Minnesota Part 1

The kids and I took a trip to Minnesota last week to visit my family and attend a wedding reception. We had a GREAT time! The first part of the week we spent with my Grandma Love. It was pretty low key, but we still found some fun things to do. 

This is the high chair that was bought for my Mom however-many-years ago, she used it, I used it and now my sweet daughter got to use it.

The Loves all came over for dinner one evening. The boys played with K's new Lego set.

These guys were watching a movie on my phone.

We heard about a fun park near Grandma's house that had a kids wading pool, so we checked it out.

 And we actually got Grandma to come with us!

The kids and I were out and about one day and we drove to the neighborhood that I grew up in. I saw the house that I grew up in (which hasn't changed at all) and I was able to find the park that I spent lots of time in and had many birthday parties at. They had completely redone the play structures but this spaceship used to be part of the park. I was happy to see that it was still around, although you can't climb in it anymore.

My cousin Tess was in town for the day so we met her at the aquarium at the Mall of America.

We ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.

K has really gotten into Legos recently. The small ones even! He is amazing at following the directions and putting together little cars and whatnot so we spent some time playing at the Lego Store.

The light rail stops right near Grandma's house so that's how we got to and from the mall. The kids enjoyed that.

The first half of the trip with Grandma Love was fun and low-key. I was thoroughly spoiled by her cooking all of our meals and cleaning up afterwards.

Grateful for a tantrum

How could I be grateful for a tantrum? I'll tell the long story...

Yesterday was rough. I woke up with an upset stomach, but being a mom life goes on, right? So I took my anti-nausea medicine and some Tylenol and went on with the day. We met GrandMary at the local pool to enjoy the beautiful day and I'm so grateful she was there because I was no help. It really hurt my stomach to eat or drink and I couldn't keep anything in once it went down. So, wonderful GrandMary swam with the kids while I took care of myself. When it was time to go C threw a fit about not wanting to put her shoes on and she screamed bloody murder the entire way home. I was about ready to fall over at naptime, so I threw the kids into bed and put myself to bed.

When the kids woke up from nap I literally could not get out of bed. I was horribly weak and light headed and my stomach hurt BAD. Being pregnant, I knew I probably needed to eat something so I scooted down the stairs on my rear end and got a bagel. Matt was on his way home shortly and I requested he pick up some Gatorade. I was in bad shape. I never thought about the fact that I was probably dehydrated, and looking back, I definitely was.

I didn't realize until much later in the day that in the morning when I thought I was taking my anti-nausea medicine that I actually took a muscle relaxant. CRAP! No wonder I was so out of it! I know I had a stomach bug, but that sure explains why I was so dizzy and weak! I think all of the flu-like symptoms were just compounded with taking the muscle relaxant.

So, the reason that I am grateful for C's tantrum on the way home is because there is NO WAY I should have been driving the car. Looking back, I honestly think it was her blood curdling screams that kept me awake enough to make it home safely. Thank-you C-bug for being irrational. :-)

Today I'm better. I was in bed from 1pm yesterday to 8am this morning. I feel like I have been hit by a truck, but being a mom, life goes on, right?

My Dancing Girl

Saratoga Springs is the summer home for the New York City Ballet and we got the chance to see them during family night. They had free ice cream, a photo booth, dance demonstrations/lessons and much more! My sweet little Cbug participated in the dance demonstration. She was the smallest one out there and she did ALL the moves right along with the dancer and big girls. I know it's a lot of pics, but you gotta see that she really did do all the moves!

Happy Birthday to Me!

It's true to say that I recently turned 30 years old. Crazy! We had big plans to go to Montreal, or Boston, or a beach in Maine or even Disney Land but alas nobody booked those plans so when it got down to the week of my birthday Matt wanted to know what I wanted to do. Well, I wanted a selfish day. I wanted him to take the day off of work so that I could sleep in, and come and go as I pleased. Of course my amazing husband made that happen, thanks to the fact that he had to work on 4th of July the week before he was due a floating holiday. Matt had an early dentist appointment so he took K with him while C & I slept in. They came back with doughnuts, flowers and a cute card. It was very sweet.
I took my time getting ready and then went out for some pampering. I got a pedicure and a haircut and then a quick nap before we headed out for some family fun. Matt had some Marriott points that needed to be used up so we picked out a local hotel with a pool and stayed the night. We ordered pizza and ate in the hotel room to maximize the pool time, spent as much time splashing in the pool as possible then turned in for the night. The kids did great and were ready for more swimming in the morning. Which we did! It was nice to get away for the night, do something fun and not have to cook or clean up after ourselves. The kids are still talking about the next time we go to stay at a hotel.
I don't have a single picture from my birthday activities because we were having such a great time. That also means that there is no proof that I actually turned 30. :-)

