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Bloggings, Family, Travel

Visting with Lola

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The hatch messed up this morning and turned off at 7. Lucas probably would have slept longer, so that was a little annoying. He seems a bit congested today. We had bagels with Khris and Jess then we got ready to go to Lola’s house. 

When we got there she had breakfast ready also haha but that was good because we hadn’t ate much. Lucas went out on the balcony that overlooks the pool. Suddenly workers came and took off the tarp over the pool! So that was fun for him to watch. 

Then we drove over to a nearby park–Carver’s Park. There was one other little boy there with his mom and dog. He showed Lucas how to throw sticks to the dog. Then they ran around together. 

We got super lucky with fire fighters parking there and practicing their hose skills. That was really cool to watch. We watched them pack up the hose then they asked if Lucas wanted to look inside and they gave him a hat.  He loved it.

it was hard to get Lucas to leave this park so I convinced him to walk back with me. It was about a 10 minute walk. Don drove Lola back.

We decided to have him nap at Lola’s. We laid in the bedroom together and surprisingly he fell asleep pretty quickly.

After nap Lucas had some Jello and around 4:30 we all went over to Jonathan and Wighanda’s house. Lucas was happy to see his cousins. They enjoyed playing frisbee and on the trampoline. Lucas was obsessed with Raiden’s Optimus Prime. He wants one so bad. He also really enjoyed riding on their electric cars.

We ordered Maggiano’s and then we headed back to Khris and Jess’s.

Bloggings, Family, Travel

ORD to LGA

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Today we left for O’Hare around 9 am. We are heading New Jersey/NYC to visit family and go to Miguel and Tracy’s wedding. The parking was full again at O’Hare so we got lucky and got to park in the close garage again.

It was my first time using my TSA precheck and it was amazing, not having to take anything out of your bag or take off shoes is a game changer.

We had a nice window seat at our gate and got some McDonald’s for lunch. Lucas really enjoyed watching our plane get ready. He waved at the workers outside and some of them even saw him and waved back!

We did get a little surprise when we opened the stroller bag and prepared it for going through security—the combine from the movie Cars. We had given it to Lucas as a gift on our last flight last Labor Day and we hadn’t been able to find it since. He would ask about it from time to time and we would just say we think we left it at the airport, but turns out it had been in the stroller bag this whole time! Lucas was happy.

Surprisingly, Lucas did not sleep at all on the flight. It was weird because it was nap time. I think it was because we let him sit by the window and he couldn’t get comfortable. He was good though, he watched Cars, colored, and read books. He enjoyed the apple juice and cookies provided by American Airlines.

We arrived at the new terminal in LaGuardia. It was very nice, super impressive. They had this really cool fountain. It was mesmerizing and Lucas did not want to leave it. We took our shuttle to Hertz. Then we made the mistake of loading the car seat into a Chevy Equinox before adequately checking the trunk space—it’s non-existent. So then we switched to a Ford Escape. It feels old and everything on the dashboard is annoyingly placed but it got the job done.

Lucas slept all the way from LGA to Pearl River. We are staying the first 3 nights with Khris and Jess. Before going to their place, we picked up a few things from the grocery store.

When we got to Khris and Jess’s house, Lucas wanted to play outside immediately. We went to the yard and Lucas got a kick out of Khris showing him how to pick up sticks. Khris made an excellent dinner of steak, chicken, sausage, broccoli, Mac and Cheese, and mini corn dogs. Lucas ate pretty good and Jess gave him an Easter Pez Dispenser. He was really excited about it and wanted to try it out. I forgot how terrible Pez smelled, like medicine. But Lucas enjoyed it.

After dinner Khris made a fire and we roasted marshmallows. Lucas had fun gathering sticks for the fire. He said a few times, “I can’t believe we are here at night making a fire.” I think he had a lot of fun.

It took a lot for Lucas to calm down for bed. We are using his travel air mattress for the first time. He finally fell asleep around 10.

Bloggings, Family, Travel

11 Year Anniversary Weekend

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Today we celebrated our 11-year wedding anniversary. It was also the first time we had a night alone since Lucas was born! Lucas had a sleepover with my parents.

