The Traveler

Stella has been putting in some good travel time lately. Last year she got off to a good start when we went to the Marshall Islands but then we didn't go anywhere far while we worked on our house. By October I decided it was time to get out of town, house project or none, and she and I took a quick trip to SEA (see previous post) to visit our long lost friends, Mike and Maureen. In December she went on her second trip to Puerto Vallarta with the whole Peterson and Haycock families. January we took our second annual trip (can you call it annual if you skipped a year in between?) to Bluff for the famed balloon festival and to visit our desert friends the Harts. Stella and Lander's good-bye hug

Februrary we hit the airways and went with Calder on an overnight in San Diego. I hadn't been on an overnight for years (Calder rarely bids them anymore). It was a really quick trip (less than 24 hours on the ground in SAN) but it was fun to wear sandals, look at boats, eat at Calder's marina kitchen, aka Pizza Nova, and pop in on a few friends. We surprised Jeffrey in his studio, got on board with Alan, and finally saw Spence & Nicky's new house and her growing belly, all in less than a day. After SAN we had a breather day at home to unpack and pack and then took off again for NYC via EWR (Newark). We had a great time visiting Trav, though we missed Sarah and the kids who swapped sides of the country with us on a trip to Colorado. We did get to hang with Eric and Shayna which was an added family bonus (the trip really was about visiting family--and doing some house projects more than doing NYC). Serious Stella in SoHo

And the requisite trip to Trader Joes alone made the long flights worth it. Stella really was a rock star on the plane and in the airport. She made lots of friends walking around the circular console at EWR. And by her tenth time around they really were familiar faces. We were lucky and got a seat for her on both our flights which made it more comfortable for me, and gave her a good place to sleep. We had to wake her up on the flight back to SLC so she wouldn't be too tired to go to sleep. She wooed the flight attendants and other passengers with her please and thank you's. We are spoiled parents. I'm sure we'll pay for it someday...maybe the teenage years?