Meeting Miss Lyla Mae!

Okay, so in the middle of all this...  we've lost little Lyla's story!  I mentioned somewhere before, that she was born on September 4th, the day before Shadow died.  Velvet died on Clare's birthday.  Those are tough reminder days.  I'm glad Lyla gets her own day though.  We were SO happy the day she was born!  We hungrily ate up all the texts and phone calls and pictures from my family.  Sometimes it's nice to have a little space from family, but the day a baby is born is NOT one of them!  Oh man, Harriet and I just about got in the car and drove up there when Jessica went into labor.  I think we would have if Shadow hadn't had such a terrible week.  I knew the end was soon and couldn't leave her.  Good thing we didn't.

LYLA MAE.  We had been waiting to meet her for months!  Then, we had to wait even longer!  The little stinker was born early (like all the Mitchell grand-kids seem to do.)  We had scheduled a trip on the first possible weekend we could get up to Salt Lake - our fall break, which is the 2nd weekend of Balloon Fiesta.  She'd be 5 weeks old!  How could we wait that long?  It may have been the longest 5 weeks of Harriet's life and mine, with daily conversations about how unfair it was to be stuck in NM and how unfair that Kate was holding the baby, and how unfair that we didn't get to see her when she was super fresh from the hospital, and how unfair we had to drive so far.  So, a couple days after the Covilis and Salt Lake Chapmans left, we got in our car and headed to Salt Lake.  (Remember, THIS is why we were supposed to wait to get a puppy!  But, since we didn't, Stryder came along too.  Poor Meliss...)

Stryder actually did so great in the car.  He curled up and slept the whole way there and back.  He was decently behaved and didn't have any accidents at Melissa's house.  Except.  The morning we left.  He had spent 3 days eating too many fallen pears in the yard and just had the worst tummy problems ever!  

Harriet was over the moon about this trip.  Not only would she meet her new baby girl cousin, she also got to go to her first cousin birthday party.  We've never been able to do that before, but Melissa scheduled Kate's 6th birthday party for the weekend we would be there - a FROZEN themed princess party to boot!  It was grand.  Harriet would have had the time of her life if she wasn't so mad that she had to leave before we even got there.  (She still did have the time of her life, but she really had a hard time knowing that when she left, she wouldn't be seeing that baby for a long time.)

As we pulled into town, Jessica found out that she had to move that weekend.  So, we gladly spent the days we had, helping her pack and get things out of her house.  Harriet happily "babysat" Lyla while we packed.  Grace was patient and hung out.  Aunt Em came to the rescue on Saturday after Grace had endured baby this and baby that and princess party this and princess party that.  She took Grace and Sean to the zoo for all their favorite cool animals.  

Here's the photo tour:

Lucky for us, Lyla was waiting for us at Aunt Melissa's house.  So we ran in the door and grabbed her up!

The beginning of the cousin war over the baby.

It's always so great when my Grandma Primmer comes to Salt Lake at the same time.  Love that lady.

They did have to be friends long enough to collaborate their princess weekend.

This is pretty much how Grace felt about the whole weekend.

Sometimes you have to settle for holding the toddler.

And sometimes you just have to go outside and get away from the baby and the girls and hit a ball really hard!

 And sometimes you just have to jump really hard on the trampoline with your cousins and your puppy.

And sometimes Aunt Shell gets to hold the baby.  I think I got her for about 5 minutes the whole weekend.  Thanks a lot!  I did 22 hours of driving for this!!

 Kate's party really was epic.  I'm so glad that Harriet got to be there for it.  Me too.

Grace and Sean, protesting the princess party.

 Anna and Elsa did not disappoint!  I've never seen grown women so excited to pretend to be princesses!

 hahaha... I LOVE Sean's face in this one.  

aww.  The littlest princess at her first party.

Harriet brought a little gift for Lyla to open at the party too.  

And, then sometimes you seriously need to take the jeep for a spin after a princess party.

Let's get some final photos...

Okay, I have about 50 of these pictures, all with Harriet and Kate taking turns scowling.  WHICH one gets to hold the baby in THE picture?  Turns out, smiling when you don't want to is an art that takes a few years to learn.  Kate's not there yet.  Harriet did her best.  Maybe they should worry less about WHO is holding the baby, and worry more about actually HOLDING the baby.  She's looking like she could use some extra support there, Harriet!

Lyla says "Too much support!  Thanks for coming to meet me!  Now, would you PLEASE give me back to my mom!"

One more.  Harriet could hardly smile for this one.  We couldn't tell Lyla good-bye at night and leave in the morning, so Jessica brought her to my mom's house Sunday morning.  We stopped by to tell them all good-bye on our way to the freeway.  It was wrenching.  It was nearly as sad as moving Grace from Boston.  I knew I had a super long day ahead, after being up all night with Stryder and a sad kid in the car.  As we drove away, my tire lights came on.  Ugh!  Can't drive 600 miles on tires that don't have air.  I ran to the gas station, only to find out it was a coin op air compressor and I had NO change in the car and the shop was closed.  So, we drove across the street to the 7-11.  Theirs was coin op too.  I ran inside hoping I could get some change, and there stood my dad.  I've never been so happy to see my dad in a 7-11.  He had a pocket full of quarters and fixed my tires.  After another last good-bye we drove home. Sigh.  Living far away from family does really suck sometimes.