Ben's finals= Reason to visit home

     I'll always take any excuse to fly home to see my family, so since we were already in Dallas, Bain would pay for my flight to Seattle, and Ben was heading back to Duke for another round of finals, Paige and I jumped at the opportunity.
     Our trip didn't start off too hot. I may have had a small melt down in the airport when I realized I had 6 hours of flying ahead of me with Paige on my lap for both flights. I literally cried when Ben left us for his flight. I've flown many times with Paige, but for some reason this flight felt very daunting (and I'll blame it on crazy pregnancy hormones). Luckily the first flight wasn't too bad, Paige slept on the floor by my feet for a while. Our 1 hour layover was another story. I didn't have my stroller (they kept it on the plane) and we needed to get dinner. The problem was little miss toddler decided she didn't feel like walking and would rather throw herself on the floor in the middle of the airport. Then when I would carry her she would scream while people starred at us. I was exhausted. But we survived and were thrilled to see my parents.
     I did a horrible job documenting this trip, didn't get out my real camera once. But we had a fabulous time just relaxing. We shopped for maternity clothes, went out to eat, went to Evan's cub scout thing, saw grandparents, played Pop 5, and just hung out. We also went to church where Paige screamed for grandpa on the stand the whole time.
    One night we accompanied grandpa to his school carnival (perks of your grandpa being an elementary principal)

    We got to see Ben on ESPN while he was at the Duke vs Miami game. I love his up close somber face.

    Paige also bonded with her favorite member of the family, Leo. She loves that dog, and he put up were pretty well. She would constantly being looking for him, shouting "where's Yeo?"

   The best part of the trip was passing out on the couch at 7:30 and having my nice parents put Paige to bed for me. Nothing like having your parents take care of you :)

Bain Dallas

     A few days after we got back from DC, we flew to Dallas for Bain's "sell weekend". Our flight out got delayed and we ended up having to stay the night in Houston. Luckily Bain was very helpful and arranged a car and hotel for us, but we only got about 4 hours of sleep before we were back at the airport to catch the first flight out.
     Sell weekend is basically about schmoozing you in case you're still considering other companies. So Bain put us up in the Ritz Carlton, gave us presents, and provided different activities, meals and meetings for Ben. Since our room wasn't ready at 7 am, the Ritz let Paige and I eat at their restaurant (while Ben headed off to the Bain office). I thought this would be nice....wrong. I just felt nervous/uncomfortable while my toddler was trying to climb out of her high chair, grabbing china, and spitting out blueberries. Finally we headed to our room and got a good nap in before we headed out for a walk.
     First we grabbed some Pei Wei, then walked around until we found a cute new park in the middle of downtown.

 Paige loved the treasures she had in the hotel:
-Lion and bath toys the hotel brought her (I don't think they get a lot of kids)

-Coloring pages and snacks from Bain

 -And the mini bar...who can resist miniature bottles to line up

That night we took Paige to see her Aunt Lindsay and cousins who just happened to be in town, while Ben and I went to a Bain dinner. The kids were so cute and had bought Minnie Mouse toys to give Paige. She loved getting to play with them (and meet them for the very first time!).

The next day we had a Bain brunch, then massages (I was thrilled about this part!), then Ben headed to a NHL game while Paige and I got gelato and did a little people watching in the lobby. Paige also did a lot of running around the giant lobby and made friends with all of the bellmen and hotel workers (again, I really don't think they get a lot of kids). The next day was another Bain brunch (yes, I did a lot of smiling and shaking hands...) and heading off to the airport. As we were waiting in the hotel lobby Paige started saying hi to a little girl. Then I realized the mom holding that little girl was Pink!! I basically stood there in shock while Pink talked to Paige and told her how cute her pigtails were. Then Paige and Pink waved bye to each other. The perks of staying at a nice hotel.

Don't worry, I didn't actually take any pictures

We left the weekend feeling even more excited about Bain, happy about my first trip to Texas, and my face hurting from all the people I had to politely meet :)

DC Weekend

Mid February Ben had a basketball tournament with his Duke MBA team at Georgetown. Teams from different MBA programs gathered to play each other for the weekend, so of course we jumped at the opportunity to take a trip to DC!

Georgetown has an absolutely gorgeous campus!

Checking out the lacrosse boys :)

I loved Ben's uniform: guy with a basketball in one hand and a briefcase in the other

 And this is what Paige did during the games...with an occasional "Go Daddy"! We didn't play the Sunday games, but his team ended up taking 3rd place. Go Duke!

Since the tournament took up most of our time Saturday, we really only had part of Sunday to actually see DC. And unfortunately it was freezing while we were there, so we only lasted so long walking around (especially since Paige didn't want to leave her gloves on and then would cry because her hands would get so cold). This was Ben's very first time to DC and only my second, so we tried to hit up some of the major things, but decided we will just have to make another trip up while we're living out here.

Ben's favorite part of the trip

World War II Memorial

Washington Monument

Front of the White House

Back of the White House

We were all pretty well frozen at this point and Paige was melting, so we walked all the way back to the car and decided to call it a trip. But not without one last stop (we actually went there twice) at Cafe Rio. I hadn't had it since we lived in Utah almost 3 years ago, and I had been craving it ever since.

It was a fun quick trip and we can't wait to visit again!

February: What we were lovin'

-February brought some great Valentine celebrations! First we had the Fuqua Families party at Duke.

 Then my friend, Becky, threw an adorable party for the kiddos and moms

Some of the fun LDS Duke MBA wives

I didn't even get a picture with my cute Valentine, but Ben did an awesome job surprising me with a massage and dinner at a local Durham restaurant. He's a stud.

-February also brought some love for Duke basketball, including Ben camping out over night and standing in line another 4 hours for the UNC game

-Paige has found a new love of the piano and frequently "helps" me play. She especially loves turning the pages

-Paige loved her new headphones (for upcoming plane flights) and having daddy home more now that interviews were over

 -And we apparently loved our sleep :) Nothing wears you out like a good lunch or 2 hours in nursery

*Our February trip to DC to come next

January: From nursery to Bain

As always, I'm way behind on blogging. But here's a recap of January (with only phone pictures).

-As soon as we got back from vacation Paige started nursery at church. She went in without even looking back, didn't cry at all! She absolutely loves nursery, has the cutest teachers, and happily goes every week. Ben and I are equally as happy :)

-It snowed in North Carolina! By snow I mean a light dusting, but very exciting for NC! Thank goodness we had our fur coat ready :)

-We had sleepy moments

-Paige is enjoying bath time more and more

-She thinks she's a gymnast

-We went to Campbell's birthday party. Campbell is a little boy I nannyed from September-February a few days a week. He and Paige became cute little friends (even though she loved to mother him)

-We discovered Cadbury Eggs were already out....bad, bad news

-We made cinnamon and sugar popcorn for game night. Delicious! 

-We made our first trip to Chuck-E-Cheese with our friends

-Of course we squeezed in some Duke games, including one with just the girls!

-But by the far the thing that consumed our month was Ben's interviewing for internships. He had many long interviews here in NC, and then flew out for final rounds. The recruiting and interviewing process is so time consuming, competitive and stressful, especially with consulting. It was incredibly nerve-racking, especially since Bain has always been his number one choice. Luckily they called him just a few hours after his final interview to give him the offer! When he called me from Dallas I started crying....I was just so relieved, excited, and proud of him! He cancelled his other interviews and we accepted right away! They even sent us a lovely bottle of champagne to celebrate...I was hoping for Diet Coke ;) So he'll head to Dallas this summer and then hopefully we'll be back there after he finishes school.

New suit, just in time

Celebratory dinner