Staycation Day 2

We went for a walk in the morning then lounged on the balcony while Hudson took his nap. 

That afternoon we went to the pool. We had so much fun splashing around in the water with Hudson. The pool had a few slides so we decided to try them out. I thought Hudson would be scared, but he actually really liked it! It was so fun for us to take him down the slides and watch his face light up!

That evening, Ashley and Andre came over to watch Hudson so Nic and I could go out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary. We went to one of our absolute favorite restaurants, Rusty Pelican for dinner. That is the restaurant we ate at the night Nic proposed and it has become one of our favorite special occasion spots.We got all our favorites: fresh bread, fried calamari with a chili ancho sauce and baked pesto salmon with a sun dried tomato cream sauce. A version of the salmon was served at our wedding reception and it is one of our absolute favorite dishes!! 

After dinner, we spent some time with Ashley and Andre by the pool before heading back up to the room for reading, relaxing, wine drinking, and bath-tubbing. 

Staycation Day 1

On Saturday May 25th, we left for our Anniversary Staycation. We didn't have anyone to watch Hudson, so our romantic weekend getaway turned into a fun family trip. We left right at Hudson's nap time so he could sleep in the car. When he woke up, we decided it was time for lunch, so we grabbed a bite to eat at Fashion Island. 

Then we did some shopping and grabbed vegan cupcakes at Sprinkles for dessert.

Next we drove down to Dana Point to visit Papa and take Hudson to the beach. Hudson was so cute with Papa. He gave him kisses and sat in his lap staring up at him in admiration. It was so special! 

Hudson also liked the beach! He was not fond of the sand at first, and kept squishing his toes in while making a scrunched up face. Then he seemed to kind of like it and took off walking towards the water. The water was pretty cold and the smarty pants lifted his legs up avoiding the wave and letting me get all wet in my jeans. :) 

From there, we went back to the Ritz Carlton, where we got married 5 years earlier. It was so fun to walk around and reminisce. We even got to go in the ballroom and I danced in the exact spot Nic and I had our first dance with my new little man, Hud. 

We went to one of my favorite restaurants in Huntington Beach, Sushi on Fire, for dinner. It was so delicious! On top of the amazing food, Hudson was so well behaved!

After dinner, we went to check into our hotel. The girl checking us in was acting all weird and excused herself to get something. I thought Nic had maybe arranged some sort of gift or surprise, but when she came back with a Manager I was a bit suspicious. Nic was worried they had cancelled our reservation, and I thought they were going to offer us something. It turned out that the entire hotel was booked because it was Memorial Day weekend. Since we had a Hyatt membership and we were celebrating a special occassion they had selected us to upgrade to one of their Presidential Suites! 

Here is a site that has some pictures and information on the suite! It was amazing! We had been nervous about having to stay in the room during naps, but that was definitely not going to be an issue. The room (well, to be accurate, rooms) were amazing!! We had a kitchen, free wine and beer, a dining room, living room, media room, huge bathroom, closets, bedroom, two balconies (one of which was massive!!). It was spectacular and we could not wipe the massive grins off our faces!!

We put Hudson to bed then enjoyed the wine, fireplace and jacuzzi tub. It was the perfect start to our vacation!

5th Wedding Anniversary

On May 24th, Nic and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. 5 years has flown by and Nic and I have grown so much since our incredible wedding day. We have survived the challenge of immigration issues and long stretches of time apart, we traveled through Europe together, we purchased our first home, we struggled with infertility, we found out we were expecting, we had our first baby and became mama and dada, and have survived the first 9 months of parenthood. Through the ups and downs my love and admiration continue to grow for my baby. I love Nic so very much and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him!!

My mom and Tyler came over in the morning and helped with Hudson's feeding. My mom kept posing for the camera with the spoon full of food right in front of Hudson's face. He was not impressed and even opened his mouth, leaned forward and tried to maneuver the spoon into his mouth because he was tired of waiting! Haha. 

Then I went to the park to meet up with my moms group. I met a girl from Sydney and we really hit it off. It is so nice to be making new friends in the area. :) That afternoon Hud and I met Shannon and Lucy at the park. It was such a beautiful day and we had a great time together. Hudson loved the private park especially the lady bug and bumble bee toys!

Kings Game

On May 23rd, I went with my mom, Tyler and Tyler's friend Evan to the Kings Playoff game. It was a really fun game and my good luck streak continued with another win!

9 Months Old

On May 22nd, Hudson turned 9 months old. Our little man is growing up so quickly! Hudson weighs 18 pounds 8 ounces and he is 29 inches long. Hudson still wears 3-6 month clothes, 9 month pajamas and  a lot of 6-12 month clothes. He is still wearing size 3 diapers. Hudson has really become quite the adventurer! He crawls and pulls himself up and gets on his tippy toes to get what he wants. He loves to pull everything off shelves and dressers and open drawers to pull everything out. He leaves a trail behind him and we can barely keep up. Hudson knows what he wants and is very strong willed. He really fights to do what he wants and fights us when he doesn't want to do something. He has mastered the art of the tantrum and can go from full on meltdown to laughing again the second he gets his way. He is getting better and better at communicating with us and even says the word boo for book. Hudson is getting more and more confident with standing. He cruises (or scales as Nic calls it) all over the furniture. He also lets go and can balance on his own for a few seconds. It is such a gift to watch Hudson learn new skills. He loves to put shapes through his shape sorter, he loves to stack his rings, and he loves to put toys into containers. Hudson has been sleeping really well at night and switched from a 3 nap schedule to 2 naps this month. 

We are truly enjoying being Hudson's parents and we feel so blessed to be able to witness his development into a little boy. He is growing up so fast and we are trying to treasure every moment.

9 Month Doctor Appointment

On May 22nd, we took Hudson to his 9 month doctor appointment. They did the usual weight, height and head circumference measurements. We forgot to ask for the percentages...oops. Hudson weighed 18 pounds 7 ounces and was 29 inches long. Our doctor was very happy with Hudson's skin and his progress overall. She had him practice grabbing things and was impressed with how well he was standing and told us he would be walking soon. Our chatterbox was silent the entire appointment, so at the end our doctor finally asked if he can say anything yet. She turned to him and asked him if he can say mama. He immediately repeated mama back to her. Nic and I were so proud and our doctor joked that he is a genius. She said she had never seen a patient do that. Hudson had to get a shot and a blood draw to test for an iron deficiency. He did really well and the test came back all good. I was nervous about it because of Hudson's limited diet and late introduction of solids, but he seems to be doing well, so we were very pleased. 

Way Behind

I literally said to Nic the other night, "Remember that one time when I was caught up on the blog?" We both laughed because it seems like I am always talking about getting caught up on the blog. Since Hudson came along I have been consistently at least a month behind (sometimes 2 or 3) on the blog. I finally caught up, then we went away to Huntington Beach for a long weekend, then I spent my evenings getting ready for our trip to Maui (anyone with kids understands how much more prep is involved), then we went on our trip and I chose to read a book during my free time (I actually finished my first book in well over a year, which was quite nice!), then we got home and my small amounts of free time were spent unpacking and doing laundry. We also squeezed in the cleaning out/organizing of the pink room project and suddenly all my free time has been consumed with  trip planning (Nic's mom, sister, and our nephew Oliver arrive August 8th and we have a jam-packed few weeks planned while they are here) and birthday party planning (I know, how is Hudson already turning one?!!). Anyways, I love this blog and think it is the quickest and easiest way to record all the fun events in our lives so I have every intention of catching up, but it may be a while. I'm thinking of it as a little summer break. :)