Thankful for so much

Thanksgiving week was a great busy week.  The husband took the week off from work.  The boys had a few half days off from school.  Attended the boys conferences.  Celebrated Thanksgiving with family.  Took a trip, picked up the dog and wrapped up the weekend with the festival of trees.  Whew!

The boys did amazing on their report cards.  I am so proud of their hard work.  We keep them very busy with extra activities and they manage to keep it all up.  The teachers had such nice things to say about the boys. 

Thanksgiving was celebrated at our house with my brother and three of his children.  We feel very blessed that we were able to be with some family.  It is hard to be away from our families.  We would love to be able to be with everyone but it is not possible.  I can't believe I didn't snatch one picture.  It was a nice relaxing day.

We woke up Friday morning and headed to Hershey Park for their Christmas Candy lane.  We went with friends of ours.  The have an older daughter, a son E and Jay's age and a daughter Tee's age.  So it works well with our family.

We could not have asked for better weather.  It was a gorgeous day.

We started at Chocolate world when we first got their.  We received an education on chocolate and the best thing was we were able to taste lots of chocolate.  We then took the tour that explains the process of making chocolate bars. 

We then made our way to the park.  There were no roller coasters open but there were 30 rides open.  We split up a little because the younger kids did different rides than the older kids. 

In chocolate class

Tee liked this ride!

Tee did not like this ride!  I didn't think it would ever end.

Family picture

It was a warm day but that didn't stop Frosty.

Our handsome boys on the train ride!

We were able to see a light show at the park and then headed to dinner.  Dinner was really good.

After dinner we headed to the Sweet lights.  A 2 1/2 mile drive of over 600 light displays.  It was nice but a bit long. 

We finally called it a day after that.

The next morning we woke up and went shopping at the outlet that was really close by.  I had no idea it was there.  Then we headed home to pick up Sadie.

She cried some of the way home.  I don't think she likes to ride in the car.

The boys absolutely love her.  Jay seems a little scared of her, Tee can't keep his hands off of her and E has a real connection with her.  He is very responsible when it comes to her.

Sunday we headed to our annual visit of the Festival of Trees.  I was a bit disappointed in the Santa but I really wanted to get the picture of Santa with the boys.

The boys racing cars.

Tee and Dad were the big winners.

It was a jam packed week but a good one.  This week it has been back to our routines.

The long weekend in February

And what do you think this is about?

Well, if you guessed a very tired boy after a weekend of skiing you would have guessed correctly.

We spent President's day weekend in the Poconos. We were able to rent my cousin's home which had a great layout. My friend and her family from Ct. joined us for the weekend. She has a girl that is a little younger than the twins.

E and Jay were not excited about going skiing. They told us they did not want to ski. Tee on the other hand was counting down the days for the ski trip.


Tee getting ready to go down the slopes with his Dad.

The boys in the morning ski lesson session. They did not want to have skiing lessons. I think they could not forget how cold it was last year when they did snowboarding lessons all day. It was so cold that weekend. We were fortunate that Friday was a nice day, the sun was shining.

All of the kids were getting ready to go skiing for a little while.

Warming up in the lodge. Saturday was much colder and windier. But that didn't stop Tee from wanting to ski. E also wanted to ski. Jay was done after a few runs in the morning.

The kids had a great weekend together.

Me and Molly. We had such a nice time catching up.

The kids had a great time skiing.

I did not ski. I sat in the lodge and read or tinkered on the computer.

We had such a fun weekend! Skiing is done for this year but I think we will try to get them out a little more next year.

Cousins

It has been a very long time since we have visited the husband's hometown. It has been over 8 years. Now through this time we have seen his family but have not seen his sister's and their children in a long time. Grandma visits us a couple of times a year.

The boys had last Friday off so we decided to take the long weekend for a visit. The boys were excited to see where their Grandma lived and see their cousins.

We pulled the boys out of school early on Thursday to catch our flight early afternoon. Tee sat near his Dad. As the plane was taking off, he looks at his Dad and says "I don't like this we need to land now". But he ended up doing fine as did the boys.

It was a weekend of revolving houses. The first night we were at Grandma's house and everybody came over for dinner. The second and third night were at his sister's houses. It was a weekend filled of yummy food and fun.

The boys loved playing with their cousins. E and Jay got two of their older cousins to play football with them. They were in heaven.

My boys stayed up late most nights and they were all exhausted each night.


Grandma with all of her grandchildren! What a great looking group of kids.

