PA Trip--Post 4--Cherry Picking

Lori and I REALLY wanted to make cherry jam again this year. However, when we were in PA we were just a couple of weeks ahead of the normal cherry season. But the crop came in early this year and Aunt Carmella knows the owner of the cherry farm where we went to last year. She called her and asked if could come pick. The owner said sure and headed off to pick from one lovely tree. The kids thought it was fun to use the ladders and it didn't take us very long.

How funny. Alexis' eyes are closed in the picture. Yes, she's so talented that she can pick her cherries with her eyes closed!

We ended up making lots of yummy cherry jam the night before we left. We actually didn't have to stay up too late either. Thanks Aunt Carmella for using your influence to get us cherries!

PA Trip--Post 3--Pittsburgh

We took a 2.5 hour "detour" to Pittsburgh on Wednesday. We were going to see John (Ben's brother) and his wife Jeanna. We hadn't seen them in a really long time. Jeanna was expecting a baby boy any day and they were due to move to the East Coast in just a couple of weeks. So we thought this would be a good opportunity to see them. I have to admit it was a really long trip. Aunt Carmella and great Grandma were with us and that made it more enjoyable.

We actually only got about an hour, if that, with Jeanna. Her mom and sister came into town the same day and they were tired and for some reason Great Grandma did not like their apartment. So after only 45 minutes at their apartment we headed out.

John came with us to ride up a trolley thing to see the city and where the rivers meet. I know that's kind of a vague description but I don't really remember what the name of it is. It has been a couple of months since this happened. That's a common blogging problem when you wait too long to post. :)

Anyway, it was fun and it was a pretty view. Afterwards we dropped John off, well, he sort jumped out of the car to catch the bus home, and we went to dinner at a restaurant where Alexis bit her tongue so hard she actually took a chunk out. It was so sad. And now you know all the very small details of this trip. I wish we had more time with John and Jeanna but oh well.


This is Audrey enjoying ice cream at dinner. This girl and ice cream! She absolutely loves it and would have some everyday if I let her. It's her go to dessert choice.


Riding the trolley thing.

Riding the trolley thing.

Looking at the view.

Abby looking through the viewer thing.

Our view from the top.

The gang at John and Jeanna's apartment.

PA Trip--Post 2--Waldamere and Elly

The girls absolutely loved Elly (I hope I'm spelling that right). She is such a sweetheart.


This day Elly wasn't feeling well. She had eaten a ball and it wasn't passing through her very well. The girls covered her up and were playing and keeping her company. Audrey knew how to rub her belly just right.

Ah, Waldamere. Such a fun day. The morning of Waldamere we found a rash all over Audrey. That meant that she couldn't go in the water park. Now, Lori and I aren't all that keen on water parks anyway so it didn't bother us too much but we knew Alexis and Lily wanted to go. Plus they can go on all the rides together so it's perfect. Uncle John volunteered to go in the water park with them so Lori and I could Abby and Audrey on some younger rides. The rash actually went away after Audrey took some Zyrtec so we concluded that she had an allergic reaction to the soap we used to wash her the night before. I think it was Zest. Her skin is so sensitive.

Well, we had such a good time riding the rides and the girls were so cute. Here they are holding hands.

More hand holding. Alexis and Lily are holding hands too.

This ride is Tilt-a-Whirl. The girls love this one. Abby and Audrey went by themselves too. I think they rode on this one three or four times in a row.

This picture is from the log ride. Last year I took Alexis, Lily, and Audrey on this ride. My girls both cried the entire time. Lily loved it and really wanted to go on it. I told them I was not going on it because you get soaked on it but that they could certainly go. Can you tell that Lily absolutely loved this ride?

Okay, this picture is so funny because this is Alexis and Lily coming down the last big drop. Alexis ducked so far into the log that you can't even tell she is riding in it. It looks like Lily is riding the ride all alone. So funny!

This is a little kiddie roller coaster that the girls just love. We must have gone on this one six or seven times.

We had to ride on the carousel of course!

