Little things in June part 2

Bryson's rolling and scooting backwards would get him stuck under the dresser all the time, he'd get so mad but it was so funny to come around the corner and find him like such.

Yay for new garage sale find!

Making baby food for the masses! I layered a bunch of peeled sweet potatoes under these carrots and threw them each into the blender after a few hours. I've done the same with a bunch of other fruits and veggies. Try it

a. Sleeping babies

b. Chowing down on delicious banana bread (recipe from melskitchencafe my #1 go to place to make food!)

As of lately Maxson steals my sandwich making baggies to pile cars in like bags of goldfishes from the carnival. There are probably worse things in life...

When babies wake up at 5:30 am it's just TOO DANG EARLY CHILDREN!

Rave in the bath tub

"noddy"he says. see pen on legs for example.

The new Honest Abe's building! So. much. bigger. so. much. better.

With my mom in town she graciously let us escape on a little lunch date to devour the yummiest burgers around.

NUMMY.

My first trip to Walmart since the babies have been born! Over 8 months. It was a huge trip gathering not only food and stocking up on pantry staples but also small household goods. I was there for 2 hours! Granted, I lazily wandered the aisles without children which was I daresay relaxing.

After 2 hours I came out to a most beautiful ombre sunset

Bryson is FINALLY on the move! He's on the right in this picture and started over by the couch/wipes pouch.

a weekend of family and new yorkness

so, like i mentioned a while ago, we were lucky enough to have family come in town and play!

cody and camille took the TWELVE hour drive to us with 2 little kids.

they were saints.

but we were so happy to have them here with us, and really couldn't believe they came all the way,

fo' reals people, they were stellar.

it got a little crazy when they got here.

to say it simply, jaden, the 2 1/2 year old, LOVES casey.

LOVES CASEY.

and it's great because, casey loves him.

we somehow made it work with 4 adults, 1 toddler, and 1 newborn in a 1 bedroom apartment with the tiniest bathroom/kitchen and a crappy AC.

it was just the best to have them all there to just talk and play with one another!

the first day we trekked our way to hoboken to see the infamous cake boss!

and boy was it a hot day.

hot and humid.

the line was mostly in the shade but we took every chance we could to go into other shops with AC during the wait.

after waiting in line for over and hour, we were allowed to go in the little itty bitty shop.

HOLY. COW.

it was packed in that place (but at least it had AC!)

it was really fun to be in there with all the pictures on the wall and the beautiful desserts everywhere.

i decided to hang out with baby brielle and the stroller by on side instead of push through the crowds.

it was really fun to just be in there, sit back, and watch all the commotion.

we all walked over to sinatra drive on the river to completely enjoy our sweets.

thankfully, a breeze came by a cooled us a teensy tiny bit, ha.

the sweets chosen were 3 cupcakes, 1 cookie, and 1 brownie/trifle/awesomeness.

jaden couldn't wait long enough for his cupcake,

my m&m cookie was crazy soft and wonderful

the brownie/trifle/awesomeness was rich beyond rich.

i was also surprised with the yummiest red velvet cupcake for my birthday, so good.

after taking the drive back to our place in new jersey,

we jumped in our swimsuits and jumped in that pool ASAP

(ps- we got the pool passes figured out so we didn't have to pay, thank goodness!)

it was seriously tons of fun in the pool.

jaden was a mix of emotions from 

1) YAY! we're going to the pool!

2) no! i don't want to get in the pool!

3) i must cling to you in the pool!

4)  i don't want to walk in the pool!

5) no, stay in the baby pool!

6) no, keep throwing me in the big pool!

7) i want to go back to the big pool!

8) no i don't want to leave the pool!

it was just the funnest thing to play with him in the water.

funniest line from the pool "i don't want to sink, i want to float!"

casey and i then ran to the tiny/fake playground/park by our house to get a bit more of jaden's energy out.

that night we all just hung out at our place talking, playing games and laughing.

we loved being around them.

it brought back so many memories of our fun summer in indiana!

our final day we trekked to central park to hang out.

after driving around for what seemed liked forever, we miraculously found two beloved parking spots by each other.

we walked forever to the great lawn, swung on the swings, lounged on the grass, watched the baseball players, chased jaden around, passed around baby brielle.

funniest memory from the park: casey breaking jaden's stick.

since they were only in town 2 days, we just had to make sure they tasted shake shack since it's seriously like the best burger.

it did not disappoint, and the line was only like 10 minutes!

we walked the 10 blocks back to the car, and right at the end of the last block,

the stroller wheel fell off!

story: the double stroller they were using was the one casey found on the side of the road while working!

it was not the most awesome stroller to begin with but it lasted as long as we needed it to.

