Kissing Cousins!

Virginia loved spending time with her cousins Anna and Jenna last summer in Alabama, so we decided it was time to visit them again since they live relatively close in San Diego.  They've had an addition to the family since we've seen them last - little Jon David.  So, when Southwest had a fare sale, we jumped on the chance to go down to SoCal for a weekend jaunt.

By now, Virginia is a master traveler, so the 1 hour 15 minute flight to San Diego with her is just a breeze.  We grabbed a rental car and set our sights on Sea World!  We met Suzanne and Jonathan and their kids there and had so much fun.  The cousins took to each other immediately and spent the day playing, holding hands, hugging, and occasionally looking at sea life.

With SeaWorld penguins:

Riding Elmo at SeaWorld:

Spinning ride with Mommy, Anna, and Virginia:

One of many hugs with Anna:

Another hug with Jenna:

Girls dance to Sesame Street:

Fast friends Virginia and Anna:

Thomas, Anna, and Virginia pretend to be polar bears:

Showing off for the fishies:

Virginia never turns down a chance to hug a baby!

Checking out Shamu and eating an ice cream:

After SeaWorld, we took a break and then met up later in the Gaslamp District for dinner with the cousins.  With four hyper kids, our table was a handful, but we had a ton of fun:

Silly girls:

We stayed at the Omni Hotel adjacent to Petco Park.  Thanks to all of Thomas's work travels, we had free nights to burn and the hotel even upgraded us to a suite.  Virginia loved the free chips and salsa the concierge put in our room on arrival, and the milk and cookies at night were even more exciting!  Here's little V jumping on her big girl sofa bed:

Sunday was Mother's Day, so we spent a little time walking around downtown San Diego together before meeting up with the Lairs later in the day.

Thomas had to leave the trip early to get back for a trial the next morning, but Virginia and I stuck around for one more evening and went to Coronado with the Lairs for dinner.  The girls played in the sand and we all ate at a BBQ restaurant on the beach.  What a weekend!

More silly girls on the beach:

BBQ dinner with the Lairs:

Virginia had to get her hands on Jon David again!:

Cabo Wabo

Earlier this month, Thomas and I took a weekend away from little V to head down to Cabo San Lucas for the wedding of her godmother, Amy.  Virginia stayed behind for a weekend of fun with GayGay in Piedmont, and she had a great time attending a Kentucky Derby party and a swim lesson at Claremont Country Club.

Meanwhile, we enjoyed a few cervezas and attended all the parties in Cabo.  We stayed at the Fiesta Americana, which was a very nice resort about 15 minutes from town.  The wedding was at the Esperanza, which was just breathtaking.  It was great reuniting with old friends and enjoying the warm weather.  We took lots of photos that weekend, but here are a few highlights:

Thursday night on the town with Meredith at The Office:

Happy couple at The Office:

Amy and I at her bridesmaids' luncheon:

Rehearsal dinner at Mi Casa with the UVa crew:

Virginia girls (Leslie, Meredith and Deb):

UVa Roomies and Bridesmaids:

The blushing bride gets ready for the big day:

Amy and I:

Yet another UVa crew photo at the wedding:

Dancing the night away:

We forgot how easy Cabo is... just a three hour nonstop flight from SFO.  The tourist industry works really hard to make things safe for all the American tourists, and we found it just as easy to navigate as many American destinations.  So we will have to come back with Virginia soon!  Time to get her passport...

GayGay's Tiki Birthday

If you read this blog often, you will know that the Harveys love all things Hawaiian (I even have a tag for blog posts called Tiki Awesomeness, so that is saying something).  So, when it came time to celebrate Susan's birthday, we did what we always do and headed over to Trader Vic's for an evening of mai tais and coconut shrimp.  Uncle Doug flew in from LA for the event, and we were also joined by Biggie and his girlfriend Leigh.

Here are a few photos of our wild and crazy time...

Biggie gave Susan a sleeve of tattoos as a gift.  Classy!

Virginia insisted on pineapple juice in a coconut cup:

Having a blast with Daddy and Uncle Doug: 

Virginia spent most of her time in Leigh's lap, drinking mocktails:

Virginia gave GayGay matching aprons for baking together:

Third Time's the Charm!

