Welcome to my newest nephew, Oliver Jeffrey June 16 - 1:11 pm - 7 lbs., 6 oz. - 20"
I went to work Wednesday so excited because my sister would be having her baby just one floor below where I was working! It was so great to be able to pop downstairs a couple times before Oliver made his appearance and hang out with Liza for a bit. I was also thrilled to be the first (and probably longest) visitor in the hospital. Holding my 1.5 hour old nephew is something I will never forget. This little guy is adorable and I'm a sucker for him already (as evidenced by changing his diaper on day 3 of existence). I love his little curled up frog legs and it's nice to hold a little boy who actually wants to cuddle (not that he really has a choice). Just another little guy to spread the love to.
Me and Ollie just chillin'
Family picture in the hospital taken by me (with Warren's awesome camera)
My birthday (December 21st) was celebrated in a few ways this year. The first was an outing with the SLP girls to celebrate both Maxine's and my birthdays. Even though it was about a week early, it was great to go out with school friends because usually they're all gone by the time my birthday rolls around. Maxine and I decided on Radio Maria for drinks and tapas. I had some delicious sangria and Katherine and I shared some yummy taps (marinated feta and grilled plantains).
Me, Katherine, and Katie. The birthday girls: me and Maxine.
On my birthday, Katherine and I planned to go to Alto Vineyards for some wine tasting but found out they were closed on Mondays. Bummer. So we went to Sunsinger for wine and lunch instead. We had a very good Riesling, a goat cheese dip with pita chips, and cheese fondue. It was all so good and I would definitely go back!
That evening, my fam went to Monical's for my birthday dinner and then back to my parents' house for presents. My sister made some scrumptious minty cupcakes for dessert.
Christmas Eve in our family is always spent with my mom's side of the family in Monticello at my aunt and uncle's house. The evening usually goes like this... 1. Grazing Period: everyone munches on the tasty treats - my favorites are the sugar cookies my Aunt Kathy and cousins Chelsea and Elizabeth make. 2. Chili Period: after a significant amount of goods have been consumed, we move on to cups of chili with all the fixin's. 3. Present Period: we give gifts to Gaga (my grandma) and she gives us gifts. And this year we started a new tradition of White Elephant/Yankee Swap/Nasty Christmas/Mean/Whatever you want to call it. 4. Game Period: then, we play games. Usually a couple rounds of Scattergories followed by Skip-Bo. And Skip-Bo somehow always involves my cousins and I speaking in a variety of accents. Why? We don't know. But now, it's tradition.
With my mom and sister. Me with Caden and his little dog that he LOVED.
All the cousins + my grandma on my mom's side (counter clockwise from top: Liza, Doak, Drew, Lucas, Elizabeth, Caden, Gaga, Chelsea, me)
Some serious Scattergories debating went down.
Christmas Day was spent at my parents and began upon the arrival of my sister, brother-in-law, and nephews. We all opened presents and had our traditional yummilicious brunch. Naps were taken and toys were played with before an equally yummy dinner.
Lucas and Caden enjoying their chef and fireman costumes.
And, lastly, here's Lucas singing one of his favorite Christmas songs: Alvin & The Chipmunks Christmas Don't be Late. Lyrics included below to help decipher what he's saying.
Christmas, Christmas time is near Time for toys and time for cheer We've been good, but we can't last Hurry Christmas, hurry fast Want a plane that loops the loop Me, I want a hula hoop We can hardly stand the wait Please Christmas, don't be late.
Finally - the North Carolina edition of Summer Vacay!
Saturday, August 8
Today was travel day.Mom, Liza and I loaded up the van to drive to Indianapolis to catch our first flight of the day.We put in “Indianapolis International Airport” into the GPS and followed the directions.However, we arrived at the airport and didn’t see many cars but we did see a sign that said “Airport has moved.”That’s right, they moved the airport.You wouldn’t think that’s possible but it was.So, we turned around and followed some signs to the new airport.One would assume that there would be signs informing travelers of a new airport building, but no, not until we got to the wrong one.We finally got to the correct airport, parked the car, and caught the shuttle to go check in our bag.Then it was time for some food at T.G.I. Friday’s before boarding the plant to Charlotte, NC.When we arrived at Charlotte, we walked around and got some snacks – yes, Cinnabon!The airport had a lot of rocking chairs – must be a Southern thing.Our next flight to Wilmington was pretty quick, however, the plane had an interesting stench.Mom said it best: “it smells like poop!”Good thing it was a quick flight.Actually, both our flights that day arrived early which was amazing.
