Thank you so much to everyone who responded to my Instagram story asking for travel tips! I received so many messages with great ideas (scroll down to see the list), and also so many people asking me to share these ideas, too... so here goes! I've tried to capture everything, but I'm sure I missed some and would love any additional ideas you guys may have in the comments. :) And sorry about the picture quality, these were all iPhone pics taken is such bad lighting! We flew to Florida twice this winter with Parker and took two totally different approaches for each trip... FIRST TRIP Parker was just a few weeks shy of 1 year, and we chose to fly at night (8-9pm flights). In the airport
SECOND TRIP Parker was 15 months (not walking yet, but crawling everywhere), and we chose to fly during the day. Our first flight was super early in the morning and the return flight was mid-morning. We are so lucky that we made it out of town for this trip. We flew out at 6:50 the morning that the biggest snowfall/blizzard of the season hit MN - and everything after us was cancelled. Thank heavens we made it out! The only bummer was that we had to get de-iced and that took 30-45 minutes and by the time we were done being de-iced, my "bag of tricks" (food, games, etc.) was almost completely out of things because he had already gone through them all. In the Airport - I took the same approach this time flying with Parker as I did above with a few differences.
On the Plane -
FIRST TRIP VS. SECOND TRIP Overall, the flights went fine both times. I think I would attempt to travel either way next time, but maybe lean toward a night flight because a sleeping toddler is way easier than a busy one that gets bored very quickly. Once P is at the age where he can watch a show/movie on an iPad, flying during the day will probably be more the attractive option. I know this was kind of a hodge podge of info, but hopefully it'll help someone out who plans to fly with a busy toddler sometime soon! Other ideas that people sent me (THANK YOU!!):
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We are so excited to share the big news that Parker is going to be a big brother this fall! All glory be to our Father for this wonderful blessing.
We had just finish making our plans for our frozen embryo transfer (FET), and put our down payment down and I was on cycle day 30 so I took a pregnancy test at the doctor's office to make sure we weren't pregnant. It came back negative, so now it was just time to wait for my cycle to start so we could get things rolling with my medication protocol. About one week later my period still hadn't come so I took a home pregnancy test for fun and BAM two bold pink lines appeared right away. I was in shock! I yelled to Todd and he literally yelled back "are you pregnant?" - it's like he knew. What a miracle from God! I have never been pregnant without the assistance of fertility medications, so this was truly such a wonderful surprise. I want to thank my BSF small group and my mom's morning small groups for praying for us to conceive and that our little one is healthy. They are my prayer warriors and I am so grateful for this answered prayer! It's going to be so fun to see Parker become a big brother this fall! I was so honored to be part of Home Bunch's "Beautiful Homes of Instagram" blog series. I wanted to share the pictures from our (partial) home tour on my blog, too! There's a ton of content, so I've decided to break it up into two different posts - this one features our main level. Most of the photos below were shot by the amazing Nicole Autumn (a few are from my camera roll, too). A HUGE thank you to Ampersand in the Galleria and Tonkadale for providing me with tons of merchandise to style my home with. I've tried to link everything in the photos, but if you have any questions, please let me know. For those of you asking about my front door color, I am still trying to figure it out. Sorry! Entry Light | Personalized Doormat Paint from Fine Paints of Europe One of my favorite transformations in our home was our front entryway. We changed the exterior color of our home to white shake, and replaced our 7’ solid wood doors with 8’ french doors adorned with big windows that lets the morning light pour into our home. I didn’t want to paint the doors white because I felt like that was a little too matchy-matchy, so I opted for my favorite color, grey, and I love the way it turned out! It’s a great contrast against our all-white home. FRONT ENTRY Prior to our remodel our main level was divided by a three-quarter-length high wall, closing off the kitchen from the formal dining and living room. This new, open floor plan has really opened things up and makes our home feel much larger than before. LIVING ROOM Drapery, and all furniture is from Restoration Hardware. I've linked similar items here: Coffee Table, Chairs, Pink Throw Pillows I made the moss bowl with materials from Tonkadale nursery. Paint