Summer Fun: Outdoor Movie

When we found out the 'movie in the park' series was playing The Lorax, we knew we had to take Owen no matter how late it was. The rain cleared just in time for the screen to be set up and we ate lots of snacks and enjoyed Owens most favorite movie.

He was absolutely blown away that he could watch this special movie in the park. It was adorable.

Out to dinner

Tonight we went out to dinner at one of our favorite burger places. The weather was perfect so we were able to sit out on the patio and enjoy the evening.

All of us except this guy.

Because he decided to be THREE instead. #threenager

New York Trip

With Jeremy on his research block we had the flexibility to take a long weekend trip to NYC to visit the newest addition to our family, Finnick Maxwell! We all had so much fun. Here are the highlights.

Gillen was able to spend time with BOTH of his godparents!

Owen was thrilled to "swim" with his floaties on.

Spicy Indian food was bravely consumed by all.

Finn did lots of napping in lots of adorable (photo-worthy) positions.

I introduced Jeremy to the best pizza in the history of the universe to which he replied after eating, "Holy crap! I thought this would be like --- kinda good. This is the best pizza I've ever had."

YUP.

Downside? Owen threw an overtired tantrum one night and was thrashing around so bad in the travel crib that he gave himself a black eye-- that none of us noticed until morning.  First black eye? Check. 

(You can view all of the photos from our trip here)

Fourth of July

This was our first year venturing out to fireworks as a family on July 4th. Owen's best friend William finally moved back to Pittsburgh and since they moved out to the 'burbs we decided to enjoy a crowd-free fireworks show. 

 

These boys were so happy to be reunited. We never really told Owen that William moved away for the year since they made frequent enough trips back to play. But he knew he didn't get to play with his buddy as much as he wanted to and they were so happy to play together all day on the 4th! 

 Since it was "America's birthday party" Owen insisted we have cupcakes. So I had to run out to Target at the last minute and buy a box of Funfetti. First time ever making funfetti and it was a huge hit!

 This blurry photo is the only one of us together on our 5th wedding anniversary. Needless to say we are just happy to be together enjoying our family. I cannot say that the past five years have flown by, but I can say that they have taught me more about unconditional love and respect than I ever thought possible. I'm so proud of the life we've created together.

 (of note: Owen is obsessed with the american flag and went crazy over these shorts when he saw them in Kohls. Since he still wears 18-24 month shorts (skinny boy!) and they only had 2T they are constantly falling off of him. He could care less as long as he has his "United States Flag" shorts on!)

{you can hear Owen singing "Happy Birthday" to America, here.}

Weeknight at the POOL!

 {the cheering section}

A Morning at The Phipps

We visited the Phipps Conservatory on a beautiful morning to see the new butterfly exhibit -- it did not disappoint!

zonked.

The most beautiful pictures ever taken of our family

Jeremy's cousin's best friend does photography in his free time and has taken pictures of their family before. Since we were staying with them for the weekend I asked if he would be willing to take photos of our family since we didn't have 3 yr photos of Owen.

Owen 3 yrs 3 months
Gillen almost 9 months

I have been really happy with so many of the pictures we've had taken of us over the last few years, but these really captured us as a family. We had been in the car for 6 hours that day and neither boy napped - we had to bribe Owen to smile and lots of tickles and silly noises for Gil, but they are perfect! I think they especially capture who Owen is right now.

Three. Climbing. Wondering. Always a stick. Loves Gil.  ----- that's Owen at this moment.

Visiting the Cousins

We have a fun tradition of staying with Jeremy's cousin Mary and her husband Seth on the way down and back from Hilton Head. Their place is a little past the half-way mark so it's a great way to break up our trip. They bought a new house out in the country and we had an awesome time exploring the back-roads of North Carolina.

Owen and Clara Jane get along so well, this time they had fun playing toys, watering the garden and playing in the sandbox while the rest of us talked and drank beer. FUN!

Such a perfect way to end our trip!

Hershey Pennslyvania mini-vacation

Jeremy's time off is few and far between over the next few months so we took advantage of a free weekend and went on a “long car ride” for a “special adventure”.  We landed in Hershey Pennsylvania for what turned out to be one of the best weekends we’ve had as a family. (all of the photos were taken on my iphone)

Saturday we visited Hershey Chocolate World: Admission is free. There were a variety of things to do .  We took the free ‘Factory Tour’ which is a little ride that simulates the chocolate making process. It takes about 10 minutes. You get a piece of candy at the end. We skipped most of the other avities because they were either too advanced for Owen or we didn't want him eating a giant chocolate bar. We spent a few hours at Chocolate World. This was plenty of time for us.  (of course we left with "Reeses" t-shirts. OF COURSE WE DID.)

We stayed the night in a hotel and we were all so exhausted we passed out within ten minutes of laying down.

Gillen had a bagel for breakfast :)

On Sunday we woke up and headed to Hershey Park:  Owen has never been to an amusement park or ridden a ride before. He is also fairly timid. We figured we would spend three hours max at the park. Much to our surprise, we arrived at 10am when the park opened at left at 6pm closing. Owen was tall enough to  ride the vast majority of rides at the park, including one roller coaster! He had a blast on everything, most of the rides you can ride with your child and we saw children as young as 1 riding on some of the smaller rides. There are several rides that will let you wear/carry your baby on. The kids got tired about half-way through the day so they took a nap in the stroller while we walked around Zoo America inside the park. 

 This picture above should be titled BEST DADDY EVER. This was the only ride that Owen disliked. I don't particularly care for the feelings of being dropped either so I don't blame him.

Owen was actually fearless on most of these rides, something we realized will go away once he has awareness of heights and danger. Jeremy took one for the team and went on this ride with Owen which almost made him puke (no way was I riding it, it spun in every direction posssible SUPER high in the air!) 

 

We visited the park during one of three “Springtime in the Park” preview weekends in April. This turned out to be a GREAT time to go. We had a beautiful spring day and tickets were half-price (water park is closed) and we walked on to most of the rides without a wait.

 hanging in the stroller while Daddy and Owen ride go karts.

This was such a wonderful weekend for our little family. We all had so much fun and watching Owen enjoy an amusement park was more fun than enjoying it ourselves. We can't wait to go back next year!