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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Story Time and A Field Trip

We survived our first full day without our extended family.  My book club meeting that was scheduled for last night got postponed, but my friend still allowed me to take advantage of her wonderful babysitting services so I could tackle some errands...I only ended up tackling a trip to Target since I ended up browsing the clearance stuff all over the store...it was nice to be able to browse all alone.  Too bad none of the clothes I tried on fit me right.  I did get some diapers and groceries though, which seems to be all shop for these days, oh, and I did score some new shorts from the clearance rack for the boys. We finished up our evening with a short little jog and dinner before calling it a day.  I fell asleep within seconds after crawling into bed.

This morning kicked off with a quick Shaun T cardio workout (I'm trying to make up for my slacking off over the last month) before our usual Tuesday morning routine of scrambling out the door to get to story time at Blue Door.  Today's featured stories were...



 Denise Fleming has some great illustrations and simple stories that the children loved.

After story time, we headed down the road to visit the River Center in Jupiter.  I can't believe this is the first time we've gone.  It was fantastic!  100% toddler friendly and fun...


This little guy was SOOO much fun!  We thought he was a grouper but ended up finding out he was from the piraƱa family but had been hand fed by a previous owner and was therefore super interactive.  We spent lots of time with him.


This is where we spent most of the rest of our time there.  This aquarium was huge and full of fun stuff like this...


...and this...


Cool huh???  The boys were mesmerized!


We also had fun going through the hands-on stuff in the drawers...learning about life cycles and studying specimens.  Usual toddler stuff, right???  


We will definitely be visiting that place again sometime.  We didn't even do the touch tank...more to look forward to next time, right??

On our drive home, we stopped by Sandsprit park.  It was pretty hot on the playground...



Can you guess who's who??  Even harder with the sunglasses, huh??

We ended up taking a walk along the water where the breeze was better and we could look at the boats (and the sad, polluted water...but that's a whole other story)...


These little boogers are so much fun....it must be so cool to be a twin.


Best buds for life!!!

We just fed our growling bellies and now it's nap time/chore time in Plankerville.  Time to tackle a couple tasks I've been avoiding for a while.  I'm gonna continue to avoid the yard for another day or two though...it's not going anywhere.  





























Monday, July 29, 2013

I'm Baaaaack!!!!!!!!!!

I'm baaaack!!!!!!!!!  After taking pretty much the last month off from the ordinary routine of life, we're back to reality today and settling back into our routine.  The last couple weeks included lots of stuff, like...
...the Loggerhead Marine Life Center...


...and beach fun...

 

...and beach fun...



...and the Hobe Sound Nature Center ...



...some fun at the park...


...and our first experience with a vomiting kiddo, poor Mason...


...and Colton's first Fro-Yo (Mason didn't want any...I wish I had his willpower!)...


...and moving Miriam into her new apartment and relaxing with her in her new digs...


...and sleeping HARD there as well...


...topped off with some yummy chocolate milk at the local coffee shop...


We had LOTS of fantastic family time and I'm so glad I took the time to slow down and enjoy it for a change.  It was fantastic!!!  I hope we can make it a yearly habit.  Family is the best!!!!!!!!

Last night felt pretty lonely when we returned to our quiet house after our last hurrah of the month, a trip to move my sister into her new digs just a couple of hours up the road from me.  I'm thrilled to have family in the sunshine state with me, by the way!  So to distract us from our reality, we headed out for a run to the park...


...nothing like fresh air and exercise to brighten my mood.  I think it worked for the boys too!!


This morning kicked off with a coffee, a lovely chat with my love, and a healthy dose of eggs with spinach and avocado and a side of strawberries.  I'm also back on my healthy eating Whole30 kick again, by the way.  It was fun to relax the rules a bit over the last month, but I'm ready to feel good again.  I feel so much better without sugar, dairy and grains in my diet.  Bring on the coconut milk!!

After a few chores, we headed out to the gym for a quick upper body/plyometrics workout and then finished up our morning with a stop at the library for story time.  The boys had fun!!


Mason got into the dancing a bit more than Colton :-)  


Colton liked the bean bag dance though...


Love them!!!  

Nap time is over.  Time to tackle the rest of the day...






Sunday, July 14, 2013

A Fantastic Vacation - Part 3

The vacation fun continues...

Our third day in Chicago took us to Navy Pier to try out the bicycles built for 6.  The boys got a kick out of sitting up front...


They were much harder to steer and drive than we had anticipated...especially amongst Chicago's thousands of pedestrians out in droves on a GORGEOUS day.

We also enjoyed a lunch at the famous Billy Goat Tavern...


...nothing spectacular but now we can say we've been there.  Haha

We also stopped to get a picture by the pirates...


We spent the rest of our time downtown exploring the PHENOMENAL Chicago Children't Museum.  It blows our museum out of the water.  

One exhibit was like a campsite, with a rock-climbing wall and fishing...


There was another room filled with water activities and they even gave the kids rain jackets to put on so they could splash away...


You could build locks and dams for the boats as well as pump water to get different things to happen, like ringing a bell....


Of course the boys enjoyed playing with the "shooters"... 


You could also redirect the water with pipes.  So cool!!  Can you tell it was our favorite exhibit??? 


We also enjoyed the fire safety exhibit...


And the cooking demonstration where we got to make our own parfaits...


Oh yea, we got to dig for dinosaur bones too...


...and drive lots of trucks...


We will definitely be checking it out again next summer when we are back in Chicago for Abigail and Scott's wedding.  This is only a snapshot of our fun...we could have easily spent the entire day there but the boys were sleepy so we called it a day and headed back to the condo to regroup.  We managed to get a stop to Intelligentsia in so I could get my coffee fix from my favorite roasting company, hands down, and stock up on beans...


DIVINE!!

Abigail and I got to take a run on the lakefront.  I wish we had running paths like that.  It was AWESOME to be out and about with SOOOOO many other runners and bikers along the gorgeous  Lake Michigan. After our run, we hit up Trader Joe's for some goodies...


The boys loved the little shopping carts.  Needless to say, they need to work on their cart driving skills. It was definitely an adventure.  
The next morning, we grabbed breakfast, where I had the best cinnamon roll I've ever tasted along with some yummy eggs at Ann Sather's, before saying goodbye to Aaron and Jenny...


We had SO MUCH FUN and can't wait for our next visit.

It was time to head back to my parent's house in Evansville...the longest car ride of our little vacation so far.  Thank goodness for pit stops to get some fresh air and walk around a bit...


The boys sure do love their grandpa!

The next day, we had plans to help Abigail find her wedding dress.  It was a successful outing and thoroughly enjoyed by her entire consulting crew...

Miriam, Leah and Me

My mom and Aunt Peggy

We had lots more cuddle time in Evansville...


...the boys had their first salon haircuts...

Mason

Colton

...and we had a little pampering with some pedicures...


So there you have it...our vacation in a nutshell.  We are so blessed by our wonderful family and had a fantastic time bouncing around and visiting everyone.  We can't wait til our next visit.