At the very end of February (good heavens that was a whole month ago already!), Abby and I took a trip to Illinois and Tennessee to see both my sisters and meet Lydia. It was an amazing trip for so many reasons. Here are 3:
1. FIVE days of one-on-one time (well, plus some cousins, aunts and uncles) with my darling middle girl. I have had a strong case of "middle child guilt"since I found out I was pregnant with Abby's little sister much sooner than I had planned. We don't get a lot of Abby-Mommy time, time just the two of us, and this trip was an awesome and unique opportunity for just that. (Truth be told, my initial motive for bringing Abby on this trip was simply to "lighten the load" of Daddy and Grandma as they held down the fort…but it turned out to be the exact right decision for Abby and Mommy too.)
2. We got to meet the one, the only, the cuter-than-I-ever-even-imagined Lydia DanQing!
I booked this trip before my sister even had Lydia, so I was very sensitive and only planned for us to stay in Chicago 24ish hours, just in case they were really stressed out adjusting to life with Lydia. Well, praise God almighty, little Lydia is adjusting to her family amazingly well. While a day definitely wasn't long enough, I truly came to just see that dear girl with my own two eyes and bask in the beauty of watching this new family together at last. Thankfully, 24 hours afforded me that intense pleasure.
Within 20 minutes of walking in their back door Lydia was giving hugs and fives and wrestling with her new aunt and cousin. One of the highlights of my life (truly) was my first few minutes meeting Lydia where she ran into my arms and gave me a big hug.
These were the moments I came to see with my own two eyes. There are no words.
There were plenty of wonderful big cousin moments during our time together in Chicago.
Lydia is clearly a girl with 2 big brothers. She would randomly tackle Abby - so hilarious.
The word to sum up my observations of this new Stromberg family is: NATURAL. I thought I would be staring in disbelief at my sister with a daughter, or the five of them interacting, but instead they looked like they had been together forever...totally and completely natural…meant to be…because of course, they are.
3. Sister/cousin/family time in Nashville. Next stop on our journey: Nashville. Abby and I enjoyed a hot dog at the airport (because it's Chicago!) and then flew south. We had a wonderful 3 days being with my sister Jenny and her family. We admired all their hard work on their home (Uncle John could have his own show on HGTV!), and we simply enjoyed being together.
We could have been happy simply hanging around the house for 3 days, but we did manage a few outings. One day we let the kids burn some energy at the Nashville Zoo…where Abby was totally and completely focused on finding the horses…not the elephants or giraffes or tiger, the horses (???).
Please note that Jackson is literally airborne with excitement here.
It was very special and unique for Abby and Jackson to be out from under the shadows of older cousins and siblings. They got to run the show and be in charge and they were absolutely hilarious together. I don't think they ever went to bed before 9pm because they were having too much fun sharing a room.
We got a little taste of weather in Nashville. We left for a walk when it was 60 degrees and while letting the kids play at a park the sky got dark, the temperature dropped dramatically, and we realized we better head home. We got caught in a storm and were literally running home while cold rain pelted the munchkins. We all got soaked. It was so much fun!
On our last day it even snowed a little bit, a very little bit (see below). Actually by Nashville standards that is a lot of snow and they practically shut down the city. Ha! We barely made it out on our flight on account of the "severe" weather. And please note Abby's new Nashville boots. I could have bought the same pair at our Target, but it is so much more fun that we can say they are from Nashville.
What a wonderful time we had together enjoying the gift of our family.
