2 short video clips from vacation

Father's Day BBQ and more vacation photos

Saturday we had a BBQ at my parents' house to celebrate Father's Day with my Dad. Josh and I, the kids, my sister, brother-in-law and my Aunt Joan were all there. Josh cooked up some fabulous chicken and veggie wraps. My sister made a tasty salad and we had fun hanging outside. Poor Abby had her itchies acting up really bad. But that's par for the course with it being summer and her being outside. Hopefully her doctor will have her prescription called in tomorrow and we can get her healing up.




Evan hanging out with Grandma and Papa:












Playing a bean bag game that Papa made:









Evan and Grandma being silly:




Naturally when it comes to grilling, the guys are in charge:












Aunt Joan making a silly face:





Aunt Joan laughing at me:









Abby making music (her definition, not ours) with Papa's windchimes:




My yellow bell pepper has gone from a little baby nugget to a for real pepper over the past week. My plants are definitely my babies! I really enjoy them.








And some more vacation photos:












Those three figures you see (barely) are Josh, Evan and Abby:







Abby and I went to Build-A-Bear at the outlet mall while the guys went to play golf. She made this new kitty and named it Hearts.

Vacation pictures

Our vacation this week was so nice. Despite the nasty weather that the Midwest has been experiencing, we had a lovely time because our resort had 3 indoor water parks and various other fun things to do inside. We were even completely unaware of the horrible situation with Lake Delton going on just miles from where we were staying. If you haven't heard about it, click here to read about it.



We stayed at The Wildneress resort in a townhouse type of place.





I only remembered to take photos of the downstairs.








We had so much fun playing in the water. It amazes me how fearless little Abby is. There was only one water slide that she didn't try and the reason she didn't try it was because she didn't meet the height requirement. My personal favorite was the wave pool. It was all the fun of the ocean without the salty water and sand.













Video of Josh and Abby enjoying the water slide.







Apparently since he's now 13, it means that Evan has to suddenly act like the stereotypical teen and not want to be photographed. So this is me trying to get him to show his face.





While we were there, Josh and Evan also had some fun rock climbing. It was Evan's first time and he did quite well at it.









When we drive up to the Dells area, we pass this creepy old ammunition plant. I always wanted to get some photos of it, but it's hard when you are moving. I totally bet that place is haunted.




And last but not least, my favorite photo of the trip:

Our weekend

This is one of those Sunday nights where I'm sitting here scratching my head and wondering where the weekend went. It was a busy one for sure. Josh put in a lot of Jamapps hours this weekend along with his partner. While I'm thrilled about their current project and the company's success, it's always hard to give up our alone time as a couple on the weekend.

But we had a date on Saturday afternoon to make up for that! My Mom watched the kids and gave us the afternoon to ourselves. We went shopping. The World Market by her is going out of business and we picked up a few deals there. Like $.25 for a placemat! We also went to The Container Store and drooled over the organizational stuff. That place is a dream come true for the small OCD part of me.

We tried a fabulous Thai Restaurant in Hoffman Estates called Taste of Thai for lunch. We had appetizers, drinks, lunch specials and dessert for only $30. So I definitely recommend it if you want to go somewhere different, nice and reasonable.



My appetizer

Today in pictures

I've been feeling like taking a lot pictures lately.



So starting with last night:



Adorable cheesecake from Schnuck's fabulous bakery. The have the best bakery and the prices are amazing. It always feels like a treat when we make the trip across town to shop there.







Today's lunch, a super yummy veggie and grilled chicken wrap. Food like this makes eating healthy a lot tastier.






Abby looked so adorable today in her school clothes (school clothes because I make her change into play clothes after school) so I had to take a picture.







And she loves her new kitty. She is carrying it around everywhere.








Abby is getting more comfortable with riding her new bike. Hopefully soon those training wheels can come off. She'll do it at her own pace though.







And because I'm so excited that I actually got footage of Abby on her wheels, here's a really short video:

Weekend update in photos

Our weekend in pictures. Click on any to make them larger.

We ate lots of yummy stuff. Since it's been in the 80's, Josh has been grilling out rather than firing up the oven. We've had some really tasty veggie meals.
 

Saturday I went to Build A Bear Workshop to make myself the new tropical Hello Kitty they have. Yes I am 31 and still buying myself stuffed animals. But as you all know, I am crazy about Hello Kitty. While I was there I also got pjs for my one of my other Kitties who previously only had undies to wear.

And for Abby, I brought home a Charmmy Kitty which oddly enough is Hello Kitty's pet cat:

We also played at the park a lot and spent a lot of time outside on our deck which is quickly becoming the preferred place to hang out as the house heats up. We are all enjoying our growing plants out there and chatting with our neighbors.

Abby actually took this photo. I like the composition.

 

Sex & The City

We have had a fabulous weekend! It has been so nice to not be busy as we have been over the past several months.
Saturday I went to see the Sex & The City movie with my girlfriend. I loved it! Without giving anything away about the plot, these are 2 themes I loved about the movie.

1. No matter what happens, Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte stay close girlfriends. They don't let time, distance, significant others or children stop them from having their girl time. How often do we busy wives and moms really get to time to be together and just be girlfriends? It seems that it gets harder and harder all the time. Once you get married, you have to consider your partner's schedule as well as your own. Then if you have children, you become much more busy between balancing their schedules, family gatherings and simply the day-to-day business that comes with being a parent. It gets hard to even find 5 minutes to go the bathroom privately let alone call a friend. While it's probably not realistic to think that we can be exactly the girlfriends that we are when we are single and childless, the SATC foursome inspired me to try harder.

2. Relationships/marriage are not fairytales. I have heard people say that if you really love someone, it's not hard work but I don't agree. Marriage is hard work, loving your partner is what makes you want to put in the effort. It is so easy starting from the time that you know it's a serious relationship to get wrapped up in how it should be rather than how your relationship really is. From the time we are little girls we read books about the princess finding true love and then living "happily ever after". What the heck is happily ever after anyway? We get caught up in planning our weddings so much so that every little detail is something that we obsess over. Really during the time we are engaged, we should be planning for a lifetime of marriage not a wedding day. My wedding was perfect, not because it happened without flaws to the plan but because I married my soul mate. I know how caught up I got in the planning, the details and the inevitable drama that comes along with major events. I also remember being a few days into our honeymoon and suddenly realizing that all that stressing out was stupid. All that day should ever have been about was us. Everyone comes to your big party and enjoys the food and the dancing and the wine and that's great. But a marriage is about the two people who are in it, for better or for worse.

Stay tuned for a picture post of our weekend fun.