Upon arrival in Wilmington, we got our rental car, plugged in our hotel info to the GPS and we were off with Liza at the wheel.We got all checked in at the Hampton Inn and Liza was hungry.We soon discovered that she is on a strict eating schedule and needs to eat regularly.So we went down the street to Wendy’s for some late night eats before going to bed.
Sunday, August 9
This morning started off with the hotel breakfast which was surprisingly diverse.Kudos to the Hampton.We then went to Screen Gems Studios which was one of the main attractions that drew me to choosing Wilmington as a vacay local.Our beloved Dawson’s Creek was filmed here and One Tree Hill is currently filmed there.Now, these tour guides were terrible, I feel that must be said.They gave you the basic facts but didn’t make it exciting.I would have been so much better.Ugh.We got to see several sets including Lucas & Peyton’s house, Peyton’s office/recording studio and Brooke’s house.I have never been on a TV set so I thought it was really cool.It’s kind of funny that up close some of that stuff looks really hokey but on TV it looks legit.Our one tour guide was explaining the fridge in Brooke’s house because it had stuff in it but it was mostly empty boxes.He went on this long winded story involving Harris Teeter (East coast chain grocery store), waffles, and saying Chad Michael Murray’s full name way too many times.It became one of the first trip anecdotes.I really enjoyed seeing the sets of one of my favorite shows up close and personal.
Next up was lunch at Two Guys Grille which was satisfying.Our next venture was to Airlie Gardens, site of some Dawson’s Creek filming locations (I have many pictures of such sites from DC and OTH that will all be in a separate post) and pretty garden-like things.It was hot, way hot.
There were not many signs (seems to be a theme with this trip) and we were sweating all over the place.Seriously, way hot and humid.When we got back to the hotel we all went for a swim in the pool.Sadly, we missed pool-side drinks from the bar by mere minutes.After showers and wardrobe changes, we went to Carrabba’s Italian Grille, recommended by Liza.The GPS was seriously amazing as it guided us all over the Wilmington area.There was a delectable looking dessert that had all of us intrigued so we ordered 2 entrees to share and then the dessert.Quite yummy!
Monday, August 10
Today I got up and went for a run down the road.I was training for a race so I had to go run.I’m glad I went early because the heat and humidity set in later in the day.Upon my return, we grabbed another hotel breakfast and checked out of the Hampton.We had wanted to go swimming in the morning but the pool schedule was not compatible with ours.Anyway, we went to the Poplar Grove Plantation.It was slightly disappointing as there was no huge Southern wrap-around porch but we had our own little tour and learned some interesting facts like: there were no closets in the house, Oprah filmed a movie there so she paid for the paint/wallpaper, and the lady of the house had a small gun to threaten people since she ran a post office from a room on the first floor.We wanted to eat there at the plantation, but the food wasn’t really traditional so we decided to head to downtown Wilmington for lunch.
We went to Hell’s Kitchen which was the college dive bar from Dawson’s Creek.After filming ended, some guy bought the restaurant and kept all the stuff from DC the same.So, Liza and I thought it was pretty cool.We saw some other exciting OTH sites including the river walk, Brooke’s boutique, the bridge from the opening credits, and the River Court.We were kind of tired so we went to check into our next hotel which was in Wrightsville Beach.We arrived at Shell Island and checked into our ocean-view suite.
After getting settled in our new room, we went to get dinner at the Melting Pot.The restaurant was in this shopping area so of course we had to shop.Liza got a dress and Mom and I did lots of browsing.The Melting Pot was delicious!Cheese and chocolate fondue galore.We sipped on wine and enjoyed our yummy dinner.Then we went in search of groceries since our room had a fridge and other kitchen-esque supplies.So what store did we go to?Harris Teeter’s, of course (per lousy tour guide’s story).We found lots of breakfast and lunch food for the next couple of days.Back at the hotel we promptly went to bed so we would be ready for a day at the beach.
Tuesday, August 11
This morning we had breakfast in our suite and then suited up for beach time.Last night we were reassured by mister “beach attendant” that he would be there at 8:45am to set out chairs and an umbrella for us and anyone else in need of one.When we arrived at 9am we were shocked to see that beach attendant Brad was not there.We waited and waited and Mom went in to talk to the desk lady who was trying to call Brad.He finally showed up and got us our chairs and umbrella.There was much lounging, reading, and swimming in the ocean.I learned that a two piece swim suit is not necessarily the best choice for being in the water with crashing waves.Swimming in the ocean is so much more exciting than a pool.The water was a good temperature and the sun was hot.We went back to the room for a sun break and to eat lunch.
