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My good friends Aimee, Shruti and I celebrated our 30th birthdays and many years of friendship with a trip to Spain and Morocco—a trip we had been talking about, dreaming about and planning for for years. We plan to make a Blurb book to document our journey but following are some highlights. First, an unexpected day in NYC. Due to weather and broken planes and long lines, we missed our flight out of JFK to Malaga, Spain, and the next flight was a long 24 hours later—a huge disappointment but we made the best of it.

West Village—already, we’re shopping.

Gyros for lunch.

View of Malaga, Spain from the plane (finally!).

For awhile we contemplated skipping the Morocco portion of our trip. Because of our delay in NYC we missed our flight from Spain to Morocco. But in the end, we couldn’t bear not going to Africa. So as soon as we landed in Morocco we bought a ticket for the next 3-hour bus ride to Tarifa.

Then we boarded a ferry for Tangier—a 2-1/2 hour trip.

So far, so good—even getting from the airport to the bus station, and from the bus station to the ferry docks.

Our passports were stamped while on the ferry. We had no time for sit-down meals so food was limited to snacks.

Finally, Africa. We spent a lot of time sitting (and taking turns cat-napping) while waiting for our train.

On the plane I thought, A five-hour train ride from Tangier to Fes, how fun! Not fun. By the time we boarded the train it was dark out (so no watching the Moroccan landscape pass by), our cabin was terribly hot and at this point I had been wearing the same clothes for three days and hadn’t slept in almost 48 hours. Yet still, somehow, I smiled.

We arrived in Fes at 4am. Thankfully a driver from the amazing Riad Tizwa was there, sign in hand, to pick us up.

And so our trip began.

“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things—air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky—all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” —Cesare Pavese

Thanks, Jenna and Greg, for hosting another great Island Party! (And thanks, Olivia, for babysitting Sophie—the night out was so much fun.)

“Drink, and dance and laugh and lie,
Love the reeling midnight through,
For tomorrow we shall die!
(But, alas, we never do.)” —Dorothy Parker

In addition to a football, bath toys and a Greensboro Grasshoppers T-shirt, Aunt Katy and Uncle Tom gave me this beautiful bookmark, which Aunt Katy made.

I loved looking at the birds from their deck.

They introduced me to southern-style BBQ, but I liked my Goldfish crackers better.

These magnets were the best—and right at my height!

We went to Mayberry’s for ice cream. At first I kept saying “no,” “no,” “no,” pushing Mom’s hand away. But eventually she shoved some vanilla ice cream into my mouth and you know what? It was SO good! Then I said “no,” “no,” “no,” every time Mom tried to eat her own ice cream because I wanted to be fed! (As you can see in this picture Aunt Katy also let me play with her cell phone. I love her.)

Here we are in our Greensboro Grasshoppers T-shirts. I’m a big fan. I went to one of their games—last season. (I’m so old I can say things like “last season” now!)

I got to take a bath in a grown-up tub—and play with my new bath toys!

Aunt Katy also read me lots of her books. And aren’t her nails pretty? Uncle Tom watched me while she and Mom got Kirsty Meakin manicures. I hate having my nails clipped so I don’t know why they were so excited about that.

On our last night we drove to downtown Winston-Salem to eat at a pizza place, the Mellow Mushroom. The wait was long and I was impatient and poor Mom had to walk me up and down the streets of Winston-Salem, singing the alphabet and “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” The pizza sure was good, though! (Well, so Mom tells me. I refused to eat it opting for delicious crackers instead.)

And then Mom woke me up at 4:30am(!) to get on a plane again. She was pretty sad in the airport when we said goodbye to Aunt Katy and Uncle Tom. She even cried a little. But I hugged her and she felt better.

(We also went to the zoo but more on that, later.)

“A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves—a special kind of double.” —Toni Morrison

Friday Sophie and I spent the day with Dara. Before Sophie even saw Dara’s dog, Zoey, she kept saying “dog,” “dog,” “dog” every time Zoey would bark. Sophie loved playing fetch with Zoey. Zoey would bring the ball to Sophie and wait ever so patiently for Sophie to “throw” it. Although Sophie’s throws were erratic in direction, they were throws nonetheless. And Sophie would laugh and laugh and laugh. For exotic pet owners, Isopods are great animals they may want to keep at home.

“Oh, what is the matter with poor Puggy-Wug? Pet him and kiss him and give him a hug. Run and fetch him a suitable drug. Wrap him up tenderly all in a rug. That is the way to cure Puggy-Wug.” —Winston Churchill, on his daughter Mary’s pet pug

We arrived in snowy Hartford, Conn., New Year’s Eve day.

