It has been a crazy couple of months (with sickness, a new baby, birthday party for Shiloh and trips to Minneapolis, Wisconsin, Charlotte, Charleston and St. Louis) but we Budds KEEP ON TRUCKIN'!!! It was great to take a little break from travel in December for Christmas (thanks for coming to us mom!) and in January, where we kept a pretty low profile with colds and winter sickness.
However, Shiloh and I began racking up more miles with out trip to Minneapolis to see the newest addition to the Remer family - my beautiful, sweet, precious new niece!
Welcome to the World Miss Olivia!!
Big sister Lily had no time falling in love with this little beauty!
And Miss Shiloh couldn't wait to meet "baby!"
With a quick return home we headed to Wisconsin for our annual church retreat. It was a beautiful lodge with a frozen lake and lots of SNOW! It was the perfect getaway for time with God and time to refocus for the year. Our church has such a compassion for the congregation and the community. Kelsey and I are so sad about having to leave this amazing house of God this summer. We will take the things we have learned and always treasure and share them where ever God takes us next. One special added bonus to the weekend was nursery care for all the sessions, which meant Shiloh got to play with some of her friends while Mommy and Daddy got to go to the sessions and learn more about how to engage our community with "Compassion and Conversation". We were also able to have a 'listening prayer' session, which was an incredible experience and then things that God showed us were so on point for Kelsey and I right now. It is always amazing to me how often God takes the time to talk to each of us, if we will only slow down and take the time to listen.
Shiloh with Dad (yeah that's a frozen lake in the back there - welcome to Wisconsin)
Love my baby girl!!!
Should I go to the snow or not?
After a great weekend getaway we had one week to plan for Shiloh's very first birthday!!! It was so great to have both Kelsey's parents (Mommy B and Poppy G) as well as my mom come out to celebrate Shiloh =) Unfortunately after getting back from our weekend in Wisconsin Shiloh had a horrible fever (104+ degrees for over 4 days) and her ear infection seemed to be coming back so we gave her some antibiotics. And somehow she got her mommy's allergy to it (insert gasp), that's right on the day of her party miss peanut was covered in hives from head to toe, but like a trooper, she hung in there and partied like a rockstar!!!! (well a rockstar with hives)
Baby girl still wanted to be stylin' in her birthday tutu and rubber ducky onesie!
Unfortunately peanut was NOT feeling the cake the first time she saw it.
Luckily it only took a couple of tries for her to decide CAKE isn't so bad after all!
(Amazingly you can't even really see ALL the hives that covered her entire body head-to-toe from her reaction to meds. *If you ever watch her....NOOOOOOO penicillin for this kiddo*)
With a week to recover from hives and to get our lives back to normal, we had a quick breather to get ready and packed for our next adventure - Abby's Wedding!!!!
Kelsey's cousin Abby was getting married in Charleston, SC and since it was so close to
Charlotte, NC (a mere 3 hours) we thought we would make the most of Kelsey's time off and visit as much family as possible (I have a sister and her family as well as my Dad in Charlotte - plus we are now ALWAYS scouting out new cities to see where we might want to live for residency.)
What was even more awesome about this trip is that we were able to to spend
Unfortunately like most holidays I beginning to notice I forgot to take photos (I know and I'm a photographer right?) but I think there are one or two of us floating around on someone's phone so I'll have to track them down and post at a later date.
But the wedding was so much fun!!! We got to see people we haven't seen in over a year as well as meet folks (well at least for me and Shiloh) for the first time. Abby was a stunning bride and I can't believe she hosted and event at her house the night before the "big day!"
With events each night, Shiloh got to showcase some of her party dresses, but none was more cute than the dress she wore to the wedding (thanks so much Aunt Sue!!!)
It was also the first time baby girl started telling us "nigh nigh" aka Night Night for those that don't speak baby fluently. And admittedly she tried to kick it Budd style (which means being the last to leave any event) but alas this little one's body wouldn't hold out and she crashed by 10 most nights.
After a week of festivities, we headed back to Charlotte where Shiloh was able to play all day from dawn til dusk with her cousins. It's where she learned "tickle, tickle" from Hannah and discovered her love of frozen peas! We also had a blast going to Robby's baseball practice. Adorable doesn't even begin to describe how cute my nephew is in his full baseball gear. But watching the other kids watching practice was too much for this kid photographer to resist!
Unfortunately one place we didn't expect to go was to the hospital. My Dad had been passing blood for a few days and on the second to last day we were there asked us to take him to the ER where we discovered his blood count was so low he would need a transfusion. Luckily everything went well and he was home by the end of the week.
After a flight delay (apparently Chicago can handle 12 feet of snow and still fly planes, but high winds and a little rain shut it all down), we were able to fly home on Thursday (after spending the good part of the day at the Charlotte airport - oh and just in case you're wondering.....NOT the best place to hang out with a 1 year old for hours)
Once home we took another two weeks to recoup and get ready for another adventure....St. Louis!!!! Why St. Louis you may ask? I say why not? It has been a goal of mine since my early 20's to go all over the country and visit (actually drive) through as many states in this country as I can. So because my husband is awesome (and he knows that I would whine and cry until I got my way on this one) he was willing to spend his last weekend of freedom before starting at Cook County by accompanying Shiloh and I to good ole' St. Louis.
