Valparaiso and Summer Travel

We left Earlville on May 30th with David driving a U-Haul with our belongings and me driving our car with our little punkin. It took us 11.5 hours to drive from NY to IN and we broke up the trip by staying overnight in Cleveland. We had every intention of visiting Niagara Falls en route, but George was starting to lose his mind and we didn't want to put him through that.

Our newly forward-facing little boy! We decided to turn him forward since I'd be driving so far alone in the car. He slept so well and kept busy by reading books and singing with Mommy.

We pulled into Valparaiso, IN (or "Valpo" as everyone calls it) on May 31st. This was my first visit and I just love it! The town is bigger than I imagined and it seemed very quaint. We were also encouraged by the proximity to fun activities like the dunes on Lake Michigan, Chicago, outlet malls, etc. I'm excited to not have to drive 30 minutes to reach Wal-Mart/Target. Also, there's a Chick-fil-a nearby!!! It's the little things, right?

Here's a peek at our cute little rent house in Valparaiso. We'll move in around Aug. 1 and David will start his new job later that month.

We moved our things into a storage unit for the summer and then took off on June 1 for Chattanooga (another 10 hour drive). We are currently in Chattanooga visiting David's family and will spend July in Little Rock with my family. It has been so nice to spend time with family. My cup is full and spirit renewed. David and I even went on a date! (We saw Prometheus... I wasn't a big fan.) 

Pregnancy update: I'm about 16 weeks along at this point and thrilled to be coasting along in the 2nd trimester. I've been feeling movement pretty regularly from our little one. This week, he/she is about the size of an avocado! We will eventually find out the gender of the baby, but not until we get back to Indiana. 

George update: He is 19 months old and weighs about 25 lbs. He is talking constantly and has just recently started putting words together more. He loves to say "I see you", "big truck", "dada and momma", and "listen and obey". He can count to 10 without any trouble and can recite portions of the ABC's. He can identify just about any upper-case letter of the alphabet. It's so much fun to be able to communicate with each other better. He isn't too much fun to shop with anymore because he's so eager to run around. He loves to play hide and seek. He LOVES the park! Daily he asks "Park please?" and most days we indulge. He's happy anytime he's outside. What a delight this boy is! I can't get enough of him!

Here are a few photos from our time in Chattanooga thus far:

Braves game in ATL

G's first golf outing with Lookout Mtn. in the background.

Pregnant golfing. 

George's favorite activity at the Creative Discovery Museum in Chattanooga. 

Guess who has been sleeping in a big boy bed during our stay in Chatt???

More to come. We'll be heading to the beach at the end of the month and you can bet I'll take tons of pictures of George's first beach trip!