4th of July

We had a fun 4th of July. Matt actually had to work, since it was close week, so the kids and I just hung out until he got home. When he did we all went downtown and had a nice dinner where GrandMary found us and joined us for the evening. 

Afterwards we set up our blanket at the local park it was HOT and HUMID, as you can see by my sweaty little girl.

The kids decided to take GrandMary on the carousel, which she has never been on!!

We got some ice cream and played with glow sticks while we were waiting for the fireworks.

We had a PRIMO spot right next to where they were shooting them off. In fact we got hit with a few pieces of fireworks as they were falling down. K thought that was pretty cool.

We got home at about 11pm, with two sleepy kids in the car, to find out that we had no power!! We quickly got the kids in bed with ice packs (since the house was HOT), and we moved all of the food from the inside fridge to the garage fridge and Matt go the generator going. We hooked up that garage fridge and then a fan for whiny pregnant woman in the bedroom, and that was it, off to bed!

It was a fun 4th!

Summer Fun

I'm attempting to do some catch-up on the blog, and am going to try to do one a night for the next few nights. With my afternoon/evening "morning" sickness I don't have any energy or motivation to do things at night ... that's why I'm setting the goal at just one a night. :-)

A few weeks ago we had high 90 degree weather and so we bought a kiddie pool for the backyard to keep us a little cooler. The kids really enjoyed it and I even put my suit on for a little bit and waded around.

My beautiful princess.

My handsome boy.

This picture turned out absolutely adorable ...

... it reminded me of this one from two years ago! SO cute!!

Guess what?

NYC Girls Weekend

 Last weekend Jessica was in NYC for a work meeting so I took the train down to spend the weekend with her.

 

 We stayed at a hotel that was directly across from the World Trade Center, this is the view from our room looking down at the WTC memorial.

I met up with Jess and one of her coworkers on Thursday night and we went out for a nice Italian dinner before turning in for the night. In the morning we sight-seed by walking almost the whole tip of Manhattan.

 We saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

 We saw Wall Street.

 We saw the Brooklyn Bridge, and walked about a 1/4 of it before I got tired. I totally could have walked the whole thing if Jess hadn't already marched us around town. :-)

 At Noon Jess had to go to her work meeting so I went to the Manhattan Temple to do a session.

That evening Jodi came up from NJ to have a fancy dinner with us. We went to an awesome rotating restaurant at the top of a hotel in the middle of Times Square called The View. Jess wanted to avoid Times Square like the plague, but she made the sacrifice for me.

 These next two were taken with my cell phone, so not very good, but it's the only ones of Jodi that I got. You can see the Empire State Building in the background. I thought that was pretty cool.

Jodi had to head home Saturday morning so after getting pedicures Jess and I set out on the town to do some shopping. We found the big Toys R Us store to get something for my kiddos.

 We found Rockefeller Center.

 We found Times Square, again.

 We had a lot of fun shopping and didn't get in too much trouble with our credit cards. That evening we decided to go to a comedy club. It was fun even though the opening comedians were funnier than the headliner.

Sunday was our last day. We were tired and we needed to stay close to the hotel in order to get to our bags when we needed to catch trains/planes, so we decided to tour the WTC memorial. Although it was still under construction, and also surrounded by construction, it was pretty impressive. The fountains are HUGE.

 The next few pictures are interesting because I was in NYC in 1998 and I actually stayed at the hotel that was in one of the WTC buildings. You can see my scrapbook page from that trip and the view from my hotel window vs. the buildings now.

I didn't get any pictures of it, but we also made it to China Town and Little Italy before heading out. It was a great weekend, and of course a blast to see my girls. I sure was happy to get back to my kiddos and my quiet cul-de-sac though.