Saturday we took the kids for their “Back to School Haircuts” even though Eric says they’re not back-to-school when we’ve never been to school.  The kids did awesome.  Paige was talking to her stylist and Drew sat like a champ on the dinosaur chair.  It was pretty awesome to remember what they used to be like getting their hair cut, and now seeing other kids freaking out and crying and our kids so big.  Afterwards we went to the water play area and I told Eric it was a waste of time because the last five times or so the kids have not wanted to play at all.  I’m just not going to make any assumptions any more because all three kids are continually proving me wrong.  They played a long time in that water and were sopping wet.  When we were headed back to the car Eric stopped at Starbucks and picked Paige up an ice water.  It was in a Starbucks cup and you’d think Paige was holding her own version of liquid gold.  It was so cute.  She kept saying Daddy Starbucks.  Awwww.

The other day we were sitting on the potty and Paige said chocolate for poopy?  and I said yikes, Daddy ate all your potty chocolate (bad daddy) but if you go poopy on the potty we’ll go the store.  Her reply?  Starbucks for poopy?  I thought Eric was going to wet himself he was laughing so hard.

Yesterday we went to our pediatric dentist.  I hyped it up all morning and the night before so we were mentally prepared.  The office has a cool play area in the waiting room with a spaceship slide and all.  The kids were playing on the slides and were not apprehensive at all.  We went in the back area and they started to get a little skiddish, but I put them both in the dentist chair together and they were totally fine.  They didn’t cry at all, and opened their mouths great for the dentist.  Good news!  Their teeth are great and we don’t need to go back until six months from now.  Cole was so cooperative they were able to clean his teeth, Paige they just did a flouride treatment on, they’ll clean next visit. 

Today is our first day of school!!  I think we’re ready.  I’ve been talking about it for days, weeks, months.  They know who’s going and who’s not (no Drew or Mommy), they know their teacher’s name, they know Mommy’s coming back when preschool’s over.  I’m certain they’re not even going to cry.  They’re so big now.  My babies are growing up!

Okay…l’ll admit.  When we first kicked around the idea of going on this mega vacation I was hesitant, scared, resistant.  That’s me though!  Now looking back I am sooooo glad I didn’t talk us out of this trip!  We had the best time, hung out with family and did some really cool stuff.  All the things I was worried about just seemed to work themselves out and the whole trip was really easy and nice.  Sigh!  Something I’ve been trying to do since Drew was born is ask myself “would you do it/go if you had just one kid?”, and of course we would go with one kid…so I shouldn’t psych myself out because we have three.

Flying out of Chicago on our first leg of the trip, I remember thinking I just wish the plane would route us back to Phoenix because it just can’t get any better than our time in Chicago.  The weather was perfect, our sleeping arrangements were perfect, there were a ton of parks (and Starbucks) within walking distance of my aunt’s house and the kids were so happy.  They were sticking to their nap schedules, life was good.  It was equally fantastic in NY.  At both my brother’s house and Aunt Amy’s house they had monstrous bedrooms (love those old historical homes) that could easily accomodate all of us.  We bought a pack-n-play our first day in NY for Drew, my aunt in Chicago borrowed a new one for us, which was critical to our sleeping.  Another thing I was worried about before leaving on our trip was Paige sleeping next to us and getting comfortable with that sleeping arrangement and not wanting to sleep on her own again once we returned home.  Luckily with all the sleeping set-ups we had, she only slept next to Cole, and I think she would be glad to sleep in her own princess bed after sleeping with that flipping/mumbling/crazy sleeper. 

The kids were so adaptable and easy-breezy the whole trip it was amazing to watch them.  They were super great on the airplanes (another big worry of mine)…but Eric booked all our flights around their naptimes so they slept the majority of every flight.  Nice!!!  Paige wasn’t freaked out at all by the engines, she wasn’t freaked out by my brother’s two doggies or my aunt’s dog.  In fact, she would chase the doggies around the houses and when we’d go out to dinner she’d say “bye Scooter” and when we were coming home she’d say “Scooter home?”.  So cute!  Now I’m convinced our kids just don’t like Moxie that much.  We may need a smaller younger doggie if Moxie should ever leave us.  Where’s Homer when you need him??  Speaking of Moxie…she had a nice present on the carpet waiting for us when we got home.  Uugh.

Anyways…back to the trip…super glad we didn’t bring carseats.  We wouldn’t have been able to manage if we had.  Super glad we brought our double stroller.  That was key to getting in and out of the airports.  We’d put the boys and our carry-on bags on the stroller.  I’d push the stroller with one hand and hold onto Paige’s hand with my other hand.  Eric would have to carry our two check-in bags.  Not to future self:  make sure all future luggage has wheels and a handle.  Poor Eric had to carry one really old piece of luggage and was able to wheel the other one.  All our hosts were amazing.  Everyone we stayed with had “new” toys for us to play with.  Nikki was able to score us some great stuff we were able to bring home with us from FAO.  Thanks Nikki!  Seriously…are we lucky ducks or what?  We ate like pigs, enjoying that East Coast cuisine and it was great to dine out because Drew could sit in a highchair at the table with us.  Aunt Amy and Aunt Nancy were able to borrow booster seats and highchairs for Drew for those portions of the trip so again we were super lucky.

