Girls' Trip... Pittsburgh Style

Oooo... I have been a spoiled mamma during the last few months. I was feeling pretty lucky after July's trip to New York City... and thought it would be a while until I was flying solo again. But Melinda (sister-in-law) came up with an offer I just couldn't refuse! Buddy passes on Jetblue (compliments of her cousin who works for them--thanks Kara!!!) to Pittsburgh to see Libby (sister-in-law) and her cute little family. Yipee!! Fun!!!

So after going back and forth with delimas about responsibility to our children and studying husbands... with massive amounts of help from a wonderful mother-in-law and encouraging husbands... and with tears in our eyes and worries in our hearts about the kiddos (Melinda's Aaron crawled out of his crib for the first time minutes before she left!)... we left on a red-eye to Pittsburgh.


I love spending time with Melinda. She sees situations in a positive and meaningful way, is encouraging to and interested in everyone around her, and just so fun to talk to. She is such a good mommy and we had lots of good mommy talks. She was a perfect traveling partner, and was good enough to take care of all the details of our travel.

This is Pittsburgh...


And this is Libby's fun little family...


Libby and DJ are almost finished with dental school in Pittsburgh. Little Mack (now 1 year old) joined them about 1/2 way through their time there. They love living there, but it is much too far away!! I was so happy to finally get out there to see where they have been living and to explore the city they have come to love so much.

I love Libby. She is creative, motivated, and talented in so many ways... it is energizing being around her. DJ is calmly thoughtful, and was such a good sport to oblige our girl talks and aid our girl trips. It was so fun to get to know him better. Mr. Mackers got the full attention of two mothers missing their children... so the visiting aunts ooed and awed over his cute bum-scoots, beginning waddles, eating habits, and constant adorability.


And Libby sure showed us a good time. Most of our time was spent perusing unique shops and beautiful things/places... just admiring things and enjoying being around each other. When we weren't out on the town, we were staying up way too late talking about life, dreams, and practical aspects of our roles as mothers. They took us to some great places to eat, and we made some pretty good food, too! Oh, and there was that one time we did an extreme yoga video... youch!

Some of my favorite memories from this trip: Melinda being attacked by a runaway ferret, bartering with Indians, SLEEPING IN!!!, seeing DJ's quirky side during a board game, introducing Melinda to H&M, eating way too much Thai food, watching Mack's bum-scoots and styling his hair, apple stuffed french toast, meeting the people who love Libby and DJ at church, a picturesque photo shoot overlooking Pittsburgh, researching antler decor, watching a photoshop genius as she created a birthday party invitation masterpiece, conceptualizing custom cabnitry, and talking talking talking until waaaay too late...

Once our time in Pittsburgh was finished, we boarded our airplane... simply hoping that we would get home that day (when you ride standby with buddy passes, you are at the mercy of whether the planes have extra seats or not). We had an extra long layover in NYC... so we took advantage by going into the city where we caught up with Stephen to have lunch and did some hurried shopping in SoHo before heading back to the airport.

Perhaps the biggest drama of the trip was played out as we nervously waited to see if there was room for us on the plane to get home from NYC. If we didn't make the flight, we would either fly to Las Vegas and rent a car to drive home, or wait another 1 1/2 days in NYC before going home on another flight (which... we told ourselves... wouldn't be SUCH a bad thing, since we would get to spend more time with Stephen and the NYC shopping...). But the truth was, we were really anxious to get home to our little ones and husbands. Melinda was litterally jumping for joy when we found out we would make it on the flight. The perfect end to our little adventure.

So thank you, Libby and DJ, for showing us your wonderful city. Thank you, Libby and Melinda, for being sisters I never had. (We just needed Hannah there to be complete!) Thank you, Mom Frandsen and Paul (and everyone else who aided them...), for doing my jobs for me while I was gone--you are so good to me! Thank you, Melinda, for following through with our idea, making all the arrangements, and being such wonderful company.

We decided to make the girl's trip an annual event... a tradition I'll look forward to!