I was really worried about the sleepover, only because Lucas was up a lot last night saying his ears hurt. We had actually taken him to an urgent care last night because he said his ear hurt and he had a elevated temperature. The doctor said his ears looked fine though and he wasn’t running a fever.

After a little debate this morning we decided to head down to Paxton. We had the last pool day of the season at The Bennett’s pool. It was a lot of fun, a little bit chilly. Lucas seemed to be doing just fine and was not complaining of feeling unwell, so we decided to go ahead with our original plans to go out to dinner and stay the night in Champaign.

We chose to eat at a new steakhouse in Champaign called Hamilton Walker’s. We thought it was very good. I didn’t think the appetizers were very appealing, but we got the bacon wrapped dates. The best part was the bacon but after awhile the dates were too sweet for me. We both got old fashions and they were delicious. For dinner I got the strip steak and Don had the ribeye, both were very good. For sides we ordered mashed potatoes and green beans. The sides were ok. Overall, it was a very nice dinner and good to be out.

After dinner we were stuffed and ready to get some sleep! It was weird going to bed without Lucas but we were also ready for it. We knew Lucas was having fun with his grandparents. He went on a walk to the Swine ‘N’ Dine festival in Paxton.

Even though we were without Lucas we still woke up pretty early, around 7. Then we decided to get some breakfast at Le Peep. It was pretty good. Luckily, we got there early because they were really understaffed so half of the restaurant was closed and the wait time got really long. After breakfast we drove by Don’s old apartment on Hill Street. Then we headed back to Paxton.

Before heading back to Chicago, we walked with Lucas over to a park. It feels hotter today than it did yesterday! We also made a quick stop to visit my grandpa since he had hernia surgery yesterday. Lucas loves his old papa. It was a great anniversary weekend and we are so happy Lucas had a good night with his papa and gigi.

Bloggings, Family, Travel

Last day in san antonio

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Today is our last day in San Antonio. It was short trip but good to see Kelsey and Jared. We went to a Mexican place for breakfast. I am forgetting the name right now but it was pretty good.

Then we had some time to kill before going to the airport. We tried to go to a few parks but they were not so nice. The first park we tried was San Pedro Park. There were a lot of homeless people and it just seemed not safe. Don found another park not too far from it called Crockett Park. We didn’t even get out of the car here because there were homeless sleeping in the playground. So then we decided to go back to Kelsey and Jared’s.

We walked to a nearby park called Lion’s Field Playground. Don drove the van over so we could just leave from here to the airport. The park was very nice! Lucas played here for about 30 minutes then my dad went over to Shake Shack to pick up shakes for us for he drive to the airport.

Taking the car back and getting through security went pretty quickly. I tried to get Lucas to eat some pasta since he really hadn’t had lunch but he didn’t want any. At one point when I left to get a drink so did my dad and my mom, Lucas said “Where did they go?” and Don said “to get drinks” Lucas said “I want a drink” so Don said “ok what do you want?” and Lucas said “a beer”.  Hahaha

The flight was good. Lucas slept most of the way. He woke up with about 40 minutes left and he was so cranky. Luckily we got him to calm down. Now we are ready to plan our next trip!

Bloggings, Family, Travel

San antonio: the pearl and swimming

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Lucas woke up so early today, around 5:30. We got him to stay in bed until around 6:45. Once we got up and were trying to get out of the house Lucas was throwing crazy tantrums. He got his toys taken away and then he cried and screamed all the way to breakfast. It was about a 15-20 minute drive. I have never seen him have a tantrum this bad.

We had breakfast at Snooze. I love their egg benedicts. Lucas got out of his fit and did good here. After breakfast we went over to The Pearl Farmer’s Market. It was a nice day to walk around and Lucas got to play in the splash pad.

After the farmer’s market we went back to Kelsey and Jared’s and Lucas had some mac and cheese. He had a rough time going to nap and it was also a rough time after nap when we tried to get ready to go to the pool. Today has really been a struggle.

Kelsey had reserved a pool on the app Swimply. It was pretty cool. It’s a cool concept that people can rent out their pools while they are not using them. Lucas was swimming around really well.

On the way back to Kelsey and Jared’s we ordered some Mexican food from a place called Tito’s. We ate outside on the deck. The food was so good!! The queso was awesome.

After dinner we went on a little walk around the block a few times.