Our Cross Country Road Trip

As May came to an end, so did our time in Boston. Jake had received a job offer in the area while in school, but after a lot of thought decided to not accept. Since the LL.M. program is only 9 months long, a lot of the students are placed with their job during the summer, but I'm not gonna lie there was alot of anxiety/fear accompanied with not knowing what we were going to do next. We put our stuff in the storage boxes that can be delivered wherever you need them since we literally had no idea where we would be off to next and decided to head out West and see our family until we had it all figured out. We made quite the road trip out of it since Jake had several meetings/interviews along the way as we drove nearly the entire length of the United States of America (pretty much we would have just needed to drive up to Maine and we'd have covered the whole thing diagonally).

Top Left: Yes that is an actual road sign in the Boston area. And no they aren't kidding. Top Middle: Us with our AMAZING friends the Briggs. They took such good care of us as we moved away. So many great people helping us with our move, taking our kids so we could pack, and even coming over to help us clean our house. The Briggs took us off to a fairwell lunch at a local foodie hot spot called Sophra and sent us off with two Trader Joe's bags heaping to the brim with fun road trip snacks. Lifesavers! (now how come we just couldn't have packed them too!) Top Right: Jake was rather proud of his tetris packing job. Bottom: The route that we drove.

From Boston we drove to Jake's aunt and uncle's house in New Jersey. It was so much fun to get to spend one last time with our East Coast family! Jake's birthday was the next day, and as we were on the computer the next morning figuring out where to book our hotel, we saw that we went basically right by Washington DC. The kids and I hadn't been yet, so we decided we'd hop in the car and get there as fast as we could to make his roadtrip birthday semi special. We got an awesome hotel thanks to our friend Nikki who works for Marriott and were able to walk right over to the Smithsonian and enjoy the air and space museum for a couple of hours. One of Carder's favorite movies at the time was Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, so this was a dream come true for him. We barely finished the Air and Space Museum before they closed, and there was still like 9 more museums that make up the Smithsonian. I guess we will be making a trip back there one of these days (fingers crossed!)

Jake and Carder in front of the Museum

Carder was so excited to be there he asked for my phone so that he could take some pictures of things on his own. When I went through my photo roll later, the little guy impressed me with some of his creative compositions. Like that one on the bottom left that he took through the lense of a microscope.

The kids loved checking out the Boeing exhibit as well as seeing the model of the Wright brothers' first airplane. 

There was one exhibit that took you back to the WWI/WWII era, and talked all about what it took to be a flight stewdaress back in the day. Brenn was hilarious flipping trough all of the little tiles...I couldn't believe some of the criteria like there was a height and weight specification, you had to be "just below Hollywood beauty," a certain age, you couldn't have been married etc. I could not see those standards flying in today's society. It sure made us giggle.

Carder loved seeing all the Amelia Earheart planes and gadgets. Brenn on the other hand liked mainly to just run around and only sat still for this old black and white Mickey Mouse cartoon about aviation that they were showing. Needless to say she and Jake watched that baby a few times :)

Carder and Brenn trying out all the tools...the Wright siblings of the 21st century?

The kids were super happy to just be able to stretch their legs, jump on the bed and run around our hotel room. We got some AMAZING Indian food, it was like subway meets an Indian resturaunt as you got to creat your own Indian salad/sandwhich concoction. Delish! Gotta love yelp!!!

The next morning we woke up to our baby girl turning 2. Nana had given us a gift/card last time we saw her, so we had made sure we packed that, and good thing too since that was the only gift she had going on that day. (Hopefully she won't remember her 2nd birthday being stuck in her car seat basically all day)

We checked out of our hotel and tried to take advantage of the morning as best as we could seeing as much as we could before the kids' naps (which we had to take advantage of for our driving purposes). Our stroller was packed, and seeing that what was in our car is all we had for the summer and that the stroller would have taken up the majority of trunkspace, it didn't make the cut. The hotel had let us borrow an umbrella stroller for the Smithsonian, but once we checked out that wasn't really an option. Carder really wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial. (That giant Lincoln is a big deal in Battle of the Smithsonian). Washington DC is A LOT of walking. It was hot! Seriously the most muggy afternoon of our whole trip, including our ventures down south. The kids were losing it fast, but we did manage to get in a nice little walk by the Patomic River, walk through the Lincoln Memorial which offered a nice view of the Washington Monument (lame it was totally covered in all that scaffoliding!) 