All of us. Thank goodness for the timer on the camera.

Funny enough, many years ago we had a picture taken of all the adults sitting on each other. Grandma decided she needed another one because we were missing a husband. The kids decided they wanted to have the same picture taken.

Mom and her kids!

Siblings!

Tee's cousin Ryan buddied up for the weekend. Everyone came over to Grandma's for lunch on Saturday. Tee went over to his aunt and asked where Ryan was. He was so good with him.

Sunday morning we were waiting for our flight home. All was going well. Our flight was there waiting for us. At take off time the pilot came on and says we are waiting for about 15 people who were coming from another flight. So we took off about 30 minutes late.

The only part of traveling with the 5 of us was getting through security at the airport. It gets very hectic to get all of your belongs in the bucket, shoes and all. Then walk through one at a time and get all of your stuff from the buckets.

I am really glad the boys got to spend time with their cousins. It is so nice to see.

All beaches are created equal

I don't think so but all have sand, water and waves. What else do you need?

I LOVED going to the beach as an older teen/young adult. Love is actually an understatement. I didn't know many people who would go to the beach in between college classes. Of course, my college was near the beach. So I spent a lot of time at the beach. Then reality hit and I was a working adult so beach time was restricted to the weekends.

There is something about the beach that is so relaxing. I still love sitting on the beach listening to the breaking waves and running the sand through my toes. I would love to be able to sleep on the beach but it is not relaxing with 3 young boys running around. But the beach is very therapeutic for me.

A move from Florida to North Carolina really dampened the beach time. I was living about 3 plus hours from the coast. We would schedule summer beach vacations, which is how we found Hilton Head.

Really I was (and am) ok without going to the beach so often. My skin is thanking me now because I know I have done a lot of damage but that is another story. The only time I miss the beach is when I am at the beach.

We have lived in Maryland for almost 3 years and have not been to the shore. We have many neighbors who own places at the beach and spend a lot of time here. It was time for this to change.

We bid and won a weekend stay at a town home on Fenwick Island, Delaware from the school auction. The place belongs to one of our neighbors. Since the boys are off once again today, we decided to pull them from school on Friday and take a long weekend at the beach. We arrived late last night. The drive was about 2 1/2 hours and we had to stop to get something to eat.

The weather is beautiful. A little chilly this morning. The morning was spent at the very quiet deserted beach. The beach is a little different. For example, there is not much of a sandy area on the beach. There were so many shells on the beach. I haven't seen such large non broken shells in a long time.

We sat in our chairs swatting at the biting flies that kept landing on us watching the boys play in the sand. Where did the flies come from and why are they on the beach? We saw dolphins out swimming. We played ladder golf, which is a fun outdoor game. I was able to actually read a little bit of a magazine. No swimming for us as the water temperature is a bit too cold for us. We had a great morning.

I am looking forward to enjoying time at the beach. And although this beach is a little different than what I have been to it will work out just fine.

Home at last

Exhausted! We made it home safely from our vacation. I still have not recovered but hope to get back to our routine tomorrow.

The rest of the beach trip was so nice and relaxing. I think we all finally mellowed out towards the end and were able to enjoy our last few days.

We spent a lot of time on the beach. E is truly a beach lover like his Mom. He wanted to stay when it was time to go. It was VERY hot and humid during our stay. The weather held out for us though. We got in as much as we could during our last few days. We biked, played miniature golf and went on a hike. The hike was mainly to find the GO Cache located in HHI for a friend. I have never heard of it but it is like a scavenger hunt.

We made our trip down to Jacksonville on Saturday. We spent a lot of time with family, which the boys loved. We were only able to visit with my brother's family (they have two young boys) for a short time. E and Jay loved playing with their cousins. They were sad when they had to leave. They would like to see them again soon.

My sisters and I took our kids (theirs are grown up) to the water park. E and Jay each had a buddy for the day. E had a blast going down the slides. He even did the half pipe. I couldn't watch, I was scared for him. He liked it but did not want to do it again. I had to literally pull him off the slides so that we could leave. Jay had a good time but didn't seem to enjoy the slides as much. And Tee had a great time playing in the water. He also went down a big slide with no raft. He had a look of terror on his face as he came out. He said he liked it but didn't want to do it again.

My nephew, C., was my saving grace. He bowled with us one day and went to the beach with us the next. He stayed in the water and helped the boys boogie board. The waves were really choppy and the current was so strong. Tee and I played at the water's edge.

We had a really nice time visiting with my parents.

