A Boy & His Boots (+ the Rest of Us)

Fear not. This post is heavy on the photos and light on the rambling. I just wanted to share some new family photos we took over the weekend. Word on the street was that Saturday was going to be unusually beautiful, so during a Friday morning (black) coffee visit our good friend, Lauren, suggested that we crash her Youth Minister Retreat happening up the road from us in Belleville. We'd get to pop in and see her during their down time and she'd snap some family photos on the grounds. #momblogger was all LET'S GO. Win-win. 

Not much more explanation required. BUT, Little Will's cowboy boots are pretty torn up. We're not quite sure how they're even supposed to fit, but I'm afraid they're getting a little too small and we'll have a Chinese foot binding-type situation. (He really does want to wear them the moment he sets his eyes on them.) Well, we got him new boots. 

I present to you: the galoshes.

May they bring us as many spectacular memories.

He already insists on wearing them everywhere, even though we bought them a size up, so they are HUGE. Like, he tries to run in them, but they stay in the ground and he flies forward. You'll notice his knees are pretty torn up as a result. 

Despite the boot-related tantrumming, is this little boy PRACTICALLY HEADED OFF TO COLLEGE? OR IS IT JUST ME?

All the crying emojis ever iMessaged, inserted here.

And here.

And here.

The end.

Yet Another Maryland Trip

We recently returned from a five-day trip to Maryland for my cousin's wedding. Even though I've been finished work for almost three weeks we are just now trying to settle into a routine. (And even then it will be thrown out of whack by Will's five-week departure for more training in Alabama. But we are trying!)

Originally, I had planned on making this trip solo over just a couple short days. But after pushing up the end date at my firm and realizing that I could change my Southwest itinerary to lengthen my trip for only $6, we decided it would be the perfect opportunity for little Will's last hoorah as a lap baby (before he turns two and/or I run out of lap space). 

This is how we roll . . . 

Car seat on my back, pushing Will in the stroller with one arm/my belly, pushing the other luggage in the other hand. I got a couple "You Go Girls!" so I was feeling pretty skilled.

A MAJOR incentive to making the trip with the toddler, despite being pretty largely pregnant and missing out on time with a husband about to leave for five weeks, was that my niece, Molly, was going to be in Maryland, too. We have a portrait of Will and Molly hanging in our living room and he repeatedly points to it screaming, "MAH-EE! MAH-EE?!" He LOVES him some Molly.

We got lots of great snaps of the cousin-twins.

I'm not gonna lie. It was pretty exhausting. Nobody slept. We stayed at my mom's, which is not baby proofed at all and the one thing the kids wanted to do the whole time was play on the staircase and/or fight with each other over the few toys on the premises. A couple mornings, Will and I made our escape to Barnes & Noble where I would enjoy some coffee and he would be occupied by the train set or Lego table for 15-20 minutes before maniacally running through the aisles of books (at one point wielding a pink umbrella at unsuspecting patrons, but I digress). 

The wedding was kid-free, so my mom and stepdad watched the kids while my sister and I drove up to Princeton, New Jersey for the day. The church was gorgeous, the ceremony was gorgeous, and the wedding (as all Nolan weddings are) was out of control fun. The entire Nolan side of the family was out of their chairs and on the dance floor for the first song right out of the gate. It could have been the four hours of cocktails preceding the event, but I like to think it was genetic — we just have the groove woven into our souls. 

I got to go back to the 7am mass by myself and got to attend the most prayerful mass I've had in months (and probably for months to come!).

The sibs at cocktail hour.

I got a ton of compliments on the maternity dress I'm wearing. I highly recommend it! The material is stretchy, yet thick. It's high quality for price (only $33) and best of all - machine washable! Also, I wore it two weeks prior at a different wedding and no one noticed it was the same dress from pictures because it's a nondescript little black dress. So if you're in the market. (I also survived the whole day and night in the wedges I'm wearing - 12k+ steps according to my Fitbit - just throwing that out there - STILL GOT IT.)

I won't comment on how many times I was asked when I'm due (5,394,384 estimate) or how many times I was asked what I'm having (2,469,495 estimate) or how many times I was asked if we are "done" since we have the quintessential perfect family of Boy-Then-Girl (1,495,394 estimate). Nope, won't go there!

When we got back Sunday we worked hard to get a good snap of the kids before my sister's departure:

My sister's flight left on Sunday, but Will and I didn't leave until Monday evening, so we got to have some quiet time at Jima's (my mom, grandma aka G-ma, which was translated to "Jima" by a confused friend who thought it was a Japanese term of endearment; we just ran with it!). 

And to contrast the first picture . . . 

We're back in the cornfields. And the poor man next to us only had to endure about 14 elbows from yours truly and about 13 smelly feet kicks from the little man. 

Wisconsin, America's Dairyland: A Photo Dump

This week little Will and I got to accompany husband Will on a recruiting trip to Wisconsin. Basically, the USAF paid for gas and the hotels, so why not take the opportunity for a little family time? We loaded up the car Monday afternoon and headed north. Neither of us really knew anything about Wisconsin going into it, so color us surprised that we ended up having a really great time. Wisconsin is a pretty cool place that we definitely wouldn't have made the effort to visit otherwise. The following is a photo dump documenting our trip, so scroll and skim as you wish.

Madison

We arrived in Madison Monday night, and after checking into our hotel, we headed downtown to a local spot called Graze. 

And experienced cheese curds for the first time. Heaven.

