Cubs Game & Family time

Still trying to catch up a little bit. But now I'll only be a week behind. ;)
Last weekend we went to a Cubs game at Wrigley. The Cubs are terrible but it's a fun day out. For those of you not in the area or familiar with Wrigleyville, they have tall buildings surrounding the ballpark that have rooftop seats to watch the game, and it's a package deal. The ticket includes unlimited food & drinks, including alcohol, starting a half hour before the game up until the game is over - and the view of the game is actually pretty good. And, you don't have to deal with lines and crowds of getting in and out of the stadium. I'm a fan of the really nice bathrooms, as opposed to ballpark restrooms also. Not a bad deal. So for father's day the last few years we have made that my dad's fathers day gift. We all go for the day. It makes for a fun day.

Andrew & Dad

Mom & Sister

My Best Friend

Chicago Skyline behind Wrigley Field from the Rooftop bar

View of the game from the rooftop later in the evening.

The kids and I went to the park.

I usually try to get them out of the house to run around and burn off steam during the day on the weekends if they aren't swimming in the pool. Otherwise they seriously drive us crazy when they are cooped up at home. This is going to be a long winter. We'll have to get creative. Funny story about the park this weekend... There were lots of two year olds at our neighborhood park on Sunday, I was surprised. Emma was on the bridge on the playground with one of the boys and screams to me (while I'm standing next to the kids mom) "MOM!! This boy is dirty!!!!" eeek. Right up there with calling a woman a man, and Drew called his sneakers the 'n' word. YIKES! Every day is an adventure with two 2 year olds, that's for sure.

 They are a lot of fun and they definitely make us laugh, but we also have our days that make me want to cry or run away. I guess it all comes with it. But it's rewarding at the end of the day when I can cuddle up with my snuggle bugs and they can tell me all about their day and I get to hear everything that's on their mind.

After baths every night we all jump in our bed and hang out for a bit. It's their time to unwind and chill out, and it's probably my favorite part of the day, most days.

This was the other night - - Dora the Explorer must have been very intriguing at the moment.

This is Drew's favorite thing to do - he lines up a bunch of cars and races them.

We also had my parents over last weekend for dinner - we grilled out. We're trying to squeeze in as many nights with the grill as we can before it's covered in snow again! Which I'm sure will come soon enough. I'm a summer lover, but I have to admit, I am looking forward to fall a little bit. We've had a long, fun summer and we've had really good luck with weather, so I will accept the arrival of Fall this year. I wish that 'perfect fall' weather would last longer though, because I am in NO way, shape or form wishing winter upon us.

Emma & Drew were waiting out on the front steps for Mimi & Pop to come.

New Jersey

I’ve been slacking on my blog lately. I have some catching up to do.

While we were on vacation, we went to New Jersey for a few days to visit family. We love being able to see our extended families and for the kids to grow up knowing their great grands, second cousins, aunts, uncles, etc….

So we make sure to get to Wyoming once a year, and New Jersey once a year for that reason. They are actually pretty lucky kids if you ask me…. They have four grandparents that adore and spoil them. (they’re the first grandkids in each of our families), 2 aunts to play with them, They have 6 great grands that love and spoil them (they are the first great grands on one side of the family) and lots of second aunts, uncles and cousins to play with them.

(you will notice less photos of Drew this summer, because it is quite the challenge to take pictures of him right now. He hates it. You have to sneak up on him and take candid shots... and if he notices you are taking a picture he turns his head as quickly as he can. Little stinker. Emma on the other hand will pose... she's a ham.)

Emma & Nan

Emma & Pop (The original Pop! My dads dad)

Em & Nan

Cousin Will. They love Will... he makes trips out to visit us in Chicago a few times a year and they have so much fun playing with him.(even though the first time he came out they thought his name was Dave. For some reason? We never could really figure that out. But now, he's Will.)

Drew & Kate. He really fell in love with Kate, and is still asking for her. (actually he asks for Kape)Sometimes he asks us if we can take him over to Kate's house. Just, out of the blue.... we have to explain to him that unfortunately that would be approximately a 14 hour drive, which isn't really doable on a whim.

Emma & Peg

Em & Barb

Em & Maggie

Emma has a lot of features and expressions that remind me of Maggie when she was that age.

Maggie & Drew reading books. The girls were really great with the kids, which gave me a huge break.

Kate & Em

I wish we could have stayed longer, and I wish we had more time with extended family in general. But we look forward to seeing everyone next summer!! (Or, before depending on who comes to visit us this year!) Chicago definitely isn't the most appealing place to visit in the winter, but we make it fun, and we always welcome guests!!

