California – AngelfromMontgomery et al.

Road Baby: Imogen Charlotte at 4 mos.

12/01/201711/03/2017 by AngelfromMontgomery, posted in Blogging, Friends, heaven, Nature, Praying for peace., Travel

We did quite a bit of traveling around in Imogen’s fourth month: San Francisco to O’Hare to Oshkosh; back to O’Hare, to Cabo San Lucas and Todos Santos, and back to Cabo; back to San Francisco, to Petaluma and all over West (Sonoma) County; finally, to Juneau (where we are now).

We got to Chicago just before the storm — We landed in Chicago just before the storm

Waiting at the gate at O'Hare for morning flight to Cabo — After four nights in WI, waiting at O’Hare for a morning flight to Cabo San Lucas

Jessica and Nick were lovely hosts and it was a thrill to see their beautiful place Casa Real take shape before our eyes. Jess has an eye for design, and has assured us that the best is yet to come; if kerosene lamps and piping hot tamales are your thing, you’d believe her, too.

Being held by Jess at Casa Real at the end of a long travel day. — Imogen and Jess (pictured headless – sorry) at Casa Real at the end of a long travel day.

Our first morning in Todos Santos we headed for Las Palmas, a beach 20 mins. from Nick & Jess’s… you’ll just have to trust me that there were waves that were exciting without being scary, blue sky, warm sand and all the other lovely earthy beach-y things… because all I see is

and

Après beach dress after having killed it at Las Palmas. — Après beach: killed it

and

and (last but not least)

It was our first family vacation, and while at times I questioned my own sanity trucking her around all over hell, Imogen liked the warmth, the sound of the waves, and her Grandpa Dusty’s long stories. I think she had the best time of all of us!

R & R with Mom our penultimate day in Todos Santos

We finally made it to Juneau the early morning hours of the last day of the year. Had a ‘soft landing’ at The Alaskan Hotel and Bar , and then worked on getting our cabin set up. I’ll post more pictures of the cabin soon – it is a beautiful place for our first place here in Juneau.

Our last two boxes at the top of our steps — Our last two boxes at the top of our cabin steps. Phew!

Now in Juneau we are making real progress at tummy time — In our cabin, and back on a schedule, we are making real progress at tummy time!

dscn1947 — It’s a good place to grow. (Even if it’s not… she’s growing!)

"It's all good:" we are enjoying every bit of it. — “It’s all good:” we are enjoying every minute of it. #motherdaughterselfie

My daughter’s Christmas gift to me

24/12/201624/12/2016 by AngelfromMontgomery, posted in Blogging, Friends, heaven, Nature, Praying for peace., Travel

Have you ever been on a flight in which an ordinary passenger made an announcement? I felt like standing up and telling everyone within earshot that it was my 3.5 month-old daughter’s fifth flight; holding her up in her tiger suit for everyone to see (I didn’t do this).

Imogen arrived at the Cabo San Lucas airport in her sea-green layered-lace onesie (Aunt Jenny) with sand still stuck to her, but I’d fed her (in the 4 Runner while Jaco and Jess got us burritos) and changed her (on the front seat), so she was fine through the check-in counter, security, and Jaco and my celebratory Pacificos.

Our flight ended up being delayed an hour and a half, during which time they changed our gate twice. At the first gate her dad bounced her over to Duty Free, and at the second gate she slept in her car seat until it was almost time to board at which time we swapped out her onesie for her flying tiger suit (Grandpa Jim).

Second gate change: back to the first gate. Thanks United!

Frequent flyers: finally boarding for SFO — Frequent flyers: finally boarding for SF

Wing of the plane section: the sky somewhere around Tijuana

On the plane she sat on my lap, fell asleep in her dad’s arms and on the seat between us, hardly cried at all, even as she was rubbing her ears on the bumpy descent, and not at all when we found out we’d also be waiting an extra 35 minutes on the tarmac before ‘deplaning.’

Her dad took her (‘baby tiger coming through’) and we were up and outta there (not a peep), through passport control, baggage claim, back into her car seat, meeting Dusty and Mary, into another 4 Runner, and out of the parking garage, where she was laughing with me,

and then fell asleep again while we accidentally exited into the city, and she made it all the way back to Petaluma without a meltdown, and then I fed her, and we gave her a bath, and put clean clothes on her… and left her on a bed covered in laundry with the light on, for everyone to see and play with, and went to eat a salad,

…at which time she started crying, hysterically, because I’d kept her up too late, and she’d held it together through *another* international flight with three hours of driving and three hours of waiting besides, and she’d had it, and she’d needed me to put her to bed and turn the light off, and I hadn’t held up my end of the bargain

but she taught me a lesson, and I turned the light off and put a heavy soft blanket on her, and thanked her for teaching it to me, but she was already asleep.