Lately: Travel

Do you other bloggers get bogged down with ideas for posts and no time to write them? 

But enough with the excuses.

We took our first Big! Trip! with Emma a week and a half ago. 

My brother graduated from Georgetown with his M.A. in foreign service, so we surprised him by showing up for his graduation. We flew into Raleigh, North Carolina, where my parents live, and drove north to D.C. for the weekend. 

Obviously, I was terrified about flying across the country with a four-and-a-half month old who loves to be active and hates to be confined. 

I didn't have to worry. Emma was a champ. It actually helped that we had three connecting flights -- we could use the time between flights to walk around and let Emma lay on the floor (on a blanket!) and kick kick kick around. Then we tried to make sure she was hungry and sleepy for the flight. I was sure this wouldn't work, but it totally did. She was pretty wiped when we got to Raleigh, but we spent a day recuperating before driving north. We even got to see Marissa!

Good thing, too, because turns out the four-hour drive was much harder on Emma than the flight. She likes her carseat better than she used to, but let's be real here: who would enjoy being strapped in for four hours with limited movement? Maybe this is the real reason NASA lost funding. The astronauts realized that their job sucks.

It was great to see Michael. Since we were delayed for an hour and a half (an hour and a half, people) in traffic (in TRAFFIC, people), he started to suspect that something was up and that my parents were planning some surprise. Which led to a not-very-exciting picture when he came to the door and saw us on his doorstep.

So naturally we had to stage a more appropriate response.

We went to dinner, where Michael received a cape (yes. a cape.) for his graduation gift from my parents. (This happened because my brother complained that the hoods masters students wore at graduation were boring. My family is awesome. And weird. And awesome.)

Then there was the graduation.

Emma got to hang out on the ground. We weren't punishing her. It's her favorite place. 

The day after his graduation, we even got to see some of our best friends. This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. Our meal with Trent and Bess felt like it lasted about eight minutes. 

It was great to see friends and spend time with family. How do trips like this always feel like they're over before they begin?