The Lincoln Memorial was beautiful. The only thing that could have made it better was well-behaved children. Oh is that Carder being captured having a freak out on the bottom right? Yes, yes it is. He wouln't look at my picture but was not happy that he might not be in it, hence his back makes an apperance.

The kids were able to hold off from completly losing it as we did some races through the trees alongside the Patomic River.

We drove over the Arlington Memorial Bridge and got to do a quick drive by the White House before we headed out.

The Washington Monument and Brenn getting ready to completly lose it :) Oh the joys of traveling with little ones! We thought that we would be able to get a lot more in than we did, but if you have little people in tow, you gotta have a great stoller going on and really have it mapped out where you are going because it takes a considerable amount of time to get from monument to monument (especailly with those little pint-sized legs).

It would have been nice to have had a little more time in DC, but Jake already had a interview set up in New Orleans, so we were kinda on crunch time. We drove like crazy the rest of the day to get to Chattanooga, TN. And then in was on to New Orleans, LA. The stretches of road these days were awesome. We literally saw a billboard for "Tennesse Moonshine." I was so mad at myself for not getting a picture of that priceless moment! Also it was during this stretch that we drove through the Smokey Mountains, which were breathtaking. There are literally these pockets of cloud or fog that sit atop the trees and literally look like smoke coming out. Then along the river there was this blanket of mist/fog floating just on top, it was beautiful. I tried taking a picture out the window, but it didn't do it justice at all. I kept telling Jake this was like our sampler road trip, to see where we'd want to come back to. So maybe we will have to make a trip back to Tennessee one day because I still need to visit Nashville/Memphis and maybe Dollywood, because lets be honest if me and Miss Parton new each other, I'm pretty sure we'd be best friends :)

Louisiana's topography changed up the drive a lot. We were suddenly in buyoy country. A lot of the roads were built on top of or surrounded by water. We were a little skeptical of how New Orleans would be after seeing all of the Katrina fall-out on the news, etc. and it is still in need of some help, but we stuck to the French Quarter and felt just fine. When we first pulled up in the city it was a little scary. The best description is an old run down Vegas. But once we got into the French Quarter it was more quaint.

Top left: The view out our window. It was superfun to watch all the riverboats. Top Right: We went to the oldest candy store in New Orleans. Botton left: Carder was quite proud that he spotted this sign that said Mimi's name on it, so he had me take a picture of him. Bottom right: Carder wearing his Steak and Shake hat. We loved being in Steak and Shake country in the South. Yummy yummy!

The night we got there we walked around the French Quarter and enjoyed all the street musicians. There was a different musician/band on every corner and my kids loved listening to the music and dancing in the streets. We got to a well known little eatery called Cafe du Monde and got some delicious beignets. You sit at a little table, the menu is on the napkin dispenser on the table and consists of 3 things, orange juice, coffee and beignets. So good! It has been around since the 1800s, so it was fun for our family to get to experience that and some of New Orleans' history as we strolled the streets that evening.

After New Orleans our next stop was Galveston, Texas. My old college roommate (and one of my best friends in the whole wide world) is living down there with her family while her husband is attending medical school. We had such a blast with the Digis! They live right on the gulf and our host/hostess made us feel like we were at a resort pulling out all the stops with a beach/pool day, fine cuisine and teaching me a thing or two on how to tame Brenn's unruly mop top!

Oh it had been too too long since I'd seen miss Whitney...We sure wish the DiGiovonnis were closer! (still crossing our fingers for that to maybe happen as Ryan goes into his residency next year)

The Gulf was awesome. Not the clearest water, but it was like a gigantic bathtub... I could have sat in there forever! The kids loved it, not to mention their cute partners in crime.

