Mamaw Comes to Visit

We knew my best friend from high school, Vanessa, was getting married the weekend after we moved to CA. This worked out beautifully because she lives in CA! So all we had to do was drive an hour! I was super excited. The couple had requested that no children come to the wedding...uh-oh! I told her that I would definitely be there, but Brian may not if my mom wouldn't come out to take care of Luke as this was the first time we would ever leave him. Luckily, my mom was happy to oblige so that both of us could go to the wedding. A first night out without little Luke. My heart skipped a beat just thinking about it. But I knew it had to be done at some point before he goes to college, so what better time than now? And I would only trust my mom to take care of him the very first time (especially since it was an entire evening)!

So my mom came out on Thurs.to get reacquainted with Luke (which really took no time at all) before the wedding on Sun. Brian and I got all gussied up and it was time to go. I was the typical mommy leaving her baby for the first time...I kissed him about a gazillion times, looked back and I called pretty much when we were out of the driveway and probably about 3 more times throughout the night! What was funny was I had separated from Brian for some reason and called my mom. She asked why I was calling because Brian had just called! We completely trusted Mom, but we just wanted to 'check in'! It all went well (so she says! ha!) and the wedding was beautiful! I am so glad we both got to go, and truth be told, we had a great time...but we missed Luke incredibly! (I took tons of pictures at the wedding, but on my mom's camera because our battery was dead and we couldn't find the charger...as soon as I get those pictures from her, I'll post them...we were a pretty snazzy couple if I do say so myself!)

Mom stayed a week, so we HAD to go to the beach to get some pictures! For some reason they were the only pictures I got of the 2 of them...huh? I'll have to remember next time to take more! But here are some of them...

open your eyes, Luke!!!

I love my Mamaw!

Look up, Luke!!!

 Then, of course, we had to get a couple of Luke by himself. I actually had ordered picture frames for grandparents day and needed a good picture of Luke for them, so we had a mini photo session!

the sand was calling his name!

this was the 'framer'

our family pic for the day!

Since Brian always carries Luke on his shoulders, I thought I'd give it a shot...

...forgetting that he LOVES my hair! 

Another great hour at the beach!

Now that we're about 15 minutes away from 'town', it's so much easier to take Luke to run errands. It's also easier to just do one thing and head back home, as opposed to having to plan the day because it's a 45 min. drive into town (like it was in Fernley to go to Reno!). Another great thing is there is a Gymboree Play and Learn center right up the road. I was SUPER excited for that because I had been wanting to get Luke into a class so he can socialize with other kids as well as crawl around and work on his development...especially his gross motor skills (crawling, walking, etc.). So we had signed up for a 'preview' class while mom was here, so it worked out great because she took pictures!

observing and assessing the situation!

music time!

washing the spider out!

'tummy surfing'...aka a workout for Mommy!

It was time for 'circle' time for the mommies, so the kids introduced themselves...

hello friend!

...and played with some balls.

Oh! Hello!

It was super cute. Luke is slow to warm up, but once he does, he puts on the charm and it is so funny! Such a boy!

Then it was time to climb and crawl...

must...get...the duck!

almost there!

Then he went for a ride and really liked it!

It was time for some balls again...he LOVED the balls...so we bought some. They apparently are WAY cooler at Gymboree because he couldn't really care less about them at home! ha!

must...get...

BALLS!!!!

Then it was nearing the end of class, which meant parachute time...

We had a great time at Gymboree. Brian got to go the second time. I'll post those later.

It was a great time having Mamaw here. It was much busier than it was back in Ferntucky and there was a lot more to do, which was super exciting for all of us! Thanks for coming, Mamaw, and taking care of Luke!