Pre Paisley Trip

April 6th I flew out to surprise Kayla (Alex was in on it) and to spend time with Alex and Kayla before Paisley was born - with the secret hope she'd decide to come a little early and I'd be there!

It took me 29 hours to get there flying standby on United! I left Friday afternoon and got there at almost midnight Saturday the 7th. (Yep. Spent the night at the San Fran airport - here I am with the boarding pass for my last leg!)

Sunday morning Alex and I went to the "main gate visitors center" to get me a pass to get on and off base. In my mind I expected a much larger and grander visitors center - but this was it!

My pass - lovely picture - I could be anyone! 

Sunday was General Conference so we had our traditional Sticky Bun Breakfast and then played conference bingo

Wherever I was - Harley was usually pretty close by!

Between sessions we went to a zoo - that seemed to be in someones back yard about 20 minutes off base. It seemed sort of sketchy but it was such a nice day and we had a nice walk and actually saw quite a few animals. 

That night we went out to eat - the food was so-so but the cake was delicious! 

The next morning I was soaking up some NC sunshine and started pulling some weeds and was in awe of the soft dirt and ease that the weeds came out! I got a crazy idea and Alex and Kayla got behind it and we decided to clear the weeds and plant sod. 

Here's the before - after I had already pulled a lot of the taller weeds:

We didn't have a truck - but we had the SUV I had rented. K ran to the store to get a tarp and bags for the weeds - you can't just throw weeds in garbage in NC - who knew? She had helped clear weeds and load bags and then had to go to work. Alex and I loaded the sod (twice) into the SUV and laid it. 

We got a little sunburned but we did the job in one day!

The next day we went and had pedicures! We deserved them! And besides - K needed pretty toes for her upcoming adventure. 

This was Alex's first an only pedicure to date. 

Afterwards we ate sushi and spicy Thai food and went grocery shopping. (Notice the walking, yard work, pedicures, spicy food - yep - trying to get Paisley to come out!) 

That afternoon K had to work again and Alex and I chopped and prepped freezer meals to stock them up for after the baby comes. 

The next morning Alex had to work and  I went with K to her pregnancy yoga class. I was lucky enough to get to practice with all these expecting mama's. 

Believe it or not - Kayla is the farthest along - but the tiniest!

That afternoon we went to K's doctor's appointment - she was dilated to a 1 maybe 1.5.

I left Thursday morning but not before dropping off a shake to Alex hard at work. This is him at a guard gate. (Not sure I'm suppose to take pictures - but I did.) 

I knew the flights home from Chicago looked bad so I made the most of it and spent the night there - great excuse to catch a show I've been wanting to see for awhile. 

It was a quick and wonderful trip - I realized that would be my last time spending time with this cute couple living so far from home - after this  I will be visiting a family!