After Galveston we went to Austin. Jake's cousin (and childhood best friend) Jeff and his family live there. They have kids around the ages of our kids and we had so much fun that we ended up extending our stay a day (and Jeff was able to get Jake some meetings with some people in town too). Carder and Jackson were like the Lloyd/Nydegger buds second generation and Brenn and Kaycee were either loving each other or driving each other nuts (fortunately we left on the positive of the two). We had a blast playing in their awesome backyard, going to the splash pad, getting snowcones and having our tastebuds tantalized by Torchy's Tacos (seriously Texas, you know how to eat!)

Our next stop was El Paso, Texas. My Nana and Papa and Aunt/Uncle and cousins live there. My Mom's youngest sister Jill and I are only 9 1/2 years apart, so we are actually closer in age than she and my mom are. The Ingles' house is kid heaven. I think my kids would have stayed there forever if we'd have let them. Jill worked her magic and worked with Carder on his swimming, and we just had so much fun getting to hang out with all of the family for a few days.

We lived at the pool, playing and eating popsicles. By the end of it Carder was giving those Ingles boys a run for their money with his little tan back that made us start calling him "brown sugar." 

Brenn loved being able to rund around their backyard and play her little heart out. And no trip to El Paso would be complete with out a trip to the "Getter store" to find some treasures!

The boys had a jolly good time making potions and taking bubble baths.

Next was Arizona where Jake had another interview. The kids were super stoaked with all their books/toys they got from the Ingles and Mom's trip to the getter store. Of course for our first meal we had to stop at IN N OUT, which we had missed so much (5 guys has nothing on the neon trees!) I got to make a fun little trip to last chance and we were able to visit with Jake's sister and brother-in-law, Allie, Ryan and the kids were super happy to see their cousin Carson.

Brenn and Carson are exactly 2 weeks apart and they were just loving on eachother singing and dancing to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse's "Hot Dog" song.

After Arizona we safley made it to my parents in California. Looking back on the map I can't believe we made that drive especially with two kiddos in tow (I'm not gonna lie, I think they may have handled it better than me). All in all it went pretty smoothly, we hit some CRAZY rainstorms in VA where it was pouring down so hard that even with your wipers going at their fastest you couldn't see anything, (we literally had to drive along slowly to find a spot for us to pull over as we waited it out), Georgia was a bumpy patch where Carder had to exit the car twice (the moving monster made a reapperance), and we got a flat tire on the border of TX/LA (hence the luggage all on the side of the road while Jake got all manly while he changed it to the spare, while I sat in the car and had to explain to Carder why he could not get out on the highway and lend his help). For as far as we drove, not to shabby of a list of minor road bumps. Jake keeps saying how much he enjoyed it and would like to do it again. Yes, it was an adventure, but next time I think I am voting for the 5 hour flight :)

TWO

Since I knew I had been playing catch up for quite some time now, I wrote the kids birthday posts at the beginning of the Summer so I wouldn't forget what they were doing at that point as they change SO quickly in these early years. I am so glad I did this because especially Brenn has changed so much over the summer. At her second birthday she was just starting to acquire language, whereas now she is able to recognize all of her letters and mastering almost all of her phonetic sounds--it just blows my mind at how fast she has developed! Enough blabbering, here is what the little miss was up to as she turned two...

Brenn turned 2 on June 2nd (during our road trip, poor baby got to spend her special day strapped in a car seat!). We got her into the pediatrician right before we headed out from Boston and she was ___ tall (__%) weighed 24 lbs (___%) <info packed away, fill in when I find it!>

At 2 Brenn...

* Is super strong-willed/stubborn and wants to be quite independent (with the exception of when she feels the need to be Mom's arm monkey).

* Is very polite. She always says "thank you" or "no thank you," even when she is beside herself and wants nothing and is yelling/crying "NO TANK YOU!" at you.

* Is still quite the Mama's girl.

* LOVES her big brother "Cardy" (thats what she calls him)

*She loves to give hugs and kisses. 

*Also, when you tell her "I love you," she immediately says back "Too," which is her very shortened way of saying "I love you too." 

