Thursday, June 25, 2009

New York City!

We had so many fun plans for this week. Jason and I started off the week on Monday, going to the zoo with our friends Melissa and Hugh. Jason had a great time chasing the birds, and he even feed a giraffe. On Tuesday we had more plans to go to a story time at the mall, and then play outside with our friends in Jason's pool. We even had plans to have dinner at a friend's house. Wednesday we were planning on going to a doctors appointment and then we were going to head off to Fantasy Island for the day. Anyway Monday night Mike came home from work at almost midnight. I couldn't sleep, and Jason woke up shortly after from what I think was a bad dream. Since we were all up we decided to jump in the car and head to NYC! Completely forgetting we had already booked ourselves a full schedule. Mike and I have always wanted to go, and have never been anywhere together, and we thought if we don't just do it, we will keep putting it off, not wanting to spend the money (we are expecting a baby in 7 weeks). So we quickly booked a room online, having no idea where to get one, and printed out directions on mapquest.

I had originally thought that only Mike would be kept up driving, but we all stayed up the whole night, and hit the streets as soon as we made it there (we couldn't check into our room until 3 pm). Jason was SO well behaved. He is usually on a pretty strict sleep schedule and doesn't normally eat the types of food we ate out there. He was a perfect angel in the car both ways, and listened the whole trip, not many meltdowns. I was even surprised he went to sleep so easily with us in a hotel room. He has never even slept in our bed at home.

Anyway we all had a great time and can't wait to go back and see more!

Here are a few pictures. Our camera screen is broken, and we aren't able to see what we are taking a picture of, so some of them came out little lopsided and what not, but we did the best we could.

This was Mike's favorite part of the trip! This is inside of the New Jersey turnpike on our way there. When this underwater tunnel finally ended we were instantly thrown into NYC traffic. It was quite the rush. Thankfully we made it to and from our hotel unscathed. Infact, Mike drove through midtown like a pro, with my navigation help of course ;-)


Since we didn't plan this trip and have never been to NYC we got tickets to "hop on and off" bus tours of the city. Here we are on top of a tour bus. This idea worked prety well being as I am 8 months pregnant and we had our two year old with us. It was a great way for us to get the lay of the land, and take in all the sights of NYC.


Mike and Jason enjoying the city together. These bus tours were Jason's favorite part. He didn't need a carseat and he could see tons of cars on the street, his favorite!



We were excited to see Wall Street!



Here is Jason walking down Wall Street.




This is the NY Stock Exchange.




Mike and Jason at the stock exchange bull (I'm not sure if that's what it is called).





Goofing around!





Just a family shot of us on our first ever family vacation. Our first ever vacation as a couple as well!




This little boy never falls asleep outside of his bed. He even stayed up the entire car ride to the city, from 1:00 am until this picture was taken around 3pm. He was beat! For the record, he is not allowed to have a binky except when to fall asleep at night, but we made an exception for this part of the trip.




Here we are at dinner on our first day (after Jason took a nap of course).




Getting knocked out by Rockey at Planet Hollywood.




Here is Mike and Jason in Times Square, where our hotel was.




This is one of the many McDonalds, unfortunately we didn't make it inside, but it is themed like a broadway theatre.



Here was our view of the Empire State building. I had to include this photo with our favorite tour guide in the top left.



Mike and Jason- Day 2. It rained a little this day so we are all a little wet in these pictures.


Just us! Again don't mind my drowned rat appearance :-)



Mike and Jason getting a Papaya hotdog. I don't think they are as great as Kramer portrayed. I'd much more prefer a hotdog stand hotdog personally. This is our only photo from this Greenwich Village area. It was one of our favorite areas, and we were even mistaken for locals! We also had pizza and French dessert here. We also went into a huge Borders store and found Jason a great book about NYC so he can remember this trip.