So…getting to the best part of the trip….seeing everyone!!!  I love all of you!  I love being in your environments.  I so wish we lived in NY so our kids could grow up kissing and hugging all the time (I know I’m still awkward at that public display of affection, but that doesn’t mean mentally I’m not loving it).  I’d love for our kids to be surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins all the time so they’re not so dependent on us.  They absolutely thrived being around you guys and that was awesome!  It was so cool to finally meet the Ghariablets.  I really feel like I know them…even though we really don’t…and I still think Oprah is missing out on a really cool show if she had us all on there.  I am so happy you guys made the drive from Detroit (that was crazy, but it gives me warm fuzzies to know how excited you guys were too to meet us).  I think it’d be great to have you guys out to visit in the summer, especially now that we’ve met and we know you’re not psycho. 

So in summary….I’m looking forward to our next trip to NY and Chi-town.  In fact I’ll be counting the days!!  I’m so glad we made the trip when we did.  I’m glad that my cousins weren’t back in school and were able to hang out with us.  I’m glad that Eric’s family were able to come over each night and spend time with us.  I’m glad we pooped before getting on each of the flights.  I’m glad some genius created Fruit Roll-ups.  I’m glad we have such amazing friends and family that helped to make this the best trip ever!!  Thanks again!!!

Cya Chi-Town!  Hello NY!

Even though I booked all the airplane tickets, I never double checked the flight times.  Now in my defense, I’ve emailed everyone the flight info and no one had corrected me when I said we leave for NY at 6 AM.  The flight to NY Saturday morning was at 6:50 AM instead of 6 AM like I kept telling myself.  So we woke up at 3 AM to get ready and leave for the airport.  All things considered, we could have left closer to 5 AM because we got to the airport, dropped off the rental car, checked in our baggage and made it through security in no time flight.  Why do I have the feeling Tobie is going to hang this over my head for a long time?  On the plus side, it allowed us to get breakfast before the flight.  It was a revolving door of meltdowns until the plane flight.  Once on board, all 3 kids passed out for most of the flight.  We got lucky again on flight #2.

Surprisingly, swinging in NY is very similar than swinging in AZ!

We’re just relaxing and hanging out at Uncle Greg and Aunt Nikki’s house for most of the weekend.  We’ve already had NY pizza twice (okay, I’ve had pizza twice).  I have to say, I like NY pizza better than Chicago pizza.  Both are much better than you can get it in Arizona.  In fact, I wish places in Arizona would stop advertising as NY or Chicago pizza, because they are no where close to being as good.

Cole on a hill!

One funny thing that’s happened on this trip is Cole started calling Tobie by her name instead of mommy.  He’s had some incredible comedic timing when he blurts out her name.  I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard as when he called her Tobie the other day, but with such a tone of disapproval.  It doesn’t translate well to the written word, but trust me, it’s funny stuff.  So for now on, if you are around Tobie with the kids, her name is mommy, not Tobie.  Got it?

“Who are all these people behind me?”

We were definitely nervous the night before the big trip.  It was 2 AM and neither of us had slept a wink.  Coincidently, a huge monsoon rolled in and our windows were getting pelted with rain which didn’t help in the falling asleep department.  So with about 3-4 hours sleep, we got the kids up and dressed and headed to the aiport.  People that know me, know that when I fly I try to get to the airport just as they are about to board the plane.  This has resulted is some very sweaty moments as I’ve had to run around aiports to catch my plane.  That being said, I gave us a 3 hour window from leaving the house to get to the gate.

Only 2 more hours to we land.  We can do it!

Things went very smoothly, almost a little too smoothly. Paige freaked out only once when we were boarding the bus from the parking lot to the terminal.  The bus driver was being nice and lowered the bus so she could get it, but doing so releases a bunch of air and a loud noise.  Man did we get nervous when we saw that freak out.  How was she going to be when the rumbling on the plane starts?  Needless to say, we got the car parked, got the baggage checked in, and made it through the security gate wth almost 2 hours to spare.  Crap, now what?

Getting ready for bed!

We started pulling out all our tricks to get the kids busy at the gate.  We were hoping to save all that for the plane.  Did you know Southwest doesn’t pre-board families anymore?  Would have been good to know before I decided to print boarding passes late.  Thankfully, a nice lady moved for us allowing us to sit in a row together.  Drew fell asleep right away.  After giving the other two bendryl, tylenol, some motrin, and some liquor, they soon passed out too.  We totally trashed the plan, we used all our snacks the entire flight to keep everyone busy and the floors were covered in crushed cheese nips, pretzels, crackers, dried yogurt thingys.  Having Drew in our laps, not the best move.  He is too freaking big and it was soooo uncomfortable.  Anyone notice how all flights are full nowadays?

Our kids totally rocked.  And you guys were nervous, come on!  The funny thing was, behind me, a couple had their daughter who was about the same age as C & P, and they were arguing on taking care of the kid, because she wasn’t dealing well with the flight.  She needs to take lessons from our kids (minus throwing toys, bottles, and food all over the floor)!

Oh yeah,swimming!

On this trip we are getting 3 rental cars and renting car seats on each leg of the journey.  I have to say, the first leg worked out really well.  The car seats are very nice and all 3 fit very snugly in the back seat of our Chevy Trailblazer (no min-vans for us).  I totally botched the rental car rental though. We flew in to Midway, but are leaving from O’hare to NY on  Saturday.  Luckily they are letting us return the car to O’hare, at 4 in the morning mind you!

The kids are doing really great. I think they get the concept of vacation. We are all sleeping in the same room together and Paige and Cole are sleeping on a queen pull out couch.  All that space on the bed, and they end up sleeping on top of each other.  Funny stuff.