Summer Vacations

Well, it is midnight here in Chicago and I'm still awake.  I really shouldn't be because I started the day in Buffalo and am ending it here at my house, having packed / unpacked a car, unpacked suitcases and put away clothes, helped with laundry, and gone grocery shopping.  To top it off, Margot didn't sleep well last night.  I think she was starting to miss her bed but she was crying out for me from her bed and so we played a little game of me rocking her, putting her back down, letting her lay with us, putting her back down.  Made for a rough night of sleep.  At 6am she did it again and pointed to our bed, only for the FIRST time ever, she laid down with me and went to sleep.  That hour from 6am to 7:15 or so was the deepest I've slept in awhile and I actually forgot she was in bed with me, but I woke up and she was snuggled against me.  I tried to sneak out to go to the bathroom, but as I got out of bed she popped up with a huge smile and said "hi".  But I digress, I'm probably still awake because I slept a bit during our car ride.  Mark and I split it up and I took advantage of my time as a passenger to catch up on some zzz's.

But back to vacation.  We started out over a week ago travelling to Manchester for the Chicken Broil and to visit with the Harris side of the family.  Girls were very excited to see their Grandparents and their cousins. We got there and helped to set up the swimming pool, and Grandpa also had a giant slip and slide he made for the hill in the backyard.  Both were huge hits, with Mark even taking Margot down the slip and slide - though it didn't elicit much response.  A few pics from the girls playing.

 All three together

Not long after this Ben and Charlie arrived and they all played so well together.  They had a slumber party both nights in G&G's basement, and while there were a few late nights they all had such a great time together.  We ended up going to fly in the plane on Friday...and by we I mean everyone but me.  Margot went up for her first time ever, riding on Mark's lap.  He said she enjoyed it, though being close to nap time, fell asleep on his lap towards the end, waking up only when they landed.  Isla and Sawyer both went up on two separate trips, and both have a great time.  Here is Isla waiting for her turn.

 And Margot and Daddy pulling in from the landing...

We capped off the day visiting some friends and with a great meal at home, and headed out the next day for Buffalo.  The girls did great on the trip and arrived at Aunt Kate's house very excited to meet their new cousins.  Both Rory and Harlow were on hand and all three loved seeing them.  Margot especially surprised me.  She walked right up to Rory when we arrived and gave him a hug and kiss.  So precious.  Isla even held Harlow later on that night and was so gentle.  She would talk in a super squeaky, high pitched voice saying "Hi Harlow, I'm your cousin Isla."  But probably more exciting to them was their cousin Maeve. Aside from a few toy fights the Sawyer, Isla and Maeve played so well together this week.

The camera didn't come out much this trip, but I like to think it's because we were doing fun stuff.  We went swimming, had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, went for visits to see them and out to Taffy's for lunch, we made some bead necklaces for all our girl cousins, got in lots of our favorite Buffalo foods, spent lots of time with Al and Harlow, hung out at Aunt Michelle's, played with our King cousins when they arrived, went to the waterfront with the Kings, helped babysit Rory and Maeve, and Harlow, got in some walks at the Ridge, went to Luke's baseball game, had a big pool party with all of our cousins and most aunts/uncles, and all the adults got together to celebrate my parents' 45th wedding anniversary.  All in all, a great vacation.

This is Isla admiring her hair do from Aunt Alicia.

 A better look at both girls.  They looked so adorable with these braids.  Sawyer looked so much older and beautiful, and Isla reminded me of a flower child running  around.  Both girls slept in the braids and wore them the next day before they had to get taken down for showers.

One of my favorite parts of the trip really was seeing the new babes.  They are just so cute and fun to hold, and I loved that Margot wasn't too jealous.  You could ask her where the baby was and she'd go over to touch their toes or give a mini-hug.  Rory, or Meatball as I took to calling him, is a seriously happy baby and very calm thankfully because Margot loved to lay down next to him.  If he was getting his diaper changed, she would lay next to him.  Here she is on his playmat with him.

 She was pretty gentle around the babies which was nice.  Here she is checking on her little cousin.

I didn't get a picture of Isla holding Harlow, but the night we babysat her Sawyer asked to hold her and so I snapped a quick pic.  Another seriously calm baby - not sure how I lucked out on the drama side of the gene pool - but the girl was quiet as a mouse most of the night.

All in all, everyone had a great time and we were both sad to go, and happy to be getting back to our own home. A big thank you to our hosts - Grandma & Grandpa Harris and Kate & Ryan - because we know we come with a lot of baggage now but our kids (and us) truly love it.

In other home news, just before we left we got two trees taken down.  The one we had initially quoted is in our front yard and probably about 20-25 ft high.  We are getting new landscaping in the front and this eyesore, which we learned was really a shrub that had been growing for many, many years, needed to go. However, during that process we learned our ash tree was diseased (which we kind of already knew) and told that it would come down in the next year or so on it's own if we did nothing.  Because we really didn't want it to fall on ours/Margot's rooms or crush our fence we decided to be proactive.  The pictures are amazing I think and I'm glad Mark snapped them.  This is our previous tree - probably 40-50 ft high.

They pulled a crane into the alley in back and started trimming the branches...  Crazy.  I can't believe that guy is hanging mid-air.

The limbs were as big as our entire backyard themselves, which made me very thankful we didn't wait for this to fall on its own.

And at the end of the day, all that was left was this stump, which has since been grinded down.  Now all we have is a patch of dirt that will soon be re-seeded so that our lawn is full.

There's other stuff on the docket this week - including the return to work, more physical therapy for the hand, and some things planned for the weekend.  Clearly I'm not smart going to bed so late but what can you do...time to fix that.