Spring Break!

How do I briefly catch up on two weeks of being gone?

We were on Spring Break. And although it seems like we're always going or planning a vacation, this time we just flew down to Atlanta to see family.

Lilly had a blast with her cousins, as always. And her favorite thing to do was jump on the trampoline at my parents' house. She had a great week (10 days, actually - NYC gives a long break!) and we both came back exhausted. And I really enjoyed spending time with our parents, especially a lot of quality time with my mom, and also got to see my friends a few times for dinner, and got to shop a little as well! (Nothing too crazy, my most-frequent store was Target.)

Lilly got in the habit on our trip of taking a nap, which she usually only does on "vacation" like when we're at Disney World but it's so nice because then she can stay up late and hang out with the older kids and grown ups. She didn't miss a Dancing with the Stars or American Idol episode all week. And, I'd like to pick up the routine when we get to Europe this summer because it sure would be nice for Lilly to be well-rested and able to stay up late on our cruise. The funny thing is, though, that some nights Lilly was up until midnight and got into the habit of sleeping until 9 am for a few days - funny for a little girl who usually wakes up at 7 like she has an internal clock.

Oh, and... we got a house. To rent, of course, the DC area is super expensive. Jon was in DC for the past 3 days doing preliminary work stuff, and while he was there he looked at 5 houses that we had narrowed down. They were all ok, and suddenly a new listing popped up Monday night and he was able to see it Tuesday morning and loved it and we put in an offer and now it's ours, from July 1 for a year, possibly two.

It's in Bethesda, but near the South part of Kensington, so the location is great - it's less than 3 miles to Lilly's school and less than 10 miles to Jon's work in DC. It doesn't have the 2 car garage that we want, but the backyard is really nice and fenced in and I can't wait for Lilly to start playing back there (especially after a year in New Zealand and NY, both without backyards). It's from 1950, but the kitchen is remodeled and gorgeous - I am so looking forward to cooking with Lilly in it, and the bathrooms are updated. I've only seen pictures, so trusting Jon picked out a good one - but the realtor loved it as well for us. So, we're not only excited about the house but happy to get this checked off our list. Now, we have a free weekend in May (our original weekend that we had planned to go down there) that we can possibly go out to Montauk instead. :)

But for now, we're settled back in our NYC apartment. We got back last night and Lilly sleepily ate mac n cheese before crashing hard (aka sleeping) and I vegged on the couch to catch up on all my guilty pleasure tv shows that I've missed for the past week. Today I'll worry about unpacking and groceries.