it was such a joke, but it got the job done.
and yes, jaden pretty much didn't fit in the front at all...haha he's one large 2 1/2 year old because he's awesome like that.

on the way home we went to liberty park.

we stopped and saw the beautiful back side of lady liberty.

jaden did a great immitation of her, it was great.

we video chatted it up with family that night but it didn't match much longer after that.

i fell asleep while video chatting and cody and camille packed up the family for the next morning.

it really was just the best time with them around.

we were so lucky to get to spend time with those 2 kids because they're changing so much!

luckily we'll get to see them again in august on our way back to nebraska.

till next time familia!

ps- 2 month old brielle was an angel, angel i tell you!
being around her i was like, "yeah, we can do this baby thing!"
but then again when she would cry and neither casey nor i could soothe her that's when we'd look at each other and think "we can't do this! how are we going to do this?!"
ha, my oh my, that will be it's own journey.
i can only pray and hope that soothing your own child is easier than soothing others' like people always say...iye yiy yie.

hawaii part 1 of millions

so!

3 weeks ago casey and i took the most wonderful vacation together to hawaii!

why?

A. we had a bunch of airfare on southwest we had to use by the end of the summer.

B. we knew we'd be wanting a good break during summer sales.

C. taking a babymoon sounded like a pretty great idea...

D. all the above.

we truly had the best time together.

although it was a "vacation" it was go go go for a week straight.

but who can complain when you're wanting to snorkel, kayak, and hike beautiful mountains all in 1 day?

after almost losing our bags at our stop in AZ due to storms and changing flights,

we got on another plane to hawaii!
half our suitcase was food/snacks.
best decision ever bc the food there is EXPENSIVE!!!
we eat in style...

 
some general information about our trip:
1. we bought go oahu cards. anything you see that cost money (other than food) was "free" after we purchased our card! so nice. we abused that card and it helped us do a bunch more really fun stuff that we may not have done because it cost more money.
2. we found a little studio apartment for a great price and location on airbnb. such a good experience.
so much better than staying in a hotel...

so here is part 1!!!!!!!

 
hanging out at kailua beach for the day 

 
the baby bump at around 16 weeks
 
the farmer's market 

 
the most delicious shrimp scampi EVER.
so glad my cousin jenny took us over to the farmer's market

 
burgers, of course, were to be had at teddy's bigger burgers.
the burger do not let down their name.
they were LARGE
my wonderful cousin, jenny, played with us lots that week!

burgers and parks in nyc

so we spent our saturday night in new york city last weekend.

it kinda stinks with how work works out,

but we do try to steal a few hours in of fun on saturday nights.

casey was the awesome brave driver as always.

he amazes me in driving situations, ha, sounds silly, but true.

i'm getting better at being prepared exactly where we need to be and he's getting better and getting us there somehow.

we went to the infamous shake shack in madison square garden.

we'd been to shake shack in DC with my uncle last summer and were excited for the burgers again!

they really do taste amazing.

and their zig zag fries are sure yummy.

we spent a good half hour or more in line, and after an hour finally got our food.

i was starving, to say the least, and thoroughly enjoyed every bite.

i got the single shack burger and casey the double.

we don't play around when it comes to fries anymore and got 2.

i couldn't believe how busy that place was,

for reals, the line did not ease up one bit the 2 hours we were there.

brooke, christian, and kelly were our wonderful company and made for great laughter through the night.

at 9:30 i realized that the park we wanted to go to closes at 10!

so we speed walked our way 5 blocks toward 10th ave and enjoyed the park for 15 minutes.

the highline is an old elevated railroad track converted into a beautiful park walkway in the midst of the city (and it's free, yay!)

it really was so pretty and fun plus it's like a little haven elevated from the hustle and bustle of the streets.

we will most definitely be going back to visit it in the daytime.

laughter abounded all night.
booke, christian, and kelly are 3 of the funniest people i know.
this summer will be do great with them around.
 

i'm so happy casey is eager and willing to do all the fun things with me.

we have the attitude of "when in rome" when it comes to visiting places and try to do it all and taste it all.

it's just the best.

we're very excited for the many more activities the summer will bring us!

if you've ever been to nyc or lived there at all we'll take all the tips we can get on food and activities!

5 guys

so i mentioned that last thursday was scott's birthday.

the 3 of us families/siblings met up at 5 guys burgers to celebrate!

and boy, do we love those burger and FRIES.

oh, those fries are heavenly.

i only took pictures of the little kids because they're so cute.

i love my neices and nephews, love them.

(i'm stupid, and put the same pic of abby in twice)
oh and little mr. tristan is walking, walking people!
it's so fun to see them progress bit by bit.

and then of course the birthday boy (with tristan) so cute.

 

i love my family.
i love celebrating birthdays.
i love burgers.
i love life right now.