Wedding Getaway (with Penn)

This weekend Gramma is with Koen and Tavin in the Burgh and Doug and I are somewhere on the line of Ohio and West Virginia (seriously, we are little confused as to where we are located, as was our GPS) hanging out with Penn for the weekend.  You guessed it, staying on the border of these two states in the middle of winter isn't exactly our top pick for romantic getaways, so the reason we are here is because Doug has the honor of marrying a couple from the Oakland campus, Corey and Meghan.  Unfortunately, Penn has caught Tav's bad cold and when we left Pittsburgh on Friday morning it was obvious this little guy was under the weather.  He's a trooper though and as you can see this sickie can still display quite a smile.  He thought it was pretty funny that I set him in Koen's seat when we made a stop to feed him on the way down.  Don't worry, the car was stationary, I just needed my hands free for a minute.

Here he is playing it up at the hotel before naptime in the afternoon.  Couldn't wipe this smile off his face (although I should've wiped his nose a little better, sorry)!

The cold really got nasty during his naptime and he awoke from major coughing (sounded like dogs barking) and had lots of congestion and then got a terrible bloody nose.  I was really concerned for him and felt that I should keep him at the hotel and send Doug off to the rehearsal on his own.  I was sad to miss out, but felt it was much more important to get this guy some good rest instead of being up past bedtime.  We passed the evening with his dinner, playing in the room,

a walk around the hotel hallways and a jaunt on the treadmill in the BabyBjorn (seriously, the hotel must think I'm crazy, but what's a bored momma to do with a sick babe?) and then a super long, steamy bathtime.  Here's Penn in the bath, again giving smiles despite his rough cold.  

I decided that with him being six months now and heading towards dropping the catnap he takes in the evening anyways, I'd keep him up with the long bath and then nurse him and put him to bed a little before 7pm.  He seemed to love it and did great, especially with the relaxing bath and our snuggles in the warm towel and steamy room before putting on these super adorable skinny pajamas.  Melt my heart!

He went down without a pout or cry and made adorable sounds for about 10 minutes and then he was out cold.  Doug picked up a humidifier on his way home since Penn's labored and sad sounding cough was brutal in his sleep and it really seemed to help keep the cough less intense.  He slept all night with one random wake up where he cried for a few seconds, then chatted to himself and audibly sucked his thumb on and off for an hour, but never got sad.  He went back to sleep and slept in until almost 8am.  Thanks, Penn!  Praise the Lord!  Here's a happy morning shot to prove our little guy awoke rested and feeling a little better.

Ok, so on to another frustrating aspect of this weekend away.  Our car wouldn't start on Friday night when Doug went to get the humidifier.  He had to get a jump in the Walmart parking lot.  This is extra frustrating because we just replaced the battery after similar no-starts over the Christmas break.  So, this morning started with Doug having to find a mechanic shop and taking the car in.  Thankfully he found one with some nice guys and they discovered that the battery we had purchased was faulty, a dud.  So, yep, we got to purchase another battery.  Seriously, the romance in this weekend is priceless: snotty, coughing baby, exciting purchases like car batteries and humidifiers.  Honestly though, the special time with Penn, the quiet that is a very empty hotel with no loud children around and mornings not filled with dishes, laundry, house cleaning, etc. is a pretty nice break in and of itself.  After Doug returned from the garage, Penn took his nap and I enjoyed some me time at that workout room and then in our room reading.  Ahhhh.  After Penn woke up and ate, we headed out for lunch.  Here's the adorable trooper hanging with Daddy while we wait.

Around this time, we received an update text from home.  Well, really from the Science Center back in Pittsburgh.  Koen was spending the morning and lunchtime with his best buddy, Delia.  Hilary took them to the Carnegie Science Center's SportsWorks and they were having a blast.  Look at these sweet friends!

We got other reports via texting and calling back and forth with my mom.  The boys did very well with her and mom should get an award for how well she did keeping up with these two energetic and bright little guys.  They can be exhausting!  But I think she enjoyed the special time with them despite the intensity of it all.  The boys did pretty well behaviorally which was a relief to me that they weren't too tough on Gramma.  They even did OK sharing a room together while we were gone (Gramma did a great job sticking to the regimen and so they knew she was in charge!).  Ok, so back to wherever we were in WV or Ohio...  After lunch Penn quickly spiraled into sick baby mode again after a very encouraging morning.  We still think he's a lot better than yesterday, but definitely not 100%.  Thankfully he had a great afternoon nap from which we had to wake him after about 2 hours so that Doug could get to the wedding on time (for this Pastor, that means an hour and a half early!).  Penn and I were happy to come along though after our couple days in the hotel.  The church where the wedding was to be held had a fantastic infant nursery.  I fed Penn there and then he had a blast in a bouncy/jumpy exersaucer thing.  He loved it.  He spent over 30 minutes in it!  

After getting some fun playtime in, I got him dressed into what could quite possibly be the cutest outfit ever.  Our friend, Kerriane, and her family gave this outfit to Penn and I've been dying to use it.  It's 6-9 months and fit him so well.  Look how precious and handsome (except excuse the bloody nose issue, I wiped it like crazy, but that was the best I could do)!

Penn did well at the wedding.  Here's a phone shot from our seat in the back where Penn greeted everyone that came in and got quite a few pats on the heads and oohs and ahs.

We only lasted until Doug's opening prayer and then spent the rest of the time listening from the lobby.  The poor little guy is just too chatty, not to mention his intermittent coughing and sneezing.  He did so well though hanging in there despite how tired he was.  I didn't mind the sweet cuddles while we paced the lobby.  Precious moments.  We hurried off to the reception and Penn "hung" in there like a champ.  Doug was quite the talented officiant also keeping a baby happy on his chest.

And here's a baby-less pictures of the happy couple, well, not THE happy couple, but us, another happy couple.

Doug had been asked to do the blessing at the meal, so we stayed until right after that.  We waited to see if Penn would last so that we could get something to eat, but alas, the poor little guy was so overtired and definitely still hurting from his cold.  We got him home to the hotel a little after 8pm.  Doug and I ordered pizza and chilled out in the semi-dark hotel room watching a movie on the computer.  This time at the hotel in whatever little town it's located in hasn't been exciting, but that's exactly what we needed, some time where our only option was to chill.  I loved it.  We had another great night of sleep, thanks to the amazing sick baby who sleeps through coughing and congestion.  He woke up well-rested and sweet again.  Here he is hanging out with Daddy before his bath and our departure from the hotel.  Oh yes, another pair of super cute PJ's.

We arrived back at home around noon.  Koen was out at church with a friend, so it was a nice, calm arrival and it was good to give Tavin a little special time before big brother returned.  After Koen did get back, we all had lunch and then Doug took Koen out sledding and I laid the little guys down.  It's 4pm and time to feed Penn again soon, but things are unpacked, the blog is up to date and I'm still feeling pretty rested and relaxed.  This weekend turned out to be a really nice, relaxing ending to the long holiday break we've enjoyed.  Tomorrow it's back to the regular schedule for all of us.  I think I'm ramped up and ready to go!