* We were a little worried about her language development for a little bit. She was speaking, but compared to Carder at that age she was WAY behind (words but only a few phrases and no sentences). To make a long story short we had her hearing checked and after a little bit of a scare with her failing in both ears at the pediatrician's office, we saw a specialist at Boston Children's. Thankfully everything looked great. As she turned two she has blossomed linguistically and has mastered quite a bit more vocabulary. 

* Can count to 14. We had no idea about this until we were driving across the country (Mom fail!). Carder had told me a few days before that she had counted to either 13 or 14 (he gets really excited and praises her for her accomplishments). I didn't witness it myself so I thought maybe he had misunderstood her or was being a little liberal in the standard of what he considered to be counting. Anyway while we were all in the car there it was, she counted to 14 (and did it several times). Well that made Mom and Dad feel rather silly that we were all worried about Brenn and being behind on her milestones.

* Knows her colors--her favorite being pink. She actually calls anything pink "I lub Pink." We think she may be a little confused and think pink is really called "I love pink," but it's super cute so we aren't trying too hard to correct her.

* Loves books. We often find her sitting aside a bookshelf just turning through the pages of one book after another. If I had to say what her favorite toy was/the thing she plays with most, I'd have to go with books.

* Knows her animals and animal sounds. She will find every animal in the books you read her and say "MAA" over and over until you ask her what that animal is/says (not quite sure what she is saying there but we have come to learn it is her request for us to ask her what the particular animal she has spotted says). 

* Knows/says her shapes (star, heart, "obal" (which she seems to overextend for circle as well), square, "gon" which she uses for pentagon/hexagon/octagon, diamond etc). Is doing pretty well at knowing her letters and even knows some of their sounds.

* Is still super girly. She loves necklaces (or "pretties" as she calls them), boas or using dad's ties as a makeshift boa when she doesn't have something else available. She loves to get her toes painted. She loves babies and has recently come into liking princesses (her favorite being Cinderella or "Lella" as Brenn calls her).

* Has a rather advanced dexterity. She can open the fridge, get the milk out, brings it to you and says "Sippy." (she may or may not be addicted to those things). She can peel and segment her own orange (Carder still can't <well maybe more like wont> do that). When she writes/colors she oftentimes holds her pen the correct way (We have to bribe Carder to not use his whole fist when he is writing and it's quite the battle, hopefully we won't have to deal with that with Brenn!)

* Just like her brother she loves music and dancing. She has some of the cutest moves. One of our favorites she does is how she strikes a pose to the music.

* Loves Minnie Mouse, Dora and Little Einsteins (and The Yo Gabba Gabba Cd we have in the car).

* Loves cuddles and kisses.

* Likes to make trouble. She climbs everything. She likes to color (and not just on paper) she has gotten the wall a couple of times but her picasso art work mostly ends up all over her chunky thighs and legs and one time my computer and keyboard fell victims to permanent marker (thank you clorox wipes for saving me there). Her fridge opening skills have been one of the major "trouble" culprits as of late. For some reason she is really drawn to the eggs. There have been multiple occasions I have had to chase her around the house to get the egg carton back from her. The other day she came out of the kitchen holding an egg, I went over to take it away from her and felt goo as I transfered it from her little hands to mine. She had been cracking eggs. I looked all over to find out where this had been taking place and then see her diaper geanie open with egg shells sitting on top. Thats right she had been just standing over her diaper geenie cracking eggs in it. Who is this child? Well I guess we are just going to have to brace ourselves for the shenanigans that will follow as she enters her "Terrible Twos".

We love our little lady and feel so lucky to have her in our family!

Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day we were lucky enough to get Jake's Cousin Spencer and his wife Candice to come up for a visit. We had a great time exploring Boston with them--even though the first couple days of weather were not so accommodating! They came in late the night of Carder's birthday, so Saturday we met up with them downtown for some lunch and Quincy Market followed by and afternoon exploring the North End (Boston's Little Italy), where we toured Paul Revere's home and had some delicious cannolis at Mikes Pastry. I didn't get any pictures that day because it was pouring down rain.

