I love how they pop up out of nowhere.
I love the food and the smells.
I love being up close and personal with the livestock.
I even love the rickety rides.

Aubrey's favorite part was the pig races.

There were big pigs....



and little pigs...



Aubs cheered them all on from the sidelines



We saw cows...



and chickens



There was an adorable couple who sang children's songs. They also had a bunch of small instruments for the kids to play with.



Aubrey clapped and swayed along.



No fair is complete without some fair food and fresh squeezed lemonade.




Unfortunately it started to down pour after we were there for about an hour and a half. I was sad we missed the carousel but all and all it was a great day.

Today I am linking up with Carissa at lowercase letters and Blogs Tea & Me.

Flying the Unfriendly Skies

I flew today. Just me and the babe. I'm originally from Pennsylvania so I always make sure to take a trip up in the summer to escape the Florida heat and to enjoy some fresh mountain air.

Flying with children is no easy task especially when your the lone parent on the flight. I've done this once before when Aubs was around 6 months old. It wasn't too bad then because my boobs were still magic and all I needed to do was nurse her to sleep or to calm her down. I knew it wasn't going to be that easy this time.

Even though Aubrey isn't even 17 months old yet, I still booked her her own seat. Pricey, yes. Worth it, yes. In the weeks leading up to our trip I went back and forth from being totally freaked out by it and totally feeling like I could handle it. My biggest feat would be boarding. I would have to carry the convertible car seat, the babe and a carry on bag. I looked online and asked friends who had previously flown with toddlers and they all assured me that the flight attendants would help me out. This information made me feel confident. I could definitely do this if I could just get a little help getting to my seat and putting the car seat in.

Unfortunately the airline I flew is not as friendly as most. When I first entered the plane there were two flight attendants chatting with each other by the captains closet. I politely asked if one of them could assist me to my seat because I didn't think I could make it through the aisle with all of my things. The older of the two told me no. She said she had to stay there. I told her I would try to do it on my own but I couldn't make any promises. Guess what, I couldn't fit without violently bumping into everything and everyone. I promptly pulled myself over into the nearest aisle to reassess the situation.

The same flight attendant as before saw me and asked if that was my seat and I told her no but I can't make it back to mine on my own. She rolled her eyes at me and grabbed my car seat, walked it half way up then yelled to the flight attendant in the back of the plane and he came up and brought it to my seat for me. I don't see why that couldn't have happened all along. I could maybe sympathize if she were the only flight attendant in the front of the plane but she wasn't.

Now comes the part were I lost the cool that I promised myself I would keep. I've never installed a car seat using a seat belt instead of a latch system. I figured it would be easy but the buckle on a airline seat belt is huge and I couldn't get it through the back. I asked the flight attendant in the back if he could help me out but he said he had no idea how to. This is where I began to panic a little bit. I got sweaty and shaky. I was already feeling a little off because I woke up around 4:15 to catch the early flight and hadn't had coffee or anything to eat. It has been years since I had been awake that long without a cup of coffee. I didn't know what I was going to do. I couldn't just set the car seat on the seat. What if there was turbulence or if it slide in our final descent?

So I did the only thing I know how to do in a mini-crisis. I called my husband. He told me to calm down because he heard the shakiness in my voice. Then he told me all I had to do was recline the seat. He had done it a couple of months before when he put the car seat in his dad's jeep. Problem solved. Hubby to the rescue once again.

The rest of the flight was fine. Aubrey was a little fussy here and there but nothing serious. She kicked the seat a lot but thankfully there was a very understanding older woman in that seat who told me not to worry. She had once flown from California to the Philippines in a propeller plane with a 2 year old and a 6 month old. God bless her. Our way home will go much better because my own personal superman is flying back with us, Joe my husband who always knows what to do.

I have no photos from the plane or the airport because that was just too much for me to handle but I have a few shots from when I got to my parent's house. The home I grew up in. It feels good to be home.









I am linking up again this week with Hill from Capturing Motherhood.