July's Random Ramblings

ABIGAIL:

• Andrew took a picture of me from behind and Abby came running up to me and snickered, "Daddy just took a picture of your bum, I bet he is going to put it on Facebook."
• At dinner one night I took the last of the fruit and Andrew was a bit jealous, Abby came to my defense and said, "it isn't for Momma, its for the baby in her belly!"
• Since moving to Ohio I have been relying on my GPS quite a bit to get around.  I have had to make quite a few u-turns, backtrack a bit, and at times alter my route completely.  One day in the car, I was following the GPS when Abby warned, "Be careful Mom, you can't ALWAYS rely on the GPS to be right!"
• At the beginning of Vacation Bible School (VBS) Abby kept calling it survival school.

OLIVIA:

• For some reason whenever a word ends in "t", Olivia replaces it with a "k".  Hat = Hak;  What = Whak.  This just recently started and I know she can say it correctly.
• We were out to breakfast one morning and were waiting for our table outside.  A man with a big, round belly, and a long white beard walked by and Olivia immediately started saying, "Ho, ho, ho!!" very loudly. 
• Olivia thinks Abby walks on water and whatever Abby says goes.  She will often ask Abby "waz dat?" and point to something.  Abby will answer her (sometimes she is right, sometimes not) and Olivia just takes it for what she says and replies with "oh" and moves on.
• When Olivia doesn't like something she says "HEY" very loudly.  
• Whenever Olivia sees a baby she asks, "I pet baby?!?"

Road Trip

After 3 fun-filled, busy weeks in Colorado visiting family and friends we finally hit the road to Ohio.  It took us 3 days to drive to Ohio with stops in Salina, KS, and St. Louis, MO.  We probably could have done the drive in 2 days, but it would have been pushing it and we were able to do a little sightseeing in St. Louis.  My Dad was kind enough to make the drive with us so we had 3 drivers for the 2 cars.  It was nice having his help and I got out of doing a lot of the driving which was good because I was still having some pretty nasty morning sickness.  The girls did much better than expected on the drive and were very well behaved.  We all really enjoyed St. Louis and since we are only a little over 5 hours from there we have decided we will have to go back and see more of the city!

The girls and all of our stuff.  Not quite as packed this time as we were from Denver to Tempe.

The girls relaxing on our bed at the hotel in St. Louis.  We stayed in a really cool Marriott right down town.  We were able to walk to the stadium, the arch, and lots of restaurants.  It was the perfect location and the hotel is at Union Station and considered a historic hotel.

Olivia at the fountains with a view of the arch.

Olivia, Abby, myself and my Dad.  The picture taking quickly ended right after this with Olivia almost taking a swim in the fountain.

The girls sharing a special drink while resting and trying to figure out what to do for the rest of the evening.  We tried going over to Busch Stadium to watch a Cardinals game, but the line for tickets was long, it was hot and we were all hungry.  We opted instead to go find a place to eat.  We ended up at an Italian place off of a recommendation from one of the ladies that operates the horse drawn carriages.  The food was very yummy and we were very happy with our choice.

On the way home from dinner we found a splash fountain and the girls couldn't resist getting wet even though they didn't have their bathing suits or towels.  They had so much fun and it was a good release of energy after 2 days in the car!!

Every picture we have of Olivia with the fountains, her mouth is wide open.  She really wanted to drink the water and would get sprayed right in the face!  She thought it was great and had everyone around her laughing!

Abby didn't try to drink the water, but she thought it was hysterical to let it shoot up her shirt!

Playing on the bunny statue on the way home. 

The next day, before we made the last leg of the trip we decided to take a closer look at the arch.  We even took a ride to the top which was pretty cool.

Abby doing some modeling near the arch.

Olivia wanted to join in on the fun!

Daddy and Abby's self-portrait

The girls in the pod on the way up to the top of the arch.  These little elevator type things were very small (they sat 5) and it was about a 3-4 minute ride to the top.  It was kind of cool.  Of course Abby was a bit nervous about the whole thing, but as you can tell here she quickly go over it!!

At the top, looking out over the city.  It made me a little dizzy!!

The view of St. Louis from the top.  That is Busch Stadium to the left.

Andrew and I in the pod on the way back down to earth!

And one final arch as we made our way into Ohio.  Not nearly as impressive as the St. Louis arch but exciting none the less, let our new adventure begin!

