On Thin Ice

Okay, so it wasn't really thin ice...More like an ice arena, but you get the drift. The weekend of November 19-20 we helped celebrate Christmas in Decatur. They had a variety of events, mostly kid focused starting early in the afternoon and into the evening. There were quite a few that I wanted to partake in, but of course at our house we plan around nap time. We managed to get out of the house just shy of 4 o'clock and we met some friends at the Decatur Civic Center where they had free skating from 3-5. Our friends: Scott, Julie and their 4 year old, Will hail from Minnesota so we thought for sure they would be up for some skating. Only to find out that they have never skated...but what troopers! Scott took Will out on the ice, while Mitch took Leah and Julie and I sat in the stands with Bug to watch. WHAT FUN!!! Leah was so brave. She didn't even use the guide that most kids her age were using. Instead she just held on to her Daddy's hand and gave it her best shot. She fell on her teenie tiny tooshie a few times, but got right back up. Now everytime we drive past the Civic Center she points out that is where she goes skating and is eager to give it another go. Way to go, Leah.

Bug was slightly less amused with the ice skating. She just wanted to eat ice chunks off the ground...Yuck! Then she had fun going UP and DOWN the stairs in the gallery. Once the ice skating was done we headed to the central park area of downtown. They had reindeer in the park and at 5:30 the parade started. The kids loved it...they were so excited by the floats and Leah was getting upset if she didn't think that they people were waving back at her, it was funny. They got handfuls of candy and were super excited to see Santa bringing up the end of the parade. Once the parade was done we went and had a quick dinner with the Harvey's before calling it a night. Now Leah is counting down until her next skating adventure.

Series of Fortunate Events

Some people recall Lemony Snickett's Series of Unfortunate Events...I like to think of our last 24 hours as a series of fortunate events. Which was awesome considering how the trip started. On Monday after Daddy and Leah returned from swimming we packed up and hit the road. I had made an appointment for us to get family pictures done up in Phoenix. We headed into Tempe and we repeatedly told Leah that if she was good for pictures she could go to Red Robin for dinner. This seemed to do the trick...she was Awesome! Posing left and right and I can't wait to get the pictures to share with everyone. Unfortunately Kiersten did not get the message. We tried repeatedly to get her to sit still to no avail. Finally, using a kid app on my smart phone we "May" have gotten a shot or two of her, silly bug!

We had planned to stay the night at aunt Laura and Uncle Jeff's condo, but they weren't having any of that. They claimed it was much too small. Mitch and I think they needed a break from the kids, but either way they put us up at the J.W. Marriott at Desert Ridge. So we left the photo shoot and hit the I-10...rush hour traffic did not agree with poor Kiersten and she threw up all over her pretty dress...I'm not even going to mention details, but we were very lucky that mommy didn't get sick too! We arrived at Red Robin, and the girls were so excited that you would have thought we arrived at the gates of Disney World! Those free balloons, Corn Dogs and Lemonades just can't be beat!!! They both ate all their broccoli first...that's my girls.

After we got our balloons Laura took us to the hotel. Uncle Jeff met us there. The girls loved playing on the balcony, it made me a nervous wreck! Aunt Laura and Uncle Jeff told us to walk around, check it out, have a drink while they stayed with the girls. So that is what we did. We went down to the patio where there was live music, and had some "quiet" time. After we went back upstairs we could hear the girls a mile away. Aunt Laura and Uncle Jeff rented them the Smurfs Movie and ordered room service, What a treat! They got a kids meal pizza, it had a bowl of fresh fruit and a bowl of fresh veggies. Leah ate the entire bowl of green beans, carrots and asparagus while Uncle Jeff turned up his nose. After Uncle Jeff and Aunt Laura left we finished the movie and got a REALLY good nights sleep.

Tuesday morning we got to swim in the wonderful heated pool, before packing up and heading to the airport. Thankfully our trip home was much less eventful...we departed and landed right on time. And drove home to Decatur without incidents. It was a great time, but so good to be home. Now we can't wait to see Uncle Jeff and Aunt Laura at Christmas. I hope they know that Leah is ready for them!

Swimming, Swimming, Swimming!

The one thing that Leah wanted to do while we were in Arizona was go swimming...it's November so it was iffy. But we were able to make it happen on Monday and Tuesday. The Omni (Resort where my parents house is) has heated pools. OR at least they normally have heated pools. It was nice and sunny and 60'some degrees so Mitch took Leah to the pool thinking heated would be okay, only to get there and be told that the heater was out. Try explaining that to a 3 year old??? So he braved the cold water with her for about 30 minutes and she was as happy as a clam.