Then it was back out to the beach.However, from our room we saw that two of our beach chairs had gone missing, hmm.Liza went out to talk to Brad and get our chairs while Mom and I got our frozen beach drinks.Frozen beach drinks are better than pool drinks.Liza had to re-claim not only two of our three chairs but also our umbrella from Brad who had taken them for his friends.(Brad was not back the next day, shocker)We settled back into our chairs and I read a whole book which was awesome.Later in the afternoon, it started to rain so we headed back inside.Mom had a mega burn, I had a burn, and Liza had some slight burn.Uh oh.
We all had time to shower and get dressed to go back to downtown Wilmington.We stopped at a huge beach store, Wings, to get some t-shirts, souvenirs, etc.Then we hit up Fat Tony’s Italian Pub for some pizza and breadsticks.We took a nice walk along the riverwalk; it was a nice night out and the trees had lights on them.We saw some more Dawson’s Creek sites and Liza and I got some bracelets from a lady selling jewelry out on the riverwalk.Then it was back to our room for some wine.
Wednesday, August 12
This morning we went out on the beach again with more sunscreen and Mom under the umbrella more.We also used some orange juice we got the night before and mixed it up in water bottles with some sparkling wine to have Mimosas on the beach; Dad would be so proud.We walked along the beach and found some good shells and Liza and I swam some more in the ocean.Lunch in the room again and then back to downtown for a boat cruise.However, it started raining so we had to go inside the upper boat deck for most of the cruise.We learned some interesting thing and got a different view of things.Then Mom got out of the car with me in order to take some pictures of me in front of some important DC sites, thanks Ma!
We headed to an ice cream place for some delicious treats.Back at the hotel we all got dressed up and headed out to Blue Water Restaurant for dinner.This place was used as the Yacht Club and something else on Dawson’s Creek so that was fun.It was right on the Intracostal Waterway which was very pretty and serene and we got to enjoy some lovely sea food.We finished up some more wine at the hotel and packed up a bit to head out the next day.
Thursday, August 13
We got up early-ish and went for a walk out on the beach one last time.Oh how I love the beach; the sound of the waves, the squishy sand, it’s just so pretty.
I asked Liza to pick me up; she wouldn't. She didn't think I could pick her up; I did.
We got our breakfast and loaded up the car to head off on a scenic drive (thanks to the GPS) to the airport.We had some Chili’s at the Charlotte airport and I had to have another CInnabon.Our flight was delayed for about 2 hours back to Indy.The plane coming in was cancelled so they had to get us another plane.Then there was no “front end crew” which we interpreted to mean the pilot.We got on the plane and there was still no pilot.Finally they got one and we headed back to the Midwest.We got taken right to our car and then it was back to Champaign.
Despite the unenthusiastic staff people and lack of signs we encountered, it was a great trip and hopefully the first of many with my madre and sista!
In no particular order... 1) The food. This is my second "real" Thanksgiving - meaning I actually ate food other than rolls. I was seriously missing out for 20 years. I love that Thanksgiving is mostly side dishes and I love them all - mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, creamy corn, noodles, and of course the rolls. The turkey was good, too. Even better was having 3 whole meals worth of leftovers!
2) My family playing games. Thanksgiving at Liza's is great because it forces us all to be in the same room. It also makes it easier to coerce family members into playing games. Uncle Mike braved Catchphrase with the kids but EVERYONE took a turn at Pictionary. Way to go, fam. Maybe in a few years they'll be ready for Cranium.
3) These kids. Moment #1 is Caden being a marching band. This picture was from another day, but I saw him do it. He's so creative with his shoebox drum and bucket hat. And how can you not love the no-pants look? Moment #2 is extremely rare. Caden brought me his Charlie Brown book to read and Luca wanted to join, too. I'm so amazed that they both sat with me...in a rocking chair...in close proximity to each other...and I got to read a couple pages.
4) Hanging out with my parents. My pa and I bonded over some drinks and watching Fringe. My mom and I went to a movie and I helped her decorate the house for Christmas. We also watched "Christmas Vacation," a Christmas classic in the Suttle house. It was the perfect amount of time to be home - not long enough for them to get annoyed about my exploding clothes/bags.
5) Getting in some good friend time. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, a friend had Natalie, me, and another friend over for dinner. We ate, played rock band, and chatted (amongst other things) the entire evening. The four of us literally spent 8 hours together and it was quite enjoyable. I only got 4 hours of sleep that night and I somehow managed to be wide awake ALL day and not dozing off until close to 10pm. That is amazingness and staying up so late was totally worth it.
*Honorable mentions: not having to work, not doing homework, taking advantage of my parents' DVR, and eating my mom's food (aka not having to cook for myself).
