Rocky Mountain High

Welp, we did it. Addison AND I experienced a major first (many firsts actually).

First Trip to Denver:
Her first, my third or so. Anxious for a little getaway from the winter blues, we decided to plan a last minute trip to visit my cousin/best friend Jared and his little family in none other than....Colorado. Not quite the tropical destination but luckily the fun people waiting for us there made it all worth our while. Which says a lot considering all that we endured to get there!

Jared and I have spent our lives traveling the world together and creating wonderful, hilarious memories. Ann and I spent almost 9 months of our lives pregnant at the same time and have bonded over the ups/downs that come with pregnancy and the role of first-time moms. Carson is about 3 weeks older than Addison and as cute as a button. They hadn't seen each other since she was a month old so their visit was long overdue. As was ours.

First Plane Ride:
All in all, it was great. Security was seamless. Addison was happy and flirty-like usual. Thanks to an empty flight she got her very own window seat. We had a blast with our mini-little photo shoot before take-off. We ate our snacks and she never fussed once with the altitude.

However, by looking at this picture you would never guess what we endured to make it to the airport in the first place. If you look close enough, you'll see a bib and a bottle of pedialyte in the background. Yup, that's right. Of all the days for my non-pukey spity up baby to get the projectile pukes - she picked the day of our departure. Actually every hour of our trip up until the airport. I attributed it to something she ate since she never once had a temperature, felt warm, or even acted sick. So for these reasons we pushed onward and upward. (no pun intended ;-)

Getting her top two teeth:
She's been enjoying her bottom two teeth for a few months now. But the top two decided to pick this trip as their official debut. Lucky us. As a result, neither her or I were happy campers. My perfect, happy, sleeping baby, was everything but. Mostly at night (every hour of night) and early morning (as in 5 am). During the daytime hours she was as happy as a lark. I'm sure it didn't help that we were also adjusting to a new time zone and thinner air. And with an unfamiliar environment she was not keen to leaving my side even for a minute.

Me Learning to be a single parent:
For any who are considering.....DON'T recommend it! John had to stay behind and work while we went on our adventure. And with Addison re-visiting her separation anxiety and the sleepless nights and early mornings - it doesn't necessarily bring out the greatest parenting traits in a person. Needless to say we were thankful when we finally made it back home to Arky. Luckily we both had just a few ounces of sanity left.

Hanging Out With Fun People:
Even amidst all the pukies, sleepless nights, and short patience we had fun. Thanks to the Rodman clan. They went above and beyond to make sure our stay was worthwhile. We had nice relaxing days and the perfect amount of festivities to keep it exciting. Here are a few things we did...

Addison and Carson got to have some quality bonding time. It didn't take him long to warm up to her and sit on top of her every chance he got. Thanks Carson for helping Addison perfect her crawl! He never held still for even a second so it opened up a whole new world to Addison.

Thanks to Jared's "connections" we scored free admission to the local "Y" for some fun swim time. (Thanks Jared for saving us our buck fitty admission fee! ;-) We had a blast and Addison actually went under the water for the first time once Mommy got the courage to try it. She loved it of course!

We even got to visit a zoo that was on the side of a mountain. This was Addison's first zoo experience so needless to say she slept through most of it. I wasn't complaining though - I was a heavy promoter of her naps. I just took extra pictures to show her what she missed once she woke up. Nothing is cuter than a sleeping baby.

And Addison had more table food on this trip than she has ever had to date. Once again, Carson introduced her to it and she loved it of course. Completely kicked her canned baby food to the curb during our trip. She even ate TWO quesadilla slices at the restaurant. She loves her food - and now especially strawberries! Yum!

All in all, the trip was fun and we had a lot of experiences. I didn't get pictures of our 'Garden of the Gods' trip, movie/popcorn nights, American Idol reviews, and all the delicious food we ate. We are very thankful to Ann & Jared for showing us a good time. We even got to reconnect with another of my favorite cousins, Deleen and her cute family before we flew out. We had a great lunch with them - even though Addison decided to once again re-introduce her pukies. :( Somehow flying must make her nervous and somehow she must KNOW which days we were boarding a plane. Three words: Crowded airport, projectile. Nuff said. Pity anyone? By the end of the trip we were both thrilled to be home where we could clean up. And of course, no pukies since that day. So mysterious she is.