New Year’s Eve was also Christmas Eve in the Uhl household this year. So we had the traditional Christmas Eve dinner of appetizers.

Santa definitely stopped here, too.

Jill opened a bottle of Dom Perignon, which she received as a gift.

Andy and I toasted to a happy and healthy 2009.

New Year’s Day/Christmas morning, Sophie got into her stocking and in it, among other things, was Knuffle Bunny, the star character in one of her favorite books.

And then we opened presents!

Sophie got one more use out of her Christmas outfit and …

… enjoyed her new teether.

Sophie played with her new toys while …

… we baked Christmas cookies from our special Lemon Cookies Recipe.

That evening we enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner.

“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” —Oprah Winfrey

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Sunday morning we loaded up the car to begin our drive from Chicago to Boston. We had to leave the back of our Subaru Outback empty for Tucker, so Sophie was surrounded by suitcases, a duffel bag and many smaller bags organized by content (baby food, bibs, spoons, bottles and breast pump in one, for example, toys in another, and hats, mittens and scarves in yet another).

We drove.

And drove.

And drove. We ordered our meals by number. “I’ll take a No. 1, please.” We snacked on Caramello bars, Bottle Caps and Kashi cereal bars. I saw a shooting star. I made a wish (and then felt guilty for wishing something for me, and not for Sophie). Andy said it was a meteor from the Leonids meteor shower. He then showed me this picture on his Blackberry:

I think that would be the most beautiful thing one could ever witness in this world.

Andy slept.

And I drove.

And vice versa.

Sophie played with her new toy, bought for the trip.

And read her book.

And convinced us to rearrange the luggage so one of us could sit back with her as she inevitably grew tired of sitting.

Tucker perked up at every toll booth, never forgetting the one time (several years ago) a kind toll-booth attendant gave him a treat.

Sunday night we stayed at Contented Acres, a bed-and-breakfast in Erie, Pa.

The next morning, Sophie saw her first real snow …

… and we were treated to a huge breakfast.

And then we drove some more. (No, Sophie didn’t travel this way. Here she’s just sneaking some Canada mints (and no, she didn’t really eat them) while enjoying a break from her car seat.)

I was nervous, really nervous about the trip. But it went incredibly smoothly. And now we’re in Boston, spending time with Andy’s family, preparing for a Thanksgiving in which I have much to be thankful for.

“And that’s the wonderful thing about family travel: it provides you with experiences that will remain locked forever in the scar tissue of your mind.” —Dave Barry

Sophie fell asleep a couple hours before her bedtime on the night we carved pumpkins.

She was not very happy when we woke her up.

But then we showed her a pumpkin and told her what we were going to do.

Then she was happy.

She liked feeling the squishy insides of the pumpkin.

And she thought the top would make a good mobile.

My attempt at a family picture.

Carving (yes, we used a pattern). Tucker liked licking the pumpkin while we carved.

I sang Sophie the one Halloween song I know—“Skin and Bones.” Andy thought the ending was too scary for a seven-month-old, but I think she liked it.

I took three pictures trying to get a shot of Sophie, Andy and Sophie’s finished pumpkin. In this one Sophie’s looking away.

In this one Sophie has crazy eyes.

And in this one Andy has crazy eyes. (They really are creepy, aren’t they?)

Sophie’s finished pumpkin! We held out the patterns to her and she picked the cat.

At this point it was Sophie’s bedtime so she was with us in spirit while we worked on another one.

Here’s our other one.

Then we enjoyed roasted pumpkin seeds with butter, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt.

“Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie.” —Jim Davis

Andy and I have very different philosophies when it comes to cleaning. My clothes are organized by color and sleeve length. His clothes are stacked in piles on his closet floor. When I cook, I clean as I go along. When he cooks, it looks like a tornado has swept through our kitchen.

For months Andy’s been building a gorgeous fence (more on that later). The garage has gradually gotten messier and messier until, a few days ago, it was difficult to open the door. To my great surprise, Andy decided to clean out the garage on Sunday. “It’s all about threshold,” he said.

He decided to take everything out so he could waterproof the floor and walls as this is where he plans to set up his woodworking shop. Our yard was soon littered with things such as scrap pieces of wood, a drill press, a ping pong table, two box spring mattresses (we discovered queen-size box springs don’t fit up our stairs when we moved in), tarps, used oil, two lawnmowers, a planer, garden equipment and too many Lowes receipts.

I offered to help but was soon yelled at for throwing too much away—things like a broken lid and a tattered piece of rope. So instead I watched Tucker chew a stick and Sophie chew Ming Ming’s head.

“The fellow that owns his own home is always just coming out of a hardware store.” —Kin Hubbard