I never understood what Daylight Savings did to children. Laidy sailed through it last year without skipping a beat so we didn't give it a second thought this year. Boy, were we WRONG! When you combine Daylight Savings, traveling to a different time zone and back, battling a double ear infection, then two weeks later traveling again....we're just now getting back to her normal sleeping routine. But, the traveling and weird sleeping patterns was totally worth it when you get to see cuties like this!

After a 15 hour drive, our nephew greeted us at the door, all smiles.

We took it easy while we were there, but still crammed fun things into our short time visiting. The Zoo, a visit from the Leprachaun, playing at the park, yummy meals out and home cooked by my brother-in-law, Eric, and a 6 month session for my niece.

This was Laidy's first trip to the zoo and she loved it in her calm, observatory demeanor. She definitely knows her animals so it was fun for her to see them in person instead of just on the pages of her books. Elephants did tricks for us, the tigers were out, as were the sea lions, rhinos, gorillas and orangutans. Gerard was attacked by a gorilla too! Well, he would've been had there not been glass separating them. (Apparently, you're not supposed to make eye contact with gorillas. Gerard hasn't been to a zoo in awhile either...;) )

We chose to go to Utah when we did because Katie had those three days off of work and we'd get the most "bang for our buck" if you will. It was so fun for me to see her in full Mama Mode and watch our kiddos play together. Laidy and our nephew are just 5 months apart so when he planted kisses on Laidy's lips the first night we were there, I knew he was happy to have someone exactly his size to play with. And I also knew we were destined to catch his cold. #hotzone.

On our way home from the zoo, the kiddos were zonked out and Katie and I made our game plan for celebrating St. Patty's day with them. While they slept in the cars, we made a path of shamrocks up to the bath tub (zoos are fun, but dirty) and dyed the tub water green with bubbles. While I was bathing them, Katie whipped up a green dinner including cottage cheese, vanilla pudding, eggs and apple juice-all dyed green! (plus some steak.:) )

On our last morning, we did a quick 6month session with Katie's youngest who was super smiley and happy!

We took a detour on our way home to visit my Aunt Laurie, Uncle John and cousin Holly. It was so great to see them, see where Laurie works and have John & Holly meet Laidy for the first time.

We took our time getting home, stopping in Grand Island, NE and with just 4 hours from home, we stopped in Gretna to stretch our legs and do some shopping at the outlet mall there. We had our weekend to ourselves before hitting the daily grind back to work on Monday. Ooofta, was that a tough morning, but SO worth it!

Next up: Easter weekend with the other side of our family!

Catching Up