What’s going on here…

Here’s just a quick update on what’s going on with us:

-  Eric and I went to Vegas for a whole week for ASCA’s World Clinic (for swimming coaches).  It was a lot of fun and we learned a ton.  We got to talk to Olympian Tyler McGill, see Phelps’s coach and listen to great speakers.  I took a Build a Pool class because we are really hoping to have our own facility sometime in the near future.  Hopefully I will have more news on that in the next few months to year.  A week was a long time in Vegas but we were lucky enough to have my parents take the boys Monday-Friday and then Eric’s mom took them Friday evening-Sunday night.  We walked the entire strip, went to the top of  the Eiffel Tower, saw an illusion show and played craps.  We did not come home big winners.

-  Our dogs developed not only pink eye but some gastrointestinal problems after being at dog place for a week.  It was not fun, not to mention an extra expense that we were not expecting to pay.

-  Kenny and Luke are both doing great at school.  Luke’s mid-term report card looked like this…

-  The boys fall sports are in full swing.  Kenny’s soccer actually started at the beginning of August and his football and Luke’s soccer didn’t start until mid-September.  It was nice to have it broken up a little.  Sporting KC used Kenny’s soccer team in a coaches’ clinic and it’s on You Tube.

-  My work is starting to pick up right now after a nice month lull in August.  Back in June, the owner of our team and I flew to Colorado to look at an infant aquatics program for babies as young as 6 months.  Non-walking babies learn how to float on their back if they were ever to fall into water and the walkers learn how to float and then swim to the side of the pool (or wherever they are).  Most people have seen the video of this.  It shows the baby in pajamas or clothes falling into a backyard pool and then floating safely.  I remember seeing it the first time and thinking someone should pick up the baby.  When we went to Colorado, we honestly sat there all day just watching baby after baby and it was AMAZING.  So amazing, the team has invested a ton of money to send one of our head coaches out there for 6 weeks to get trained.  I would like to get trained some day but I just can’t be gone for 6 weeks at this point in our life; not with the boys being so young and Eric’s schedule.

-  My SIL is getting married in less than 2 weeks!  It still feels like it should be a few months away.

-  Eric and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on September 20th (but actually celebrated in Vegas).

I think that covers all the big things.  Now, off to do more work…

On the pontoon

We weren’t able to make it down to the Ozarks this summer, so we spent the day at Smithville Lake yesterday.  I couldn’t find anywhere in KC that rented out speed boats so we had to get a big pontoon.  And yes, this song kept going through my head:

We only lost 2 1 fishing rod (one was found wrapped around the anchor) and a pair of sunglasses, which wasn’t too bad.

Spring Break 2012

Our Spring Break consisted of:

• Sleeping in really late almost every day
• Playing outside a ton (the weather was BEAUTIFUL)
• Going to see The Lorax
• Taking a day trip to the Omaha Zoo
• Going to Union Station to see a movie about the Titanic and the Titanic Exhibition
• Having my car towed on the way home from Union Station and paying almost $1000 on repairs
• Playing baseball at the park with friends

Besides the car repair stuff, we had a nice and relaxing long Spring Break.

Day trip to Omaha

We took a quick trip to Omaha on Friday to go to the zoo.  I WISH we would have had tournament tickets because the Jayhawks were playing there that night.  The zoo was fun – their indoor stuff is so much better than KC’s (but KC’s outdoor stuff is better than theirs).  Luke was kind of funny because he’s not normally afraid of things.  We  saw the desert dome as we were driving up and he automatically said that he was afraid to go in it.  He went in it later without any problems but it was a funny little start to our day.  We ended up driving longer than we were in the actual zoo but it was a fun day and nice to get away.

Groupon vacation

We took our first Groupon vacation a few weeks ago.  It was for a two night stay at the Lodge of Four Seasons down in the Ozarks and included free golfing (which we didn’t use), two free drinks and 4 free breakfasts.  The rooms at the hotel were okay (nothing special) but the rest of the hotel was great.  We rented a jet ski and boat from the marina there and used all the pools.  We would go back in a heartbeat. 

