One year and counting

for those of you who don't know, the cutest nephew that's ever existed in the universe ever(connor,duh) turned one a few days ago! in celebration i decided to head down to texas to spend his special first birthday with him (and my sister and bro in law,of course). coincidentally, my parents had decided to join in the celebrating as well so they were there too. we didn't do a whole lot. i've found that when i go to houston to not actually expect to see the city of houston. we usually just lounge around and be super lazy at the house. which,this time,was fiiiine with me. unfortunately justin had some training to do for work in dallas so we only got to spend a day with him. my sister worked mon,tues,wed and used the only other car so me and my parents and connor just hung out at the house and played guitar hero and watched fox news together. well, my dad and mom watched fox news. i sat and wished i was deaf lots of times.

connors actual birthday PARTY wasn't until the weekend after i left(which i didn't find out until after i got there)so i am sad i'm missing that. in our family it's tradition that whoevers birthday it is gets to pick where/what we eat for dinner that night. obviously connor is a classy guy,so he picked popeyes chicken.

considering how little we did i'm surprised at how long this blog is! i did take a few pictures though,which was really more what i was trying to lead up to...so here is my trip in pictures!!!(WARNING: a lot of the pictures from my trip have babies in them. so if you hate babies, DO NOT READ THE REST OF MY BLOG!)


this has nothing to do with anything,but i currently have a minor obsession with sea salt flavored pita chips and the airport in houston had the BEST kind i've ever had...cherry coke zero complimented them nicely :)



these are a couple of the things that kept me entertained to and from houston-my itouch(specifically the app Sally's Spa. most addicting game.EVER) and the book Sarah's Key(which i HIGHLY recommend. i'm only about 1/3 of the way through it and it's SO good. there's also kind of a history lesson thrown in there,which i'm usually not into,but this one works it in the story well)



this is my dad kicking ass at guitar hero...something we spent a LOT of time playing:



me and my sister! <3



me and the conman-reunited!(i look like a different race, i swear the room+low lighting+bad editing on my part made for a very funny colored me):



the next morning i got to get up with connor and play with him for a bit before everyone else got up...this is what ensued...

you can tell he grew up with a camera in his face because everytime i said "connor,smile!" he put this huge grin on his face and waved his arms in the air, and the second i took the picture he stopped.

blooper pic:



cute bebe:



i turned on seasame street and as soon as he saw it he was captivated. especially by elmo. before i turned on the tv he had been sitting by where i was, and had crawled closer to get a better look:



wednesday was connors 1st birthday!! we didn't do a whole lot since dad was outta town, mom had to work, and his party wasn't til the next weekend, but we did have a classy dinner of Popeyes chicken complete with mashed potatoes, coleslaw,cajuin wings,and biscuits:



and,of course, guitar hero:



me and connor on his birthday:



the next day it was time for me to leave...connor was soooo tired from partying so hard the night before,he fell asleep in the car (couldn't hold his milk,i think. lightweight.):



i dedicate this picture to my dad,since he forced me to dedicate 29587 hours of my life to this channel during my trip:



p.s. ironically,this is also the store i got my pita chips and cherry coke

i'll make it there someday...



my flight home came with a meal of a "beef and swiss"sandwich,where the beef tasted like a mix of meatloaf and hamburger(imagine it),3 leaves of lettuce(aka,"salad") and a kitkat bar:



i'm not sure what it is about most major airports but it seems no airlines carry pepsi products (if someone knows of one, please let me know asap so that can be the only one i fly,ever)so this is the beverage i was FORCED to consume:



...TWICE!!

\

the inflight movie they showed was "The Proposal" which stars Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds,both of who i LOVE(in different ways). It's so funny,i recommend it to anyone with a sense of humor. here's one of my favorite scenes from the movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppU7hyTNmII

i landed safely in seattle at about 10 pm where my goooood friend Ashley gave me a ride home. we stopped at a coffee shop where i got my first peppermint hot chocolate of the season and happily chomped on the kettle corn ash brought for us.

the next day i started back at work again. my one year anniversary of working at boeing family center had passed while i was gone. in celebration of this event i came back to this huge poster,made just for me!



on it are pictures of all the kids i've had in my class this past year. it was a super great surprise to come back to!

that's about it for my trip. i probably won't be able to go on another trip until sometime next year...i'm thinking cincinnati,maybe???