Zoo...Again

We just renewed our passes to the zoo and this was the first trip that Zack was totally mobile.  He and Abby had fun climbing and checking out he animals together. 

Abby was helping Zack out on his shoes and they loved seeing the fish in the tunnel.

They love their daddy!

too cute:)

The Dips

I started this back in PA but didn't have the right pictures and I finally remembered to finish it....  

Five years of dips!  I have embraced the cheesiness of the dips and now look forward to many years of them!  I was thinking about how each of the pictures says something about each year.

Newlyweds:   A perfect day with lots of dreams for the future.

Year 1. Well, we posed backwards.  Obviously, we had no idea what we were doing this year and just learning as we go!

Year 2.  Pregnant.  I was 3 months preggo here and so excited!  We were looking forward to our growing family.

Year 3.  Parents of a 6 month old on our first vacation away form Abby.  Enjoying the romantic and adventurous trip but missing our baby!

Year 4:  In full family swing and embracing it! Definitely a balancing act with the two little ones.

Year 5: Living it up in NYC

Beachin It

Now that the renovations at Lagoon 1 are near completed and we are home to enjoy it we have headed down to the beach the past couple of evenings.  The first night I didn't even bring my camera ( I know, gasp!)  and we just played in the water and got super sandy and loved every minute of it.  I had to take mental pictures because the kids were so cute and just loving every minute of being in the water and playing in the waves.

 

This afternoon, Matt was helping Tanya and Jarrod move so I packed up the kids and grabbed a sandwich at the Country Store for a beach picnick.  I forgot my camera again but snapped a few pictures with my phone.  They splashed in puddles from the rain earlier today, played in the sand and ate some dinner.  They are getting to the point where they can run around together and it is so cute to see them chase each other around...not as cute when they are both running in opposite directions.  Zack is a very busy little guy and really interested in climbing up on anything he can find! Luckily, they were pretty good listeners or at least good sports when I brought them back to our area so they were in my line of sight. 

 

Ahhhhh.

After a long but great mainland trip visiting family and friends it took a little while for us to settle back in to life as we love it.  It has been quite a week as we are all reeling from our "vacation hangover" and trying to remember how we do things around here.  Matt jumped right back into work the day after we returned and the kids and I had doctors appointments and tried to get life back in order (not very successfully I have to admit).  I have been exhausted and barely making it up past 8 p.m. 

It's Monday morning, a week since we left Pennsylvania and we all finally slept in until 6 (Z. had been waking up between 4 and 5, which meant we were all up).  We had a nice weekend to reconnect as a family and see some friends.  Just in time for school to start tomorrow we are getting back in the swing of things around here.

A few of our weekend highlights:

The little chipmunk gathering nuts and berries to hide away

getting dirty.  don't mind the nice dress:(

eating some of auntie steph's belated birthday cupcakes.

Jackson enjoying the pool

we renewed our waterpark passes and Zack got to really enjoy the park this time by going on slides...by himself!

My favorite boys

One of my favorite parts of being home is our daily walk.  Today they finally took the wall down at lagoon one and revealed the walkway and the front of the new Disney hotel opening in 5 weeks.  They have been doing tons of improvement projects around here and I can't wait for it all to be done

Abby loves to type and today wrote her first emails

We love see the kids try new things and they both were so excited to charge the slides.  This is a video of Abby and I on the fast green slide ( she was so sad she couldn't go on the bigger ones).  Zack went down it also but we didn't have a videographer...next time.

15 Month Update

Z had his 15 month check up today, which make 3 days in a row and a lot of hours that we have spent in waiting rooms.  He surprised everyone and grew 3 inches!  He now is 32 1/4 inches tall (catching up on 35in. big sis fast!).  Although he is tall, he is only 21 lbs, in the 15th percentile for weight- he feels heavy to me though!

Now that he is walking he is all over the place and keeping up with Abby pretty well.  It is so fun to go on walks with them and see them play together.

The Zack dictionary so far consists of:
Hiiiiiiii
Ba-bye
mo- more
ball
uncle
ga-goo - thank you
uh-oh
go-go-go ( let's go outside or do something please!!!!)
family names: Aba, mama, daddy, bampa, bama
shh  ( fish)
He is obsessed with growling.  He loves making animal sounds especially the lion ( GRRRRRR!) and other favs are elephants, dogs and dinosaurs.

He has tons of teeth.  I have lost count at this point but most are in if not all.  He also loves to climb and go outside.

We went cold turkey on the binky when we got home from our trip and I think it was more anxiety for me than him.  So far so good.