Day 1:

- drove 3 hours from KC to the Ozarks

- explored the hotel

- rented a jet ski

- swam in pool #1

- swam in pool #2

Day 2:

- breakfast in the hotel

- moved our 10:00 boat rental to 10:30 due to the storm that was moving out of the area

- 4 hours of tubing and riding in the boat

- swam in pool #3

Now get ready for a ton of pictures:

Omaha day 2

A bunch of people at Eric’s work had already been to Omaha and recommended staying at one of the Holiday Inns.  We looked on-line and there was this great deal for the specific one they mentioned that included your room, 4 passes to the zoo and 4 passes to CoCo Keys (which was attached to the hotel) for under $200.  We were sold.  We used the zoo passes the first day of our trip and then spent the second day at CoCo Keys.  I work in aquatics in KC so we’re used to fun water stuff, but this place was great.  It’s amazing how much they could fit into the space.  We’ll have to try the KC one some time in the future.   

I have to add this video because I think Luke is going to be even more of a fish than Kenny is (and that’s saying a lot).  

I had to tell the lifeguards a few times that Luke was okay and wasn’t drowning.  He just looks like he is when he’s doing his front crawl.  I’ll get a video of that the next time we go up to the PV pool so you can see what I mean.

O-maha day 1

We took the kids on a quick, two-day trip to Omaha.  Day #1 consisted of the drive up there, checking in to our hotel, melting at the zoo and swimming at the hotel pool.  The zoo was fabulous, heat and all.  We had heard that you needed two days to get through it all but we did it in one.  We did skip the tram, train, Dairy World, the Garden of the Senses and just about every bird and snake there.  And, we’re not dawdlers so I’m sure that took a chunk of time off our day.  The jungle, aquarium and Skyfari were our favorite things there by far. 

Note to zoo:  Having real spiders dangling overhead in the Butterfly and Insect Pavilion is not cool.  Not cool at all.

NY – day 2

I have to start out by saying thank you to Mike for doing all the touristy stuff with us because we really did a lot of it.

Day 2 began with a much needed trip to Starbucks before we headed over to the bus tours.  On the way over, Mike needed to stop at his bank to get some cash.  My mom and I were waiting for him at the corner next to the Radio City Music Hall when Mike called to say that if we walked towards the bank we would see the Dalai Lama.  That’s him in the red. 

The Dalai Lama waved to the crowd and quickly went inside the RCMH, where he has a speaking engagement, and we went on find a tour around the city.  We climbed on our bus, saw some NY sights,

(please ignore the other people taking their picture)

and hopped on and off when we felt like it.  We went to Union Square, where there was this great outdoor market going on with food, flowers and art.  That’s where I found the Super-Man and Batman pictures for the boys’ room.  We ate lunch in Greenwich Village out on a patio and made our way over to Canal Street to try to find some fake purses.  Mike said the sellers usually just sell their stuff out of suitcases on the side streets but the cops must have been cracking down on them because we had a hard time finding them.  We finally found some guys selling them out of trash bags and cars, but none that we loved so we moved on.  We caught the bus again (after a lot of walking – just because they say that a bus will pick up at a certain spot, doesn’t mean that it necessarily will) and made our way back to the start of our tour.  We had a little time to kill so we made a quick stop in Central Park and walked around a little bit. 

Then, it was time to go back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and a musical.  I can’t remember the name of the restaurant where we ate but it was a really good Italian place.  Plus, it took credit/debit cards.  I think it’s weird that you have to pay cash at so many restaurants in New York.  Anyways, after dinner we tried to walk to where Next to Normal was playing but my new shoes gave me huge blisters that popped while we were walking.  I made them hail a cab that drove us literally around the block.  But it was worth it and we got to the musical with minutes to spare.  I was really surprised at how small the theater was, especially when my mom paid so much more for our seats.  We seriously could have gotten the cheapest seats in there and we still would have had good seats.  Live and learn, huh?  Also, we bought our tickets ahead of time but you can buy tickets the morning of and get them pretty cheap.  You obviously have to be flexible in which shows you are willing to see but as long as you have a few in mind, you should be fine.  I think they say to be in line around 9 in the morning to get afternoon tickets and maybe 1 or 2 p.m. to get night ones.  Next to Normal was really good – it won a Pulitzer and three Tonys.  I won’t spoil it for anyone but it’s about a family where the mom is a little nuts.  There’s a big surprise in the story and you find out why she is like that and how the family deals with everything.  I was completely bawling at one point and I’m not a big crier.  The play was over around 10 or 10:30 so we took a taxi back to the hotel and went to bed. 

