Small trip...Huge experience!!!

I have no idea where to begin but our trip to meet fellow bloggers Tammy and Kami was wonderful!The only negative was how short it was and that it went by so fast. I didn't want to leave them when it came time to say "goodbye".There was no awkwardness that you might expect when you first meet someone in person.It was as if I had known these girls for years.It was so comfortable being around other women who get it ,I mean really get it.Just between the three of us we shared the experiences of infertility,IVF,FET,endometriosis,donor embryos,IUI's,just to name a few as there was so much more.We all have tentatively talked about how we all have to get together on a regular basis and I sure hope that we all make that happen.It was a very uplifting experience for me and has only deepened my commitment to my blog and meeting and connecting with fellow bloggers who are walking and have walked this same path.Before I continue let's all stop to take a moment to say a prayer for Tammy and Mark that their little embies are snuggling in as we speak.She will blog about her transfer and her experience when she gets all settled in at home they should be back in Wisconsin today.

Our trip in pictures and and in a timeline...
We left home at 1:30pm after DH got home on Saturday from work and showered, grabbed our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, loaded the car and hit the road.



Nanner's first road trip

About 30 minutes into our trip DH who said he was ok to drive started to dose off at the wheel (yikes!) so I made him pull over so I could take over.He had been up since 3am for work.Here he is only 10 minutes after I took over.

Our pit stop for a diaper change,bottle,stretch our legs,potty break and of course pictures.





After a arriving at our hotel, it is about a 3+ hour drive if you don't stop.
Our hotel, view from balcony etc, which I got a crazy deal on at expedia I had never used the site before but I was impressed with the results




Here are a couple of pics from Saturday night when we first met Tammy,Mark and her mom.Tammy and Nanner were the only ones in pics as everyone else was feeling a little tired and and camera shy.We had not yet met Kami we had plans for all of us to meet the next day on Sunday. DH and I stayed at a hotel only 6 minutes from Tammy and Mark so we were able to visit them and they were so nice and treated us to pizza at "their" place for dinner.(Thank you again)
Here's auntie Tammy and Nanner (yes we adopted her and Mark while we were there so we now have a new aunt and uncle in the family)



After leaving their hotel we wanted to take advantage of the indoor pool at our hotel and nanner loves the water at least at bath time he does, we had no idea what he would do in the pool.Boy he loved it!He splashed,kicked,cooed,squealed and laughed like crazy for an hour straight.He cried when we took him out.We had to as the pool was closing lol.I have some video that I will try to get on here later of it.

Our hotel at night


Nanner's first swim




Yup we had to take a pic of the poor chicken guy that we passed while we were driving to go meet up with Tammy and Kami the next day.

All three of us together for the first time


The baby line up Samantha,Mia,Mason



After meeting up at the hotel we then set out for Panera Bread a personal favorite of DH and mine (Kami's too!) and somewhere that Tammy and Mark and never been.While there we stayed and had a great meal that Mark and Tammy insisted on treating us all too(Thank you so much again! You really didn't have to do that) We all talked for hours passing babies from person to person.It was like a babies merry go round.lol The hours flew by and the babies all were on their very best non cranky behavior which made us mommies very, very glad!If you were an outsider looking in you would have thought it was a table of old friends not people who had just met.Or at least just met in person.We laughed, we shared, we made plans to do this all again and again.










I convinced the panera guy to take our picture all together he was not all that enthused but I didn't care it meant a lot to me.Tammy's mom is in this pic she is not in most of the others as she was taking them for all of us.(Thank you!)





After Panera bread we walked next door to the Carters outlet to look at the cute clothes and stretch our legs before our long drive home. Kami got some cute bibs for the girls and we checked out the cute monkey outfits.After that it was time for our goodbyes :-(





In closing I would like to say that one thing I did not share with anyone not even DH is the internal struggle I had about going on this trip.It is not for any of the reasons you might think.I debated on not going due to my weight.It is hard to want to meet new people and do new things when you are not feeling like you look your best. I am continuing to lose weight which is encouraging but I still do not feel like my old self weight wise. I have 38 more pounds to go before I get to my wedding weight/pre fertility med weight and 23 pounds until my pre-pregnancy weight.I am officially down 20 pounds. It was hard to put on a swim suit to take my son swimming but I am so glad I did.He had so much fun and we lucked out and had the whole pool to ourselves anyway.If I hadn't gone on this trip I would have missed out on meeting some of the nicest people I have ever met.I would have missed out on what has been one of the best experiences of my life.I would have missed out on seeing Tammy and Kami's smiling faces and meeting the twins.I would have missed out on seeing my son laugh and splash with glee in the pool. I would have missed out on a beautiful drive.I would have missed out on uninteruppted time spent with DH on the long drive home that gave us plenty of time to talk and catch up.I would have missed out on being there for a friend when she needed support from someone who has been there.In general if I would have let my weight control my life I would have missed out on life.I am so glad that I decided to live and and not hide!