Milwaukee Trip

One week ago our little family of three jumped on a plane to Milwaukee. This was Abby's second flight -- she and I took a trip to Kansas City back in July when she was 8 months old -- and she was once again a happy little traveler. Now that she's walking she definitely needs to wiggle around more, but we picked up a few new toys and packed plenty of snacks and she did great. In fact, one lady behind us commented that she would travel with Abby any day. (She said this as she gave a dirty look to the little boy a few rows in front of us who pretty much screamed the entire two hour flight. I felt so bad for those poor, stressed out parents!)

So why Milwaukee? We've been long overdue to visit our friend Jesse and his family. Jesse was working on his masters degree (trumpet) at Wichita State while Robert and I were there for our undergrad degrees. He quickly became a close friend to both of us and was the best man in our wedding. Jesse is one of the most disciplined and hard working people I have ever met. Not only was he a phenomenal trumpet player, he was also a marathoner. And a fast marathoner at that. He ran 26.2 miles in around two and a half hours. I can't even wrap my mind around that.

Shortly after our wedding, Jesse was diagnosed with leukemia. He endured long rounds of radiation and chemotherapy and the treatments almost completely destroyed his lungs. Things deteriorated quickly and a year ago, he was on oxygen and could barely make it up a flight of stairs. 

Modern medicine truly is miraculous because back in August, Jesse received a lung transplant. Can you imagine? His recovery has gone very well and we knew it was time to celebrate with our friend, his wife Sarah, and their almost 4 year old daughter, Hannah.

First up on our visit? Food. But of course! Robert and I were huge fans of Potbelly in Ohio and we often find ourselves craving a "Wreck" sandwich. Sadly, Florida has no Potbellys.

Abby didn't want to share the chocolate malt.

After lunch we took the girls to the Children's Museum. That's Hannah driving the bus.

Then the girls made a deposit at the bank. 

Here's a view of the Milwaukee Art Museum through the window. What an incredible building! Robert and I went there the last time we visited Jesse and Sarah.

Abby playing the drum.

And riding a motorcycle!

I love this photo of Jesse and Hannah.

 The next day we took the girls to the park.

That evening, the girls stayed home with two fun babysitters while the adults had a night out on the town. We had a long, enjoyable meal with a great bottle of red Zinfandel and then we saw the world premiere of the ballet Mirror, Mirror.

Hannah helped Abby pick out her clothes the next day. If you can't tell, this girl loves pink. And anything sparkly or princess-y. I wish I had taken a picture of her in her church attire because she wore a Cinderella dress. She thought Abby's pink tutu bunny shirt was pretty great, too.

We went on a Sprecher brewery tour later that afternoon.

Cheese curds, yum!

After the tour and cheese curds we stopped at Kopp's for some custard. Yet again, Abby didn't want to share her malt. And not surprisingly she didn't have much of an appetite for dinner that night, either. Only on vacation, little girl!

See the cows in the background?

Happy, messy girl!

Before we knew it, the trip was over. 

Airplane story time, yikes.

It was so good to see you, Pagels family. Come visit us in Florida soon!

Florida Flamingo Girl

Robert and I took the following photos last weekend on Mother's Day. A year ago I bought a bunch of summer Carter's outfits on clearance, expecting Abby to be a size 2T this summer. I really love this flamingo dress but you can barely call it a dress on our fast growing girl! Thankfully leggings saved the day.

On a mission!

We took these pictures in our neighbor Kay's front yard. Abby often grabs our hand and escorts us across the street to visit Kay or her daughters or -- her most favorite -- their dog, Bo.

She also loves Kay's swing.

Peekaboo!

This is one of my new favorites.

Later that afternoon, my friend Jennie arrived for a 3 day visit. Jennie was a year behind me as a music major (flute) at Wichita State and we have remained friends ever since. It was so good to see her and I can't believe I didn't get a single photograph of us together. She attended my last concert of the season with the Florida Orchestra on Sunday night and then on Monday we took Abby to the zoo.

Here is Abby's 1st zoo tram ride. I promise she was having more fun that it looks like she's having. Jennie took this picture on her phone and I didn't have my camera with me so, unfortunately, this is all that's documented. :(

Thanks for coming to see us, Jennie!