On Tuesday, we tried again up in Scottsdale at the J.W.Marriott where thankfully it was a little warmer, and the heater was working, YAY! Mom, Dad, Leah and Bug all got in the water. Aunt Laura said she couldn't find her swimsuit...likely story. The water felt great. They even had a lazy river that was filling up by mid-morning with other resort patrons. Maybe next time we will give it a try. The girls were just happy to sit on the steps, splash in the water and jump into daddy's arms. It made the trip a success in their eyes...you just can't beat swimming in November!!!

Tucson Children's Museum-Take 2

We started the day at the museum in the giant playroom...I'm not sure who was more excited, the girls or Aunt Laura. We almost couldn't keep up, they were so eager to check everything out! We moved quickly from one room to the next. The 2nd room had a huge wall where you could could look at all the different shadows you could make and the BUG RUG! Perfect for our little bug. It was a screen on the floor with all sorts of vegetative life, in pictures of course. Bugs would scamper across the floor and the girls would jump and stomp on them. YES, teach them young not to like bugs, ha ha!

After that we moved on to a room that had a huge orchard and a tree house. There were all sorts of fruits magnetically attached to the trees and the girls had fun picking fruit and filling their baskets. This room also had a health exhibit. There was a huge heart, you could push it and watch it light up and pump on it's own. A huge mouth with clean teeth on one side and poorly cared for teeth on the other side (ewww), and a giant eye with an eye lid that closed. It had different colored contacts you could put on it, and when you looked in the pupil it was a kaleidoscope. It all kept them occupied for some time. It really was a fun day and we are so glad we went.

Tucson Children's Museum

Wow...I took so many pictures at the Children's Museum this is going to be a two-parter! But what fun was had...even by the grown ups. It was raining on Sunday in Tucson. SERIOUSLY, it never rains there, but of course it did during our vacation! We made the most of it though. Uncle Jeff had a great time building with legos...Kiersten had fun too. Aunt Laura and Leah had fun with the chain tree on the wall. You lined up the leaves and branches and would drop a chain of balls in the top to see if it could make it to the bottom.

There was an art station where Aunt Laura did striking portraits on the girls with chalk :)

Leah had fun using stencils and Kiersten only wanted to use the markers on her own hands :(

But by far, the best part of the museum was the puppets and stage. Daddy and Leah were having so much fun playing with the puppets. Kierstsen came over the area. Daddy started to talk to her from behind the curtain with a puppet on his hand and she ran screaming. When she got brave enough to go near it again, he did it AGAIN...the girl climbed into my arms so quickly and clung to my neck. We all thought it was a hoot, but the poor girl was traumatized. They had fun putting on the firefighters gear and playing in the truck. And of course the dinosaur out front was fun to climb on, although I think Leah was secretly wishing it would take her for a ride!

Sonoran Desert Museum

Saturday was rough going...afterall the girls, Aunt Laura and I were up at 5 AM. But still, we decided to venture out. We went to the Sonoran Desert Museum in Saguaro National Park on the west side of Tucson. I have been there 4 or 5 times now, and I always enjoy it. Kiersten slept in the van for about 15 minutes on the way there. Uncle Jeff treated us, and we excited to get going. Lucky for us they had complimentary strollers for little one. It is quite a hike!

They have quite a few animals, desert animals that is...and so Leah called it the zoo. I think the first thing we saw was a mountain lion. The girls were impressed! Next we saw the Turkeys. Uncle Jeff had to hold up Kiersten so she could get a better look and she says "I eat him!" It made us all laugh...of course we heard lots of "gobble, gobble" too. We saw some deer, and then kept moving along. We walked through some caves...Leah was not happy. She has some bad memories of a "cave" at Rockome gardens where she got frightened so she was apprehensive, but we survived.

We saw the coyotes next. He was moving around and was hard to spot but I think Leah saw him. We were so excited to see Javelina's...if you don't know, they are a kind of wild pig. So fun to see and lots of "oink, oink" was heard. There is actually a book about the 3 little javelinas...Leah likes to say "little pig, little pig, let me in...not by the hair on my chinny chin chin" and another one called Don't call me pig. One of these days when we are out there I am going to remember to pick up those books! By the time we got to the end we had some tired and hungry little ones, so I passed on the gift shop.

Both the girls were so excited by the river otter, Kiersten just laughed and laughed watching him swim and kept saying "look at that" over and over. By the time we came out of the under ground/water exhibit we were about to turn a corner and Leah kept saying "P U it smells like stinky goats" sure enough, there they were. Well actually they were big horn sheep but she had the right idea. Their horns were enormous and the girls likes seeing them. We finished up with the turtles (never saw them) the bird exhibit and the hummingbird garden. We stopped halfway through for a snack and a drink but it was almost noon. We were all tired and hungry. The girls both napped in the car on the way to Beyond Bread...Uncle Jeff did too! We had a good lunch (it's the same complex where Gabby Giffords got shot last year) and then headed home where we all took LONG naps....me and Aunt Laura first of course :)

To Tucson We Went!