Waterton Canyon

My Mom, Ana, and I decided to take the girls to Waterton Canyon one day for a picnic and to play in the river.  We met up with my mom's friend and her family and made a day out of it.  Its about a 2 mile walk to the picnic area, but the scenery is gorgeous the whole way.  The 2 mile walk took a long time because the girls insisted on walking most of the way, so we used the stroller to haul all of our stuff!   When we finally made it to the picnic area, the girls went straight for the water!   They loved splashing in the shallow water, digging in the dirt, and catching tadpoles.  We dragged them out of the water long enough to shovel some food in them and then they were right back to playing.  We finally packed up and headed home, the walk back to the car went by much quicker because both girls were tuckered out and willing to ride most of the way in the stroller!

All the girls walking to the picnic spot.

Playing in the water!

Look Ma....Dirt!!!

Ana, my Mom, Glenda, and her daughter about to take the plunge.  The water was freezing and I thought they were crazy.  You could hear their shrieks for miles :-)

Catching up with Friends

While we were in Colorado we had the chance to catch up with some of my old friends.  It seems like there is never enough time to see everyone I would have liked, but feel lucky we were able to see some of my friends.c

Abby and Ryland.  He is my best friend Josies' son, he is so sweet and just a joy to be around.  Both of the girls LOVED him and we got to spend a lot of time with them now that Josie is a stay at home Momma!

Myself and Josie at the comedy works......look, no kids!!!

Not the greatest picture but this is:

Ryland, Olivia, Abby, Jocelyn, and Garrett

Jocelyn and Garrett are my friend Tinas' kids and they are adorable.

Olivia, Abby Jocelyn and Jasmine.

Jocelyn and Jasmine are cousins.  Jasmine is my really good friend from high school Jennifers' daughter.  Jennifer also had another little girl, Jordan, who was born right before we left for Ohio, I was so bummed I wasn't able to meet her before we left.  But, she is adorable!!

Josie and I again, the night before we left

Father's Day 2010

Ok, back to some posts from our time in Colorado.  I am going to try to get caught up soon!  Anyway, Father's Day was bittersweet yet again this year.  I was able to spend the day with my Dad which was wonderful, but the girls and I certainly missed Andrew since he was still in Arizona.  

My Dad wanted to spend the day with the girls so we decided to head to the Children's Museum after a yummy breakfast at the diner.  The girls had a blast at the museum, they painted, played with bubbles, played in the grocery store, played with the trains, did a puppet show and so much more.  The museum is really great and we love visiting while we are in town.  Abby really wanted to ride the "train" so I dropped Abby and my Dad off at the light rail station and they rode it home.  They actually beat Olivia and I to the station where we picked them up.  After that we made a quick stop for lunch, a shopping trip to Target and then headed to have the girls' pictures taken.  After all that, we met up with the rest of the family for some double-decker pizza in Castle Rock.  It was a really good day and I am glad we were able to share it with my Dad.

Painting at the museum

Puppet Show

Olivia loved that she could put on tap shoes and dance around on the dance floor!

Papi and Abby building a boat out of recycled materials

Playing with the bubble maker.  I think the bubble room was both Abby and Olivia's favorite room.  We visited that room a few times.

Papi making a giant bubble.

The girls in the middle of a giant bubble.

Abby wearing her safety glasses.

Here are the girls after getting their pictures taken.  They got ice cream from Coldstone for being so good during their pictures!

We Have Arrived!

After 3 days of driving, we made it to Ohio on June 29th.  The drive was better than expected and the girls did really well.  My Dad helped us drive so we had 2 cars and 3 drivers.  I can't thank my Dad enough for helping, it would have been tough to do all that driving on our own.  We were able to stop in St. Louis one night and do some sightseeing (more to come on that in a later post).  We really enjoyed the area and we are hoping to make it back there, hopefully when Sam and Brian are there visiting so we can finally meet the twins!  We have already had visitors including my Dad (obviously), Andrew's parents who flew out to help with some of the unpacking, and Andrew's brother who came down from Michigan for a quick visit and he of course offered his unpacking services as well.  We have spent a lot of time unpacking, shopping, and organizing trying to fit our life into yet another house!  We really like the area so far and we are looking forward to doing some more exploring when we are a bit more settled and when it cools off, its been HOT!!!

The sign as we crossed into Ohio

This is our house.  I will post more pictures of the inside when we get things unpacked and organized, right now it looks like a tornado hit just about every room in the house.  It has to get worse before it gets better, right?!?!?

Splash

While we were in Colorado I took the girls and met Josie, Ryland, and her nephew at Splash in Golden. It is a little water park geared mostly toward little kids.  The pool is about 2 feet deep all the way around and the blue slides were perfect for kids Abby's age.  They had a huge dump bucket that we got caught in once and learned our lesson quickly not to be on that side of the pool unless you wanted to get SOAKED!!!  They also had a splash pad area and a sand area.  The kids had a blast and played all morning!

The girls LOVED the sand area

A fun pool in the sand

Time to dry off