Oh, the Frog Hopper. Last year the girls thought it was great. Audrey has a smile here but I think she thought it was a little babyish for her by the end of the ride. She wouldn't go on it again.

Here are the girls eating at Sara's in Erie, PA. My friend Karen told me I had to go here and have the orange and vanilla ice cream cones. So we did. First of all, they are HUGE! But we managed to suffer through it and eat it all. The girls and I declared it to be some of the finest ice-cream we ever eaten. :)

The girls being silly.

This picture is really for Karen. The creamsicle or orange and vanilla cone is truly awesome. Thank you for telling me to go!

Oh Waldamere how I love you. I'll see you again in one year!

Annual PA Trip--Post 1

Ahhh, it's that time again. Finally posting about our annual PA trip a month or more past when it actually happened!

So, we had a pretty darn good drive to PA this year. I drove and Lori navigated (the children that is). I know, I am so selfish! I drove, by far the easier job, while I made the seven months pregnant lady handle all the children. She's just so much more patient with them! I get fed up within one hour. And it's a 12 hour trip! Anyway, we got there just fine and without any major incidences. Well, we did have to pull over to the side of the road so Abby could pee. There were no stops anywhere and she REALLY had to go. I think she was a little confused about peeing in the grass while cars drove by but those of us in the car got a huge kick out of it and I got pictures. I'm such a good Aunt! :)

Our plan for our first day with Aunt Carmella was to relax. The kids could ride their bikes to their hearts content and play outside. To our surprise a fireman that was collecting a donation, I think, from Aunt Carmella showed up in his truck. And to the kids' delight he let them climb inside.

We also broke out some play dough and new play dough apparatus that lets you make ice cream cones and other shop items. It was a huge hit and had to be heavily regulated by the adults so no fighting would break out.

Audrey and Abby had a nightly ritual of reading together. Audrey was happy to read to Abby. So cute!

End of the School Year Pictures

Just had to post these last pictures of the girls with Ms. O'Brien. Ms. O'Brien was Audrey's teacher this year and Alexis' teacher for 3rd Grade last year. We love her!


Audrey, Ms. O'Brien, Alexis, and our great friend Maddy.


Audrey and Ms. O'Brien.

Kindergarten Zoo Field Trip

Why oh why do I always volunteer for these field trips? I love being with the kids but sometimes I have to wonder if the negatives outweigh the positives. Negatives: riding the bus, reigning in the kids that are assigned to me, dealing with the crowds of other schools, and riding the bus. No, that's not a typo. I HATE riding school buses. I would rather do anything than ride a bus with kids. Well, the Kindergartners weren't that bad but older kids are definitely worse.

Anyway, this trip to the zoo was actually really fun. There were so many parents there that I just had Audrey and her buddy Isaiah to look after. They made a perfect team too. They are both energetic, constantly moving, and wanted no breaks. We tried to stay with two other parents and their groups but Audrey and Isaiah were running from exhibit to exhibit and we left them in the dust.

We were at the zoo for three hours and the only time we sat down was for lunch and that was for 15 minutes. It was a nice day too. It was cloudy and not hot at all. It was supposed to pour but it didn't at all. It was perfect. Isaiah really loved the lions. Audrey loved the armadillo (they are so funny to watch walk around. It's like a hard toy on a flat escalator). We always love to see the Goeldi Monkeys as well. We all wish that we could have one for a pet. They are so adorable.


Kayla, Audrey (see--funny face), and Isaiah


Posing with the statues. They thought this was hilarious for some reason.


Audrey and some of her good friends. She has a funny face again! She is so funny.

Alright, I will admit it is worth the hassle to be on the field trip and see my daughter's faces and spend time with her and her friends.

The End of Kindergarten

The Kindergartners had an end of the year celebration. It was really cute. They sang us some songs and they all got an award from their teacher. Audrey got the award of "Awesome Author." Her teacher said that during writing time Audrey writes pages and pages of stories and other things. She has such an imagination. It was really hard for me to keep only a few choice things that she wrote this year. I have school binders for both girls where I keep some of their school and art work, report cards, and any awards. I have to be really choosy because the binder gets so full. Audrey had so much this year! She loves to write and read. Her reading has really taken off and she is so proud of herself. I am going to miss Kindergarten. I loved it for Alexis too. It is one of the most precious times of children's lives. I am sad to see it go.