We also think Abby taught him the letter A.  He spontaneously said A and pointed to Matt's shirt with an A on it and has pointed out some other A's since.  No coincidence since Abby notifies anyone who will pay attention when there is an A (for Abby) in sight.

Some points of contention at this point are:
-Z think it's funny to throw food and put it on his head.  I disagree.
-He also loves to throw things away.  This can be helpful at time but generally a problem.
-Nap time has been very inconsistent and sometimes non existent:(
All in all I can't complain because he is a very sweet little guy and his personality is shining through more and more each day.

Abby's Big Day

I was so happy to be able to get in to see the doctor and get Abby's cast off!  Once we got in tot see the doc, he x-rayed it right in the room and Abby loved seeing her bones on the TV.  It has healed as expected but still is not completely back to normal.  The doctor said they like to take the cast off before it heals to avoid problems with the cast (blisters, sores etc,).  So now Abby has to be extra careful since neither of us want to get the cast back on again!

checking  it out to make sure it works.

Ever since Zack got his haircut I realized how much Abby needed her Fuzz cut off.  I have been avoiding it because I didn't want it to get cut too short.  The woman who cut her hair was great and only cut off a little.  You can't even tell she got it cut except the curls int eh back actually curl now and not frizz:).  Of course she loved the attention and couldn't wait to sit in the car!  Z was quite a champ too.  He played so nicely with the train so I could watch the haircut.

 

We spent a lot of time waiting around and entertaining ourselves today between the 2 hours at the doc and 1 at the haircut place but it was all worth it!

Wedding Weekend!

Thursday morning after getting everyone as settled as possible, I headed out to make the 6 hour trek to Virginia to see Matt after 10 days and partake in the wedding festivities.  I made it to the Hoppenjans' house in Chesapeake, Virginia around 6 in the evening and met all of Amy's family and reunited with Matt.  After pizza we met the Rossello family for some drinks (Matt and I just pretend we are part of their fam!).  

Marsha ( Matt R's mom) & Me

 The hotel we stayed in the following 2 nights was in Portsmouth, which is an adorable town and perfect for the wedding guests to go out and enjoy the weekend together.  On Friday Matt and I went into Norfolk and shopped ( I forgot my shoes!) and had lunch.  Most of all it was nice to just spend some quality time together.  The guys headed to the rehearsal and I hung out with the non wedding party crew before heading over to the rehearsal dinner.  We were staying in Portsmouth but the festivities were in Norfolk,  a short ferry trip, which made it extra fun!

Enjoying the rehearsal dinner

Good times later on!

 Wedding Day!  After the beautiful ceremony I took the ferry to the rehearsal with Matt's high school friends' wives and girlfriends.

Sarah, Me, Erin & Sylwia

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 The reception was gorgeous!  Floor to ceiling windows overlooking the water and so beautifully decorated!  Rossello even brewed his own beer for the party, which was such a hit.

The first dance.<3

Matt and his best men

handsome!

The wonderful couple!!!  Mr & Mrs Rossello:)

 Matt's toast was a hit.  He was anxious to give it and purposefully didn't share it with me (which turned outto be a good move).  He did a fantastic job!

Matt giving his toast.

Matt has some amazing friends and it was so fun to spend the weekend with them and celebrate Matt and Amy!

Photo Shoot with G&G

It is a challenge to get good pics with everyone looking/ smiling with 2 little ones and big ones trying to get little ones to pay attention.  We all wanted a good picture of G&G Martin with the kids so we set out for a mini photo shoot in the backyard to try and make it happen.  I got lots of cute pics but still never got a great one of the kids with the grandparents:(.

Life Without Daddy

We survived our 10 days without Daddy!   I am very lucky that Matt's parents were willing to have us stay there without him and were so helpful through the 10 days Matt was back in Hawaii.  I have to say I really lucked out with fabulous in-laws!  

Our busy, loud and messy family of 4 is quite a difference from their newly retired and calm lifestyle but they made us feel right at home!  We had lots of visitors and fun outings to keep us busy.   

We all missed daddy though and appreciate having him around!  The kids were so happy to have him home they wouldn't leave his side for the rest of the day.  Abby just kept hugging him and telling him how much she loved him over and over! 

Uncle Bob came to visit again and brought Abby a cool play-doh set!

We had mini manicures with pafafin wax

Grandpa too!

Happy birthday grandpa!

Lots of monkeying around

Abby getting wrapped up...one of her favorite games.

story time

snuggling with Uncle Bob

 Abby recently started to request alone time.  She like hanging out in the basement by herself.