I'm not in Kansas anymore :(

I had such a wonderful time visiting Jess and her beautiful family! Ella is gorgeous and so funny and sweet and Gabriel is a living angel. Seriously, I have NEVER seen such a sweet, snuggly and content baby. And I have seen a lot of babies. Here's a pic of me and the gang, Ella is far too energetic to pause for a pic :)

All of the pictures I tried to get of Ella are blurry because she is constantly in action! I told Jess that I would vouch for her that she is NOT exaggerating on her blog, Ella has more energy than 3 toddlers combined! Luckily this is countered with extreme sweetness and hilarity. She was not shy at all and instantly became my buddy. I even got in on the rotation of the "I need..." whomever she thought she could sucker into some attention when she was supposed to be doing something else. Needless to say, I was a sucker everytime. I didn't even mind the early morning "Allie! Where are you?!" Too cute.

My favorite Ella moment of my trip was actually after I was supposed to have left. I said my goodbyes and she knew I was going on a trip on an airplane. Well, my plane ended up being really delayed so Bob brought me back to the house. When Ella saw me walk in the door she said "Allie!! I missed you!!" haha! I hadn't even been on my trip yet. :)

Gabriel is a dream baby with his cues. Within an hour I could tell what he needed when. Basically, if he's crying at all, he's either hungry or gassy. If he's just slightly fussy, you give him his pacifier and he's fine. If he gets his old man squishy face he has gas and you just switch his position to where he's upright against your chest and he's fine. If he's crying and making an "o" shape with his mouth, you hand him to mommy to eat and he's fine. Simple right??

It was so great to get to visit with my friend! We were amazed at how long we've known each other and how much our lives have changed. We were so young, I was just out of high school and she was just married and here we are now, 2 kids later for her and I'm planning my wedding! Who knew on that first day of a way too early English class that one day her daughter would be my flower girl? We did escape for a girls' night to go see a movie. It was fun to do an old time Allie and Jess activity, as she was one of my main movie buddies when she lived here. It was really a great trip overall, it just flew by too quickly.

I'm glad to be back to my normal routine, but I'm sad that I don't get to see Jess and the kids until May. I miss them all so much already!

Thanks Jess for a wonderful trip, I had so much fun enjoying your family and catching up with you!