wrapping up thursday

when we got to the airport, we switched out rental cars, getting the same exact mini van we had before, but with a black exterior instead of white.  brady woke up as soon as we got there but abigail was still asleep, so i popped out her carseat and set it with all of our stuff while i waited for mom to do the rental car switch and for dad to come and meet us.  i had to push brady around in circles to keep him happy, but abigail just slept in her carseat.  buckled.  on the floor of super noisy a parking garage.  while a million and one people walked by.  and it was cold.  i was shocked she was able to sleep through it all.

 

then we transferred all our stuff to the new car and dad carried abigail's carseat the length of the parking garage and we got it snapped in the new car.  and she slept through the entire process.

 

 

seriously.

and she was still sleeping when we arrived to my cousin's house at 6.  but it had been over an hour and half so we woke her up and took her inside for dinner.

lee is my oldest cousin....upper 40's maybe?... so i kind of forget that his wife isn't also my cousin.  she is WONDERFUL!  and her cooking is to die for. 

i kid you not, this may have been the best salad of my life.  spinach, apples, pomegranate seeds, and candied walnuts with some sort of homemade vinaigrette.  oh holy cow.

i am a horrible photographer.  somehow i managed to cut off my dad and get these two random boys my cousin was babysitting.  lee and wendy have several kids of their own, and wendy still babysits for free for a single woman in her ward that is going back to school.  but somehow wendy managed to play hostess and make and serve this incredible dinner while managing her kids and three additional little boys.  with stemmed glasses even!  i want to be able to do that someday!

yuuuuuummmmmm

individual little parfait trifle berry desserts.  

 after dinner, we took off to alpine to the home of some family friends that we knew in atlanta.  the wife was actually my primary music chorister when i was five or six or something.  i remember i thought she was gorgeous and had the best voice ever.  turns out, she is still delightful.  i felt so so so welcome in their home.

abigail was supposed to sleep here... but chose to sleep with brady and me instead.

our room was cute too.  just not as dainty.

i put all the pillows from the bed onto the floor to make sure she didn't fall off and die... and then i cuddled and spooned her the whole night long.  brady was still difficult and wouldn't got to sleep.  i finally was able to rock him to sleep in his carseat and then when he woke up a few hours later, i nursed him and was able to put him in the pack in play for the rest of the night.  and even though the room was pitch black when we woke up... 7am and brady was ready to go.  seriously kid?

 at least 8 hours of sleep was a sight improvement from the 7 the night before.  but goodness that's a whole lot of awake time.  there is a reason kids are supposed to sleep 12 hours at night plus naps.  a really really good reason.