7.17.2008

Back from "Vacation"

We had a great time on our mini-vacation to New Orleans! It feels good to be home, because we definitely all missed David!

We started off our trip with a visit to the Great Grandparents house.



Below you can see my 90 year old Grandpa down on the floor playing ball with Bennett! Nothing stops him. They had a GREAT time playing together! Grandpa is in agreement that we may have a "lefty" on our hands. You should see how far Bennett can throw the ball....






Bennett LOVES Grandpa and kept crawling up on his lap. I don't think he understands how much he weighs! Poor Grandpa kept trying to hold him!
Lila was much too busy practicing her walking...She has made huge progress in the past few days...She is now officially "toddling"...she walks in between furniture pieces, etc...The funny part is that she does not perform on demand. You can try to get her to walk to you all day and she won't. But, then she'll be holding on to the couch (or whatever she is near) and she'll look over at you with a little smirk, then just take off and walk about 12-15 steps! It has to be HER idea!




After our "great" visit, we were off to lunch with the other Great Grandpa. Elise wanted to see where he worked, so we picked him up in the parking lot and pointed at the building! Ha! No way I was unloading everyone for that!
After lunch Elise took a rest in Su Su's bed with little Rex. This was very exciting for her!



After naps, we walked over to G's work to pick him up...He walks to and from work every day and this again was very fascinating to Elise...
When we got back to the condo we were all so excited because Shelley and Gray had come to see us! It was so nice of them to fight the uptown to downtown traffic to come see us.
Right away Elise convinced Shelley to play Hello Kitty Bingo with her! (Thanks Shel!)



And here is a cute pic of Gray and Bennett....Gray was saying something to me about needing someone to climb up the mast (I hope I am saying this correctly) on their sail boat...he noticed Bennett's extraordinary crawling skills and thinks he may be the "man" for the job!!! I told Gray we were still working on walking at this point and I didn't think he needed to be working on the sail boat just yet!



Later that night before bed G got attacked by babies!!!



Everyone slept great! (Well, except my poor Mom who has a terrible cold- can you believe she still let us come??! I can..that's just how she is...self-less) Anyway, this was very encouraging to us because we have a family beach trip coming up and we were very nervous about how Lila and Bennett would do in pack n plays. They have never really slept anywhere other than their bed. So, luckily, naps and bedtime went relatively smoothly on this "test" run....

The next day we headed over to the Children's Museum! Only recently Elise has started watching Mr. Rogers (or as she says Mr. Razz-zha) and so I knew she would LOVE the Mr. Rogers Neighborhood Exhibit, which she was completely uninterested in last time...I was right! (It happens now and then!)
Below is Elise watching Su Su on t.v., while Su Su is in the King's Castle...



And here she is on Mr. Razz-zha's front porch swing!



Lila and Bennett had lots of fun in the toddler area as well. There were many items to climb on, which they LOVED!



Here is Elise doing a puppet show. I loved that she chose the wise old owl...Reminds me of my good old Chi O days...



We had such a good time...We also got to take a trip to Whole Foods, which Elise agreed was the prettiest grocery store ever! I wish we could feed our family with food only from there! Everything is soooo yummy and pure!! We picked up some fruit and a few snacks to bring home with us....

Overall, it was a very nice "break"...It has been a challenge for me to think of creative ways to entertain 3 under 3 this summer, so we are most often at home...so I think the kids and I both needed a little change in our routine...We did pack a lot into a few days, but it was so nice to visit friends and see the sites in New Orleans- without driving back and forth and back and forth...
Think we may have to do this one more time this summer (Mom and Dad- are you ready???)!!

On another note, Mo is not feeling well at all, so we all wanted to wish her a "FEEL BETTER SOON!" We love you!!
Also, *Happy Birthday Bonnie Kate!*

Hope everyone has a good day!
Love, Nicole

5 comments:

Davis and Suzanne said...

Looked like SO much fun!!!
Cute pics!!

Susan said...

It really was fun! Next time we should fit in a ride on the streetcar (or trolley as Mr. Rogers calls it). It is very quiet here - almost too quiet!
Love, Mom

The Petro Family said...

Precious pictures! Where did you get that precious outfit that Bennett has on in the first pictures! It's so hard to find boy clothes.

monique said...

looks like ya'll had a great mini vacation---I LOVE all the pics!!!

I'm starting to feel a little better---thanks so much for thinking of me!!!!

I've got to get rid of all this sickness before our beach trip---I've been waiting for this trip for MANY, MANY months now----and, I can't wait to see my 3 cutie pies!!!! Love ya'll! MO

NIKKI said...

Go Lila!!!
Looks like a GREAT mini vacation! Cute pics!