D.C. Day #3/ 4th of July

Rylee had 3 4th of July outfits thanks to my mom & I. 

It's like you see something, you grab it & then you just keep grabbing & grabbing.

 This is Morgan- she just turned 2 and is a little devil!

I guess most 2 year olds are? 

I'm sure I'll find out soon enough.

Starting out the day!

We decided to go see the White House & go to The Natural History Museum.

I'm thinking Obama or someone important was leaving because it was roped off and the secret service agents were all out & was not letting anyone get close. 

I loved seeing all of the dresses that the First Ladies wore.

 

And this kid- what was up with this outfit?!

I'm fierce, be afraid.

ooo- la la la

I love this building.

We had enough of DC for the day so we went back to the house & took a swim!

 This picture makes me sad and happy. I hate that I'm so pale, but now I think twice about tanning because of the little darling I'm holding in my hands. I want to be pretty for her and be around when she grows up instead of with cancer.

 hehe- she loved playing with the ball and smashing it in her face.

I love, love, love my family.

After nap time it was time to watch fireworks! I kept debating on it because it was WAY past her bed time- as in 3 hours past her bed time. But what the heck- we're on vacation. So she had a nice, long late nap and we headed to fireworks at 8:30pm. 

If you know me- you know I had to take a few pics before :)

The fireworks didn't end up starting until 10pm!! She was getting cranky so I just set her in the stroller & she ended up sleeping THROUGH them! Even through the finale! What a crazy girl.

 This is my "wtf jeremy" face and this is her "what are you doing dad?" face.

They were the best fireworks I've ever seen!

D.C. Day #2

When you're on vacation you always wake up and think "what shoud we do today?" Well- we asked ourselves this EVERY day.

Rylee has been really good so far- especially for staying up way past her bedtime. We brought her pack n play and she's slept in it just fine- well minus her waking up at 6am. Blah.

So today we went to Arlington Cemetery. You never really know how many people have died for our freedom until you see it in person. This was absolutely amazing. And SO, SO big. How sad for all of these families. There were tomb stones that were so recent- as of 2008. :(

I just love this picture. 

I love everything about it- 

all the buildings you can see-

the plane flying-

everything.

 My beautiful blue eyed baby :)

We went to see the changing of the guards and it all of a sudden turned black! We literally ran back to the car and made it in time! I don't like D.C. storms- they just pop up out of nowhere!

D.C. Day #1/House

The house we stayed in was BEAUTIFUL!

 Look at this kitchen!! I was in heaven.  

And rylee being a little sneaker.

It sat on 2 acres with a built in pool- 3 stories. 5 bedrooms with 5.5 baths. I think the play area was the size of my house.

There's much more to the house, but I didn't feel like taking anymore pictures of it.

Once we finally arrived in D.C. we just relaxed the rest of the day- did some grocery shopping so I could make Rylee some food for the week. This day was a total relaxation day for the busy days ahead of us!

9 months old!

My sweet girl is 9 months old. I can't believe it. 

Every mom says this all the time, 

but honestly it goes by so incredibly fast.

• You're a crawler. You've been scooting for at 2 months now and you get to point a to point b in no time!
• You can pick up munchies with your pointer finger and thumb & put them in your mouth. Now you just shovel food in your mouth like it's going to disappear.
• We haven't found any food you don't like yet. You will eat anything. Last night we tried spaghetti for the 1st time and you ate 3 bites then wouldn't open your mouth anymore- we will try again tonight.
• You said "ma ma" before "da da" That makes me super proud!
• We went on your 1st week long vacation to D.C. and you did surprisingly well! 
• You cry when you are hungry and want me. :)
• You will latch on to my boob at the sight of it (no matter if you're sitting up or laying down.)
• We are STILL breast feeding!  I'm pretty positive we will make it to my ultimate goal: 1 year.

• You are so in love with your daddy & he is so in love with you. It is the most adorable thing ever.
• When he comes home from work you start jumping up and down in your jumperoo and laughing.
• You are sleeping a lot better now- usually 8pm-5am up for a little feeding then back down until 7-8am. 

Rylee:
I am so blessed to be your mama. I love waking up every day and seeing your smiling face when I walk in your room to get you out in the mornings. You make me the happiest when you call me or when you reach for me. I love being your mama & I am so glad god placed you in my life. I couldn't imagine life without you now. You are so sweet and such a good baby. You love Diesel & love chasing him around the room. You're growing up SO fast! You're in mostly 12 month clothes now! I love, love, love, love you more than words can describe and I'm so excited to watch you grow.

Love, 

Mama

Day #1 Amtrak

The Amtrak train was a bit....interesting.

We arrived in Sanford, Florida on Saturday at 2pm. Our train didn't depart until 4:05pm so we just sat...sat...sat...and sat some more until it was finally time to board.  

The only one good thing about the train:we loaded our cars on it so we were able to literally take everything we needed and more. I've never been on a week long vacation with an infant so I had no idea what I needed to bring & what I could get away with. So we loaded our Yukon up to the max- even had to take the 3rd row out to fit stuff in. :P 

 We had a sleeper car, but we had the smallest one so when I say small- I mean like TEENY TINY.

Meet my nephew Hunter.

Rylee didn't seem to mind though. :)

We had dinner on there and it was actually kind of good. I mean good-as-in-train-food-good- not a good-like-restaurant-good. 

She had a nap on there & then it was the dreaded bed time...the time I was dreading. As much as she wanted to go to sleep she just couldn't. The train was incredibly bumpy and kept jerking us around. Our bed was half the size of a twin bed and know what that means? Complete hell. Especially when sharing it with an 8 month old that moves ALL over the place. 

Finally got her to bed around 10pm (TWO hours past her bed time.) She slept pretty well from 10-2 and then it was hell again. I only slept for about an hour the entire night because there was just no room..absolutely no room. She was rise and shine at 5:45am that morning. This was definitely a night from hell & I don't know how we all survived. 

I would say an Amtrak wouldn't be that bad if we didn't have an infant because I could have slept if it wasn't for her. :P 

 Narrow hallways

You would think that with this picture she had the best night of her life.

Would I take it again? No. It's so much more expensive than a plane ride and takes SO much longer. 

Good thing we didn't pay for it. I don't ever get motion sickness so that wasn't an issue for me, but if you do- this train would not be the thing to take. All in all- I'm glad we did this because we can say "we've been there, done that" ha ha..thank god it's over though! :)