If you ever go to NY and need a good hotel to stay at, ours was great.  The Hilton was right down the street from Central Park, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, MoMA and theatres.  I highly recommend it. 

Next up….day 3.

New York – day 1

My parents gave me tickets to New York for my birthday so I could go see my youngest brother Mike.  My mom and I flew out and spent the weekend with Mike a few weeks ago and had a blast.  I left my nice camera at home so Eric could take pictures of stuff that Kenny had going on so the picture quality on here isn’t going to be the best. 

Day 1 started with a 6:55 a.m. flight.  While getting up so early sucks, it was worth it to get in to NY around 10.  We then had this crazy taxi driver who got us from La Guardia to Mike’s work within 20 minutes.  We left our suitcases there and had an hour to kill before we were meeting his boss for lunch. 

We walked down to the Flatiron Building.  There was an artist who made somewhere around 15 bronze statues of men  and then placed the majority of them on top of buildings.  Mike said when they first went up, people thought they were jumpers and called the police.  Look at one of the buildings to the right of the gold domed one and you can see what I’m talking about. 

So we saw Flatiron, walked through this cute little park and then headed back to eat.  Lunch was fun and Mike’s boss Andrew was really nice.  We all went back to the office after that and met the rest of his co-workers at NYU (he’s with the division that deals with the different hospitals).  You can tell that Mike really likes his job and is happy with where he’s at.  

After that, we checked in to our hotel and cleaned up a little bit before going to see the Statue of Liberty.  I guess if you want to actually go to the top of it, you have to buy tickets months in advance.  Mike said that we could take the (free) ferry to Staten Island (and back) and have a great view of it.  He was right (and the view of NY was great too).

When we got back to NY, we walked around the Battery Park area, the Financial District area and even saw where the 9/11 memorial is going up.  The last time I was in NY, the last of the rubble was being taken out.  The memorial is still a work in process but it looks like it is going to be really nice when it’s done. 

After that, Mike took us to see the building that they used for Friends and Carrie’s apartment from Sex and the City.  We had dinner at Benny’s Burritos and then went back to the hotel to crash.  I seriously think I was asleep by 9.

Up next….Day 2 and 3.

My little Van Gogh

My mom and I got back from New York late last night, which meant I spent the day doing a lot of laundry and cleaning.  I’ll get those pictures up soon but until then I wanted to share these pictures that Kenny did.  I bought these pictures in NY to go in the boys’ rooms. 

And here are Kenny’s versions:

I thought those were pretty good. 

Now, I’m off to do more clothes and charge my camera and video camera.  Kenny has his end of the year program tomorrow morning.  Then, Wednesday is his last day.  I still can’t believe that the end of the year is already here.

The craziness is over

I am so glad that last week is over.  I know it’s a busy time of year for everyone but it was getting a little bit ridiculous for me. 

1.  Teacher Appreciation Week -  I’m one of the room moms in Kenny’s class so we had to plan a week of surprises for Mrs. B.  She’s moving to NYC this summer so we didn’t want to get her more stuff but still wanted it to be nice for her.  Our week looked like this:

Monday – flowers from all the kids

Tuesday – breakfast muffins and a gift card to Starbucks

Wednesday – letters from the kids

Thursday – letters from the parents and candy

Friday – gift certificate to Barnes and Noble

I think it went pretty well.

2.  Cinco de Mayo – Kenny’s class had a party of Wednesday.  We were in charge of bringing guacamole and a pinata and helping out at the party.  The actual party was GREAT.  I took a ton of pictures.

3.  Pictures – I took all those pictures and the other 1,293, 238 from the year and started a password protected sharing site for our class on Shutterfly.  I like Shutterfly but it takes so much longer to download pictures on there than it does on Snapfish.  Or at least that’s how it is on my computer.  

4.  Carnival – Kenny’s school has the best carnival.  The guy who is in charge of it really does a good job.  There were real rides, inflatables, normal carnival games (silent auction, cake walk, games where you throw things, etc) and a community concert with a local band at the end of the night. 

