Hooray, O'Hare!

We are home! I can't believe how smooth everything went through Chicago. We arrived early and left on time and got to SF early - and our luggage arrived. Shocker, eh?

Now, if someone could just tell O that 11:00 p.m. until 6 a.m. is not a good night's sleep, we would be set :)

I'll post more photos and movies from the last few days this afternoon.

Heading Home

Sorry for the lack of posts in the past two days. I haven't had a chance to do anything except entertain O - and by the time he gets to bed, I am ready to collapse.

I'll try to post a few pics and movies today, but we are heading back to SoDak later this afternoon instead of 6 a.m. tomorrow. Please think about us as we navigate a 53 minute connection in Chicago. The weather is supposed to be good.

More later. O is whining up a storm.

Busy Day

I just put O back in bed for the SIXTH time since he went to bed at 9:15 tonight. It's now 10:15. Ugh. This kid won't sleep.

I am exhausted - and O might decide to jump out of bed at any moment now - so this post won't be as long as I initially planned.

We drove up to Jilleyn's house this morning in terrible traffic. It took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to drive about 25 miles. That trip usually takes about 45 minutes. Despite the traffic, we had a great day. Jilleyn and Shayna have a new kitten, Clementine (or Tiny, as Shayna likes to call her). I didn't get any good pictures b/c the kitten was a blur most of the time - and was usually surrounded by two three-year-olds. She's super cute, though - take my word for it. Jilleyn also has three other kitties.

Winston


Kasha (who reminds me ALOT of Jimmy)


And big, cuddly Patrick


We made cupcakes and let the kiddos decorate them


Popcorn break


Pizza Lunch at King Pizza in Oradell


We had a great time and Jilleyn's house is beautiful. Oh, and it's a good thing we didn't go into the city today: "Steam Blast Jolts Midtown: Killing One" Yikes.

I had all sorts of interesting things to say about driving around NJ today, but I am wiped out and I think I hear O up again. More tomorrow (we are going to visit Maggie at her soccer camp and then probably go to lunch with Patty and the kids). Before I sign off for the night, I thought some of you might like to see the house I lived in for several years in Summit. I had the entire third floor to myself when I was 12/13. It's been well taken care of. I miss that house, although I can't say I miss Jersey much - especially after all that traffic today.

NYC Delayed

It's raining here today, so our plans to go into NYC will have to wait. O and I are headed up to Jilleyn's this morning to play with Shayna and see their new kitten, Clementine. We'll probably head over to Sean and Patty's this afternoon.

Good luck today, Matt!!

Sort of a down day

Well, you never have a down day with a three-year-old, but we didn't do much at all today (not my idea, BTW). I didn't even take any pictures. I was up with O at 5:14 a.m. We went for a long walk with Grandma Joanie at about 9:30 (yes, O and I were up for four-and-a-half-hours before the walk). Then nothing...seriously. We were supposed to go to Bowcraft (amusement park for 2 - 12 year olds), but for some reason that didn't happen. Oh, well.

O and I did go to Sean and Patty's for dinner (thanks for the rescue, you two ;-)) and O was thrilled to play with his cousins.

The best part of the day, though, came after Sean dropped us off back home. O has never seen lightning bugs before. Jersey is thick with them this time of year. Imagine a three-year-old running around the yard at dusk, squealing with delight at the "Light-en-ing bugs! Boom! Boom! Catch it!! See dis one?!! Boom! Boom!" I wish I'd been able to film that. It was freakin' adorable.

Why don't we have lightening bugs/fireflies in SoDak? My Google results claim they exist in SoDak, but I have yet to see a single one.

Since I didn't take any photos today, here are a few from the other day when O helped Grandma Joanie water the "fowlers"

Juice and Pizza

Some of you may know that O does not get juice very often. It's quite a treat. Sean has a fridge in his garage that's loaded with juice. O has discovered this and takes advantage of it whenever possible. Apparently, juice is serious business with three-year-olds.

I couldn't even get them to look at the camera (which is unusual).


I don't think the straws left their mouths until the juice boxes were drained.


Maggie started soccer camp today. She kicked some serious butt, I heard (and was just one of two girls in the week-long camp) - and her shorts are totally adorable :)


I took O for real NJ pizza tonight. I plan to eat as much of that stuff as possible before heading back to SoDak. We went to Rosa Sal's in New Providence, but were disappointed to discover the place was now called The Village or something to that effect. It was still pretty good, though. O dug it:





My dad said he looks like Scott Baio (Chachi) - weird, considering yesterday's post and that he's never read this blog...).

Car Wash Hands

I almost forgot - Owen performed his patented car Wash Hands dance for us this afternoon. I just wish you could hear the really bad hip hop playing in the background. Someone was promoting that new Scott Baio show (yes, seriously, he has a TV show - something about him being 45 and single?). Ech.

Down the shore

We spent the day at Point Pleasant. I am so tired, but we had a great time. First of all, you have to understand that I had 2 hours of sleep last night. I went to bed at 11 p.m. and O woke up crying at 1 a.m. I went into his room and had to coax him back into bed (he wanted to "go downdairs!" Um, hello kid, it's freakin' 1 a.m.!) so I ended up sleeping in his bed, and by sleeping, I mean laying in bed listening to him snore all night. We all got up at 6:30 a.m. to get ready for our beach trip.

