MIA?

Man, where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday it was Mother's Day and I was current on blog postings! We've been pretty busy, and we've also been pretty consistent in not bringing our camera anywhere we go, so that's the main reason for the lack of postings lately. Let's get caught up, starting at Memorial Day (you'll just have to forever wonder what we did the weekend of May 16th...).

For Memorial Day we went to BF (Beaver Falls, for you non-NYers). Leslie and her family and the boys, Jake and Jordan, were all home. The drive to BF from Beantown is around 5hrs, all depending on how many times you stop, traffic etc. We decided that instead of leaving Friday night we'd leave first thing Saturday morning. The trip was great, good weather, and minimal fuss by AB. She's a solid road-warrior at the tender age of 11 mos. It always amazes me all the things and places we go and she has just gotten so good at adjusting and rolling with the punches - making everything so much easier for us. I'm trying to remember if there were any issues, and nothing is really leaping to mind. One thing is... My love of the Southern Chicken sandwich at McDonald's. It is the best thing ever. Seriously. It's just a breaded piece of chicken fried on a bun with 3 slices of pickles. That's it, no ketchup, mayonnaise, nothing. And it's unbelievable. If you haven't tried it yet, you should. And if you're really feeling like letting loose, wash it down with a vanilla shake...

We had a great time, and my parents put together a fun picnic on Saturday. Annie had tons of fun playing with her cousins and seeing lots of relatives. And of course there was tons of food. I don't know how many people my parents were expecting, but if they were planning on everyone having a hamburger, I'd say they were anticipating 75. No joke. There were so many hamburgers left over, and for the rest of the weekend I swear all any one had for a snack was a burger. I think Jake and Jordan ended up taking the rest back to VT with them, and two weeks later I bet there's still a few in their refrigerator (I'm not going to speculate whether that's because there were so many of them or their fridge may not be cleaned out on a regular basis...).

We headed back to Boston Monday and the trip took a little longer, but relatively painless.

This past weekend we were in Dayton for a quick visit. Our niece Bea was getting baptized. We flew out Saturday morning and had probably the most hassle-incident-free trip. Our flight left at 9am, so we figured we should leave our house around 7 to give us ample time to drive to the airport (15min), park, grab the shuttle to the terminal, check-in and clear security. We left at 7:05am, and were at the gate waiting at 7:40am. Unbelievableably quick, but now what? Annie can only sit still on your lap for so long, and we were so paranoid about depleting that goodwill, or "sitwill" - that we broke down and let her crawl all over the floor. Gross. But I guess after she's thrown her pacifier on the floor 5 times and you keep giving it to her, what's a little more? Plus I'm pretty sure that I read in the NYT that kids have been raised in too sterile environments and little dirt never hurt anyone...

And one thing we've learned from travelling with an infant is that you can pretty much get anything by airport security. And by anything I mean liquids that you don't even have to take out of your bag and deal with that hassle! Numerous times we'll hear "Bag Check!" and then see the security guards look at us, see Annie, and then just wave us through. Awesome.

Side note -- What wasn't so awesome? While I was boarding our return flight home Sunday there was a TSA screener in the breezeway who took me to the side, and then patted me down. And I do mean patted me down. Really? After I've cleared security already, you're going to pull me off to the side and pat me down while everyone else is walking by? Boy was that fun. "Now I'm going to pat your backside." Thanks. I felt like I should've tipped the guy, but that's another story.

The weather in Dayton was beautiful the whole weekend, and Larry and Alex have a great house to spread out in. The Drummy's came down, and we all had a lot of fun. Bea did a great job during the baptism, never once letting out a peep. And in case you haven't heard, yours truly is the Godfather. During the ceremony Karen's grandfather said to me, "Are you the godfather?" I replied "yes" and then he said "Like in the book" and I said "Right, so you better not step out of line!"

After the baptism we went back and had a delicious brunch and all had a great time! I'll post some pics after we get them from Larry and Alex... You know, because we didn't bring our camera. Every time I write that, in my head it sounds like a tag line that the audience yells out, "Because you didn't bring your camera!" Followed by a laugh track. Yeah, that's just a small taste of what's happening inside my head at any given moment. Tag lines and laugh tracks...

The flight home was a different story. So after being frisked we settled in, gave Annie her bottle and she went right to sleep, awesome. What else was so awesome? On a really packed flight, Karen and I had the row to ourselves! Priceless. Not so priceless? The turbulence. I'd say on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the worst, that it was probably only a 5, but it lasted forever... jacking it up to a high 6. Not to mention that it was super windy in Boston, so when we were landing you could feel the plane swaying side-to-side. Couple that with the fact that we were exhausted and it was after 10pm, and it was not pleasant. But obviously we made it home and can't wait for a week home!