Months ago we booked a trip to Tucson, and we were so excited to go! We never get to see Aunt Laura and Uncle Jeff, so what a treat! We were supposed to leave at 7 am on Friday arriving in Phoenix at 10...we stayed in St. Louis Thursday night at a hotel. We got up at 4:45, jumped on the airport shuttle at 5:30 and at 6:15 they cancelled our flight for mechanical issues. We couldn't get rebooked until the 6 pm flight...it was a nightmare! We tried everything. Stood in line...called U.S. Airways, called Orbitz. We even asked if we could get rerouted to Tucson...no luck! So we gathered up our luggage, shuttled back to the hotel and loaded up in our van. By now it's about 7:15 so we drove around, went and had breakfast trying to figure out what to do. While we are sitting at the ever popular Golden Pancake Mitch suggests that I call my old childhood friend, Becky. Only after her spilled the Orange Juice all over us, talk about a great morning, ha! So I gave Becky a call around around 8. She was so gracious and so excited to hear from me that she took a vacation day and spent the day with us at her house...it was a god send!!! The girls had so much fun checking out her kids toys (they are 7 and 12) that they never napped!!! We finally got out at 6:40 PM on Friday. So we lost the whole day. Of course the girls crashed on the plane around 7PM Arizona time. We got in around 9:40 pm and made the 90 minute drive to Tucson. they slept the entire car ride and went right to bed when we got to my parents house. So of course they were up at 5 AM...and let the adventures begin!!!

For the most part the girls did great...this was the first time they ever shared a room and it was the first time that Bug ever slept in a big girl bed. I thought for sure there would be giggling, and trying to sneak out of bed but it didn't happen. Now, if only the whole trip had gone just as smoothly...I kid, I kid!

New Friend

About 2 weeks ago we had a special visitor, Mitch's college buddy Ryan...and it was so much fun! Ryan was able to see Leah once when we lived in New Jersey. She was just shy of a month old. The past few years Mitch has traveled to Utah to see Ryan, so he was due. PLUS, this way he got to finally meet Kiersten. He got in late Thursday night but it took no time on Friday for the girls to warm up to Ryan. Leah was super excited to have a new friend. Over the course of the weekend she called him "guy" and "friend", she finally got his name down right before he left.

Anyway, I needed to go to MOPS on Friday morning, and the girls were totally okay with me leaving them with Ryan. Surprisingly he was okay with it too...I knew Mitch was going to be home shortly or I never would have left. When I got home they had introduced Ryan to the garden. The dog was missing and the girls were covered with mud. They were actually eating carrots straight from the garden...note the mud on the face :)

Friday night we had a babysitter. Mitch, Ryan and I went to dinner at Bizou and then to Coz's for drinks. Saturday I took the girls to Charleston for a birthday party and the weather was nice enough that Mitch and Ryan got to go play golf. Sunday was a lazy day for the most part. Daddy and Ryan were tired from staying up too late multiple nights in a row, but Sunday afternoon Mitch and Leah took Ryan to Spittler Woods to introduce him to the midwest hike. Much different than the hiking that Ryan is used to I am sure. Monday morning Ryan was up and out of here early in order to be home to get to work. We had a great time. We hope he did too. We are so glad he came to visit and can't wait for the next time!

More Fall Fun!

I can't get over the amazing Fall weather we have been having. We are still having temps in the High 60's and it's November, in Illinois. Madness! But we are definitely taking advantage of it. The girls are still enjoying outside time, when it's not raining that is. We decorated our front yard this year. I'm no Martha Stewart but this was pretty easy. Mitch actually did the hard part...getting the cornstalks standing. We got the corn stalks, hay bale and mums at the Pumpkin Patch in early October. I picked up Hazel our scarecrow at Wal-Mart and the pumpkins are straight from our garden. The girls love to look out the window, and just about everytime I back out the driveway they say "BYE, HAZEL!"

The week before Halloween we went to my mom's (Gigi's) house for Sunday dinner. Gigi was getting ready to go out of town and was going to be gone for Halloween. She wanted to have a Halloween party for her grandkids, so that's what we did. She had us dress them up in their costumes. She took them on a little parade around the neighborhood. It was funny watching her trying to keep them in line. They were running all over the place. We tried to snap a picture of the 4 of them. Talk about mission impossible!!! They decorated cupcakes and enjoyed them for dessert. Cynthia brought them treat bags and Gigi got them special spooky flashlights for Trick-or-treating. Mom loved seeing them all dressed up, I'm not who had more fun...them or her!