Bucket List

Yesterday I had the day off so we decided to take the team on an adventure.  The Crayola Factory has been on our kid-trip-bucket-list for awhile, so we packed up the fam (and the potty) and headed north to Easton.

I won't go into a lengthy review of the place, but let's just say we should have pre-read the Trip Advisor reviews and nixed the whole idea (specifically the one titled, “Death trap, fire hazard waiting to happen!”)  On a positive note, there were no fires and we got a couple of cute touristy pictures of the boys atop a marker.

Moving onto Phase II of our adventure, we went to visit Phil's brother and sister-in-law who live close by to the Death Trap.  We swam in their pool and hung out on the trampoline, then David asked, "Do you want to go for a ride on the golf cart?"

Umm, yes.

 

 There were 3 main points of interest to the golf cart extravaganza.

1. The boys got a kick out of being able to "drive" while sitting on Phil's lap.

2. They discovered the joys of jumping off the back, running to catch up to the cart, grabbing the pole and dragging themselves on the back "like Indiana Jones."

3. As Phil was going up a hill from grass to gravel, he stopped then started really quickly and threw me off the back.  Then kept going.

It was one of those days where the boys laughed their fool heads off, ran themselves to the ground, ate too many Doritos, then passed out on the ride home. And save for the bits of gravel lodged into my palms, I'd agree that it was a pretty good day.

Turns out the adventure that wasn't even on the bucket list end up being the most memorable.  Wild ride on a golf chart, check.

Today.

It has admittedly been a ridiculously long time since I posted on this blog.  Long story short, life is busy.

But there were 2 things that happened to me today that inspired me to come back.  2 moments that I thought, "I don't ever want to forget this happening" because they (a) Made me so proud of my boys and (b) Made me proud of Phil and myself as parents.

We went to Tyler Arboretum for a quick hike before dinner. As we were walking back to the car Charlie said, "Mommy, after dinner tonight can we sit as a family and hug together? Even the grown ups?"

He said it with such sincerity that it literally stopped me in my tracks.  I mean, seriously?!?

To get out of the arboretum you have to walk through their tiny gift shop.  Cole had been clutching his $5 allowance the whole time (including when he was climbing up and down the tree house exhibits - grounds for a mommy heart attack).  He had been talking the whole time about the $2.50 quartz sample that he was planning on buying at the end.

When he went up to the counter he had 2.  He told the cashier that he had just enough to buy one for his brother Ryan and one for himself.

A $2.50 gesture but so telling of our Coley.

In other news - we're deep into potty training Dean.  Apologies to any of the patrons who witnessed a 3 year old squatting on a mini toilet in the trunk of our van.  A kid's gotta do what a kid's gotta do.

Enough Already, I Get It.

This is officially my last Arizona post.

Rach and I spent a morning walking around the resort taking pictures.  There were so many textures and colors - I took approximately 90 million pictures but wanted to post some of my faves.

I love the Southwest.  I love girlfriend's getaway.  I love the ability to walk around for 2 hours with my only goal being to take pictures of cactus needles.  So to wrap up, vacay was cool. Counting down until our 2013 trip.

Frankie Boy

The part where I said I wasn't going to drag my Arizona trip out in blog posts was a lie.

I feel like I need to dedicate a separate post to the awesomeness that's known as Frank Lloyd Wright's house Taliesin West.

We were lucky enough to catch a night tour and it was just a perfect evening.  Frankie lived in Wisconsin but set up his winter home in AZ.  When he built it he brought a bunch of architecture students with him and they literally plopped down in the middle of the dessert and built the estate rock by rock.

It's still a home to many of the people that helped build it, and is also a school for about 30 architecture students. 

He was so particular about his design - this vase was here before they put windows on the house.  When the glass went up he didn't want to move the vase, even an inch, so he had the students cut a hole to accomodate.

The door between his room and the other wing of the house where his wife stayed.

I may not know know anything about architecture (except what I learned when George Costanza worked at Vandalay Industries) but I do know that this place was the bomb.  Thanks for the memories Mr. Wright!

Um, Oops.

So apparently I fell asleep for a few months while I was in the middle of writing about my Arizona trip.  And now that seems so 5 minutes ago.

I'm not sure if I should pick up where I left off or just erase the rest of July and August from the blogworld...

So instead of dragging out my girl's weekend I'll just consolidate some highlights of Arizona into one post:

The Joya Spa at our resort was absolute heaven. In the mornings I took a few yoga/meditation classes, but the best part of all was our spa day.  Massages, facials, fancy cucumber drinks spiked with vodka.  Mmm hmm. 

 



This is a shot from one of the stores in downtown Scottsdale.  Such interesting shops with authentic/touristy/fake Southwest memorabilia.  Also great for people watching, and restaurants with tableside made-to-order guacamole.  Drooling...

Sprinkles cupcakes in the middle of Arizona...random...

 

I was wearing heels.  Rach was not.

It's interesting to look back on this trip now...it seems like lifetimes ago.  I can't explain how AMAZING it was to be away, spend quality time chatting with a good friend, having the ability to eat and drink what I wanted, when I wanted, and just be free to AAAHHHH.  Until next year...

Arizon-aahh Day 1

OMG. OMG. OMG. 

There actually aren't enough OMGs available to explain the blissful Arizona vacation Rachel and I endulged in for 4 glorious days and nights.

Our fabulous, fantastic husbands chilled (chilled...ha!) with the kids and we snuck away to the Montelucia Resort in Scottsdale.  OMG.

We arrived in our room and oohed and ahhed over the mountain and pool view.  OMG.

Then we saw the sticker on the door: "To prevent any unwanted desert critters please keep the door securely closed" with a picture of a scorpion.  Umm...I don't think we're in PA anymore.

We grabbed our suits & margarhitas and headed down to the pool.  This was the view.  OMG.

Rachel discovered that the best way to hang in the Arizona summer sun is to sit in the pool with a towel behind our heads.  OMG.

When we got to the resort our doorman drove us to our room in a golf cart (OMG!) and recommended a local legend for dinner called the Tee Pee.  We ended the night with fajitas and (more) margarhitas and were in bed by 8 pm.

OMG.

Happy Birthday America

We have 3 annual 4th of July traditions:

1. Early swim party at Aunt Taffy's house
2. Later block party with the neighborhood peeps
3. Pass out from complete and total exhaustion combined with heat stroke and a beer buzz (the buzz is for the grown-ups, not the kids, duh.)

Ryan and Cole in the tie die shirts and bandanas they made with their nanny Colleen.  For the record, they styled themselves.

In my defense - have you jumped off a diving board lately?  Honestly it's really scary.  Much higher than it looks.

Chilling with Ryan in the shallow end

Are you picking up on a theme here?  Mom hanging on something that floats...it was one of those aaahhhh afternoons

Ry diving off the board...obviously much braver than his old mom.

We left Doylestown early to get back to WC in time for the block party.  Charlie and Dean immediately found their way into the chocolate s'mores cake, yet maintained their innocence with these angel faces.

Dean going in for the hug.

We're starting to rack up a lot of holiday traditions - both big and small - and I really appreciate the ones like these.  And not just because of the beer buzz (this cold heart of mine has a spot for family and friends, too.)

Hope y'all had a great 4th making your own family traditions.