Audrey accepting her "Awesome Author" award.

School Tech Trek

Dean School had its 2nd Annual Tech Trek. It's such a fun event. The kids (read "parents") raise (read "give") money for the school to buy computers and such. The K4, Kindergartners, and 1st graders all spend a little over an hour walking or running around the high school track. The 2-4th graders can walk or run around the entire school block, which is about 1.5 miles. We had a beautiful day for this. I was stationed at one of the corners around the block to hand out water. It was fun to cheer on the kids as they passed us. The only bad part of that was that we were not given enough cups so we ran out really fast. The kids who had water bottles were able to fill them up but the others were out of luck.

After the hour of walking/running was up we headed to the high school track. Everyone got popsicles and had a school picture.


This is Audrey's K5 class. I don't think you can see her at all. Oh well.


This is a shot of almost all of the kids in the school.


This is Alexis' class.

Audrey makes the funniest faces when a camera is turned towards her.

Alexis started dumping water on herself to cool off.

Both girls had so much fun and it was so nice to spend hours outside on a gorgeous day.

A Great Trip with a Few Minor Annoyances

We drove to Fort Wayne, Indiana this last weekend to find a rental house and get acquainted with the town. It was a great trip. We really feel like we know Fort Wayne a little. We drove to Ben's new work building:



I think it's awesome. When I went to pick up our rental car on Friday I got to Enterprise at 11:30am and they said: Oh, you reserved this starting at 8am and now it's almost four hours later so we gave your car away. All we have left is a VW bug or a 12 passenger van. Wait, wait, wait. I reserved it. That means it's mine. You can't just give it away. It shouldn't matter what time I pick it up. I RESERVED it for the weekend. So I obviously chose the bug:




The girls thought it was awesome. By the end of the trip I realized that we were way too close to each other. It's just such a small car. Whatever, it worked. But it was annoying. I also did not find it very comfortable.

I had seven houses for us to look at a week ago Monday. By Thursday we were down to three. When we showed up on Saturday morning the realtor said we were down to one! I cannot believe how fast rentals disappear in Fort Wayne. Luckily, the realtor found one that wasn't even listed yet. Here it is:



I found out this afternoon that it is ours! We signed a six month lease and we are excited. It's a little smaller than we wanted but it's on the newer side, has lots of storage in the garage, and has a fantastic neighborhood and school. It is 1575 sq feet and was built in 2000. I will have my own bathroom and a walk-in closet. And just to brag because I can't help it: you can buy a 2500 sq ft house with a master suite, walk-in closets, and all the bells and whistles, 5-10 years old, all for $215,ooo. Fort Wayne is so incredibly inexpensive. It's awesome.

This is the school the girls will go to. Deer Ridge Elementary. Well, it's the playground and it's awesome! Brown Deer has the worst playground I've ever seen. It has so little for the kids to play on. This one has swings, teeter totters, climbing structures, and more. We just had to stop on Saturday to let the girls play here for awhile.


Audrey just being cute.

Okay, they are both just so cute!

Our neighborhood:

Another view:

One of the things I love about this area is that there are bike paths everywhere. I was told that you could ride for 15 miles and only bike through neighborhoods. They are all connected by bike paths. I am excited to go on family bike rides!

I had a super long post about how Enterprise sucks and messed up our weekend a little bit but Blogger erased it all when I tried to publish this post earlier. So I am not retyping it all because it was really long. And it was clever, witty, and really engaging (you'll just have to trust me on this). I'll sum it up this way: Enterprise gave away our RESERVED car because we came to pick it up at 11:30am and not 8am. Silly me. I thought that by RESERVING the car it was mine to pick up whenever. They told me when we returned the car we could put the billing stuff in Ben's name. However, we returned the car on Sunday and Enterprise was closed. It's closed on Sundays. Funny how they didn't tell us that. When we called this morning they told me we couldn't put the billing in Ben's name because the account was already closed. I said no way, fix it. When Ben got to Enterprise at the scheduled time they made him wait 30 minutes before even starting to help him. Needless to say we will never, ever rent from Enterprise again. Believe it or not this is much shorter than what I had written earlier (maybe it's a good thing it got erased).

