Fun at the Waterpark

Peter took us as a family to Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg VA. It is an indoor water park and since it is hard to find stuff to do in the winter for Stephen's birthday, we decided to have our family go there for his celebration. Peter was amazing there. He just played with the kids, showed them how to do all the stuff, and watched them mess around in the little kids park. He watched Shaun so Mom could go and enjoy some of the big kid rides and Stephen even rode one with me and one with Dad. Scottie went down a double tube with both Peter and me also. We had a great weekend get-away! Totally worth it!

3 Months old!!

Shaun is reaching another milestone in his life, 3 months old! He is growing so quickly and developing more and more every day! Some of his new tricks this month are smiling and cooing, especially at Mommy and Daddy and brothers Stephen and Scottie, holding his head up from his tummy, noticing toys, and loving his passie.

This was a busy month starting with a trip to Maine, meeting Grandpa Tim, Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Kristen and seeing Grandma Mari again. It was a long drive but Shaun was a trooper and did fantastic! He loved the outdoors, swinging in the hammocks, and all the hold time he was given by Aunt Krissy. Other big things that went on this month was a trip to OCC, a cool motorcycle shop in New York, play datesafter school with friends, back to school night for big-brother Stephen, and a trip to Ohio.

We had a blast with our cousins and it was fun to have the babies together as Rachel has a little girl 3 weeks older than Shaun! (More on our trip to Ohio on another blog post...) I sure can't wait to see how much Shaun grows and changes this next month!

.

Maine Vaca!!

As per every August, we made a trip up to Maine to visit my Mom, Tim, Kristen and Jeremy. I thought there was no way this was going to happen this year but then my dear hubby decided he wanted to go (he hasn't been up there for 4 or 5 years) and so we set out on this grand adventure together toting the 3 kids! We had a great time at the cabin on Cochran Lake, lots of fishing, swimming with the boys, kayaking and card playing. Peter still went on his bike rides as he was training for a race over Labor Day, even biking from the cabin to Ashland and over to Presque Isle where Mom lives. This was quite an undertaking and accomplishment when finished as it was the longest ride he has been on... EVER! 67 Miles or something like that! Iwas amazed.The boys loved playing with their Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Krissy. They enjoyed playing Wii, building block creations, playing with their toys they brought and blowing bubbles. Jeremy even took them exploring in the woods around the cabin. Peter and I had fun fishingwith Tim out on the lake. I usually took the morning fishing trip and Peter took the night trip.We didn't catch a lot but it was good times and fun to be out there enjoying the tranquility of nature. We also had fun going out on the paddle boat and kayaking taking turns with the boys. I love nature and just being outside. It was beautiful and fun!

Also, we enjoyed a wonderful lobster dinner... Its one of my favorite parts of these summer adventures!

On the drive home we were making good time and we saw when we came up we passed Orange County NY home of OCC a show on Discovery Channel specializing in custom chopper motorcycles so we decided to stop in and look around. It was cool to see many of the bikes the show has featured and even see the wall and bike dedicated to 9/11 firefighters. Peter loved looking at the bikes and Scott and Stephen even picked out their favs. It was a fun stop for a long drive home.

I think all went well and hopefully we will have Peter come again with us, at least sooner than this time! I love the time up at the cabin, out of routine, no dishwasher, and enjoying the outdoors. It is a great time with family and showing the boys we don't need all the electronic conveniences. Enjoy the pics from our trip!

Fun in Williamsburg

We took a mini-vacation to Williamsburg, stayed in a beautiful hotel, and had fun with Granddad, Aunt Christiana, and Uncle Caleb at Busch Gardens and Water Country USA!

Shaun did a fantastic job traveling, at the parks, and sleeping so everyone else could sleep! The boys loved going to Busch Gardens, riding the rides, playing in the water areas, and watching some of the shows. Mom had a great time taking the kids around to the different areas with different people most of the time while Dad and the others went on all the roller coasters. I did get my turn too to go on the ones I wanted!

The Griffin was my favorite ride and I got to do it with my brother Caleb and Christiana~ who rode her first coaster this trip! She is fitting right in with the fam becoming a coaster fein too. The boys really loved the Forest of Fun with the Sesame Street characters and the Land of Dragons. Scottie is the adventurous one and went on all the rides he was tall enough for, going on Elmo's Spire and Oscar's Worm with Uncle Caleb. Stephen loved the Elephant Run and the water works. All in all, the boys have great memories in Bushie-da-Gardens (as we called it growing up) and hopefully we can make it a yearly tradition!

The next day we went to Water Country USA and had a blast at the water park. Stephen and Scott played in the kid area most of the day while Peter, Caleb, Christiana and Dad hit all the major water slides. (I was ok with it as I am not a huge water slide person... and I met a nice lady from Canada with a boy 3 months old who kept me occupied with Shaun.) The boys did go on the huge life raft rides with the older guys and had a blast. I can't wait to make these parks summer traditions and go again next year!