I had a hard time sleeping during my stay. Tee slept with me and he is a non-stop mover. It would take him sometimes until 4 am to stop moving so much. He kept turning towards the end of the bed that I thought he was going to fall off. No carpet in my parent's house just a hard floor. The bed was so uncomfortable. It is good to sleep in my own bed once again.

By Wednesday the boys were ready to be home. Two weeks was a long time for them. We started our trip home on Thursday when I picked up my husband from the airport. We drove to his Dad's house in South Carolina where we stayed the night. The boys went fishing with no luck.

Friday morning we started our 8 1/2 hour drive home. It wasn't too bad and the boys did really well.

I have pictures that I have not downloaded yet. I hope to work on those soon.

Vacation at last

It was a lot of preparation but I finally got it all together. Yes, I forgot a few things but nothing we can't live without or buy here. Saturday we left early in the morning and boy was it a long day. Thank goodness for the GPS system, we were able to get around 2 backups on I-95. We arrived at our destination around 4pm.

We unloaded and hit our normal first night restaurant. Then we loaded up on groceries for the week.

The boys love the beach. It is unfortunate that jellyfish in the water are high. In the last 2 days we have seen about 20 people come out of the water crying or holding onto a particular part of their body all in pain. I have not wanted to be in the water and neither do the boys. The boys love to boogie board but are a little scared they will get stung. Today E and Jay spent a few hours digging a huge hole while Tee played at the water's edge.

We rented bikes for the week. This year Tee is on a tandem bike with his Dad. Funny that he kept hitting the brakes as his Dad was pedaling. He enjoyed the bike ride.

I don't think the boys got the memo on vacation rules. They have been arguing and not listening since we have gotten here. It has been very tiring for the parents. I guess we are only 2 days in maybe things will be better tomorrow.

Road Trip

What a whirlwind of a trip. Our first stop was in South Carolina to visit my friend with the triplet girls. If you remember the boys and girls were best of friends when we lived in NC.

Me and Nic!

We spent a lot of time at the pool!

My friend got a sitter for the kids so we could go out. We got to see a little bit of downtown Greenville. I knew I was in the south with Shrimp and Grits on the menu. It was soo delicious.

After a few first awkward moments, the kids played so well together. It was like they had not missed a day apart. We had a great time visiting with them. We miss them a lot.

After two days in SC, we headed to NC. We stopped by south Charlotte to visit some of our good friends. My husband went to college with the husband and I became friends with his wife. A very nice family. We spent several years going to the mountains of NC with them. We miss our trips.

While we visited, my husband went to lunch with some ex-coworkers.

Me and Eli.

We would try to get the kids together as much as possible but we lived on separate parts of town. It is a good 40 plus minutes. The kids played so nicely together.

Once we left Eli's house we made our way back to our old neighborhood. We drove around a little. We saw our first house and our second house. I was afraid I was not going to be able to see my friend Amy. Our original plan was to be in NC for 2 days, but work got in the way and we had to come back a day early.

I really didn't want to be so close and not see her so we dropped by unexpected. We only visited an hour but I was so happy to be able to have that time together.

Me and Amy!

Grace and Tee. Amy and I were pregnant the same time and our due dates were a few months apart. I think Tee fell in love with that sweet Grace.

The boys played so nicely together. We so wish we had more time.

A trip back to the old town would not have been complete without a trip to our favorite pizza place.

Patiently waiting for our pizza.

I definitely missed Bruster's. We stopped in for ice cream before we collapsed in our hotel.

It was a fun and quick trip.

What to do?

It is a gorgeous day in Maryland today. It is not too hot and definitely not humid. I have had a hard decision to make today. Go outside and enjoy the weather or stay inside and clean up for Grandma's visit. My MIL is way cool but my house is very dirty so I guess I shall go with the second choice.

We just got home from a road trip to North and South Carolina. Lots to share including pictures. We had a great time.

Ski Trip

My husband grew up in the very cold mid-west. So he grew up skiing and still enjoys it now. Every year with the exception of a few he has taken a guys trip out west for some good skiing. He would like for our boys to learn how to ski and enjoy it as much as he does.

He planned a trip for us to go to the Poconos for a weekend. The drive was not bad. We arrived at our hotel around 3:30. It seemed a little late to get geared up for tubing. So we unpacked and went to dinner. It was so cold there.

The view from the top of the mountain at our hotel down in the distance.