Birthday Surprise

My apologies, blog readers. I'm nearly a month late in writing this post. 

On April 29th I celebrated my 34th birthday. To be honest, during the weeks preceding my birthday whenever Robert asked me what I wanted to do, I was quite pitiful. I told him that we didn't need to do anything special (even though I usually love birthdays) and that I was sad all our family and closest friends live so far away. Little did I know what surprise lay ahead.

On the evening of April 26th, Robert got a call from work telling him that he needed to come in. Boo. Then about 45 minutes later, he called and said that it was a false alarm and could I come out to the driveway? He thought he might have hit something with the car. Lovely. So I walked out into the dark to see Robert crouching by the back bumper and who pops out of the shadows? My bff Marci!!!

Marci and her husband Joe moved to Utah fairly recently. We wish they were still just 4 hours away in Miami. Marci and Robert planned this birthday visit back in January. They made excellent Partners In Crime -- I was completely surprised. Most of my friends know I tend to avoid hugs but when I saw Marci I completely lost it. I cried and gave her probably one of the longest hugs I've ever given anyone. 

The last time Marci and I were together was when Abby was born. She was with me during my very first contractions, by my side throughout all of those difficult and then frightening hours in the hospital, and she was our first friend to meet and hold our precious little baby girl.

Friends as close as family. That's Marci.

We met seventeen years ago back at -- where else? -- band camp. Marci's dad had our concert recordings converted from VHS and we watched them during her visit. I had forgotten that I introduced myself to her in the dining hall. A fitting start to our friendship, as we've been eating (and eating and eating!) together ever since. We've also shared a love of music and photography from the very beginning.

Such a lovely pose, no?! Love those white, white sneakers, too!

Those two short weeks at band camp created a friendship strong enough to survive the many years and many miles that followed. We wrote letters to each other -- real, snail mail letters -- and even reconnected the following year in Oklahoma for Marci's prom when I went on my first (and only!) blind date with her friend John.

Six years later, our paths crossed again in Cincinnati when Marci moved there to attend CCM. I had just graduated and we picked up right where we left off. I could write a novel about all of our adventures, but I suppose I should fast-forward to my birthday visit.

This past year and half I have been so, so impatient for Marci to spend time with Abby and see how much she's grown and changed. I know that Aunt Marci is going to be a big part of Abby's life and as I expected, Abby seemed to warm up to her right away.

The first night of Marci's visit, we drove out to Clearwater to eat at Skyline Chili -- a Cincinnati classic.

Abby enjoyed the oyster crackers immensely.

Marci and I both order the vegetarian version. Meat or no meat, there's always an enormous mound of cheese covering the spaghetti and sauce.

Robert introduced Abby to the real deal and shared his cheese coney. 

After Skyline we hit the beach.

Eating, check. Next up? Baking. Marci and I both love to bake and the next day we tried out a recipe from one of Marci's favorite blogs, Joy the Baker. Joy's Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Poppy Seed Buttercream was an instant success. Just look at this beauty.

Abby and I inadvertently both wore our Wichita State t-shirts.

She wasn't quite sure what mommy was up to.

She wasn't sure what to think about the tart lemon flavor, either.

But that changed right away. Yum!

Squished by mommy!

Later that evening Marci read Abby a bedtime story before we headed out for girls night. Marci brought along a new board book for Abby: "Good Night, Utah!"

Besides seeing Marci and Abby together, my favorite part of the visit was our girls night out. We shared a mac & cheese bowl and Thai peanut bowl at Daily Eats and then walked to the fancy Harry Waugh Dessert Room at Bern's Steak House. There's really nothing better than catching up with your closest friend.

Eating at the dessert room is so fancy and fun. Each table is in its own little nook. 

I did mention how much Marci and I enjoy eating, right? With stomachs still full from the preceding two days, on Sunday morning we headed to Datz for brunch. After all, no visit to Tampa is complete with Datz.

In need of a little exercise, we went to the park afterwards.

Abby ran into her friend Livia and the girls enjoyed saying hello to the horses.

The horses put on quite a show.

And then sadly, Marci's visit was over. Thank you, Robert and Marci, for one of my best birthdays ever. We're going to have to plan that trip to Utah soon! Abby needs to see the mountains. And plan some more shenanigans with her Aunt Marci.