french toast bake, the varsity, and atlanta!

first off, before i forget...  i have to post this amazing and easy french toast bake recipe.  i pinned it to my pinterest forever ago and forgot about it until i was browsing my food board for some mealtime ideas.  since we had the derenthals in town saturday night to sunday and i had ward council sunday morning, i thought this recipe would be perfect because i could make it the night before and just throw it in the oven before i left for church.  and POOF!  i'm an amazing hostess.  anyways... christopher said it was a little too sweet for him but tracy said it was the most divine thing she's ever tasted.  and my goodness it was delightful.  and just for history's sake... and because i'll want to know for next time and surely not remember... i cooked mine for 52 mins and then left it in the warm oven for another minute or two (i think).

second... and more importantly... baby girl and i made it to atlanta!!!  the drive to the airport was kinda rough with baby girl being tired and whiny (i had to wake her up at 8 because we needed to leave at 8:15) and refusing to eat because it was too early in the morning... but the rest of the day was great.  she was an angel for all of the checking in, going through security, getting moved from gate to gate, and waiting for our delayed flight.  the actual flight was as good as it could possibly be with a 23 month old that was awake the entire time.  although i actually fell asleep several times so maybe she wasn't as well behaved as i think she was but i we survived without any tantrums.  and although no one directly complimented my child on her behavior, the guy sitting next to me commented to the guy next to him "they did really great"... referring to my child and the kid in the row behind us.

the best part of the day though was that my mom flew in from buffalo (she drove out there with my sister emmy who is ENGAGED to a wonderful guy from buffalo!!! - i've been meaning to do an official post on that but short story = i suck... i swear it'll happen eventually) 30 minutes before we got in so she could meet us at the gate!  and although i actually enjoyed the rare experience of flying into T (it's the closest to baggage claim since it goes: baggage claim - T - A - B - C - D - E - F, it was wasted because we actually hopped on the train and went all the way down to F to visit the new varsity that just opened up a few weeks ago!  it was amazing and delicious and even though it's more fun to go to the real thing, this was the perfect option for us because we were getting home by way of marta and my brother in law and it was either airport varsity or none at all.  and although the onion rings are always delicious... they were especially piping hot and perfectly crispy today.  oh my heavens!  perfection!

and then we hopped on marta, hopped off marta, drove home with jeff, ate and hung out til bedtime and then our day was complete.  i'm pretty sure this is the first day that baby girl has ever not taken a nap.  like the first day that she has woken up in the morning and then gone to bed that night without falling asleep in the middle.  although i'm not actually counting it as legit since we lost two hours and i would never in my right mind put her down for bed at 6pm.  but if it's 8pm east coast time... i'm all for it.  sooo, as i said, if we'd be in colorado she would have just gotten a late nap... but since we had the time zone change i just kept her up.  my mom can attest to the fact that by 7:15pm atlanta time, baby girl was begging me to go to sleep.  "naaaapppp.  i want naaaaapppp.  baby naaaaaaappppppp."  well, okay baby, you can have your nap (nap = naps and nighttime sleep)... in 45 minutes.  hang in there.

and on that note, i'm off to take a nap myself.