Trip to Ohio

We just got home from a fun trip to Ohio to visit my sister, Rachel, brother Craig, and her children~ Victoria and Caleb, and Baby Farrell. This is the sister that is due 3 weeks before me...! We had so much fun watching the kids run around together, going to the library, playingin the snow we didn't know was coming, having a birthday party, going to church and countless hoursplaying different games and make-believe at her house.

We started by driving there on Wednesday, through the snow in Pa and rain, rain, rain in Ohio... I was glad to have the big vehicle and not Peter's car when the snow was almost blinding and trucks still going 70 on the Pike. We got there in one piece and made it in 5 hours which isn't bad considering we stopped for potty breaks along the way since Scottie was just potty training! I am happy to report we made it with no accidents too!!

Wednesday night we took the kids to Rachel's church where Victoria was happy to "show off" her cousins and again we had no accidents. I was able to go with Rachel to her choir practice to see some of the music for their upcoming performance for Easter. It sounded amazing and I was equally impressed at the choir director being able to pick out one person from the 80 or so that was there who was singing off key! Wow was his ear amazing.

Thursday was Caleb's 3rd birthday. We had lots going on that day, Rachel with 1st grade registration for Victoria in the morning, (we stayed home with Caleb and played), story time at

their fantastic library, and a party for Caleb with some of Craig's family in the evening. The snow started that evening and continued through the night as Rachel warned, "We live in Ohio, don't count winter over yet... last year we had 3 feet of snow on Caleb's birthday, and when he was born, there was a blizzard!" So to hold true to those words we got a few inches and the kids were ecstatic in the morning to wake up to the winter wonderland!

Friday morning we went out and played in the snow with makeshift snowsuits. Scottie wore 2 pair of pants, 3 socks, and rain boots, while Stephen wore 2 jackets, Victoria's next size snow pants (yes, they are purple but he didn't care!!) and her next size snow boots. They had a blast playing snow ball fight, eating the white stuff, and with the help of me and Rachel~ mainly Rachel, we built a snowman! It was a great couple of hours and then we came in for some hot chocolate!

The rest of the day and Saturday we pretty much spent just playing together and enjoying cousin time. We had a blast when Craig was home with the kids playing attack Uncle Craig, and he would throw them around. At nights, the adults enjoyed "adult time" playing games like Greed and Rummicube.

Sunday came too fast, packing up to leave, and going to church with Rache and Craig. The kids went to sunday school while we went to service. We said our good byes and headed back home. We were excited to see Daddy, yet sad to leave Aunt Rachel's and Uncle Craig's. They said the whole way home, "Mommy, when can we go back?"!! I am so glad they had such a good time with their cousins. I am looking forward to having Marc here this summer so they can develop a great relationship with him also, as I remember the times with my cousins at my grandparent's house growing up, and what special memories and relationships they are still to me today!

Maine trip

We took our annual road trip to Maine about 2 weeks ago. It was beautiful, stressful, and fun all rolled into one bundle of trip. Stephen, Scott and I were joined by my sister, Steph and her son, Marc (4 1/2 months old) for the long trek up through Pennsylvania, Mass, Conneticut, New York, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Maryland and Maine. It took around 15 hours with Steph and I switching back and forth who was driving and who was tending to the kids. We decided to try and drive through the night to help with car time hoping that they would sleep most of the ride. I must say that it worked well, at least for Stephen and... Marc! They did well sleeping in the car but Scottie on the other hand wanted to be out of his seat and not be quiet or sleep most of the night. He was happy most of the time just to hold his Mommy's hand but it was a long drive until he fell asleep most of the end of the trip.We enjoyed time at the "Lakehouse" fishing, boating and throwing rocks in the water. Scott and Marc enjoyed seeing fish that were caught, Stephen and Scottie even tried their hand at fishing. We had a great time playing games, learning a newcard game, Pitch, and playing lots of Greed.

Next we headed up to Presque Isle where Mom and Tim live. The garden was beautiful like always and we were shown somenew verities of veggies. We also went to the Northern Maine Fair and had a great time on the merry- go-round. Mom and Tim served ice cream as a fund raiser for their church.

We did a lot of snuggling Marc on the trip as it was the first week that Steph was without Jarrod full time. She also got sick so to try and keep him healthy Mom and I watched him as much as possible. We had great times making up soothing songs to sing to him while swinging on their porch swing. We were able to celebrate Steph's birthday even though she was just starting to recover from the sickness. Jarrod suprised her with some flowers and I made her a cake!Stephen and Scott took to their Uncle Cameron, Uncle Jeremy, and Aunt Kristen like they saw them every day. Stephen especially loved playing with Uncle Jeremy cause he got lots of video game time with him (Jeremy introduced him to his new favorite game, Pokemon). He also taught him a little about his favorite sport, hockey. It was fun to dress the kids up in his old stuff and watch him teach them about something he is passionate about.

We also took the kids blueberry picking. I love Maine blueberries and so did the boys. They ate handful after handful so it took a little extra time picking. Scottie even ended up with a diaper full of blueberries and a fun diaper rash too! It was a great experience to share with the boys. Mom and I look forward to the time together each year and it was fun to share it with the kids. All in all we had a great time. Steph and I headed back home with the three boys Saturday. We had a great road trip with lots of girl time!