Campbell's First Fish

A coworker of Gabe's started an ice fishing club at work and there was an ice fishing event this weekend. Gabe took Campbell along and Campbell caught her first fish! Well, technically, someone else caught it and let her reel it up. But that's just a technicality. To her, it was her first fish & she couldn't have been prouder.

So excited to go fishing with Daddy!

Waiting...

Her first fish!

Sold...Not So Much

It was a roller coaster couple weeks for us. The first day I was in Arizona, Gabe called me and said we got an offer on our house, but it was super low. Would you expect any other timing than me being out of state and out of cell phone reception area for this to happen!?! So we went back with a counter offer. And back and forth and back and forth. I lost count of how many times, but finally with the help of our agent eating some of his fees, we got to an offer that we accepted. We were super excited and had only a month to pack/move/find a house to buy. So we got busy. We bought 100 boxes from craigslist for cheap, rented a storage unit & started packing. I also took several loads to the Goodwill, sold books at a used book store & brought some clothes to a consignment shop. (I finally got rid of 5 huge bins of work clothes. That felt good! It was pre-babies stuff and too small plus, I don't even want to think about having to go back to wearing dress clothes every day.)

For the inspection, we had to be out of the house for half a day starting at 8 am. We had to wake up the kids & carry them into the car to get out of the house on time. I said to Campbell that if I had to work, we'd have to rush out of the house every morning like this & Campbell said, "I'm so glad that you stay at home with us." It was so sweet & nice to hear.

The inspection went good as expected since our house isn't that old. So, we continued taking a car load of boxes over to storage every night.

And then a couple days later we get a call saying the buyer is going to back out. I guess they had 48 hours from the time they received the inspection report to cancel for whatever reason they wanted. BIG BUMMER!

I can't blame the buyer, she is in a wheelchair and our house is basically straight up and down. But why they even were interested in it in the first place, drug us through a ba-zillion offers/counter offers, purchase agreement, inspection, radon test and then FINALLY 2 days later decided to back out is totally beyond me.

We don't even get the earnest money because it's within the 48 hours.

Back to showings. We've had a couple showing since which is nice. At first I was bummed I had wasted time starting to move, but it's just less that I have to do once we do sell. Positive thinking....we are going to sell this house! And next time for more money!

If You Give a Moose a Muffin

Campbell & I went to see "If You Give a Moose a Muffin" with A & N. The play was cute & we dined on some delicious pizza at Pizza Luce afterward. I had already bought tickets before I found out that Campbell's preschool class was attending a few days before we were going, but Campbell enjoyed seeing it again.

A & I worked together at Ernst & Young (my first job out of college) before husbands/kids and we reconnected not too long ago at an Alumni event. We have had fun getting our (almost exactly the same age as each other) kids together for play dates and Campbell calls N her 'best friend'.

Excited for the show to begin!

Getting autographs from the cast after the show

Campbell & N

Girls Trip to Arizona

I've been wanting to get down to Arizona to visit my Great Aunt Lilia for a long time and finally booked a trip for a long weekend. Papa came down to watch Blake while Gabe was at work, which we greatly appreciated!

So Campbell & I embarked on our first ever Girls Trip. She was a perfect travel companion & we had a really great time together. It was nice Get Away for me. It felt so good to get out of the snow & cold and wear flip flops in the sun. It was also really nice to not have to think about food allergies for a while. It takes a lot of planning whenever we go anywhere because we have to pack food for Blake. And also, I feel guilty letting Campbell get a treat when Blake can't have it. So, she had many firsts on the trip having to do with food that we don't normally have around....Lucky Charms, Mentos, the whitest of white bread, cotton candy... just to name a few.

A couple of funny Campbell-isms from our trip:

• Landing in Arizona: "That was the opposite of a roller coaster ride." I don't know exactly what that meant, but it was a fairly smooth landing.
• While shopping, she found a hat that perfectly matched her purple checkered dress (you can see it in the zoo pictures). She was modeling it in front of a big mirror and said: "I look like a Barbie doll!" Oh man...I didn't even know she knew what a Barbie was.
• She tried on Sonja's over sized sunglasses & I was taking a picture of her & was trying to say "say cheese" but only got out the "say" and she interrupted me and said "...movie star!" Again...oh man.

So excited to fly!

The first morning's breakfast. Who knew they made cereal with marshmallows in it!

Walking to Aunt Lilia's from where we stayed at Grant & Dede's place. There were huge trees overflowing with lemons, grapefruit and oranges along the way.

And palm trees

And saguaro cactus.

GG gave us a golf cart ride. Whee! We stopped at the little store and Campbell got some Cheesy Poofs. Needless to say that was an AMAZING experience for her.

