The Ultimate Granny Nanny (and Grandpa ; )

Earlier this month Taber and I left the kids for a week to celebrate our 10 year Annivesary. You might think, "Oh those poor kids! Left behind for a whole week!" but don't feel too bad for them, I'm sure they had more fun than we did thanks to my parents, (a.k.a. the ultimate babysitters. : )

Grandma and Grandpa got in late at night, so when the kids woke up and saw they were there it was like Christmas morning.

Even our dog was excited to see them.

 We took them out to dinner the night before we left as a pre-THANK YOU! for being brave enough to watch our kids for a week. (we figured it might be good to butter them up before we threw them back into a such a demanding stage of parenting : )

We really had nothing to worry about though. My parents are seasoned pros when it comes to kids (and grandkids.) They're kind of like the Olympic gold medalists of child rearing. (Seriously.) Here are some of the things they did to earn their gold medal status.

Chuck E Cheese, with 3 small children, on a Saturday night. 

That takes guts! No pictures but the kids mentioned it several times so I know they had a blast. : )

Making and decorating sugar cookies. (the secret to a 5 and 3 year old's heart)

Crafts, crafts, and more crafts! Including coloring and putting together this playhouse that Brinley's preschool teacher brought over. A week after they left Teya was still talking about how much fun she had doing crafts with Grandma. 

McDonalds' playland. Another brave adventure when it comes to keeping track of the girls and keeping wild man Cam off the floor when all he wants to do is crawl around.

A visit to the doctor's office for poor little Cam who was struggling all week with a terrible chest cough and wouldn't sleep through the night.  My mom thought he might have an ear infection but the doc said it was just a very bad cold.  I really appreciate my mom for taking him in to be sure, and I really appreciate my dad for getting up with him in the middle of the night every night! That's love : ) 

Another act of love was my Dad's personal mission to take care of every fix it project in our house. He fixed our mailbox (which had rusted off the metal and completely broken off after the snowstorm) he fixed all my curtain fixtures that the kids had pulled down or out of the wall, he tightened all my loose cupboards, mounted toilet paper holders and towel holders in our bathrooms, cleaned out, vacuumed, and scrubbed our cars and shampooed all the carpets and stairs. It was so amazing to come home to a clean and organized house. My dad is the coolest : )

Of course my mom did her fair share of cleaning too, including mopping my floors, cleaning out our garage, washing all the laundry, washing all the bed sheets, the comforters, and even my curtains! 

 She also helped the girls make me a birthday cake, decorate the house with balloons and birthday signs and wrap little presents so I could celebrate my b-day with them when I got home.  

I was already just so happy that they were watching our kids, I couldn't believe they did so much on top of that. I really feel blessed and lucky to have such amazing and thoughtful parents.

 Even though we had a snowstorm the week before they came, the weather warmed up and they were able to spend a lot of time outside and at the park.

I found these pictures of them playing with the kids at the park and they just about melted my heart.  Seeing my Dad so relaxed and in his element as a grandpa is the best.

And I LOVE this picture of my mom and Cam. You can tell they're both just so happy.

Little man didn't miss me at all with such a wonderful grammy to snuggle.

The smiles on the kids faces say it all. 

Grandma and Grandpa can babysit any time!!

Wolf Girls...and Dad

Why do I love Twilight? Same reason I like junk food. It's good, it's addictive, and it's fun to enjoy with other people. Nothing wrong with a little junk food every now and then. Moderation in all things right?

While I was in Utah last week I indulged in a little New Moon brain candy with my mom, two of my sisters and our friend Kristen. We all wore Wolf Girl shirts, even my mom because she's awesome like that.

Somehow my Dad ended up joining our girls night out. He made some excuse about how he never sees Mom and something about date nights and blah blah blah... We all know he's big time team Jacob. Just own it Dad. Own it.

We got to the theater an hour early so we could have the perfect seats. It was actually great that Dad was there because then he could take pictures for us. And since I am me, I made him take a lot of pictures. I guess everyone was making weirdo faces in the other ones though so here's one with everyone normal (except for me, but I was pretty excited that night I guess this one works.)

So I have to say, I totally loved the movie. I thought it was TONS better than the first one, and I loved that one too. So yeah, I was pretty happy. Acting, script, makeup, all of it was better. Yes there were some laugh out loud cheesy moments (flash forward of Bella and Edward the bohemian vampires running through the forest, hilarious!) But I thought the Wolves were awesome and the Volturi were exactly how I imagined them. The Facepunch movie scene was SO funny and the Edward, Jacob, Bella love triangle was well played. Great movie, great night, and everyone had fun (especially my Dad : )

S is for Sista!