The boys decided that they wanted to learn how to snowboard instead of ski. They did a class on Saturday for about 6 hours. I watched them for a while because I was a little nervous that 6 hours was too long. My fingers kept getting so cold that I would have to go indoors to warm them up. I was wearing nice warm gloves my husband bought for me. Then my toes were freezing even though I had nice warm ski socks and boots. I thought that they must be freezing out on the snow.

The first thing they had to do was learn how to fall correctly. They learned how to fall on their fronts and backs.

They started out learning how to snowboard on a little hill.

They were taught to snowboard down to their instructor and then fall down.

By the end of class they both had gotten the hang of it and were snowboarding down a hill.

EE loved snowboarding.

It was a very cold day outside on Saturday. But the school had the boys take many breaks and go inside to warm up. It was a long day for them but they did learn a lot. EE said he would not mind taking another class but would just want a half day. I think Jay liked it but he was very tired. I think they need to learn how to ski also.

Tee was so excited about skiing even thought he had no idea what he was getting himself into. After we spent some time getting the boys ready with their equipment and signing them into ski school it was Tee's turn.

My husband got them both geared up and ready to do. He skied with Tee between his legs. He then took him over to the bunny hill. They went up the ski lift and down the hill. Tee absolutely loved it. They rested and warmed for a little while and then Tee was ready to go out again. Several more runs and then it was time to let Dad have some ski time.

Tee was ready to go.

I stayed inside the lodge because I couldn't manage to be outside anymore. Did I mention how cold I was? Then Tee and I went back to a very warm hotel room so he could rest.

We had hoped to get some tubing in but we ran out of time. Next time we need to stay at least one more night. I am very glad that the boys enjoy the sport. As for me, I am not sure if skiing is really for me. Maybe one day I will try it.

A little fun

My husband has the week off. The week will mainly be a "staycation" but we did manage to have a little fun early this week.

A few months ago when I visited my friend in Pa. we talked about meeting in Hershey Park. It just so happens that she and her husband have the same week of vacation. Our plan was to meet at the park.

We ended up getting there before my friend so we did a few rides while waiting.


Tee was looking at the ride he was about to get on.

Here he is on his very first ride, the balloon flite. He liked it the first few times around and then he was crying a little. He remembers the ride and he also remembers crying.


The boys rode on the carousel.

We got family pictures early in the day. It was so incredibly hot this day. We were full of sweat the entire day.


The boys were good sports in riding rides with Tee.

My husband and my friend's husband rode on a ride called Storm Runner. It takes you out on the track and counts down from 10. Then it shoots off like a rocket at 70 miles per hour. It goes every which way it can. Not a ride for me.

In fact, I did not ride on any rides. I was typically the one either with Tee or taking pictures. I do not like roller coasters so I was fine. The boys rode on one little roller coaster. Ee loved riding on the Swings up in the air. He went on 2 times. Jay did not want to have anything to do with them. He was definitely a little more conservative. He rode a rocket ship towards the very end. It is a ride in which you get to decide how high you go. You can go all the way to the top or stay in between by pulling on the lever. As he and his Dad were getting buckled in he says that he has to go to the bathroom. He stayed in the middle for the ride.

We let the kids play in the water area for a little while as well. It was a nice little cool off for a very hot day. They did not do any of the rides but played in the little fountain area.

Tee was so exhausted. Luckily, my friend brought a stroller with them (I had an umbrella stroller) which she let me use for Tee to take a nap. He got a good 1 hour cat nap. This was certainly a blessing otherwise he would have turned into a crank and we would have had to leave the park.

We were able to have dinner in the park and then went and toured the Hershey Chocolate Factory. It was very neat and I am glad we were able to do it that evening instead of going back the next day.

We had the best time. My boys and my friend's boys get along so well. I am hoping we can get them together again soon. Her boys are very well behaved.

We ended up at our hotel around 8:30. It was the worst night sleep I have gotten in a long time. Jay was having a hard time staying asleep. He kept getting up to go to the bathroom. We had the ice maker on so that we have ice for the cooler the next morning. I woke up every time the tray turned over. The hotel was off the highway and all night long you could hear the trucks driving by shifting their gears. Then morning started at 5:30.

On Tuesday, we drove to an outlet mall that was sort of on the way home. We were all tired but we managed to shop a little before we headed home.

The rest of the week will consist of house projects that we need to get done. We are also getting ready for the "work" family party this weekend. Hopefully, after this weekend we will spend some time on the weekends doing and visiting some of the places I wanted to do this week.