Flashback Friday...

May 2005

Auntie Jen ROCKS!!!

How would you feel about babysitting these 7 little boys???

Jen & Craig got me a manicure/pedicure for my birthday, which included BABYSITTING!! Woo Hoo!!! So, Wednesday morning, I loaded up my van and dropped off my 4 boys with their Aunt Jen and her triplet boys that are almost 17 months old. And, how do you think she survived the 2 hours that I was gone??? Well, she took them to the PARK!!! BY HERSELF!!!

She posted details and pictures to her blog. Click here to see it.

And, in case you were wondering, my fingers and toes look fabulous!! Thanks J, C, L, A & C!!! Love ya!!

Why we vacation in OC, NJ every summer...

People always ask us why we choose to drive 1/2 way across the country....to NEW JERSEY, for a vacation.

Well, first of all, there's the BEACH....duh!!!

And, the rides...
(btw, I didn't get and pics of Jack and Ben on the rides because they like the BIG rides that don't make for good pictures)

Then, there is one of my favorites...the lovin' that we get while we are there...

...and lovin' from the ones we missed with the camera too. Sorry Bill & Elaine, Craig & Nancee, Steph, Connie and Erin.

And, a few bonus fun(ny) things...

Is that dock sinking??

What happens in NJ, stays in NJ. Right Charlie??

12.5 innings of fun... 1/2 inning not so much.

my only picture from "Crabfest 2009"...too busy eating!!

And, lots and lots of "family time"...

lots, and lots, and lots of it. Like 2,000 miles worth...

Wow, doesn't that make you want to go to New Jersey!?!?!? Maybe I could get a job with the travel bureau. :)

First Lost Tooth, Part III

Drew *finally* lost his first tooth while we were on vacation. It actually fell out when we were in Ohio, but thankfully, the tooth fairy managed to find us in Pennsylvania that night. Whew!!

There cannot be many things cuter than a little kid with missing teeth. I love that look! Drew is quite proud and I think that he knows how cute he looks because we have been seeing a lot of that cute smile with his little missing tooth.

Look at those geeky tourists...

Yup, I really did dress them in matching flag shirts to go visit the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.

Doesn't everybody look thrilled!!

On the way out to Ocean City, we stopped for a night in Philly. On all of our trips out East, this is the first time that we ever spent any time with the boys in Philly. We got a bit of a late start leaving David and Jeannine's because of some crazy, late-night partying the night before by some little boys that we know.

Obviously, we stopped to see the Liberty Bell. We also took a ride on the "Philly Ducks" or the "Bus-Boat" as Charlie called it. It was actually a cool way to see the sights with kids. They were entertained by the open air bus and the stupid "quackers" and all of the boys thought it was pretty cool when we drove right into the Delaware River.

After our tour and a walk around town, we stopped and had cake for dinner (it is vacation after all). Then we caught a cab in the pouring rain and spent some quality time in the hotel swimming pool.

Guess what we are doing today...

Here's a clue....


Here's another one...
Did you figure it out???

It is definitely one of my least favorite things to do, but I have started to potty train Charlie. So far he has peed 3 times on the floor. Progress??? I'm not sure. Oooops, 4 times now. Grrrr...5 times. This stinks...maybe I should quit blogging right now and concentrate on Charlie.

Gotta go.....

Hmmmm....maybe tomorrow I'll actually post about our vacation.

But, today, I'm posting about packing...

We have taken our annual road trip to "the shore" every year for the last 7 years. Every year, I struggle to pack for a trip, for 6 people, that includes sleeping in a different location for each the first 4 nights.

A couple of years ago, I bought a couple of huge, really HUGE! suitcases. They are really BIG! I should actually take a picture of them because I bought them during my "I love the color lime" phase. Picture the biggest, hugest, limest suitcases that you have ever seen. I'll just say that I have no problem spotting my luggage when it is coming off an airplane.


They are great suitcases and serve a purpose, but they are not "ideal" for dragging in and out of a hotel over and over again. Way too heavy and a huge mess after 4 days of 6 people going in and out of them. After using my huge, lime suitcases a few years ago, Spencer.....ummmm...... "suggested" that we try a different approach.



Ok, the next year, I bought those huge-o ziploc bags. I had one for each day. So, when we checked into the hotel, all we needed was that day's bag. The system worked pretty well, but I think we looked a little trashy each night as we crammed 6 of us into a hotel room and carried in our huge ziploc bags. Looking back on it I'm kind of embarassed.


Last year, I thought I would use the same approach, with a bag for each day, but I would take up up a step in class....a very small step.





Yup, I used my handy, dandy Walmart re-usable shopping bags. I taped the day of the week on each bag. Now, I am really getting embarassed. I actually thought it was pretty cool when I did it. LOL...what a dork!

This year, the day before we were leaving for vacation, I was still working on gathering and organizing our things when a package arrived at the door....a big package. The package was from our wonderful friends David and Jeannine. David and Jeannine's house is our "Thursday" night stop on the way out to the shore each year and our absolute favorite stop on our trip. Since we have been staying with them each year, they have been able to witness my packing adventures.

So, imagine my surprise when I opened up the big package and found, in addition to some fun road trip toys for the boys, a very cool LL Bean "Thursday" bag!! I was so excited and laughed so hard!!! I couldn't help but wonder if they got it for us because they were worried that we would show up with trash bags as luggage this year. But, I didn't really care what the reason was...I loved my cool new bag!!

I went to move the "empty" box out of the foyer and realized that it was still pretty heavy. I dug a little deeper and was really surprised to find a cool "Wednesday", "Friday" and "Saturday" bag to go with my cool "Thursday" bag. How awesome is that!!

I felt so good each day as we went into our hotel with our very cool bag!! The system really worked well and we finally looked "cool" too. I smile every time I see one of my bags. Now, if you want our family to visit you, please make sure that it is a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday. :)

Thanks Jeannine!! You are the best!

Did you miss me?!?!?!

We went on vacation! Yippee.....we took our annual road trip to "the shore". It was awesome and I plan to blog all about it. I actually planned on blogging all about it while I was *on* vacation. Unfortunately, I couldn't because we ran over my laptop WITH THE CAR!!! when we stopped for dinner at a rest-stop on the day that we left. I opened the trunk of the van to get something out of my computer bag. Then I let the trunk auto-close and got back in the van. I had no idea that my poor laptop slid out until we felt the "bump" when we were backing up. Sooooo sad. ;(

Fortunately, the vacation improved from there. Stay tuned...

Strange child...

I thought the boys could use a little motivation to swim all the way across the pool without touching the bottom, or the side of the pool. So, I told each of them that I would give them a "prize" when they accomplished the goal. Jack got all of the way across today and was quite proud and very excited about his "prize". I had not actually gotten a prize yet so, I told him that I was doing some shopping later and would pick out his prize while I was out shopping. He was a little anxious and curious about his prize.

A little while later, he was talking to Spencer and wondering about his "prize". He told Spencer that he hoped that his prize would be a "gift card to an ice cream shop".

Huh?? That is his biggest wish?!?! What 7 year old wants a gift card? And, to an ice cream shop....like we have ever taken him to and ice cream shop and made him buy his own ice cream!!
In case you were wondering, unfortunately, I did not know about this request until after I had already purchased him a bag of Swedish Fish. I guess the poor child will have to suffer with his bag of Swedish Fish and the 6 gallons of ice cream that we have in the freezer.