Before I had kids, when my sisters would come out to California to visit me it meant time to play hard! We would hit the beaches, go to theme parks, restaurants, and do some serious shopping. Now that we have kids our sister visits have changed quite a bit. Since small children do not love shopping, don't do well in restaurants, and have to take naps, we adjusted our agendas. Our motto for Sarah's visit last week was Mother's by day, Sista's by night!

During the day we planned fun activities for the kids, museum visits, kid friendly food joints, apple picking, etc... Then at night, Taber would stay with the kids and we'd go out for ladies night fun! We managed to fit in a couple late night movies at the theater, hit up some great restaurants for appetizers and dessert, enjoy haircuts and manicures at the spa, and get in some good shopping! The whole week was extremely theraputic and I can't thank BOTH of our husbands enough for making it possible! Here are some of the highlights of our week together.

MOTHERS BY DAY:

First I introduce you to my sister's cutie bug Noa, he is 4 weeks younger than Brinley so it's kind of cool that we were pregnant at the same time.

And now on to our week! We took the kiddos to the Minnesota Children's museum on Wednesday. They played so hard that on the drive home all three of them spontaneously burst into tears and wailed all the way home. It was so crazy and funny at the same time, all we could do was laugh. When we put the kids down for naps we attempted to learn the Beyonce Single ladies dance. haha! yeah...

On Thursday we had a kid friendly lunch with a some of my friends and then met up with Taber at his work so Sarah could have a tour of the headquarters. I was so glad we brought the kids because Teya was THRILLED to see her Daddy at work and clung to him the entire time.

On Saturday after some girl time in the morning we put the kids in their Halloween costumes and went to the Mall of America to do some trick or treating at the theme park.

We met up with our friends, Cameron and Wendy and their cute little lady bug, Miley.

It was great to have our friends there to take a picture of all of us together! The kids weren't really feeling the photo op but we'll take what we can get : ) Sarah got some shopping in and we hit a couple roller coasters with Cam and Wendy. Teya also rode the some kiddie rides all by herself for the first time!
On Sunday we went to church and then took the kids on a walk to the little jungle gym by our house. It was cute seeing Noa and Brinley play together.

On Monday we went to our favorite apple farm for apple picking, fresh apple donuts and cider. Some of the apple's had frost damage from the snow earlier in the week, but most of them were still good and we got a pretty decent loot.



SISTA'S BY NIGHT!

Taber is THE MAN and happily stayed home with the kids every night so Sarah and I could go out and par-tay! It was the most liberating thing to put the kids down, change out of our mommy clothes and go out at night. I forgot how fun it can be to just drive around in the car when you don't have to wrestle kids into car seats or throw snacks into the back to pacify fussy children. It was also so awesome to plug in my iPod and BLAST my own music while we drove. I used to love rocking out in the car but Teya isn't a fan of my music and definitely doesn't like it loud. We usually just end up singing kid songs till my voice box is swollen and my brain has turned to mush. So yeah, rocking out to my own music was blissful liberation.

One of the best parts about going out later was that we weren't battling any crowds at the restaurants or theaters. On Tuesday night we saw My Sister's Keeper at the dollar movie and had the whole theater to ourselves. It was like our own private viewing and we definitely got a little hyper ; )

On Wednesday night we hit a big sale at Kohl's and stayed there till they closed at 10pm, then we went over to the Theater to see the 10:30pm showing of Fame. Once again we had the whole theater to ourselves and took advantage of the chance to stand up and dance to the music, boo and cheer out loud, yell at the characters, and just act like nerds. I know I'm getting older but hanging out at night with my sister made me realize that I'm not THAT old and that I can still go out and get a little crazy. Here are some pics of us in the empty theaters, we couldn't resist ; )

Friday we had a spa day and Sarah cut 8 inches off her hair. With our new matching hairdos we got dolled up to go to Biaggi's for appetizers and dessert.

It was funny to see people react to how much we look a like. The guy pouring our water looked at me and smiled, then he looked at Sarah and did a double take to look back at me and said, "okay, I'm confused now." Then our waiter asked us if we were twins. We said, "No, just sisters." And then he said, "Oh, so are you the same age?" We were laughing pretty hard at that one.


Later in the trip we went to Redstone, my favorite restaurant for fondue, and we also stayed up a couple of the nights to play Pounce and watch some chick flicks at home. By the end of the week I was definitely tired from all the late nights! But it was soooo worth it to feel so girly and to have such great bonding time with my sis. : )

Friday Foto: Sister Time

My little sister Sarah is in town.
I'm definitely getting my fun fix for the week.
Yay for family!

