Mama Comes Back East

My mom and I planned for her to come this month back in May when we thought we weren't making a summer trip to Utah. I'm so glad we thought we weren't making that trip because this was just the "bonus" I needed to start my fall off right.

First things first:

After arriving on the red-eye and having a good nap, we headed to Grandma Cindy's favorite Norwalk hot spot. 

Definitely a place enjoyed by all!

We of course had to head to the beach because she had never been able to visit during beach appropriate weather. She has been two other times, both in January.

She loved it and the boys loved having her there.

(I love Wes' smile behind his paci!)

And Valencia's was again a success.

 It was a beautiful night to sit outside and was enjoyed by all!

What does NYC have to offer in the wee hours of the morning?

Adults woke up at 5am and kids at 6am.

What good sports we all were. 

We hoped to catch something going on around these parts,

And Brian was such a good sport to hang out with these two while mom and I stretched our necks as far as they could go to see if we catch a glimpse of the Today Show action.

But, to no avail.

Psy was a hot ticket and too many others had woken up much earlier to catch a glimpse of him.

Better luck next time.

Luckily we got to hit up Central Park early, and it was awesome.

Having hardly any kids there made it so this boy could enjoy a ride in the swing with his brother.

 After an interesting walk through Times Square to purchase our Broadway tickets with some kids that were melting down from an early wake up call, we were all ready for a break.

So we got a snack and took a seat on the Subway.

  

Wes was lucky enough to get some shut eye. 

What a perfect ball of perfection. 

Seeing the 9/11 Memorial is really special.

I wish there wasn't a reason to have a memorial there, but there is and they have done a beautiful thing with the grounds.

The city was exhausting with those two little guys, but so worth it. 

NYC is just too close to miss out on visiting every time someone comes our way.

There was some relaxing and playing.

Thad loved having Grandma around to give him some extra attention that he has been in desperate need of. 

These two spent quite a bit of time in here. 

Grandma loves herself a clean baby! 

After enjoying eating out, eating in, going to the movies, going to church, naps, cleaning my windows, floors and porch, watching The Lorax, shopping and lots of good conversation, we decided to end our trip with an NYC favorite:

Broadway.

I have just recently decided Broadway is a must when folks come to visit and Chicago did not let us down. It was quite simple compared to the other few shows I have seen, but the music and talent was phenomenal! Luckily the theater was small because our seats were in the nose bleed section, but it didn't even matter. We could see facial expressions and all.

What a fun five fall days we were able to spend with my mama. I'm so glad she was able to come out and spend time with our family. Living away from everyone can be hard, but these are the things that get us through until "next time." We wouldn't be able to do it without these visits, so y'all better keep them coming!

Thad has been asking about her since she left and we are already looking forward to our Thanksgiving visit in two months. It will be here before we know it!

Love you, mom. Miss you like crazy already.  

Awesome August

A good portion of August was spent in Utah, but the time we did spend here was awesome!

We got straight back to work when the fun was over in Utah, and although Thad looks like a child laborer here,

He was actually begging to vacuum.
He’s so big and becoming such a good helper!


Wes is just cute as usual.

Brian passed this guy on the train and couldn't resist snapping a pic.

He says this is a common sight on the train.
People are silly.

Wes is getting more and more fun, and this was a particularly  giggly night with this sweet baby boy of ours.

After all the giggles were out, he was entranced by the ceiling fan.
It’s one of his favorite things to stare at!

Our good friend Nate and Dayna invited us to our first NFL game!!
Nate had his last day working at the NFL on a Friday and had tickets to a game on Saturday, and we were the lucky ones to join them!
It was a pre season Jets vs. Giants game, but very exciting as there are die hard fans for both teams in the surrounding area.

The stadium was SO huge and we really enjoyed the whole experience…
Even if it did cost $50 to park, $5 each for a hot dog and $7 for a fountain drink.
It’s all about the experience and it was awesome!

I had a fun little photo op with these boys as they were playing on the floor together:

Didn’t turn out quite how I thought…

But I don’t think I can complain.
I love them.

To end the post, you can see for yourself how awesome August was-

Brothers

We love our boys. When Aunt Brigitte was here, she got some amazing shots of their handsome faces and fun personalities. We went to Waveny Park in New Canaan and she worked her magic.

-Because I have a brother, I’ll always have a friend-

Henrie Cousins Come to Visit

I love that my sister loves it back here. Us + The Beach = Brigitte and kids coming to visit, and of course we love it!

