Abby's New York Trip

Guest Blogger: Abby
This is a guest post by Abby about her trip to New York City with Poppa (Greg's Dad)

This is me on the ferry going to the Statue of Liberty.  There was a concession stand and we got a pretzel and a Coke.

Me and Poppa got on the island and we saw that chains are at Liberty's feet.  It was like a gazillion feet tall.  

We went to see the Blue Man Group.  This guy stuffed 22 marshmallows in his mouth. They painted a guy from the audience and they had a dinner with a girl from the audience.  The Blue Man Group wanted the girl to light a candle so she did and one of the guys blew a fire extinguisher all over her.  They also threw me a marshmallow and I caught it! (but not quite in my mouth:)

Can you guess what building this is?
*Answer at the bottom of this post

We got to Times Square at night but it looked like it was daytime!
We went to the Olive Garden and had to wait like 2 hours because of all the people.
We got to get on a billboard, there was a camera that was videotaping the people in the middle of the street.  Everyone wanted to get on camera so they could see themselves.  We got on the billboard and it was cool. 

This is us about to board the plane before security. 

This is me in front of the Empire State Building.  

This is me at FAO Schwartz the home of the giant piano and the most EXPENSIVE Lego sets in the world.
We saw one Star Wars set for $2,000!

This is me climbing down some rocks in Central Park.  It was fun.
P.S.  Don't slip.

Me climbing on the most dangerous parts of the rocks....EVER, almost.  

Me and Poppa in front of a cool bridge.  This is the exact spot where my Mom and Dad took their picture on their 5th anniversary.  

We saw a guy on the street by the Museum of Art painting with sand with just with his hands.
It was really cool and colorful.
He did the whole entire street all around the museum

This is the M&M store.  We got M&M's for Mom, Reese and me.
Whenever you walk into this store the air tastes like chocolate!
This place had everything you could ever imagine that has to do with M&M's!
There was a chest set in a bullet proof case to protect it for $150!  Wow! 

This is the outside of the store

This is Times Square with me and Poppa and we were standing in the middle of the street around 7pm.
We went there at 7pm and then came back again around 9pm and then Poppa let me watch TV all night at the Hotel!
(Poppa don't be mad at me for telling:)  

This is where I am being saved my Superman from a bus!  There was also a 10 foot tall Lego Empire State Building!

Ferris Wheel that Poppa wouldn't let me ride...so mean:)  

*Answer to question above:  Empire State Building

He can braid?

Look who how has been holding out on me all these years? Greg can braid hair better than me!:)
Abby got out of the shower last night and asked him to braid her hair because she likes how it holds the whole night and looks wavy in the morning.  Who knew?  I think Greg has alot of hidden talents he likes to reveal slowly;)

All that remains...

                                                               Reese's poor blanket.

So after almost 8 years of carrying around receiving blankets they have all finally fallen apart.  So here's the story...mainly for me so one day I won't forget how this all went down.

Before Reese was born I went to a consignment sale and found 4 Gap receiving blankets and I bought them because I knew they would be perfect for swaddling.  We used them for that for the first 4-5 months but then over time he grew VERY attached to the tags on the blanket.  They were fairly big tags, silky to the touch, and said Gap across them, nothing special.

 So I thought.

He (over the past 7+ years) has worn out all 4 blankets (they are really more like tea towels) down to shreds as you see pictured above. I remember I would rotate the blankets and as I saw one start to get worn out a bit I would switch it out knowing he wouldn't notice and hoping to make them last as long as possible.  I just couldn't seem to find another blanket that had that same tag...it was maddening! He only liked THOSE tags!  Weird.
We have probably had Granny, Papa, and Maw Maw sew the tags back on the blankets a couple dozen times.  At one point all the tags had fallen off and he would just carry the tags around in his pocket at school and  hold onto them at night, just in case he needed some comfort (sweet, but a little disturbing now that I think about it;)
*imagine with me:  trying to find a tiny tag in the middle of the night that he had lost in the midst of about 25+ stuffed animals, 2 Rangers blankets and about 4 pillow pets...it was always super fun;)
 p.s. they always seemed to be stuffed in his pillow but in the middle of the night I never seemed to remember to look there first and then when I would finally find it he would say, "oh yeah that's always where you find it!"  Not so funny in the middle of the night:)

Then one day he was taking a bath and said, "Mom, when I get to Heaven I hope there is a bathtub of tags waiting for me!"  Ha!  That's when I knew he had a problem:)

I remember numerous times looking on-line for more of those silly receiving blankets and I even called Gap and they told me that they didn't make those blankets anymore. (isn't that how it always goes?)
I always thought it would be hilarious to stuff his stocking full of them!

Well the end of the story is sad.

No more blankets.

They are all gone.

 The last one died a week ago when our dog Lucy was found (numerous times) dragging it around the house.  The tags have long disappeared and you can still find me from time to time looking through his drawers hoping to find one.

 I really hope I find one one day.

That would make my day...and his.
There's a special place in Heaven for those tags, I'm sure of it.

A Summer of Rock Climbing!

This summer we decided to get a family season pass to the local rock climbing gym and we are loving it! It is so blazing hot here in the summer we needed an inside activity and we thought this would be great exercise for all of us!  

The kids are able to do it all on their own if Greg and I are climbing because they have these "self" belayers (which I had never seen before--it's kinda like a pulley system that lowers you slowly back down the wall after you climb) and they can clip in and go up the wall by themselves....very cool!

We have already been there 3 times this week!  I have a feeling we will be pro climbers by the summers end don't you?:)

me 

Abby loves trying to climb this ladder...it's crazy hard!

check out those calves!:)

Greg again

I think Abby might be a professional climber when she gets older:)

Reese is a monkey

New York City!

Abby left yesterday morning for New York City with Poppa (Greg's Dad).  Stay tuned for a guest blogger (Abby) to post about their adventures soon!  She brought her camera and was very excited to get to blog about the trip herself:)

Lame Parents

So the other day we went to Garden Ridge to look for a coffee table for our new sitting room.  We had been shopping for about 15 minutes when Reese said, "Mom did you see that you and Dad are wearing the same shirt?"  Greg and I looked and started laughing.  How did we not notice it before?  Lame.
I was ready to get out of the store...shopping trip over;)

Reading Room

...or should we call it the Parlor?:)

We have re-purposed our dining room into a reading/sitting room (since we NEVER used the dining room) and we are loving it.  

It is only half finished but we are using it and that's a plus! 

During the day I am trying to get the kids to read more so this picture is of us enjoying a little reading time together.  

Silly Jester

Here is the Silly Jester song that the kids did at cousins camp that Debbie was talking about in the last post.  This video cracks me up.  Best one yet Jerry....best one yet!!:)