She LOVES GG. Who doesn't?!?

Mona came to visit! And of course, Aunt Elizabeth, Uncle Rylan, Rachy & Matt too. It was like a mini family reunion and so great to see everyone.

Each night after dinner Campbell & Lilia would enjoy ice cream. Campbell got huge servings. Did I mention yet that Campbell got spoiled on this trip?

Happy Birthday Elizabeth! Since we couldn't have candles for the cake because of Lilia's oxygen, we got creative. A couple toothpicks and a quick download of a lighter app on the Droid & we're good to go!

After I won the much fought over blanket at Christmas, I felt a bit guilty, so I made one for Elizabeth for her birthday. The bow from the present made a nice scarf as modeled by Ry.

We spent a lot of time on the patio soaking up the rays. The weather was absolutely perfect the entire trip...72 degrees.

Campbell enjoyed spending time with Uncle Gary & loved cuddling on the couch with Lilia watching the Disney channel.

On our way to the zoo. I don't know what's with Campbell putting her hands like that, but she's been doing it a lot lately.

We had a great time at the zoo with Sonja, Uncle Ry, Aunt Elizabeth and my friend Danica met us there too. She is a former co-worker that moved to Phoenix a few years ago. It was good to catch up with her.

Campbell loved this statue for some reason. I have a ton of pictures of her climbing on it and giving it hugs.

Giraffes

Carousel ride

Snow cones....perfect for a hot day!

Campbell being force fed cotton candy by Uncle Rylan. She was hesitant to try it at first, but was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't insulation.

Quick piggy back ride, but other than that, Campbell walked the entire time. I don't know how her little legs did it, I was exhausted from all that walking!

End of the sugar high & wiped out from all that walking

Saying good bye to Rachy & GG

Saying good-bye to sunny Arizona....or so we thought. After sitting on the plane for about 40 minutes, we had to get off because a tire was bad and there wasn't another tire anywhere in Phoenix. One was being flown in from Atlanta, so our flight was delayed 6 hours....until 11:30 at night! I'll admit I was a bit panicked at first- I mean, don't they know that my 3 year old goes to bed at 7?!?

I'm on the phone trying to figure out what we're going to do & before I know it Campbell has settled in with a family who is traveling with 3 little girls. The very friendly mom gave Campbell snacks and she cozies up to watch a movie with them. Even though they were only together about 30 minutes, the girls became fast friends, there were tears on both sides saying good-bye.

In a stroke of luck, Uncle Ry & Aunt Elizabeth stopped in Phoenix for some shopping on their way back home so they were only 10 minutes away. They came and rescued us,  and we went to dinner & wasted some time at a bookstore. At the bookstore, I let Campbell pick out a stuffed little snail for herself & dog for Blake. I don't know what it is about those toys, but both Campbell & Blake still sleep with them. 

One more time eating at In-N-Out....not so shabby!

Back on the plane. For the inconvience, we were each issued $100 travel vouchers....hhhhmmmmm,,,,maybe we'll have to use them for another trip to Arizona! This time we had an empty seat in our row so Campbell promptly laid down and slept the entire flight.

Getting off the plane at 3 in the morning, she still squeaks out a little smile. Thank you Daddy for calling a car to pick us up so we didn't have to worry about getting a cab. We drove back home in a snow storm - back to reality!

 

At home the next day, Blake helps unpack the lemons we brought back. The freshly squeezed lemonade in subzero Minnesota just didn't taste the same as when Rachy made it in Arizona.

That's a lot of 1's

I'm super behind on my blogs (again) and doing some catching up (again). It's February...and I just got done with that Christmas post - thank goodness for being able to backdate!

I had started a post on 1-11-11 and didn't get much farther than wanting to have a post on a fun day like 1-11-11. Looking through my pictures, I don't even have any pictures from those dates to add. Oh well!

Happy New Year!

We had a low key New Year's this year. Pretty much every year for about a decade or so, we've celebrated with our clan of high school friends, but since a couple of the wives were within weeks of their due dates and another had just given birth, it didn't work out this year.

Campbell & I made these little desserts for the special night. The cup was made out of chocolate, filled with pudding and topped with whip cream....can't go wrong with that!

The kids toasting each other. Cheers!

We had a delicious steak dinner complete with sparkling juice served in champagne glasses (and a bottle for Blake).

Gabe & I played a bunch of games after the kids went to bed. When the power went out around 11:30 we almost went to bed, but we found some candles & continued our gaming. The power came back on a couple minutes before midnight so we could watch the countdown on TV.
Happy New Year!