A Michigan Thanksgiving

Ghost stories with Aunt Emily, reading with Grammy, relaxing, chillin' with our shades on in the house, 2 year photos in the play room, Alex carrying Saeda, Alex playing with baby Tommy (Holty family friend), playing in the crib, playing, playing, playing, finding Jerry the Elf, eating, laughing, and making memories that will last forever.
Happy Thanksgiving!!

Child-free Vacation

Frank and I took our first vacation without the kids in the middle of August. Six days and six nights of child-free bliss. It was awesome!!! We spent time in Syracuse and Ithaca, sleeping in, eating at adult restaurants, and just spending quality time together. Thanks to Grammy and Nana/Papa for watching the kiddos for us!!!
We can't wait for our next vacation sans kids. Why haven't we done this sooner???

Summertime in Tennessee

At the top of Round Knob Mountain. Such beautiful views! The drive to the top was scary...very narrow roads that seemed to go on forever. And look, Fonder! There's that elusive frog!! Just a side note, be sure never to trip around me...I'll probably push you down farther!

Smoky Mountains

The views were really breathtaking!!!

We had such a nice visit with YiaYia and Fonder this summer!! The mountains, the movies, good times with family.

NY Summer 2010

We had a great vacation in New York this summer.  We started in Binghamton with Grammy.  Playing in the backyard with water, going to the Discovery Center, a Binghamton Mets baseball game, fireworks, Taughanock Falls and dinner in Ithaca.
Then, on to Nana and Papa's house.  Gigi's house for dinner, Aunt Norma's house to see all of the cousins and Guppy for dinner (Daddy made a surprise visit!), lunch at the mall to get out of the heat, Aunt Erika's house for a cool break, dinner with Aunt Erika and Uncle Paul, time at the lake, Old McDonald's farm, swimming, goulash, kumquat pie, a fire and marshmallows, a paddle boat ride, and Cheese World.
So much fun!  Despite the ridiculous heat we had a great time!

Return of the Cake

Aunt Emily and Little Miss Cakes came to visit us for a long weekend and to enjoy Easter and Hunter's birthday with us. We had a fantastic visit (as always)! We went to the park in the 90 degree weather (what?), played outside with bubbles, had an impromptu Easter egg hunt with the neighbors, ate doughnuts, played, got messy at mealtime (ok, so that was mostly Saeda), went out for pizza, played some more, and had a great 4 days spending quality time together. Saeda is the cutest little thing, and Aunt Emily is a blast (the boys had tons of fun "attacking", having helicopter rides, and being goofy - and Alex spent a lot of time reading with Aunt Emily too!). What a great time we all had! We'll be counting down the days until the next visit.
(P.S. - Holty's if you're reading this: We wouldn't mind if you lived closer (hint, hint!)

Disney World - Day 3

Hollywood Studios was another great day! Alex and Mommy started it off with a ride on the Rock N Rollercoaster - the best Rollercoaster that I've ever been on (Alex agreed!). Then we went to the Jedi Training Academy where Alex was selected to be a Padawan onstage with 14 other kids. He was ecstatic - and quite talented if I do say so myself!!

We saw a bunch of other great shows - including the Indiana Jones stunt show and the Lights Motors Action stunt show - and rode on the best rides - including Toy Story Mania which was sort of like an arcade game that Alex would have ridden all day if he could have.
We left around 5:30 and had dinner back at our hotel. We were able to have an earlier night - which we definitely needed!!

Also, we had discovered on Sunday that Hunter had a pretty bad case of Strep Throat, but we had no way of getting the antibiotics until Monday. Monday night he had the first 2 doses and was MUCH better by the start of the day on Tuesday. Poor little guy...he spent more than half of our magical Disney vacation feeling terrible. Luckily, Ibuprofen really helped a lot so most of the time he was fine as long as he was drugged up!

Disney World - Day 2

We spent day 2 at EPCOT and it was AWESOME!!! We got an early start and were able to see all of the shows and ride all of the rides that we wanted to with minimal waits. Our first and favorite ride of the day was Soarin' - an amazing ride that makes you feel like you are flying. We all loved it - well, not Hunter so much, but the rest of us thought it was incredible!

We left the park at about 3 for a few hours of relaxing by the pool at our hotel, and then returned to Epcot in the evening for dinner at Garden Grill for another character meal - this time with farmer Mickey, Pluto, and Chip & Dale.
After dinner we staked out a great viewing spot for the fireworks and then took our time after the show to make it back to the shuttle. It was a long day, but well worth it!!

Disney World - Day 1

Day 1 of our Disney vacation was a little rocky. It was extremely hot that day and the park we went to (Animal Kingdom) was very crowded. We felt like all we did that day was wait. We did see a cool 4D movie called "It's Tough to Be a Bug" and we rode on the Kilamanjaro Safari ride, as well as a few other rides. We had dinner at The Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom that night - it was a character meal so the characters come around to each table to see each child personally (very cool!). Hunter was VERY sick that day - the doctor said it was just a virus but we found out on Sunday that it was more than that - STREP THROAT! But, despite the sickness he had a great time and Alex loved seeing Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore and getting their autographs. We were going to watch the fireworks that night, but there was a downpour and we got absolutely soaked, so we decided to head back to our hotel to dry off and try and get a good night sleep - easier said than done!! We weren't sure what to expect for the upcoming days...both Mommy and Daddy were afraid that we weren't going to have much fun.

Boy, were we wrong!

(To be continued....)

Medieval Times and Ripley's Aquarium

Hard Rock Park

We went to a theme park in Myrtle Beach called Hard Rock Park. It was a lot of fun and Alex absolutely LOVED it! He went on all of the rides at least twice. He especially loves the roller coasters. Hunter only tried the Merry-Go-Round...he hated it. I guess I only have one dare-devil.

Buried in the sand

Myrtle Beach June 2008