Regardless of my sleep deprivation, we all had a blast. We were on the road at 7:35 a.m. and we were ordering DELICIOUS NJ diner breakfast in Point Pleasant by about 8:30 a.m. If you've never experienced the diners of NJ, you are so missing out. Perkins is a pile of puke compared to an even mediocre NJ diner (sorry all you Perkins fans back home, but it's true). O and I split 3 eggs with cheese, 3 strips of bacon, 2 sausage links (and this was REAL sausage), hash browns, two amazing pancakes and toast. I was so hungry I probably could have eaten two of these meals by myself, but then I would have had to sleep face down on the sand like a beached whale once we spread out our towels.

We made sand castles and walked the beach looking for sea shells, but O's favorite part of the trip was standing at the edge of the surf waiting for the "big ones!!" to roll in. See below:



We arrived home around 2:45 p.m. and had to be ready by about 4 p.m. to head down to Sean and Patty's for dinner (Sean is a trained chef, btw, and food at his place is always YUMMY). We ate and ate and ate - Ceasar salad, meatballs in home made sauce, pork parmagian, bread, shrimp - I was stuffed and everything was delicious. The cousins had a blast playing together in the backyard and now O is in bed and I'm heading there soon...

I thought a slideshow with all the pics of the day might be better than a few on the blog. Enjoy!

Sunday 7/15 Slideshow

Movie Goodness :)

O helping grandpa inflate the pool



O and Maggie chillin' in the Dora pool

Whirlwind

Wow, today was busy. Well, it's been busy since we got here, but today was 4 kids under the age of four, a farmer's market, Dora swimming pool, grilling, 4 kids under the age of four...you get the idea. This post is more like a recap, so it won't be too interesting - but the photos are fun :)

O was very excited to help grandpa Craig inflate the Dora pool



Last summer, O and Maggie had a blast in the Dora pool. This year was no different. I'll post a movie soon.



My longtime friend, Jilleyn, and her husband, Jeff, and daughter, Shayna, came over for the afternoon. Shayna is just gorgeous - and has quite a stylish haircut, I might add.



We took several Fla-Vor-Ice (or "freezies" as O calls them) breaks



A good and sugary time was had by all



And I was happy to see Jilleyn again



Tomorrow we head "down the shore" sometime between 7 and 7:30 a.m. We'll have breakfast down there at about 8:30 and be on the beach by 9:30. We're going to Point Pleasant - there's a really fun boardwalk with kiddie rides plus the ocean. O is excited to build a sandcastle with grandpa :)

Watch out, Tee Todd...

There's a new tiger in town and I'm a bit worried for Tee Todd. Tee Todd will get to play a new role, however, if O decides the "big one tiger" is alpha kitty. "Tee Todd is baby tiger that hatched out of the egg."



Poor Tee Todd ain't gettin' no love this nap time


O did decide to make Tee Todd the baby tiger right after I took that photo, though, so there's still hope. I wonder if O realizes the tiger stays here in NJ when we head back to SoDak? I won't spoil his fun just yet :)

Please send LONG nap vibes this way. We've been up since 6:45 (5:45 CDT) and O went to bed last night at 11 p.m. We went to visit Sean, Maggie and Matthew this morning and the poor kid was just a mess - he was so tired. Matthew, who is not quite two by the way, just had to look at O the wrong way and the tears started. Poor kiddo.

We are here!

Well, that was a 9-hour travel day. O did really well. The flight from SF to Chicago was great. We arrived 37 minutes EARLY. Of course, we traveled through Chicago, so the delays began there.

We arrived so early, the gate wasn't available and we had to drive around the airport - all the way around - slowly. O thought that was pretty cool, though.

Had to walk from terminal B to C through the retro 80s club tunnel. O was entertained.

Rode the elevator with a pilot who has a son with the same name as O (he will turn three in September). The pilot gave O a cool card with a picture of a 767.

Paid $12.66 for an individual pizza and bottle of water at Wolfgang Puck's and stood behind the crankiest NJ family I've ever encountered. It would have been comical if they weren't being so mean to each other and the employees at the restaurant. This family ended up on our flight to Newark.

Left 1:45 late but because of wicked tail winds we were just 35 minutes late!

Here are a few photos from today. More tomorrow. I sleepy...

On the plane from SF to Chicago


Looking out the window at O'Hare


O loves to use the camera ("Owen do it!!"). I thought this one was pretty good


But this one is my favorite

Welcome back

Okay, with a little support from an old friend, I am going to start blogging again...this is probably the fifth or sixth time I've started this blog, only to delete the posts because I just assumed they sucked. Maybe they do, but it's summer and I have a bit of time on my hands, so here goes...


O and I leave tomorrow for the wilds of New Jersey to visit family for about 10 days. I am really looking forward to the trip - I get back there once a year at most these days - and O will visit NYC for the first time! I'm thinking we'll go to the American Museum of Natural History with my longtime pal, Jilleyn, and her totally adorable daughter. They have an exhibit called "Mythic Creatures" that seems taylor-made for little ones (mermaids, unicorns, dragons - cool!). We will also "go down the shore" - as is said in Jersey (it's still hard for me to say shore since I grew up by the beach until moving to NJ) - most likely Point Pleasant (the boardwalk was a big hit last summer). I also plan to eat lots of food while in NJ - pizza, bagels, Italian, sushi, Indian...you get the idea.

Okay, now that I've got this blog going again, it's late and I'm sleepy. I plan to update this blog daily, if possible, while in NJ so those of you who are interested can follow along during the vacation. Hope you enjoy! Oh, and please send good vibes for the weather so we don't get stuck in Chicago. And wish me luck - I'm traveling with a three-year-old...