Sunday the weather was still pretty crummy, but Spencer and Candice braved it and checked out the city a little more before they met up with us for Church. After, they all went for a walking tour of Harvard's Campus and explored Mt. Auburn Cemetery a bit.

Carder just loves "his friend" Spencer

On Monday the weather finally got nice and we took full advantage of it by spending the day out in Concord exploring Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and Minute Man National Park.

This is the cemetery where the famous authors (such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott and Henry Thoreau) are all buried. They actually have an area called Authors' Hill where you can walk along the path and see all of these author's burial spots which are all pretty close to one another.

After the cemetery we headed out to Minute Man National Park in search for the Old North Bridge...

The Park ended up being quite a bit bigger than we expected, so the first turn in we took took us to a Revolutionary War visitors/memorial center rather than the bridge. The kids enjoyed this minor detour as they got to check out the revolutionary soldiers and play with some wooden muskets.

The whole setting of Concord is just breathtaking. It was nice to just stroll along both the cemetery and Minuteman National Park. On the way back to our car Carder and Jake spotted a sluffed snake skin off to the side of the path. Major hit of the day for the boys.

We got the correct directions to the Old North Bridge and headed there next. Lots of our friends had told us it was one of their favorite places to visit in the Boston area, and it did not disappoint.  It's located just behind the Old Manse, so we walked the grounds of the Manse first. The Old Manse is famous for housing both Emerson and Hawthorne at different times.

Carder exploring the boat house and dock (he loved how wobbly the dock was as you switched your weight). You got a great view of the Old North Bridge set over the Concord River from this vantage point.

The Old North Bridge is a historical site in the Battle of Concord, the first day of battle in America's fight for Independence.

There was even a redcoat there that day.

On the other side of the bridge is an erected monument. The kids were so cute. Carder was reading the inscription to Brenn, and then Brenn was picking out letters. When she would get one right Carder's face would light up and he'd turn around and tell us "Brenn just found a (whatever letter she had pointed out and said the name of)"  and then turn to her and say, "Good job Brenn!"

After Old North Bridge we headed out to Kimball Farms for some Ice Cream before sending the Kelly's off. We had such a fun time with them and are so glad they came out to stay with us!

Carder's 5th Birthday

The birthday blitz (what we have come to call the time of the year when all four of our birthdays fall in a 3-week period) could not have come at a worst time this year. We had another crazy move going on, so the thoughts that I had of throwing Carder a real birthday party with friends, etc. was just not going to happen as we needed to have our whole lives packed up within the next week or so. Even though there was no "party" we tried to make the day special by having some decorations and doing Carder's choice of activity and having a fun movie/treat night as a family. Carder is still in love with all things superhero, so this year his birthday theme was Superman, but we changed the "S" into a "5".

He started out his day by getting to go out for doughnuts with his dad, followed by a fun day at Preschool with all his school friends. They made him a special birthday crown and made sure he felt really special. When he got home we did gifts and cards and he received phone calls throughout the day from many of you. He quite enjoyed being able to read his own cards this year and felt so loved on his special day!

After we did gifts we headed to the Museum of Science. Carder got the choice to do whatever he wanted that afternoon, and what he picked was to spend an afternoon at Boston's MOS. He has told us on many occasions that the Museum of Science is his favorite place in Boston. We spent the afternoon pretending to be astronauts, building molecules, and exploring the human body amongst all the other exhibits. Carder was ecstatic to find that his favorite activity "blast the tumor" had returned, as well as several other hands on activities devoted to the same nanomaterials ridding the body of cancerous cells. By far we spent the most time in the exploring the human body section of the museum. He just loves that section. I guess we will see if he becomes an oncologist or radiologist one day since those are the exhibits he tended to gravitate towards.

The kids reading the x-rays of their animal patients

Checking out the spaceship

We spent quite some time at the museum and had a super fun day checking everything out and exploring all things science. Once we got home from the MOS we started on our superman themed homemade pizza. We had a fun little Superman themed snack table and watched a movie together as a family. It seemed to be a good day for our newly turned 5-year-old.