You can only see the top of Luke’s head in the above picture but he had the biggest smile on his face the entire time.  Kenny went from smiling to looking like he was going to throw up to smiling again.  We were laughing pretty hard.

5.  Carnival – our class was in charge of security, which ended up being the best job.  We basically just had to watch a back gate to make sure that people didn’t try to park in the back parking lot and wander the halls.  I hope we get it again next year.  The only bad thing was that we were one of few classes that had to do something from 5:15-10 (the majority only had to work the games from 5:30-8:30).  Since we only have 10 families in our class, we were worried that it would be hard to fill all the timeslots but the majority of the parents stepped up and really helped.  I really like our class.  It does seem like the same parents help out all the time but we’re lucky that it’s the majority of the parents who do so. 

6.  Bible School – Wednesday was Kenny’s last day of bible school.  Both he and Luke will go in the fall (can we say free time for me). 

7.  Sports – T-ball started so for 2 weeks we’ll have soccer and t-ball going on simultaneously.  Kenny has been doing so good at soccer.  He scored a few goals and has been getting pretty aggressive during the games – not hurting other players aggresive but getting in there aggressive.  Soccer is definitely one of his sports.

8.  Mother’s Day – I had a great one this year.  Eric had to work in the morning so the boys and I went to church with my parents and then Billy met us all out for lunch at Cheddars.  That night, Eric made fish, green beans and potatos for me and his mom for dinner.  Kenny and Luke gave me some homemade cards and Kenny also had a teacup that he made at school for me – very cute.  Eric gave me tickets to Starlight this summer.  I had told him that I wanted to see Little House on the Prairie so he went out and bought the 3 ticket deal.  We’re going to see LHOTP, Beauty and the Beast (although he’s going to try to switch it out for Dream Girls) and the Producers.  I can’t wait.

9.  May and September are always crazy for me at work because part of my staff leaves and is replaced with new (mainly) teengaers.  I think I’ve sucked out every possible hour from the ones who are leaving me and have everything ready to go for the new ones.  Fun, fun, fun.  I still have more to get through in the next few weeks but nothing too bad. 

I AM SO GLAD THAT MOST OF THAT IS OVER. 

Now, I get to focus on my trip to NYC.  My mom and dad gave me tickets as part of my birthday present so my mom and I are going in less than two weeks to see my brother Mike.  We’re going to go see a Broadway musical (we’re not sure which one yet but we have it narrowed down to three), go to an art museum and shop, among other things.  I ordered 2 dresses from JCrew to wear to the musical and I think I’ve decided on this one.  Since we’re not sure if it will be an afternoon or evening show, I think that one will work the best.

San Diego – day 5 (last one, I promise)

Day 5 didn’t involve much except for:

1.  Me trying to talk Eric into moving out there

2.  Flying home to KC.  This flight did not go as well at first.  I have to start out by explaining that Luke’s feet were touching the back of the seat in front of him because of the way his car seat fit in the actual seat.  So, our plane took off and Luke started to have a little tantrum.  We were barely up in the air (everyone was still supposed to be sitting) when the lady in front of him sat forward and said loudly, “I need a drink.”  She then got up (hello, you’re not supposed to be up yet) to tell us that our child was kicking her seat and she wanted to change seats with Eric (but this wasn’t said in even a remotely nice way).  I’m sure Luke was pushing on her seat but seriously lady, give him more than 2 minutes, he’s only a baby.  Eric was nice and switched with her, which was way nicer than I would have been.  I know this is childish but there was another baby sitting in front of her and every time it cried I may have smiled a little.  Or maybe a lot.

Now for some random trip photos: 

Have you ever seen a dog in shoes?  Me neither.

Ali just loved Kenny.

San Diego – day 4

On Sunday, Steve took us to look at the helicopters, which made Kenny and Luke’s day.  Luke even cried when it was time to go.

After that, we headed out to La Jolla to go to the Birch Aquarium.  The kids had fun but I think we’ll skip it next time.  The one is Chicago was much, much better.

That night, Steve and Suzie watched the boys so Eric and I could go out on a date.  What they didn’t tell us was that they had already made reservations for us at The Prado and even got us a gift certificate for dinner.  Eric and I had a great time.  Thank you guys!

San Diego – day 3

Day 3 was all about Ali’s baptism. 

