Pittsburgh in a Day

It was a whirlwind trip to my favorite city this past weekend- but oh, was it a good one.  I'm so thankful for a last minute gift of Pitt football tickets from a coworker, which made this trip reality.  In fact, these tickets gave us about 12 hours to plan and execute a day trip with a carsick-prone toddler and a 31 week pregnant momma, which turned out to be just perfect.  Unlike most of our other trips anywhere, I didn't have the chance to plan anything.  Though I felt bad for missing out on seeing some friends, we still managed to accomplish most of my annual Pittsburgh bucket list, squeezing in a few hours with my sister and nephew during the game as well!  (Though we really should have known a college football game was not going to be as fun for a 3year old and 6 month old as it was for us.  Molly repeatedly told me her first football game was "too loud" and asked "can we sit in the car for a little bit, mommy?!", while Ethan was startled each time the crowd cheered :/   Lesson- learned.)

We left early in the morning Saturday, and ended up just a bit behind schedule after a quick trip to Starbucks to dull the motion sickness and energize Daddy.  Turns out, that stop was really just what we needed!

We ended up at Heinz Stadium just in time for the game, and got the perfect seats- just barely in the shade!  And we even caught a good game (as Jesse tells me), with good views of offense/defensive formations (in the meantime, I was still thankful for the shade).

After the game, we routed up to Mt. Washington to show Molly the views of the city.  She is fearless, and just loved it.  We're really thankful to the library, too, for letting us use their potty in a pinch ;)

Still without a nap, we headed to Southside to see if a quick dinner would be possible, and sure enough, that girl held strong through dinner (we love the Cheesecake Factory), and even seemed excited to stop in Oakland on our way home to check out my Alma Mater.  I had a (pregnancy-to-blame) minute of emotion as she oo-ed and aww-ed at the Cathedral of Learning on Pitt's campus.  This girl is going to be a college student one day- how crazy is that?!!  So I purposely shot a picture of her entering the Cathedral- maybe we can compare it to her 18 year old self someday (not that I'm going to force her to go to a specific college on anything)?!

But of course, the Panther was a hit for the vivacious and sleep deprived 3 year old, who was later inappropriately telling it to "giddy up, boy"!  (We left shortly thereafter. )

And we made it home by dark that night.  Phew.

I'm so thankful to God for birthdays- another healthy year with this family.  I really can't ask for much else.  It's the last birthday of my twenties, so I know it's going to be a good one ;)