It's been a long time...

what, isn't it totally normal for devon to be in new hampshire?

In what has to be considered the Best.Surprise.of.the.Year, my bff showed up in New freaking Hampshire last week and you can probably predict...I FREAKED OUT. I spent the most amazing 4 days with Devon and her THREE MONTH OLD BABY and at the end of it, I bawled my eyes out during the lonely 2 hour drive back home from the Boston airport. 

baby piper - 3mos

This is how it went down.....

1. Devon had a free Southwest flight that was about to expire.
2. She was about to go off of maternity leave. This had to be a good last hurrah!
3. Weekend travel was currently and was about to be off-limits for quite some time. 
4. It was pertinent to find someone to visit that had a flexible weekday schedule.

Here were the people involved.....

1. Devon (duh)
2. Piper (also, duh)
3. Jamie (for scheduling and guest room prep purposes)
4. and LARA (picked the travelers up from the Boston airport and drove them up to NH)

From what I understand, the sudden realization of an expiring free flight led to a quickly hatched plan to hop on a plane within a few days! It was Piper's first flight and she handled it like a pro (mom too!).

pipes had to fly to NH to figure out what her auntie leslie's nose tasted like. 

mmmm...cupcakes....

While Devon/Jamie/Lara were plan hatching, Lara asked me to grab a mid-afternoon gelato on Wed. We already had plans to have dinner at her parents that night (in Hanover), but I didn't think anything of Lara wanting to see me for additional time that day. Didn't even blink an eye. 

I happened to call Devon on my way to see Lara that afternoon, something completely out of the ordinary as we tend to do our communication away from phone calls. It just occurred to me that she was probably coming off of maternity leave soon, that it was a gorgeous New England day she would enjoy, and I just missed the pretty lady. I wanted to call to catch up, to hear her voice, and to try to convince her to visit. 

I walked to gelato from work (10min journey), trying to catch up on her life; all the while, she warily answered my questions, thinking I knew exactly what was going on. We both thought the other was acting so strange!

The call ended as I walked up to the gelato place as I promised to call her back soon, but that I had to get off the phone to meet up with Lara. I hung up, put the phone in my purse, and walked into Molto Gelato.

OH MY GOODNESS.

WHAT IN THE WORLD????

WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE??

What are you doing here???

WHAT ARE YOU DOOOOOING HEEERRREEEE?!?!?!!

i couldn't have been happier.

Our leisurely dinner at Lara's parents house (her childhood home!) included homemade roasted chicken, a kick-butt apple cider sauce, oven roasted cauliflower, big/fat couscous, and was polished off with soft, maple cookies and coffee. It was a hilarious dinner, filled with happy barking (brody + hudson) and baby cooing (jamie...just kidding, it was piper). It was so comforting to meet our closest set of parental units and I can't wait to spend more time with the Slobes. Lara used to live with Devon and I could tell that her parents just loved up on my friend and her little one.

The next few days included touring a typical Vermont town, some baby clothes shopping, touring Tuck and showing Dev+Piper off to my new co-workers and our new Tuck-friends. We even took them to a popular Tuck activity....Tuck'Tails (tuck + cocktails)! The Larkins were a HUGE HIT (read: popular.as.hell) and had delicious fall themed foods as well as samplings of the winning chili recipe from the previous weekend's Chili Cook-Off, wine, hot apple cider, and beer. Mmmmmmmm....

piper and i got down to some hard core chillin'.

After a glorious few days in Hanover, we headed back down to Boston in preparation for their departure (sad face). Then we heard some yucky news about Patrick and the flu. Oh no!! After a few minutes of contemplation, mom and baby decided to extend their time away from flu-exposure as much as possible (happy face!). We had already made plans to visit with Brook & Marissa that afternoon which they so graciously extended to an overnight visit. I mean, really...do I have awesome friends or what?

Our best man, cozying it up with my m.of.honor's baby girl.

Lara, Devon, Piper, Hudson, and I clomped onto the scene rainy Saturday evening, interrupting the kids' dinner and creating total mayhem in their otherwise calm home. Max and Jane were completely into "the baby", watching mesmerized at diaper changing, endlessly kissing her, reaching for her, and hugging her. It was so incredibly sweet and if their parents ever needed a sign that they were doing things right? C'mon. Those kids being automatically being that loving to perfect stranger babies? Perfect parenting.

Piper with my such-a-great, terrific, awesome, AMAZING friend, Marissa.

She has become like family to me since we've moved here.

We ordered pizza, drank wine, ate brownies, let Brook watch the Rangers (?), and gossiped the night away; giggling like crazy. Their home was v.baby-prepared with a portable crib, extra wipes, electric swings, and the works! I hope dev felt super comfortable there as I'm sure she was pretty worried about Patrick being so sick back at home. Fun fact: Marissa had mailed all sorts of hand-me-downs to Devon before Piper was born and Piper was wearing them in their originating home! Full circle, people. Full circle. 

An entire next day of hanging around in Boston with Lara and then....

.....very reluctantly,.....
.....I let them leave me....

i don't wanna leave auntie leslie.

COME BACK SOON. I LOVE YOU GUYS.

And thank you, devs.