Saturday night we had dinner with two of Ben's soon to be co-workers. They are both female and are so nice and wonderful. They are both married and one of them has two girls, Abby, 8, and Ava, 6. I know! So funny! The girls hit it off beautifully and had a blast playing together. I am excited for Ben to work with these ladies. It's nice to know he has good co-workers.

So to sum up: A great trip with a few minor annoyances.

The Last One

Question: How long does it take two TLCB fans to wrap a cake box with cupcakes in it and an etch-a-sketch in a mini-van?

Answer: About 20 minutes!

Amy and I went to a TLCB gig last Friday night. I realized at the beginning of the week that that was my last chance to see them before I move to Indiana. TLCB doesn't go anywhere near Indiana so I needed to get one last gig in. After I begged and pleaded and sounded pathetic Amy said she would go with me. It was in Janesville at the Time Out Pub and Eatery. We've been there twice before. The first time there was no one there except some kind of pimp daddy (which was HILARIOUS). The second time it was super crowded.

DeAnn and Amy told me I had to make some cupcakes for the band as a group birthday gift (okay, I wanted to bring them something cheesy too but I was told by them to bake! And I know it's pathetic and stalkerish to bring the band baked goods but I don't care! They love us! No, they really do! Stop laughing!). Amy and I decided to wrap it in birthday wrapping paper and at the last minute decided to throw in the etch-a-sketch. We thought it would give them something to do on their road trips.

Anyway, they LOVED their gifts. Immediately after unwrapping the etch-a-sketch they all took turns using it.


Now, on to the gig. It was really crowded and when we got there I could already pick out at least one extremely wasted individual. He was so obnoxious to me. He kept standing in front of the band, thus obstructing my view. He also talked really loud which I found annoying. So the band played for an hour and then took a break. About 15 minutes into their second act some guy jumped the wasted individual and started pummeling him. Then a HUGE bouncer jumped on that guy and they crashed into the sound equipment blowing the lights and sound. Then another individual jumped on the bouncer (and honestly what an idiot. Like he even had a chance against that bouncer! He's gigantic and totally ripped. Idiot.) Then a second bouncer jumped into the fray and after 30 seconds both bouncers had two guys out the door and it was over. It was a good thing we sat in the very back that night. The band then packed up their equipment and we headed out as well. Which was a good thing because Amy and I were tired and still had to drive 90 minutes home.

I think it scared Amy (well, I know it did because she said it did on her blog) but for some reason I wasn't scared at all. Maybe I saw too many fights during high school basketball games. To be honest, it was kind of entertaining because no one got hurt. I think the bouncer's tank top got ripped because he walked around showing everyone. He must not have seen any fighting action in a long time because he looked a little jazzed up afterwards. Anyway, it's a good thing we didn't have our whole MKE Crew there. I'm sure some of them could have handled it! No offense ladies. You guys are just sweet innocents and it might have tainted your view of gigging (although maybe it has for Amy?) and we just can't have that! :)

It was definitely one to remember. Now I just need to convince TLCB to go to Indianapolis!

It's Official

We are moving! To Fort Wayne, Indiana! Ben starts his new job there in three weeks. I will follow him there when school gets out. In the meantime Ben's new employer will fly him back for the weekends so we won't be alone for the entire three weeks. We are really excited about this but sad at the same time to leave such good friends here. The best thing about this is the new job. It is a great company and we will finally (after four years) have Ben back! His four hour commute every day for the last 14 months has been really hard on him and us. He will truly have his weekends with his family and we can eat dinner together every night. So, until we have more news on houses I might not be updating any time soon. We have to put our house on the market and I have to get it ready to show. Lots and lots of work on top of regular life and helping at the kids school. Okay, that's all for now!