After chillaxing a little, getting reaquainted (which didn’t take long because it was only 2 weeks after our surprise trip), and adjusting to the new time zone,

we didn’t waste much time and headed straight to the beach!

The kids loved chasing the seagulls and digging in the sand, and unfortunately we didn’t get many images of that. :(
Wes was pretty good, and we managed to entertain him in the Bumbo for quite some time:

But soon enough he wasn’t the only tired one in the group, and we called it a day. :)

The second day they were here, it was this guys big 28th birthday!

So we started it off right with presents and McDonald’s for breakfast.
Unfortunately for Brig, but fortunately for us, we had a free sitter for an awesome night out in the city.

We had dinner at 5 Napkin burger, so he could get his sushi and I could get my burger.
And then we headed over here:

We had both been wanting to see Wicked for quite some time, and thought this would be the perfect night.
It was a fun show with wonderful company and we could enjoy it fully because we knew our kiddos were in great hands!
Happy 28th birthday to the best dad and husband ever.
We sure love him.

Don’t worry, the fun did not stop all week!

Tod’s Point

Hanna was kind enough to shuttle us to their beautiful beach in Greenwich, and as you can see Wes enjoyed the water and the sand.
He was kind of tricky at the beach because he loved reaching for things and the sand is just unavoidable so it ended up everywhere.
Luckily he is a gem and we managed just fine!

Ward Campout: Camp Liahona
Brian was in charge of this whole event with the EQ Presidency and Brig and her kids are always up for a night in nature, so we thought we would make an appearance.

The kids enjoyed their time playing so much! They especially loved it when it got dark and they could all run around with flashlights.
Kids are so funny, and camping sure brings out the kid in us all.

Brian and Thad decided to stay the night and ended up having a blast.
It was Thad’s first time sleeping in a tent and he was sure excited to tell us about it the next day.

As you can tell, I think Thad had fun.
Brian is super dad and I’m so glad he is willing to have fun little adventures with our boys.
It was a very successful event and we can’t wait to attend next summer.

Greek Festival

We thought we would hit up a carnival, because all kids love carnivals.
Well, too bad our wallets didn’t love it.
They were good sports and were happy to just stay for a little while and then head to a park.
Kids are so easy to please. Love them!

Robert Moses Beach

I kind of can’t believe these are the only images I have from our trip to Robert Moses Beach on Long Island.
These are legit waves, and tho they were pretty scared of them, we still had a blast!
Well, that is, until it rained a couple hours after our arrival.
We waited until the last possible second to gather up our stuff and hustled to the car.
We were sad our day at the beach was cut short because,
1. It was kind of our main event
2. I was able to get a sitter for Wes all day so we were free to do as we wanted.
After attempting to drive home and deciding we weren’t ready to go back, we turned off and headed to Jones Beach instead!
We lugged a lot of our stuff back down to the water, just to have it start raining about 10 minutes after  we got settled. Yet again we (Brigitte and kids) weren’t ready to head back home, so we once again hauled our stuff back and stayed another hour.
It was a crazy afternoon, but so fun and worth it. Brig loves the beach, so she got her beach!

New York City

For our last day of east coast fun, we hopped on the train into NYC.

Aunt Brigitte was so cute with Wes the entire trip: feeding him, changing his diaper, getting him dressed, and the train ride in was no exception.
She loves that chubby baby and was so happy to be spending time with him. Can’t you tell they both loved it!

We strolled through Central Park and stopped to take a rest near this puddle.
We didn’t really want the kids to be playing in the dirty puddle, so Brig yells, “Kids get out of the puddle, it has giardia!”
She sure has a way with 3-year olds.

After lunch and some Times Square fun, we met Brian and he was amazing as usual, and took the boys back home while Brig, Leah and I went to Marry Poppins on Broadway!

We weren’t quite sure what Leah was going to do, but she fell asleep by the time we got there and zonked through the first half.

She woke up during intermission and thoroughly enjoyed the second half and was such an awesome girl!
It was a really cute show and a great introduction for Brigitte to Broadway.

This was an awesome visit and a wonderful close to our summer.
Lots of other fun was had in between, like a glitter toe party, trips to Stew’s, babysitter while adults went to dinner, girl talk, hair getting done and other stuff I’m sure I can’t think of.
I have an awesome sister.
Thanks for being awesome, Aunt Brigitte! We love you all!!