While little Will HATES (I mean . . . HATES) the carseat, he otherwise does really well with all other aspects of travel. Here he is fresh and fancy-free after a great night's sleep in the hotel. 

Will had to speak at the UW ROTC detachment Tuesday morning and then conduct informational interviews at the law school all afternoon, so little Will and I headed to the zoo. 

I dressed little Will up in his monkey outfit and took pictures of him with the gorilla.

I should really be stopped. 

But I won't. Never.

Mr. Gorilla gave us the cold shoulder, which is fine because . . .

We were walking away from the lion's den, just the two of us, when we heard loud roaring. I thought it was fake. Maybe it was a recording indicating they were about to feed the lion or something, I don't know, but I decided to turn around and walk back. Lo and behold . . .

It was the real life lion all like, Hey get back here. 

Staring at us so intently, she was literally fogging up the glass.

This was definitely one of those amazing memories I'll have where I experienced something cool just because I was with my kid. I mean, there's no way I would have been at a friggin' zoo if I wasn't with little Will. And he won't even remember it. But I got to hang out with a lion, just because I was hanging out with my baby. Priceless memories, people. I also met up with some Internet friends from this forum, so I should probably also be thanking Mary Clare and Heather, because they're the ones to suggest a zoo visit.

After the zoo and lunch, we were kind of just killing time. I walked and walked and walked all around campus. (The zoo is right next to the campus, so we walked everywhere. Including up this GIANT hill that overlooks the water. Yeah, a lake. I didn't know there was a lake in Madison, WI either.) Will and I hung out in the law school lobby for a bit while we waited so he could crawl around, you know, without eating dirt or grass or cigarette butts. I just kept thinking to myself how very different my life is since was the last time I set foot in a law school. Over here lugging around 20 pounds of books rather than 20 pounds of baby. 

The campus Mall is right outside the law school. Thus, a UW selfie:

"Go badgas."

Little Will even picked me this lush bouquet. Ever the thoughtful son.

He later tried to eat it. 

When Will was finally finished with interviews, we headed out to dinner at the Ale Asylum Brewery (obsessed with their Belgian Style Ale called "Kink") and then set our sights toward Milwaukee.

Man in uniform carrying a chunky baby. A very attractive combo, if I may say so myself.

Milwaukee

Just your typical classy drive-by stadium pic:

Will again had informational interviews at the Marquette campus. And, once again, little Will and I had lots of time to kill. Luckily, there are plenty of places to get your Catholic nerd on at Marquette. We started at the Church of the Gesu. We couldn't get into the upper church, but judging by the lower church, I'm sure it's amazing. We hit up confession, my first one with little Will strapped to me, who started waking up just as soon as I kneeled. Quite possibly the quickest confession I've ever had. I then tried my hardest to get into the upper church, but found that every door was locked, and I just went to confession, so I wasn't trying to do some breaking and entering. Maybe next time . . . before confession.

We went to Starbucks for a PSL because white girls in the Fall cannot be stopped.

There were obviously a couple Marquette selfie fails:

And then we ran into Blessed Mother Teresa while we waited for the St. Joan of Arc Chapel to open. I was like Mother Teresa, I am also mother Theresa. Pleased to meet you.

She didn't think my joke was funny.

Then we made it inside the St. Joan of Arc Chapel. It's a medieval chapel that was transported from France by way of Long Island and reconstructed on campus.

Then there were more cute baby on campus in the Fall pics to be taken. What can I say?

We ended our Milwaukee visit in Bayview (I think what the area is called---I just follow wherever Yelp! takes me) at a little restaurant called Cafe Lulu, where, naturally, we tried more local beer!

This one's for Tess. 

After dinner, I got a milkshake at a little ice cream shop across the street and had the best whipped cream I've ever tasted. I'll never be able to enjoy any other kind of whipped cream ever again.

Then we drove the 6 hours back home.

The end.

I Survived!

Remember those t-shirts in middle school that said "I survived . . . [enter embarrassing event here]"? Did you survive Splash Mountain? Jurassic Park, maybe? Sometimes things got pretty serious and read things like "Hurricane Andrew" or "Snakehead Fish." Go ahead pretending you don't know what I'm talking about, but I know you sported one in middle school. 

Well.

I survived this:

With two dogs and a baby. (Wooo, she crazy!)

We watched the USA soccer game Thursday afternoon (talk about mixed emotions), packed up the car, and drove through the night to Maryland. 

Complete with USA power braid.

We arrived at our destination 5:30am on Friday. It actually wasn't so bad. Once it was dark, all the needy creatures slept and it was quite the enjoyable drive until Will decided he wanted to listen to the 90's heavy metal/alternative Pandora station. My ears are still ringing. However, upon arrival, we finally met our adorable niece, Molly, and took a solid 3 hour nap. So basically we got a full night's sleep anyway. 

Wink.

The cuteness of #babyville has been heavily documented on Instagram, so fret not. 

Will is def in the same t-shirt as the photo above leaving our neighborhood. We aren't messing around.

On Sunday, we ditched our canines and packed things up yet again, this time headed to the oasis that is Ocean City, Maryland.

I credit my old law school friend, Justin, with this gem of a haiku: 

The cases of beer

Have been replaced by diapers

Late 20s beach day

I'm off now to Sunsations to get my new t-shirt made. "I survived a 14 hour drive with a baby and two dogs" on the front. Sweet haiku on the back. 

USA flags on the sleeves.