Mrs. Med School: Utah... People Working Together

As announced, I am going to update everyone one day at a time (because I am that behind in blogging). Today I will review, primarily in pictures, our visit to Utah this summer.

At my cousin Victoria's wedding

Let's get started.

Jeff and his mom drove back to the homeland while Riley and I flew. Here's a fun (read: embarrassing) anecdote about the flight for your amusement.

I was scheduled to fly with Southwest Airlines. Southwest does not assign seats; they assign a boarding order. This order is determined by who checks in first. My plan was to check in exactly 24 hours before my flight. Well, I totally forgot and ended up checking in four hours later than I had planned.

To my delight I was the 30th person to check in! I was still in boarding group A. I was so excited that I could board right away and maybe have an extra seat next to me and Riley.

More pleasant surprises came the day of the trip; Riley was in great spirits (asleep the whole time), I got a buffer before my flight, TSA was easygoing and let me keep my baby in her wrap, I got to our gate early and a cute elderly couple offered to throw away my subway wrapper as I finished up my sandwich. People are so nice! I felt so much better than I was expecting.

"You should go pre-board with the other families!" The previously mention elderly couple told me.

"Oh, I'm early. I'm on the next flight."

Haha. No, I wasn't.

I unzipped my changing pad and played with Riley and changed her diaper. I felt like I was killing it in the mom department... Until I heard,

"Any last passengers going to Salt Lake City?"

What?!

I dashed to the counter and asked, "This is the flight to Salt Lake?" I obviously had misunderstood.

"Yes. You must be Claire."

Oh my goodness. I hastily grabbed my things and maneuvered Riley back into her wrap as I stood second to last in line. I felt so dumb. I actually cried a tear or two thinking about all the germs I was about to expose my one-month old to because I didn't board earlier.

When I got on the plane I chose the remaining aisle seat towards the back. I sat right next to the couple that advised me to pre-board. As I slid into my seat, the woman leaned towards me and said, "We are grandparents and we are happy to help you however you need."

I felt relieved and in the end I think it was great that I got to sit next to such accommodating people.

I wish I had a picture from our flight, but alas, I do not. She slept nearly the whole time and all was well. Here's a picture around one month. Cute, little tiny.

Our time in Utah was fabulous. We were surrounded with family and friends. We really enjoyed our time there. We stayed with both sets of parents and it was really fun.

Aside from many a trip to Target, I spent a lot of my time playing with Riley and having mini photoshoots on my in-laws floor. Here are a few early favorites:

We played a lot of games, watched a lot of movies, went on walks, visited with family and friends, oh, and painted these nerdy space marine figurines.

Jeff has amazing attention to detail, BTW.

A couple activities worth mention include:

Hitting up all my favorite Utah food joints (Cafe Rio, Zupas, Blue Lemon, etc.)

Spending time with our friends Mike and Ally/discovering the Huntsville Barbeque Company

Henry is such a cutie!

Spending time with my sassy, ten-year-old sister, Chrissy

Yes, that is a Pokemon handbook. Pokemon is back like nobody's business.

Chrissy and I took on the challenge that is making macarons. Not macaroons (the nasty, old lady, coconut cookie), but macarons. Not my picture, but they look like this:

PC: Heather Joan

Our brother is in France and our goal is to master these bad boys by the time he gets home. We are on the right track except not because so far they have all turned out hollow. :/ Oh well. They still taste amazing.

Spent time with my family (which is always amazing)