Trip Back Home (July 16th - 20th)

We usually get the opportunity to take a trip back east to Massachusetts about once a year. Our reason this year (which has been the reason the past two years) was for a friend's wedding (a separate entry devoted entirely to that wedding will be posted later). However, we also used the trip home as a chance to catch up with family and other friends. Fortunately, my sister, Elaine was also able to coincide her trip home with mine and our daughters had the chance to hang out again.

We stayed here, at my parents house:
My brother, Chris has been taking care of the house since my parents moved to Japan to take care of my grandfather. He's been doing a really good job, making improvements here and there (we were very thankful for the AC in our guest room). And all my mom's flower gardens don't look half bad either. If only we could do something about the color of the house...

When we arrived on Thursday night, Elaine had already been in town for a couple of days so she and Mike whipped up a delicious meal of black bean burgers, watermelon, corn on the cob, and grilled asparagus. It was a little overcast that day but the weather outside was delightful so we ate dinner on the deck.

Lucy enjoyed the time she had hanging out with her big cousin and DC Aunt and Uncle. Maya is so big compared to Lucy. I forget that she doesn't even fit in an infant car seat anymore - she's using a forward facing toddler seat. She loves to click buckles together and enjoyed doing that to Lucy. Thank goodness Elaine found an extra car seat on Craigslist to keep at my parents' house so we didn't have to lug our giant one to and from Utah and Mass.

Friday for us was pretty quiet (at least during the day) as Elaine & Mike were visiting his family all day and Chris was at work. But it was nice to have the day to rest up before the wedding and let Lucy get in some good naps before the chaos of night.

The next day, Saturday, we made a quick trip up to Maine with Chris and met Elaine, Mike , & Maya there for a visit with Grammie Erma, Aunt Deanne, and Uncle Tom. This was Lucy's first time meeting extended family on my dad's side (and first time in Maine which had beautiful summer weather).

Grammie got to meet her newest great-grandchild. I have no idea how many there are in the family now - 9? It was interesting talking to Grammie and hearing about why she formula-fed all five of her babies (there were so many visitors, she didn't want to bother with the hassle of nursing - it was easier to give a bottle). But perhaps then, they didn't have the rad nursing covers that we use now that makes it so much easier when people are around.


Aunt Deanne and Uncle Tom got in on the Lucy action as well. They are already grandparents several times over but that didn't stop them from enjoying their newest niece.

On the way home from Maine, I had Chris drop Brandon and I off at Laura's parent's home in Newcastle, NH. We've been there before but this time, the boys were fishing off the dock in the backyard which is up against the water and caught our dinner of these huge striper bass. Pictures were taken but I didn't get any. Laura's husband Lee cooked them up and they were delicious. There is nothing so satisfying as catching your dinner in your backyard within hours of eating it.

On Sunday, my best friend from UConn (for the short time that I went there), Kim and her husband Jonn stopped by on their way home to Connecticut from Maine. I missed their wedding this May due to the birth of Lucy so it was good to see them as newlyweds for the first time. We were having so much fun catching up, I didn't even bother to take pictures. I know that Kim did but they were mostly of Lucy (as if I don't have enough of those on this blog already). Kim is one of those friends that I'm lucky if I get to see her once a year but when we do get together, it's like we just start right back up where we left off. Actually, all my friends from back home are like that. But Kim may as well be an honorary Sturgis sister - even my dad gets her mixed up with me when she's around (she's half-Korean so we share a similar "look"). We headed over the the Qualters for a barbeque lunch and then Kim and Jonn headed back to Connecticut.

Monday was pretty mellow as we just hung out with Elaine and Maya and packed up to head back to Utah. Elaine had just purchased some fabulous Hello Kitty band-aids for Maya which she was eager to use...on Lucy:
Since the band-aid on Lucy's head was stuck to her hair, we just didn't even bother to take it off. We figured it would come off on its own...eventually.

We had a quick lunch at Chili's with Chris during his lunch break where he got to say goodbye to his newest niece:
Brandon got a huge kick out of this restaurant next to Chili's. Apparently, The Chateau has food as bad as its name.


And here we are at the end of our trip, departing our plane, bandaid intact. By the way, Lucy did great on the plane - she was mostly a little fussy cause it was hard for her to get comfortable to sleep for a nap. But for the most part, people commented on what a good baby she was. Let's hope it's the same for that 11 hour flight to Japan in a couple of weeks. This was just the practice run.