Our memories at the Beach will linger on; Long after our footprints in the Sand are gone

Beach days, collecting seashells, sand castles, ice cream sundaes, penny candy, balloons and glow sticks, Friday night band concerts, morning strolls along the beach, wagon rides, the fish pier, grilling outside... Summer Days spent at Cape Cod. Something I've been doing every summer since I was born. It's one of my favorite places to be, and it's so much fun to do everything with my own kids now that I remember doing when I was growing up.

In 28 years, I can honestly say not much has changed on the Cape. And it's perfect just that way.
This year we rented a mini van to drive out there, because it just makes it SO much easier for the long drive and for while we are there. I refuse to ever drive one myself, but I have to admit it was definitely not a bad idea to do for a road trip. (And my mom benefited from it because she didn't have to sit on a beach chair in the trunk of our SUV on the way to dinner each night ;). ) My parents fly out and meet us there... they can do that because they don't have near the amount of 'stuff' we require these days. We can't really fly for this trip because we have strollers and car seats and golf clubs, coolers, luggage, etc... We need a car while we're there, and then we go down to Jersey to visit family at the end of the trip so we leave from a different location. Drew called the van the 'fran', so for the remainder of the trip, everyone referred to it as the fran. The kids actually do much better on long drives than you would expect at their age. On the way out we made it a 2 day trip, and stayed in Syracuse,  NY overnight. We got in early enough to take them out to a restaurant for dinner, let them run around to burn off some energy and get a good night sleep before finishing up our drive, and were on the beach by the following afternoon. I am usually pretty well prepared for car trips or flights and am armed with a bag full of bribes! Snacks, new little toys and activities they have never seen before to hold their attention and we have the dual dvd players if all else fails.

A car magazine will keep Drew busy for HOURS!!

Andrew and I went into Boston the first Saturday we were there to go to the Red Sox/Yankees game at Fenway. That was fun... We get to a Red Sox game at Fenway every summer while we are up there but had not been to a Yankees, Red Sox game there yet until this year. We go to Jerry Remy's restaurant/bar right next to the staduim first. We have really lucked out a few times with our tickets and had connections to get really good seats, which are tough to get in Fenway. These people have been season ticket holders for 40 years and let us buy 2 of their tickets - This was our view from our seats

I made this for Andrew. (Us @ Remy's, the view from our seats, and Yawkee Way pre-game)

The traditional seventh inning stretch Sweet Caroline at Fenway -

Chatham (our little beach town) has a band concert every Friday night, and we go to get dinner before, go to the 'Penny Candy' store (which is not penny candy anymore, more like $12/lb but still fun!) let the kids pick out a little candy, get them glow sticks and balloons and let them dance off their sugar high to the band playing. They have a part just for kids where they can get up and do the bunny hop and that kind of stuff.
Friday mornings before the beach everyone puts their blankets down in the band concert park to save a spot - because once you get there at night after the production of getting in and out of dinner and getting the kids all of their unnecessary sugar and things that glow, they wouldn't be able to even see over the crowd.

Friday morning

And, Friday night:

Emma dancing with Daddy

Remember Dot candy on paper?! Candy shop still had it!!

Sugar High!!

Chatham Candy Shop

These are my attempts at taking my own pictures of the kids and I from my cell phone. hah.

We spent lots of time on the beach, and the guys golfed a few days.
When we would go to the beach at the end of our street, we would just load the munchkins up in the wagon and head down for a while. Sometimes they would walk down themselves, but they always hitched a ride home... they were pretty tuckered out after playing at the beach all afternoon. We like that beach for them at this age because it's more of a sound or inlet and the water is much calmer, as opposed to the waves on the ocean. But we did switch it up and go to different beaches around town, and we also took them to a fresh water pond one of the days so they could actually swim.

Wagon Rides to the Beach....

Pretty much every trip home Emma fell asleep in the wagon, on Drew. (And it's not a long walk home.) But he was a trooper about it. He let her sleep on him, and probably drool on him. ;)

Emma and Daddy taking a snooze on the beach one afternoon.

Emma, took over mommy's spot.

This is the path onto the beach. I just thought it looked pretty at that moment, the way the sun was peaking through.

Best Friends

Building Sand Castles. (I helped her a little bit with this one.)

Busy digging. He was doing construction so that his trucks would have roads to drive on.

Another one of our traditions, School house Ice cream. Originally a school house - converted into a cute little (well, not little actually) ice cream shop at the end of our street. They still have a lot of the old school house furniture in the sitting area.

I have so many pictures, this is just a quick glance and maybe I'll be able to get more up another time.

Morning walk to the beach...



I definitely could stay there much longer. It's such a relaxing, nice place to be. It's a different pace of life. Although, it was also nice to get home.

This is the kids the night we got home - we decided to do take out chinese because we were just tired and hungry -

They were doing cheers with their sippy cups!

"Happiness is a summer breeze, sand between your toes, and your family by your side"