Eric and I were lucky enough to be her godparents.  I offered to buy Ali a baptismal gown but they already had one from Suzie’s side of the family that had been used since 1914.  So instead, I bought her a charm bracelet.  I put two charms on it, one with her name and birthday and one that was a cross, to symbolize the baptism.  I did this for our other god-daughter, Abby, and really liked it. 

After the baptism, they had a party at their house.  They lucked out because their next door neighbors were having a 25th anniversary party at the same time and hired a mariachi band and a deejay.  We had free music all night, which was great until we wanted to sleep. 

San Diego – day 2

We were up by 7:00 the next morning.  Legoland didn’t open until 10 so we went to the beach.  This was the first time that either boys had seen the ocean.  It was G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S.

The water was a little too cold to swim in so we just played on the beach and walked in the water.  At first, the boys were a little afraid of the waves but that passed quickly.   

I could have spent the entire day on the beach but we promised Kenny that we would go to Legoland so after a while, we headed over there. 

Legoland was fun but expensive.  There were a few rollercoasters but the majority of the rides were for small kids, which was perfect for us.  Eric and Kenny loved Miniland, where replicas of different cities and attractions were built out of Legos.  There was one of the Sydney Opera House that took 6 months for them to build.  Crazy. 

It started to sprinkle late in the afternoon so we decided that it was a good time to call it a day.  We then headed down to Chula Vista (which is just south of San Diego) to see our friends Steve and Suzie and our new god-daughter, Ali.  We grilled, toured their neighborhood (which included watching their dog do an obstacle course on the local playground) and hung out for the remainder of the night. 

It was definitely a busy but fun day.

More to come….

San Diego – day 1

We left for San Diego last Thursday.  We decided to take an afternoon flight so Kenny could go to school in the morning.  This was Kenny’s 2nd flight and Luke’s 1st.  Luke didn’t understand that you don’t just walk onto your plane when you get to the airport and kept asking demanding to go to San Diego for a good hour while we waited for our plane to arrive. 

Do you like Luke’s face?  That’s his “cheese” face. 

The boys were pretty good on the flight out there but it’s hard to be strapped in for three and a half hours.  We were all glad when we landed.  We got into San Diego around 5:00, picked up our rental car and drove north to Carlsbad.  We didn’t get up there until close to 7:00 so we ate dinner at Islands and then went back to our hotel and crashed.  I seriously think we were all asleep by 9:00. 

Day 2 – coming soon.

 

I’m back

We just got back from San Diego.  We were gone for 5 days, which means I have a ton to do.  I’m off to try to catch up on things but I’ll leave you with an idea of what our trip was like…

Do-able and domestic

We’re not going anywhere until September so I love reading about everyone else’s vacations.  Here’s my list of places that I want to go to.  There are a ton of other places on my wish list but these are do-able and domestic:

1.  Minneapolis – they have a new Water Park of America near the Mall of America.  It sounds like The Great Wolf Lodge, where the water park is in a hotel.  We could spend a day or so at the water park and the MOA and then visit my relatives.  Or they could meet us there.

2.  New York – My brother Mike is moving there in 4 days.  I’m trying to talk everyone into going there for the 4th of July 2010 (although, hopefully I’ll make it up there before then).  It might be fun to see what the firework displays are like around the Statue of Liberty. 

3.  The Wisconsin Dells – I haven’t been there since I was a little girl.  Karen just got back from there and if I remember right, Nicole went there last year.  It looks like it has really expanded. 

Is anyone else going anywhere fun this summer?

Carousel

We took the boys over to the mall today to get their picture taken with the Easter Bunny.  It’s always a challenge to get Luke to take a picture with anyone in a costume so I bribed him.  I told him that if he took his picture, he and Kenny could go on the carousel.  Luckily it worked, and with minimal tears shed.  Afterwards, we headed over to the carousel.  Kenny’s favorite thing to ride on is the one that spins.  I think he’s gearing up for the spinning teacups at Disney World.  We’re looking into possibly making the trip down to Orlando next year.  Right now, we’re just researching everything.  If any of you  guys have any tips or suggestions for Disney, I’d love to hear them. 

I’ll try to post the Easter Bunny pictures tomorrow.

HAPPY BDAY TO MY AUNT NANCY TOMORROW!