The Final Stretch

This part of life still fits into the nomadic phase, but deserves it's own post so here goes! After Kellan and I toured the country for 7 weeks we ended up back in New Haven with Hunter for 4 weeks. By some stroke of luck every single thing fell back into place and I was able to work part time (allowing for our 1 car situation to work out), Kellan was able to go back to daycare 3 days a week, and we made it through with only 1 car.

Our baby is turning into such a little boy! He looooves all things playground, balls, bikes, and running. Here he is on the slide at daycare:

Hunter and I were able to get away for a day shortly after I returned. Hunter had the whole thing planned out and we were able to go the Manhattan Temple (for sure a bucket list item), see Hunger Games, and go to Morimoto for dinner (another bucket list item).

So. Much. Good. Food.

It was an unseasonable warm fall/early winter in New England and we definitely took advantage of that. Despite the fact that our dogs stayed with my parents in Parowan, Kellan and I went on a walk and/or bike ride almost every single day. 

We were able to celebrate Kellan's second birthday while out there as well! That was a large part of why we made an effort to come back to CT for a few weeks. We didn't make too big of a deal out of it but did have cupcakes, have a couple friends over, and opened a lot more presents than either of us anticipated (haha). Kellan still goes around calling all cupcakes "happy doth-day pupcakes". It's pretty adorable. 

It's been fun to watch him learn and grow more and more. He keeps trying so much to be just like the adults around him. One of the latest developments is dipping in sauce, grilled cheese in tomato soup. 

This often ends in a much larger mess for me, buuuut is a lot of fun to watch.

We were also able to go to the PA Program's Christmas Party for the third and final time. We took the same picture that we've taken 3 times now but something was just extra sweet about this one. 

I also officially gave my notice at work as we left New Haven a week after graduation and the day Hunter took his boards. It was bittersweet and a huge leap of faith since there is no job secured yet. We do however look forward to being able to spend time with both of our families and relax for a few weeks. 

Our final Saturday (we left on a Monday) we went to find our favorite food trucks (Caseus Cheese Truck, and Sugar Cupcakes) at a little garden area in Branford. Lucky for us there was a little party going on including train rides and Santa! Needless to say, the Train went over SO MUCH BETTER than meeting Santa did. We are still trying to convince Kell that Santa is nice not scary. Hopefully he'll grasp that concept by next December, haha. And to be clear, meeting Santa entailed Santa walking past about 10 feet away and saying "Hi!". That was when the world ended. Oh to be 2.

Our trek back west this time around involved a couple of airplanes instead of a car, thank goodness! Kellan really is at the point that he loves all things about flying on an airplane. He's really, really well behaved and looks forward to the experience. I think we may have crossed a barrier here and have made it out of the rough period to fly with him - I may eat my words at a later date, but will hold my ground on that for now. haha. 

Part of loving all things airplane means NOOOO nap. It usually works out okay because he's fascinated with everything going on but this time around resulted in him passing out on take off on our connecting flight that started at bedtime. It was pretty adorable and only lasted about 45 minutes before he woke up.