Alternate post title:
WAY TOO MANY PICTURES OF EZRA
Monday, Mar. 10th
Trevor made it home for his two-week spring break!!! We were thrilled but so was he. He'd done 2 straight months with no days off! He had his regular semester PLUS 8 straight weekends of Snow Camp!
Tuesday, Mar. 11th
Pop and I met up and he took Renna and arranged an overnight with Sadie. First on the to-do list was playing with the newest puppies at the neighbors who breed cocker spaniels.
East Catholic made the State tournament. Against the odds, they had a better-than-expected season. First round they faced Glastonbury who'd they beaten twice but were still seeded lower. They played hard, took the early lead, made us nervous in the 2nd period, but got the upset and the W!!
Loved this moment when the goal scored sealed the deal and Rocco uncharacteristically jumped the boards right where his fan group was standing cheering and hitting the glass!
We met up at Margaritas for a late Taco Tuesday and exciting game recap!
Games played and cookies baked with Kiki.
Anita and Ezra picked us up and took us to get settled into the sweetest little 3 BR Air B&B that Maddy found. It was so cute, so functional, and had everything we needed. Any time we got home, Ezra had a special spot to put her shoes.
Saturday, Mar. 15th
Ninny and Papa went and were just delighted to see them in action!
Thursday, Mar. 13th
Renna and I left the house at 4:30a for a 6-day adventure! Maddy and Mason had a 12-day conference in MO. Mason's mom, Anita, babysat for the first six days and Renna and I set out to swap with her for second half.
It was 74 degrees and Ezra was napping, so Renna and I soaked up 20 minutes of sun.
Friday, Mar. 14th
Anita was supposed to fly out, but her flight was canceled due to high winds and the next one out would be Sunday, so we all got cozy and Ezra was thrilled to have some of her favorite people all in one space!
I started most mornings by dropping Maddy and Mason at their meeting and then getting back to the house where Ezra was waking. I would feed her breakfast and then stroll the very walkable neighborhood.
Between naps, Renna and I took E to the park. She takes a solid morning nap, a solid afternoon nap, and goes to bed at 7p, so we squeezed in the adventure where we could!
Then we tried frozen custard which seems to be a bigger deal out there than ice cream.
My least favorite part of the trip was hearing the tornado sirens wailing and all of our phone alarms telling us to take shelter. One of my only legit fears in life is tornados. I think because of the complete catastrophic effect. Kinda like plane crashes. There's no in between....they're utterly devastating. Thankfully, Maddy and Mason were on their dinner break, so we were all together and huddled in the bathroom. Mason prayed and I did my best to act brave. It touched down 5 miles from us and then hit harder 1.5 hours away where 17 people died. Thankfully, the worst we had was marble-sized hail, not the ping pong ball-size they warned about!
I was so disappointed to not be home to see Round 2 of Rocco's State tournament, but I wore my t-shirt to root him on!
We face-timed in for the game which worked okay-ish. We couldn't hear, but we could watch. They were playing the #1 team / defending champs. We had beat them once during the season, so we had hope. We scored, then they scored. It stayed 1-1 for a long time and then with 4-ish min left, we scored and were up 2-1. With 1.5 min left, they pulled there goalie. WE JUST NEEDED TO HOLD THEM OFF FOR ONE MORE MINUTE! ....and then they scored. Tie game, 2-2. It looked like we were headed for OT. Then with 30 seconds left, they scored again. We couldn't recover and they won 2-3. Such a heartbreaking end!
Rocco took it in stride. He's got two more years AND they exceeded all expectations for the season! Again, he had the biggest fan section. (Poor Pastor Mitch was missing half his leaders and a bunch of students at youth group!!!)
Mason made smash burgers for dinner.
Post-bath, getting into all of Titi's things.
On my way to drop off M&M, we randomly watched 4 camels walk out of the theater in the background, perhaps out for their morning stroll. Literally out the front doors and down the steps.
In an effort to get out for a little between-nap adventure, we hunted down a fun coffee shop. As "luck" would have it, we arrived 5 minutes before their little St. Patrick's Day parade kicked off.
We hit up the iconic Lambert's Cafe for dinner. It was 15 minutes from the house and M&M's lead pastor worked there through college. It is somethin'! It's massive and has two Cracker Barrel-type stores to walk through cuz you're definitely gonna wait! They are best known for their big dinner rolls that get thrown to your table as the roll guy walks through the sections of tables. In addition to the meal you order, several staffers walk through offering scoops of add-ons like potatoes, pasta, and fried okra. Also, their beverages come in those huge insulated cups that look like they were prime in the 80's.
Sunday, Mar. 16th
M&M had training, but the rest of us went to James River for service...sort of the mecca of A/G. Beautiful service and great message.
After I dropped Anita off at the airport, we headed a mile down the road to the Bass Pro Shop.
Our sweet little space for the week with the 3 bedrooms and full bath to the right. There was also an amazing laundry off the kitchen and a great sunporch in the back. I told Maddy that I would live there if we were ready to downsize.
Monday, Mar. 17th
I can't!
It was too nice to not do another park day!
I could just watch her move all day!! The belly, the arm swing...she's enchanting!
Dinner break.
Tuesday, Mar. 18th
We spent the morning packing up, stripping beds, and emptying the fridge. Maddy, Mason, and Renna went to a coffee shop to work for a couple hours before we needed to be out of the house at noon. Ezra did a nap and then we went for a walk. She loved pulling the dandelions off their stem. She got to one that had turned to a puff ball; she grabbed it, and when it disintegrated in her hand, she slowly bent back down and tried to put it back like, "Whoops! No one will ever know!"
We were on different flights, but departure times were similar enough that it made sense to all go at once, return the car, burn some energy at the airport.
Travel both to and from was seamless (if you don't mind running through the Atlanta airport!) and Renna was a delight to have along. And obviously from the pictures, a HUGE help with Ezra! Just a dream of a trip and priceless time with Ezra that I will treasure my whole life through!
Trevor picked us up at 9:30p because the boys kicked off another session of men's league this night.