This was taken in Battery park, where we went to see the Statue of Liberty. It is our only proof that we had a beautiful caricature of Jason drawn. We ended up leaving it on our last tour bus. We had such a great trip, the buses worked out great, until our last endeavor. It was raining so we jumped on a bus tour of Brooklyn. It wasn't the best part of our trip, it was kind of long, and we were hungry. Since it was the last tour we couldn't get off anywhere because there weren't any other buses coming after this one. Anyway to make me even grumpier the tour guide stopped the bus and went to get himself dinner at KFC! Right in the middle of the tour! Needless to say me and the rest of the passangers weren't too happy with him.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Jason's 2nd Birthday Party!

Jason had his 2 year well visit...
He now weighs 26lbs (25th percentile) and is measuring a whopping 36 inches (90th percentile). He only gained 3 1/2 pounds in a whole year!

Jason had a great time at his birthday party this year. Thank you to everyone that was able to make it. Jason had a day without our usual rules. He ate potato chips to his hearts content, drank as many juice boxes as he wished, and ran around getting dirty the whole day! He loved it. Here are a few pictures of his big day...


Here is a family shot :-)


Here is the Mickey Mouse car cake... The theme this year was Mickey and my wonderful husband did so much of the work decorating the park, and I didn't get a picture of the finished product :-(



Jason with his AUNT Tiffany!



Jason hanging out with his friends Garret and Spencer.




Opening presents... he is so spoiled... thank you everyone!




Again... He did such a good job opening presents this year. He opened each one, and handed me every little piece of paper and tape... so cute!





Family :-)



More family, Michael and my Grandmother.



Family :-)



Our friends, Tyler and Rachel expecting #3... their first little girl!



Here the boys are enjoying the huge park, playing some baseball!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Happy Birthday Jason Ryan

Well my little baby boy is TWO years old, and not so little anymore. I just want to list a few of my favorite things about his little developing personality before I forget...

Jason doesn't talk very much yet, but when you tell him you love he says "mmmwaa" (his blowing a kiss sound) in return. My favorite is when he comes up and says it without being prompted.

Jason has recently found his love for singing. Of course he especially enjoys songs like "The Wheels on the Bus," but lately in church he even belts out the hymns (in gibberish) and really enjoys it. It just melts me.

When Jason is thirsty, instead of saying something like cup, or drink please, he coughs and acts like a little old man with an itchy throat... kind of funny.

My precious little boy still requests every drink be warmed before he will drink it... and if it isn't warm enough he wil give it back and direct you to the microwave.

Jason loves to pretend he is leaving, either in his toy car or out of our front door. He will grab a purse, diaper bag, tool box, or a set of keys and tell me "bye" over and over.

When I put Jason to bed at night he always asks me to kiss and tuck in his stuffed sheep after I kiss and tuck him in.

Jason absolutely loves Handy Manny. He seems to have an eye for all things Manny. No matter where we are, he happpens to spot Manny obects (socks in a shoe store, underwear at target, ect.) If we go back to a store with a Manny object he has seen, he remembers where it is and will direct us to the isle.


I love being Jason's Mom!


We had a special family day the day of his birthday, his party will be this weekend. He started off the day opening presents (at 6:30 am), then had birthday cake for breakfast. Then we went to Chuck E. Cheeses for a bit. For lunch we headed to Red Robin for burgers and pizza, and ice cream sundaes (I swear we normally eat healthy). After dinner Jason's Grandma came over to celebrate with the little guy.


Here are a few birthday pictures...













Saturday, June 6, 2009

I thought today would be as warm as yesterday...

Well, it hasn't turned out to be as nice as I expected today... but 68 degree weather, and some cold wind isn't going to stop Jason from swimming and grilling... no way! So after grilled hotdogs and corn on the cobb, I am looking forward to a long naptime today. Hopefully it will be warmer after Jason's nap, so we can head back outside.

Here is Jason waiting for the sun to come out so he can go for a swim.


He gets so excited to play with water, even if it is freezing, especially the hose... but those pics are for another day. Here he is about to jump into his pool!




We are so thankful that we get to spend most of our mornings with Daddy for the next few months, until he starts working at the accounting firm at the end of the summer :-)




Jason trying to hit a ball or two... like his Daddy.





29 weeks tomorrow!