Friday Foto: Moon Face

So this last week we've been in Utah with my family and I've been able to look at a lot of funny old pics of growing up. Here's a little treasure. The chubby moon faced two year old is me, and the chubby squishy baby is my little sister Naomi. I was obviously thrilled to take this picture. I'm gonna have to scan a bunch of the other gems I found and post them in later Friday Foto ops because it's really almost criminal to see some of the hair cuts my parents subjected me to. Anyway, love being with family right now and will be sad when it's time to go. : (

Salt of the Earth

I'm going to start this post by saying up front that I totally hit the jackpot when it comes to parents. I adore my Mom and Dad. They uplift me, support me, and always make me want to be better. They were able fly out last weekend to watch the girls while we ran our race. In true grandparent fashion, they showed the girls the time of their lives. They had so much fun that when we came back, instead of being greeted with a "Mommy I missed you!" Teya took one look at me, clung to my mom and said, "I don't want Grandma to go bye bye!" Guess I can't blame her really. It's not like I ever take her to the Mall of America and let her ride all the rides, buy her matching bracelets and necklaces or let her pick out her very own slimy tree frog from the Rainforest Cafe. Yeah, I'm definitely not as cool as Grandma. : )

My sister Naomi came out too to help with the kiddos and to support her husband Kevin (who ran with us) at the finish line. There really aren't words to describe how happy it made me to have my parents and sister in town to support us. They are the kind of people that I hope to be. Just good, through and through.

After the race my parents stuck around for a couple days. I loved watching them with the girls and seeing them do all the things I adored as a child. Swinging Teya by both hands through the parking lot, giving her quarters for the gumball machine, singing songs in the car and my Dad's famous "buzzard" tickle finger.

I was also amazed at what a cleaning machine my mom is. I mean, I try to be pretty productive but my mom puts me to shame! For example, after I cook dinner, I'm done. I slaved away making it, I shouldn't have to clean it up right? Not so for my mom. She cooks it, cleans it, then follows us around and as soon as we put our glasses down they are rinsed out and loaded in the dishwasher. I felt like I had this cleaning fairy following me around. I got out of bed then turned around and she had already made it. Threw my clothes in the hamper and two hours later they were washed and folded on my dresser. Wow! the lazy part of me just wants to invite her to move in, but my better side tells me I need to take a cue from my mom and step it up in the cleaning department!

It was also cool being around my Dad. He is the embodiment of the Aloha spirit. He is warm, outgoing, friendly and fun. When we were at church I didn't need to introduce him to anyone. He just went from person to person, introducing himself and making friends. "Hi I'm Becca's Dad!" "How are you? I'm Becca's Dad!" By the end of church I found him in the hall hugging people. Love that guy!
When I was a teenager I was told that my parents were the salt of the earth. At the time I was like, "uh, whatever dude." (forgive me mom and dad, I was a teenager!) Now though I see very clearly that that is what they are. They are good, wholesome, humble, unpretentious, and just always seeking to lift others. I'm so glad my girls got to be around them and have their undivided attention for a few days. I'm also glad I got to be around them and to learn from their examples of how I can be better in every way. Thanks Mom and Dad, you guys are the BEST!

Chicago get away!

When my sister moved to Chicago 5 months ago I was so excited to have family within driving distance. It took us awhile but we finally got a road trip organized and headed out there over the Memorial Day weekend. Naomi and Kevin showed us a great time and really packed in the fun. Here are some pictures from the day we went on a tour of downtown Chicago.

We took the train from the suburbs where they live into the city. It popped us out right in front of the enormous Sears tower. It was quite the sight to see coming out of the train station.



I really wanted to check out the Navy Pier area so we hopped on a water Taxi and headed towards the pier.
Teya couldn't believe she got to ride on a train and then a boat! Brooklyn and Brinley loved it too and all three of them spent the majority of the ride hanging onto the side of the boat and staring out at the busy city.


When we got to the Navy Pier there so much to do it was hard to know where to start. Teya really wanted to ride the "steering wheel" (aka Ferris wheel) so we decided to start with that. When we got closer though she decided it was too scary we opted for a carousel ride instead.



While we were there we also grabbed some Chicago hot dogs (which was the one priority I had going to Chicago)And we stopped for some ice cream because calories don't count when you're on vacation, right?

With all the traveling and excitement our little girls got pretty tuckered out. Brooklyn took a nice nap on Kevin's shoulder and later on Brinley passed out in Taber's arms and slept there for quite awhile.

After the Pier we had about 2 hours to get back to the train station so we started walking since that's about how long it takes with a pokey 3 year old and two little girls. It was cool walking through the city and taking in all the big buildings. We stopped at Millenium Park to check out "The Bean". It was even cooler in person than in the pictures.


The girls did great on our long adventure in the city. Teya and Brooklyn fell asleep on the train ride home and never woke up again till the morning. Brinley on the other hand got such a great power nap in Taber's arms that she was in hyper mode until about 11 o'clock when we finally got her to sleep.

It's definitely awesome having family that lives near such a cool city. I'm sure we'll be back again to explore some more!