we be trippin' in ohio

All days of the year I definitely wish Andy and Shay lived in Utah. There family is just too dang cute and we have way too much fun when we are with them- and we are also famous for staying up way past bedtime when we get together. However, for all those days we miss them, it sure does make it 'that' much more special, exciting, fun, magical, memorable when we do get to see them. Caleb lucked out this year and had an entire week off from school for Fall Break which just happened to fall over my UEA break. So what's a couple like us to do with that much time off?! Fly to Ohio of course. (You have to say Ohio just like how it's sung in the fifty-nifty states song because that was always by far my most favorite state in that song to sing. It's also the part where all kids yell, rather than sing.... and D, I bet you totally just broke out into singing that song so you can see what Ohio sounds like. :))

It has been quite the fun adventure to follow Andy's family around from Maine to New York and now Ohio as the eastern U.S. isn't something I was accustom to until his first year of med school. Something I've learned from all of the trips out East is that Utah has NO trees, and the East is just one giant forest. I've seen this forest before, but never this time of year. I was in awe. Seeing the colors on the huge tress from the plane and ground is a site I'll never forget. So on to the trip...

We arrived Tuesday around dinner time. Tessa couldn't wait to tell me how she didn't ride a horse and Carlee did. Which is something she proceeded to tell me me at least 15 more times on the ten minute drive home from the airport. Each time getting more and more excited as she said "Guess what Lala?!" Her mature talking skills kill me. She wasn't shy at all, which is something I was concerned about being that she's only two and hasn't seen us in a while. Kudos to Skype for helping us with that one. Carlee was the first to hop out of the car at the airport and greet us with a big bear hug. I keep thinking she can't get anymore pretty, but it just keeps happening. And Porter couldn't wipe the ear-to-ear grin off his face, dimples and all, the entire trip. (Minus Friday night at dinner when he broke down in sadness and worry that Caleb and I only had one more day left before we were on our way back to Utah. He had been counting the number of days and bless his heart, he hates saying goodbye! Probably more than I do, which is A LOT! This made me cry. Oh how I love Porter for his sweet, tender, and sincere heart. I know he's only six, but seriously, whoever gets to marry him one day is a very lucky girl. Luckily he was off by a day and we had one more day than he thought so we were done with the tears and ended the night with building a fort for him to sleep downstairs with Caleb and I.) When we arrived home from the airport I went straight for Marin. Oh. my. heck. Kind of ironic, but I'm pretty sure birth control creates motherly hormones (do those even exist?) in me that make holding a newborn so magical, but holding her was so great I don't even have the words to describe it. She is the absolute PERFECT baby and Shay is lucky to have her as the fourth child of the family. You could say my trip consisted of holding Marin, napping with Marin, rocking with Marin, sleeping with Marin, staring at Marin, smelling Marin, playing with Marin's soft crazy-cute hair, pretending Marin was awake so I could take her out of her crib (sorry Shay), and holding her some more. She never cries and is so content. She loves laying on her belly which made for some great snuggling time. Let's just say she did not help my baby hungry-ness at all. She is so cute and is at the stage where she is beginning to coo and her dimple shows every time she does so. She also smiles anytime you make eye contact with her and talk in that high-pitched soft baby voice. Too bad I don't have the mechanics yet to feed her, otherwise I just might have taken her home with me. Caleb played with Porter, Carlee, Tessa, and Molly 24-7. He is now a champ at "playing" littlest pet shops, painting fingernails, cutting Porter's hair, piggy-backing on the scooter, sleeping with Molly (the dog), lifting Porter up to reach the tip-toppiest apples in the orchard, wii of course, bedtime stories, tutoring Porter's 1st grade class, downing 50 wings from Buffalo Wild Wings, squeezing his giant self inbetween two car seats because his nephew and niece want to sit by him that bad, and the list goes on. For whatever reason, we were on a huge sugar kick this trip. Did you know it's possible to get high off of fudge?! Just ask Porter. He drinks the stuff like it's water and the Malley's owner supported him in doing so. He also thought that anytime we hinted at a word that started with an "F" that we were talking about fudge. Definitely Grandma Kaylee's little grandson. The joke of the trip turned into where are we going for our pre-meal dessert, our during meal dessert, our after meal dessert, and our late night dessert. Shay has also been listening to Katie Perry's "Teenage Dream" song too much as she was living back in her teenage days. She wanted to prank call someone. That idea didn't work so then she wanted to create a music video. It didn't happen either, but she may or may not have laughed so hard until she snorted thinking about ideas and songs we could do. Andy and Shay are known for introducing Caleb and I to addicting games. This time around it was Quiddler. Super fun and super addicting. We stayed up til the late hours of the night playing and coming up with words like "qua". Yes that is a word and it has something to do with a President's position. Good times. This trip was perfect and visiting the Coils in Ohio gets better and better each time. Andy even had time off of work. He always makes me laugh and is a great brother to turn to for advice on anything. He's so smart and I feel so lucky to know that if I ever have a question or a problem, he's there with the right answers. He sometimes tells disgusting gross E.R. stories at dinner time, like the size of a bread loaf type of stories (inside joke), but I forgive him. He's a great brother and I've ALWAYS looked up to him. I blame him for my nacho and slurpee addiction because he was good at taking his little sis for a drive just to talk, but somehow we always managed to end up at 7-11. One day, we'll all be within a day's drive distance from each other. But until then, saying goodbye never gets easier. In fact it is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hard. It always makes me question why we go, because really, it's that hard. Typing this makes me cry. Looking at our pictures makes me cry. And whether we hit a deer or not on our 4 o'clock am trip to the airport and destroy the front end of Shay's car, going back home makes me cry. Getting on the airplane to leave those sweet little kids who I love so much makes me cry. I just miss them. We all do. And gosh dang it all, if the trip wasn't soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good, then it wouldn't be soooooooooooooooooooo hard to leave. But it is what it is, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity we had to visit once again even if we had to have a "see ya later" moment. Memories were created and I will forever cherish the days we get to spend with the Ohio Coils, even if it is literally only a few days each year. Because those days are magical. And I definitely think all the coil siblings who haven't seen Ohio need to try really hard to make it there within the next 18 months. Just saying...
Blogger isn't allowing me to upload pictures so I'll post those soon!