Nothin' could be finer than South Carolina!

Eliza and I just got back from a FABULOUS 2 week vacation in SC in my hometown of Lexington, South Carolina! Here are some of my favorite pics from the trip-- I wish I had taken more!No one makes Eliza laugh quite as much as Aunt Abby! She could pull a smile or giggle out of her like none other!

We ended up attending several Cross-Country meets to cheer on Aunt Abby who performed wonderfully! It was fun to relive some of my "glory days" at the high school and visit with my old coaches from both x-country and soccer!

I also coached my dad's U-18 rec soccer team that Abby plays on while Dad was on vacation. It was really fun and great to be back on the soccer field, but I definitely like playing more than coaching... or being the fun assistant coach rather than head coach. They were a really fun group of girls and won their first game on Saturday (with Dad back as coach) 5-0!! Go Hurricanes!

Super Grandma!!! Oma babysat for us and didn't hold back-- taking 3 dogs and a baby walking. Nothing slows Mom down!! ;) Mom also helped me revolutionize Eliza and my feeding and daytime schedules. I can't believe how lucky I was to have a RN/pediatric nurse practitioner in-training to help me these last two weeks! The original plan was for me to go down and "help" Mom and Abby with rides and stuff, and although I did a little of that, I think I definitely came out with the most benefits.

Dad was nice enough to babysit for us one evening so we could go to RS Dessert Night at Ruby Tuesday's- Yum! Poor dad was still jet lagged from his red-eye flight back from Hawaii-- Thanks dad! Eliza is mesmerized by her Grandpa and loved cuddling and playing with him. As long as he was holding her, she stayed happy! It was like magic! Dad's got major baby-love skills.


Ready for church! We put some "real" shoes on Eliza for the first time, and she didn't stop staring at them!I also got the chance to visit with some of my friends from elementary-high school and play games and have some "remember when..." time! So fun!

The trip involved lots of car time, especially for Steve and Mom. This is a pic of Eliza hanging out in the back of Oma's car with her baked cheetos bag (we're starting good nutrition off young...) while we were transferring our things from her car to ours at a gas station in mid-North Carolina where we rendezvoused so we could all drive half-way.

Some other highlights of our trip included great nature walks with the dogs, movie theater with Abby, in-house washer and dryer, doggy door for Mika, great on-hand babysitters enabling date-night with Steve, Mom's Sunday school class, and the gym! My parents got me a 2 week gym pass at their gym, so Mom and I would get up in the morning dress Eliza and zip over to the gym for lots of different classes like "Ab-lab."

This resulted in me not being able to sit up from a lying position without extreme pain for the whole stay and also losing about 6 lbs! Anyone interested in losing weight? Just follow Mom around for a couple weeks and the pounds will just start dropping off (unless you also eat her delicious Rene cookies and other desserts concurrently like I did- but just imagine how much weight I'd have lost if I hadn't, right?).

This trip made me realize how grateful I am to have a mother who's my best friend! I am SO lucky!

Thanks for letting us visit, Meldau's! (Especially putting up with my noisy dog!)

...But Steve says he's happy to have us back!