Goofing off with Grandpa

While Jason and I were enjoying our much-needed vacation, Molly was having the time of her life at home with her grandparents. When Jason and I saw these pictures, we were a little worried that she wouldn't want us to come back. Thankfully, she did!

Unfortunately, Marsha didn't make it in any of these pictures -- she was the photographer all weekend. Thanks again to Marsha and Steve for letting us get away for a couple of days!

Texting

Watching Westerns

Teaching Grandpa how to paint

Saying "cheese" after a blanket fort-making session

From rustic to ridiculous

We've been back for a couple of days, but it's been a little crazy trying to get back to Molly and work and find time to write. I probably should have posted pictures while still on vacation when I had all the time in the world!

As I mentioned in the "Unlucky" travel woes post, we had a wonderful time in Zion and so much fun in Vegas. It was kind of a funny vacation because Zion National Park was so laid back -- everything shut down by 10 pm and hiking boots were the norm at dinner  -- and then Las Vegas was full of crazy energy. My Fitbit stats tell the story pretty well. I got more than 11 hours of sleep each night in Zion (heaven...) and about 6 each night in Vegas. Even though we hiked all day in Zion, I ended up with twice as many steps in Vegas after trucking back and forth along the strip from casino to casino. Ha!

Most of my pictures were taken in Zion. It was so incredibly gorgeous, but I feel like these shots hardly do it justice. We stayed at the Cable Mountain Lodge, just right outside of the entrance to the park, and had really yummy but casual meals at Café Soleil, The Spotted Dog Cafe, and Bit and Spur. In Vegas, we stayed at The Cosmopolitan, saw The Beatles Love Cirque du Soleil show, and ate dinner at Mario Batali's B&B Ristorante and Chicago chef Shawn McClain's restaurant Sage.

Jason had actually won a bit of money from a Superbowl pool before we even went to Vegas, which was nice, because that meant we basically got to gamble guilt-free. I introduced Jason to the joys of low stakes, high intensity gambling with $3 minimum roulette (always bet on birthdays!) and $5 black jack at the Casino Royale. I'm pretty terrible at black jack, but I did hit my numbers a few times playing roulette, which is always exciting. I also placed future wagers on my Cincinnati teams -- 60 to 1 odds for the Bearcats to win the championship and 25 to 1 odds for the Bengals to win the 2015 Superbowl. It would be pretty exciting to cash in on those bets, but I won't hold my breath :)

All right, that's enough typing. Here are a few of my favorite vacation pics:

View from our room in Zion



Canyon Overlook Trail (my favorite hike)

Photobombed at Weeping Rock

Standing tall at the end of the Riverside Walk

Dinner at Sage (Aria Casino, Las Vegas)

Bellagio fountains -- "Fly Me To the Moon" version

Happy birthday, Jason!!

Unlucky

Jason and I have been having a blast on our vacation. Zion National Park was gorgeous. Las Vegas has been so much fun. I was planning to write a long blog post about our trip when I got back home on Monday morning, but now, in an unlucky turn of events, our flight home was cancelled due to weather. What a crazy winter!

We were a little panicked at first because Jason's parents have to head home tomorrow, and we couldn't get flights back until late tomorrow night. Thankfully,  Aunt B is able to pinch hit and pick up Molly from daycare and watch her until we get home. So I guess that is actually lucky for us! I just feel bad that we won't get to see Molly for another day. And it kind of puts a damper on our last night out. Maybe we'll win big playing roulette to make up for all the travel woes!

If this is 40...

...it seems pretty good to me! Don't let Judd Apatow scare you (movie reference: This is 40).

About to dig into some yummy birthday pizza at Trattoria D.O.C.

We're having a low key night tonight, in the home we love. We just put our sweet and adorable daughter to bed. No one is bugging us from the jobs we are both lucky to have. We have plans to see most of our friends on Saturday night and are taking a trip together (sans Molls) next week. Siblings seem happy. Parents seem happy. Most important, Jason seems happy!

 

Happy birthday, Jas!

Nuts!!

It turns out Molly has a walnut allergy. She had the reaction on Christmas Eve, but we didn't know the cause until now. Walnuts were a possibility since she had just eaten a chocolate chip walnut cookie. But she had also been playing with an old perfume of my Grandmother's. I had my money on the old perfume!

The reaction was pretty scary because we could tell Molly was having trouble breathing. She couldn't stop coughing and had red hives all over her chest and neck. We got the doctor on the phone and gave her a double dose of Benadryl, which seemed to do the trick.

The doctor said sometimes these kinds of reactions are viral, but wanted to do some allergy testing to be safe. Molly eats peanut butter, cashews, pistachios, and almonds, so I had doubts she'd be selectively allergic to walnuts. But the results came back positive for a pretty strong walnut allergy. She's also allergic to dust mites, mold, and cats, but those don't worry me as much as the food allergy.

Now we have to go see an allergist and enter the world of epi pens (apparently there's a new one that talks) and checking food labels for ingredients. There could be other nuts on the list, but I won't worry about that yet. Poor Molls.

The good news is that we've discovered Molly is extremely brave at the doctor's office and handles blood draws like a champ (unlike one of her parents). They made a mistake on one arm, but Molly gave them the go ahead to try the other. I was shocked! Hopefully the brave streak continues because I have a feeling there's more testing in her future :(