Color: Harbor Gray by Benjamin Moore DINING ROOM Table & Chairs - Restoration Hardware - Similar table Here, Dining Chairs here, and End chairs here | Lighting | Plates Flowers from Ampersand and Tonkadale Our dining room serves as both our casual and formal dining space, so I was very mindful of this when selecting the furniture and lighting so that I could make it function for both purposes. KITCHEN I kind of cringe when I see how matchy matchy our dining room chairs and barstools are. I thought it would be a good idea to have them the same, but I'd really like to change out our barstools some day to create a nice, complementary contrast. Chandeliers | Sink | Faucet and Side Spray Hardware: Knobs & Pulls: Alno Inc Creations, Charlie’s 6” Brass Pulls (3” for smaller drawers), knobs are Charlie’s 1.25” knos and 1.25” backplates in antique English Countertops & backsplash: Honed Carrara Marble (yes, I'd do it again, I love our counters!) Cabinet paint color: Extra White by Benjamin Moore Prior to our remodel, we had a white and grey kitchen, but it was really dated. I fell in love with blogger Rachel Parcell’s kitchen - the oversized range hood and open shelving with a marble backsplash that ran to the ceiling. I loved every detail so I worked with my builder to incorporate as many elements of that inspiration as possible into our space. BACK ENTRYWAY Hooks | Knobs | Pulls I was still waiting from the other hardware to arrive (it didn't make it for the photo shoot so that's why the drawer is missing a pull in this picture). A little bit more about me & what I shared on the home bunch blog:
I have loved houses ever since I was a little girl. I remember when I was growing up my mom and I would go on car rides to the fancy neighborhoods to look at pretty homes, and I always felt so inspired. Growing up I always thought I would do something dealing with homes, but when I went off to college I decided to go the business route, instead of channeling my love for homes and my creativity. Later on, when I met my husband and moved into his home, we started talking about doing some remodeling. We had plans drawn up, but it wasn’t until after we were married that we decided to pursue them. My husband had bought a great home in a wonderful neighborhood, very close to where we both grew up, but it was a dated ranch style home that definitely needed some TLC. He had demoed our whole lower level so it was down to the framing and cement floors, so a big chunk of our home wasn’t even functional. After weighing our options, we made the decision to turn his home into our home, a place where we’d raise our children, and that reflected our needs and personal style (instead of moving). Designing our home was such an incredible experience for me. I spent hours searching through blogs and pinning spaces I loved on Pinterest, and enjoyed every second of it. Gathering all of this inspiration enabled me to create an overall vision for our home, and translate that into each and every room, and then watch it all come to life. I was truly in my element during the whole process. It has been about two and-a-half years since we remodeled our home, and we have since welcomed a baby boy to our family. I decided to leave corporate America when we had him and just recently decided to launch my own company as an independent decorator (@parkergreyinteriors) so I can help others create beautiful, functional spaces they love, too. The company is named after my son and my favorite color, grey. I’m so excited to see where this new opportunity takes me! Our home underwent a big transformation from a dark and dated ranch style home, to a bright and airy, traditional home with hints of a modern farmhouse, too. I love clean, uncluttered spaces, and lots of neutrals with a hint of greenery and/or fresh flowers. Every single day (no joke!) I look at our home and wonder how I can make the space even more beautiful... with wall coverings, decor, furniture, etc. I spend a ton of time reorganizing the open shelves in the kitchen, and rearranging the built in shelves in our master. I just love making our space perfectly tailored to our style and am always striving to improve it. We have two additional levels in our home that are not pictured, our lower level which is mostly filled with kids toys, and our basement level that is unfinished. Hopefully I can share those spaces in the future! Thanks so much for taking a look at our home and I'll post the second part with our upper level soon! Lindsay |
Hi, welcome to my blog! I started my blog as a way to channel my creativity and document our life happenings. From the pretty, styled shots to the real, raw experiences, too, like our journey to start our family. I love to share about my faith, my personal style for interior decorating, holidays and entertaining & for our little guys. too. Thanks so much for stopping by and for your support. XO, Lindsay
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