This trip ended up being more fun then I anticipated and we had some unexpected adventures along the way.
First I didn't expect it to RAIN all day Saturday. Which for most people would ruin the trip, but Kelsey and I have learned one thing in all of our travels around the world....you make the best of the situation you are in and you will be surprised at what you find. So despite it raining, we decided to change up our original plan of going to the zoo in the am and head to the best possible option - the BUDWEISER BREWERY of course!!!! It was such an awesome tour - and this is coming from someone who doesn't even like beer!!! Shiloh loved seeing the Clydesdale horses and even got a stuffed one as a souvenir. I loved seeing the old buildings and the entire production process. I think Kelsey liked that too, but I also think he liked the two free beers (well 3 if you take one of mine) and pretzels at the end of the tour.
After the tour the it was still raining so we decided to get one of Kelsey's favorites - Steak n shake fries!!! Then to kill time (peanut crashed in the car) and wait out the rain Kelsey (and I'm not making this up people) suggested that we go to Nordstrom Rack!!!! Now those of you that know me well, know that I seek this store out in whatever city I go to, maybe it's from working at Nordstrom all through college and a few years after, but I am always on the hunt for my elusive black handbag (which I secretly hope to find for $100 or less, but be worth $500 or more - it would be the ultimate shopping high!) So we looked for the handbag (sad to say it was not in St. Louis) and for some schnazzy black lace up dress shoes for Kelsey to wear on interviews. Alas we came away empty handed for us....but baby girl (who slept the whole time) came away with cute black boots and sneakers for next fall! SOOOO not fair.
Finally it was time to go to the zoo, and what a aaaahhhhhhmazing time we had. The animals were super cool (like most animals really) but the craziest part was the penguin exhibits where we were literally a foot away from them. It was crazy you were getting splashed, they were on rocks just above your head and did I mention it was FREEZING!! But seriously this was a great zoo and I would recommend it to any one.
Oh and did I mention that this whole day cost a total of $3.56!!! How? Well, brewery was FREE, zoo - FREE, dinner - FREE?!?!?! What dinner free? We stopped at the St. Louis bread company (which apparently has been bought by panera) and ordered two yummy soup bowls, a great end to a cold rainy day. But after waiting over 30 minutes for our food, we discovered that they ran out of bread bowls, and that someone else had taken one of the bowls. So what do they do, crazy people cut a whole into a loaf of bread and give us that (along with a full refund). Stupid, maybe, delicious, ABSOLUTELY!!!! Although I'm pretty sure I consumed enough carbs for the rest of the year!!!
So with a quick drive back to the hotel, a evening dip in the pool (Shiloh was jumping/falling into the pool) we crashed to get up at 7:30 am to get our tickets for the Cardinals and go in the infamous arch. So we got up SUPER early got breakfast and headed to the stadium to get in line for tickets. Now this has to be one of the best MLB seats programs I have ever seen. Each and every game the Cardinals give away 275 pairs of tickets for $11.20 - not each but for BOTH!!!! These tickets are give backs from companies, players, etc. So for $11.20 we got great seats and enjoyed a game in my 9th baseball stadium (working on trying to get to each one). After we got the tickets we headed to the arch. Once there we bought the tickets and waited for our time to go up...now for some reason I thought there was some elevator that would take us up. I did not however, think that it would be a little pod that looked more like a prop from "Mork and Mindy" than a safe way to go up X stories. I made it (although it was not my favorite part by any means) and finally we were at the top where you have about 100 sq ft to walk around and look down. SOOOOOO needless to say after about 10 minutes we were back on the ground and headed to my favorite passtime - BRUNCH!
After a delicious brunch (with popovers!!!) If you don't know what popovers are I suggest, no insist that you find a restaurant near you or even make them yourself, but you must, must, must have them with strawberry butter) we headed to the game. It was such a great time and Shiloh LOVED cheering for the players (on both teams) and chatting with the crowd around us. Although, I must say the stadium DID remind me of my now home stadium, Citizen Bank Park and it reminded me of all the wonderful games Kelsey and I have gone too and made me wonder if we can squeeze a game in for June..hmmm....we'll see.
After the 7th inning we decided to get a head start on the 5 hour drive home. But as life always happens for us, we had an unexpected detour that was a complete blessing. So we thought leaving when we did that Shiloh would crash for her afternoon nap (especially since she didn't have a morning nap. But she decided to hang with Mom and Dad and stay awake. So we weren't able to drive as long before having to stop in Springfield. What, the same city that Kelsey's mom was born and lived in......crazy coinsidence, but we were able to go and see the house that Kelsey's mom grew up in! It was such a treat for Kelsey to see the place his mom has talked about. It's all about those unexpected journeys in life that teach us the most. For more on learning about yourself, feel free to check out my latest post here.
So now we are in May and I think we will stay in Chicago for this month before hitting the road again. Until next time, hugs and kisses (even long distance) can warm any heart at any time.
xoxo,
