Backyard Fun

With in-ground pools costing upwards of $20,000, we opted to have backyard fun during this steamy weather in our own way. The boys had a blast, and Jeremy even tried to show the boys a thing or two (not caught on video).

Summer Left-Overs

My dad sent me a few pictures today that he enjoyed taking over the summer. You might wonder who Brady is fraternizing with in one of the pictures. Our favorite Italian restaurant in the whole country (it's in Philadelphia) is called Tre Scalini. Franca is the chef and owner who prepares food so amazing that it leaves your mouth smiling for days after the meal. Francesca is Franca's daughter who runs the business and planning side of the restaurant. Micheal is Francesca's husband (he's German, but we choose to be kind and over-look the fact) who waits tables, among other things in the restaurant. Alberto, who is pictured with Brady above, is husband to Franca and father to Francesca. What does he do in the restaurant, you ask? As far as I can tell, he makes himself available to partake in Grappa toasts, tell entertaining stories, and, all around, make diners feel like part of the family. Franca also always makes a point to come out and tell me how beautiful my children are, even though she has a beautiful granddaughter herself.

I was very jealous to hear that my parents were spending the evening at Tre Scalini tonight, but I'll try to just feel happy for them instead. Salut!

More Fun in Corpus

Also while on vacation, Carson learned the joy of having pockets (now he looks for them every day once he has pants on), Brady decided that visiting museums is much more fun when done at Mach 5 speed, and Jeremy and I (as parents of young children) managed to eat dinner at completely benign, "kid friendly", NOT new places.

The aquarium was especially fun, with Carson meandering so that his hands wouldn't come out of his pockets, Brady getting yelled at every 3 minutes for walking too far ahead, and we were finished observing interesting sea creatures in under 2 hours (with a soft pretzel in our hands). You just gotta learn how to do these things when you become parents!

Padre Island...Who Knew?!

We had an awesome time on our mini vacation in Corpus Christi and on the Padre Island National Beach. Honestly, I thought we'd have fun, but be done with it by the time we came home, but we really had a blast. The boys were SO much fun on the beach, where we swam, boogie boarded, and built sand castles every morning. Then, in the afternoons, there was always something fun to do. We got to visit an aircraft carrier full of fighter planes one day. If you know my kids at all, then you know they were beyond delighted...such boys! We definitely plan on going back sometime soon.

Summer Fun in PA

I can't imagine why the boys have returned from our visit home exhausted. In adddition to everything I already mentioned doing, we also took an amazing day trip to the beach, where we spent the day with Jenny's thoughtful and fun family. AND, we went to Dutch Wonderland where we had a great time helping Aunt Jenny overcome her fear of fast rides and log flumes. Factor in the days at friends' pools and visiting family, and we barely caught our breath on the whole trip! We had such a great time, and are still recovering with long naps every afternoon!

Let's Do Some Catching Up

Where have we been, you ask? The boys and I flew home to PA so that my parents could spend some quality time with them while Jeremy and I met to go to a wedding in Jamaica. The wedding was awesome, the time away was awesome, and the traveling sans kids was awesome, but I honestly think that they might have had more fun that we did. The visited Thomas the train, ate like they had no parents, and, in short, they got spoiled to pieces. Well, good for them, we all deserved it!

The day after I returned to PA, Regan came along with me and the boys to do a little tour of Virginia. We visited my teaching buddies, and Aunt Stephanie, who was bursting with baby. By the way, John Robert was born healthy a few days ago...Congrats Rasamny Family! Emelyn is such a lovely little girl, we really can't wait to meet JR.

Upon our return from VA we did a ton of other fun things that will be discussed in future blog posts.

Art Cars, Natural Science, and Our Super Fun Kids

I ask myself a lot of question everyday...Like: When Brady is supposed to be "resting", why does he stealthily leave collections of objects at the foot of the stairs? Why do I love to make proper nouns into verbs (example - "I Martha Stewarted my house before the party")? Why do I love to make two words into one AWESOME new word ( for example, "fundies" - fun undies. I made that up myself years ago, so don't even try to take credit anyone)? Why do I look 4 months pregnant all of the time ever since I had the boys? Well, All of these questions might not have great answers, (although I am open to suggestions) but I have recently thought of an answer for the age old question "why do people want to have kids when they make everything harder?". And the answer is that they also make everything better, more fun, happier, more enjoyable, and new again...and it's worth it.

Don't Look Now, Just Bust a Move

So, I'm a total idiot and I truly can't figure out how to make this the right way, so tilt your head to the side and enjoy! Sorry!

Finally Finishing Vacation

With Brady starting school on Wednesday, I figured that I should get my act together and finally finish the wedding and vacation postings. I had quite a few more pictures that I wanted to upload, but this will have to do!

The top few pictures are of our trip to Napa where Amanda and her roommate, Lisa, gave us the the royal treatment, and the bottom pictures are of the lovely bride and groom and family.

I am working on posting some videos, then will try to find time to give a few updates on the boys!

More Wedding Pics

There are also a few pics Brittney sent that I want to post as soon as I have time.

Jon and Brittney's Wedding

There were so many reasons that made our trip to Tahoe fun and special: getting to be a part of Jon and Brittney's wedding, beach days, etc., but at the top of the list was getting the chance to see my niece, Lyvia, and nephew, Grayson. Grayson is adorable, and already bigger than Carson, even though he is 3 months younger, and Lyvia is an awesome big sister. It was really fun to spend time with them. The wedding was lovely and original, not to mention really, really fun. I don't have a ton of pictures of Brady because I spent most of the time video-taping his crazy dance moves (to be posted soon). J and B seemed so happy throughout the whole celebration. We were so happy to be there.

Tahoe: Carson's First Beach

If we could have stopped Carson from eating sand, we would have stayed at the beach all day. Brady, of course, enjoyed himself, as he always does, and Carson fearlessly crawled directly into the water face first. I wish we could have stayed longer!

The Last of Yosemite

Napa and Tahoe pictures to come (including wedding shots...those were hard to narrow down, too!)