What We've Been Up To...

Last weekend we went up to the northeast corner of our state to visit my parents. I had last Friday off school and we pulled C out an hour early so that we could hit the road. First on our agenda, going to Aunt C's last Anchor Splash as a Delta Gamma. She graduates college in December.

 Saturday we felt up to hike at the beautiful waterfall near my parents' house. B wasn't quite feeling up to a smile.

 I am pretty sure both of my kids would've been up for tossing stones in the creek all afternoon.

 Three generations of beautiful felt up to taking a picture.

 After our hike, we made our annual trip to the farm stand and corn maze in the valley. B felt up to attempting to plank on a pumpkin.

 And later he felt up to showing off his big boy style.

 The rest of our time was spent enjoying a fire in my parents' fire place (oh how I wish our fireplace were operable again-- I'm sure it can be done, but it'll probably cost an arm and a leg), introducing One Ordinary Dad and my parents to the awesome-ness that is The Hunger Games movie, and relaxing. I'm about halfway through J.K. Rowling's newest (it's good, but it's definitely not Harry Potter, which it shouldn't be). Our drive home Sunday was uneventful.

Yesterday, we were up to an outing at a local farm with C's preschool class. It was a little cold and drizzly, but we enjoyed the hayride, decorations, and animals all the same. C's best buddy from school was there too. According to their teacher, they're like brother and sister-- they get on one another's nerves sometimes, but won't let anyone else mess with the other either. We spent the rest of the day in our jammies/sweats doing a whole lot of nothing.

 Lately, we've also been up to figuring out Halloween costumes. C has been insistent on being an Aye-Aye. Yeah, I had no clue what it was either. Luckily, when she saw the Super Mario costume at Target, she decided it would work, but not after first making sure that Target did not, in fact, have an Aye-Aye costume. C plays Super Mario 64 every time we're at my parents' house. That Nintendo 64 was the hit of Christmas my freshman year of high school.

 C was excited to wear her costume to HallZooWeen today. B made one adorable Dalmatian. 

I'm not sure what all we'll be up to this week, but I have started Christmas shopping, so I might be up for some more of that. What about you-- what have you been up to? What will you be up to this week?

~One Ordinary Mom

Empire State

One of the advantages to our current situation (me, teaching, with summers off, and One Ordinary Dad free-lancing and picking up worship-leading jobs when he can), means we can pretty much pick up and take off whenever we want to. We don't have to get vacation time approved. We don't have to pick and choose between what reunions, celebrations, and trips we want to take. We can just, well, go to all of them (if we want). This summer we traveled to Disney World, traveled to my hometown for the 4th of July, hung out in Hazard, Kentucky for a family reunion, and most recently, we traveled to Long Island for the wedding of a friend.

We loaded up the Big Blue Compromise-- our minivan-- on Friday and headed to my parents' house. C and B stayed with them, while One Ordinary Dad and I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to drive to Long Island. We made a slight detour in Pittsburgh so I could soak in all of the cuteness that is one of my best friend's five-week-old daughter. After that, it was New York or bust.

A wrong turn out of the Lincoln Tunnel meant a detour through Manhattan. Gee darn, we had to enjoy this view:

We finally made it, only slightly late, checked into our hotel, and headed to the rehearsal dinner. One Ordinary Dad has known J since high school, so it was fun for him to see another high school friend and to catch up with the parents of his friends as well. It was nice to go to bed that night without the sound of C's and B's snoring coming through the monitor.

The wedding was an all-day affair on Sunday. Mimosas and coffee before the ceremony, an outdoor ceremony (with Beatles music played on strings), a cocktail hour following the ceremony, and then a feast of a dinner. We stuffed ourselves silly, danced some of it off, and goofed off in the photo booth.

While it would have been cool to have stayed another night or two and to have spent some time in the city, my parents both had to work on Monday, so we needed to get back. We had left our van with the kids' carseats with my parents and had my dad's convertible for the trip. As we left, we put the top down and enjoyed the views.

The approach to the Throgs Neck Bridge gave us great views of the water...

...and the bridge itself was pretty cool too.

We had to put the top up before we even got out of New York though as a thunderstorm was approaching. Other than the rain, we didn't have any other delays on the way home and pulled into my parents' driveway at midnight.

One Ordinary Dad headed back to our house with my dad so that he could do some touch-up housepainting that's been on our to-do list for awhile now. I stayed here with the kids. We've had fun biking downtown, taking walks to the park, and just being lazy. The daily grind of the school year will be starting soon. Tomorrow we head southwest and back to our home and Daddy. J and her husband said we're welcome to come back and visit and stay with them anytime. One Ordinary Dad and I are thinking it might be fun to leave B with my parents one weekend and take Miss C into the city for a couple of days. She'd love it!

~One Ordinary Mom