Virginia celebrated her third birthday with friends on April 14 - a few days after her actual birthday.  We figured this is is the last year that we can influence her choice of theme, so we went with one of our favorites - luau!  Mimi sent her a tropical dress, and we loaded up on the wacky tiki decorations to transform our house into the Hawaiian islands.

The party was a big success.  About a dozen of Virginia's buddies, their parents, and a few close family friends came to our house to enjoy a bouncy house, gourmet Domino's pizza, and a classy Safeway cake (Virginia insisted on a Safeway cake covered with lots of icing flowers, after many months of viewing them in the bakery display).  PopPop fired up the blender to make a few mai tais for the grown ups, which were a big hit.

I guess it is official... little V is now a big girl!

Hawaiian bouncy house:

 Buddy Bella (these two are HILARIOUS together):

Kids take over the front room:

The pizza is almost as tall as Virginia:

Virginia, Kylie, and Isabel chow down:

The Safeway cake, covered in icing flowers!:

Kylie, Mom & Virginia:

Marcia (the other birthday girl), Martha, Ellie & GayGay

Leslie and Dore:

Kids enjoy cake outside:

Bouncy house madness (with James, Griffin, Bella, Violet, Tasha & Dekker):

Virginia and Tasha enjoy the bouncy house "afterparty:"

Birthday Madness

Virginia's third birthday fell on a work day this year, so her actual birthday was pretty low key.  We started the morning by opening a few presents with Mommy, Daddy, and Kim.  Thomas gave her a huge collection of Thomas the Tank Engine trains for her train set.  I gave her a new toddler doll for her dollhouse, and Lizzie sent puzzles and Hello Kitty goodies.  Virginia also received some beautiful new outfits from Auntie Lynn (one will certainly be featured on this blog come July 4) and a check for her savings account from Nanny.  Last but definitely not least was a doll from Kim, complete with its very own matching stroller, Pack N Play, and carseat!  Virginia was a very happy camper.

Thomas and I headed out to work, so Kim was on her own for the day.  Kim took Virginia to Applebee's (her favorite restaurant, by the way) with some playgroup buddies for a birthday lunch.  Although I missed the festivities, I can clearly tell from the pictures that they had a blast.

Thomas and I managed to get away a little early from work to return home for more birthday fun.  We went to Blockbuster to rent a movie (Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue) and picked up a pizza.  There's not much that beats pizza and movie night for a birthday!  Uncle Biggie and Leigh dropped by at the end of the evening, which always makes Virginia's day.  Turning three was a big success!

Frequent Flier

 

As I've alluded to in some earlier posts, one of my latest obsessions has been to collect all sorts of frequent flier miles and travel points for my family so that we can travel with Virginia as much as possible.  This got me to thinking...just how much has she traveled anyway?  And to where?  On which airlines?  I thought it would be nice to track all her air travels so that she can have a record of them when she's older. 

I put together a nifty spreadsheet that tracks the days she flew, her age at the time, the airlines used, the routings (starting and ending airport, as well as places where we changed planes), her travel companions, and the purpose of the trip.  I plan to keep this spreadsheet updated regularly and print it at important intervals to include in her baby book.

Putting it together was pretty easy, as I had all the electronic airline receipts in my Gmail account archives.  I did have to remember to account for a couple of trips where our routing changed mid-trip (Virginia has survived two flight cancellations, but we've luckily been traveling to or from the NYC/CT area both times where we have been easily rerouted to other airports).

This spreadsheet allowed me to easily crunch the numbers.  Since she has just turned three, I figured this was an appropriate milestone to tally things up.  So, without further ado, here are Virginia's travel stats:

Total trips flown: 15

(Includes 13 roundtrips plus 2 multicity jaunts)

Segments flown: 44

Airlines flown: 8

(AirTran, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, United, US Airways, Virgin America)

Airports visited: 15

(ATL, BDL, CHS, CLT, ECP, IAH, JFK, KOA, LAS, MGM, OAK, ORD, RDU, SNA, SFO)

Upcoming trips planned: 4

(San Diego in May, Montgomery in June, Hawaii in July, and Connecticut in September)

(These upcoming trips will add 2 more airlines to her tally - American & Alaska - as well as 2 more airports - DFW & SAN)

Happy toddler travels!