LIFE IS LIKE A BOWL OF CHERRIES
June 26, 2017
This summer we’re trying really hard to enjoy time being outside. We’re lucky enough to be in such a great neighborhood where we find ourselves outside visiting and playing pretty much every evening already, but also taking time to do things we don’t normally do. The other we decided to pick cherries from a local farm for our family activity for the week. We are so blessed to live in an area where there are U-Pick produce stands all over for different vegetables and fruits. So we loaded up the girls and headed out to one of the farms.
The CUTEST elderly man runs one of our favorite stands where everything is paid on an honor system. You weigh and pay for it all yourself. But as soon as we drove up he came out on his golf cart and offered to take us to a nice set of trees. After dropping us off, we looked under the cherry trees and they were covered in cherries! And they were only $1 to $1.50/per lb. Before leaving he told Harper that the rule was for every two cherries she put in her bag, she had to put one in her mouth. She was so proud of herself to pick them right off the tree and spit out the seed all by herself. The first time she spit out the seed half the cherry came out with it, but she said “Look mom! Look” and got juice everywhere! Elle was happily kicking in her car seat happy to be avoiding the heat under the shady trees. We made Marcus do most of the hard work climbing to the top of the ladder. I told him it’d give him a perspective of the clients he deals with at work, but truthfully I was just afraid of crawling that high up onto the ladder! Over the years I’ve developed a phobia of heights!
We ended up picking 15 lbs of cherries! Our buckets were full! Marcus just looked at me and said, “There’s no way we can ever eat these all.” I told him, “Oh yeah. For sure!”…we’ve given away half already! Ha! He knows me too well.
This summer we’re trying really hard to enjoy time being outside. We’re lucky enough to be in such a great neighborhood where we find ourselves outside visiting and playing pretty much every evening already, but also taking time to do things we don’t normally do. The other we decided to pick cherries from a local farm for our family activity for the week. We are so blessed to live in an area where there are U-Pick produce stands all over for different vegetables and fruits. So we loaded up the girls and headed out to one of the farms.
The CUTEST elderly man runs one of our favorite stands where everything is paid on an honor system. You weigh and pay for it all yourself. But as soon as we drove up he came out on his golf cart and offered to take us to a nice set of trees. After dropping us off, we looked under the cherry trees and they were covered in cherries! And they were only $1 to $1.50/per lb. Before leaving he told Harper that the rule was for every two cherries she put in her bag, she had to put one in her mouth. She was so proud of herself to pick them right off the tree and spit out the seed all by herself. The first time she spit out the seed half the cherry came out with it, but she said “Look mom! Look” and got juice everywhere! Elle was happily kicking in her car seat happy to be avoiding the heat under the shady trees. We made Marcus do most of the hard work climbing to the top of the ladder. I told him it’d give him a perspective of the clients he deals with at work, but truthfully I was just afraid of crawling that high up onto the ladder! Over the years I’ve developed a phobia of heights!
We ended up picking 15 lbs of cherries! Our buckets were full! Marcus just looked at me and said, “There’s no way we can ever eat these all.” I told him, “Oh yeah. For sure!”…we’ve given away half already! Ha! He knows me too well.
RIVIERA MAYA, HARD ROCK HOTEL
May 31, 2017
For our 10 year anniversary, Marcus has always wanted to stay at an all-inclusive resort, so we decided to just go for it! And the reviews looked so good, we decided to let our kids come along. We’re all about making memories as a family-even though we got told all the time, “You two have your hands full!” by other tourists, we were so glad we did! The staff loved Harper and Elle and treated them like little rockstars bringing them toys, balloon animals, and little treats. We felt completely spoiled from the beginning to end. It was one of our most favorite trips we’ve EVER done. Our kids loved every minute, and Harper was so excited to meet Barney and Angelina Ballerina! And the unlimited juice boxes, gummy bears, cake and ice cream were a favorite too. For all of us, lets be honest! Harper loved chasing all of the iguanas and growling at them around the resort, until one decided to turn and chase her! We were laughing SO hard.
Our days were filled with going to the beach in the morning and in the afternoon we termed our hours by the pool as “Golden Hours.” Great food, unlimited pina coladas, and Harper had the kid’s pool all to herself! Marcus and I took turns going to the spa and going golfing because it was all included at the resort. When I found out you could have a spa treatment of a chocolate body wrap, I was ALLLL over that. But my favorite thing was not having to make meals everyday! It felt like such a luxury to go and have food prepared everyday and not have to think about what to make for dinner. All the moms out there would be with me on this! Pretty sure we ate our weight at the Brazil Grill and Teppanyaki restaurant.
Harper was so cute as she’d wave to people saying, “Hola!” and “Gracias!” One night she was dancing around, and turned and said “Just Kidding, Guys!” It’s her new go to phrase. But she totally uses it in the right context and everything! Silly girl. And Elle had so much fun splashing in the water. She thought it was so funny to splash her sister, and literally the bigger she splashed, the harder she laughed! She loooooved it. We’re all having major withdrawals after this trip. And trying to talk all of our family to come back with us next time! Ha!
Our days were filled with going to the beach in the morning and in the afternoon we termed our hours by the pool as “Golden Hours.” Great food, unlimited pina coladas, and Harper had the kid’s pool all to herself! Marcus and I took turns going to the spa and going golfing because it was all included at the resort. When I found out you could have a spa treatment of a chocolate body wrap, I was ALLLL over that. But my favorite thing was not having to make meals everyday! It felt like such a luxury to go and have food prepared everyday and not have to think about what to make for dinner. All the moms out there would be with me on this! Pretty sure we ate our weight at the Brazil Grill and Teppanyaki restaurant.
Harper was so cute as she’d wave to people saying, “Hola!” and “Gracias!” One night she was dancing around, and turned and said “Just Kidding, Guys!” It’s her new go to phrase. But she totally uses it in the right context and everything! Silly girl. And Elle had so much fun splashing in the water. She thought it was so funny to splash her sister, and literally the bigger she splashed, the harder she laughed! She loooooved it. We’re all having major withdrawals after this trip. And trying to talk all of our family to come back with us next time! Ha!
For our 10 year anniversary, Marcus has always wanted to stay at an all-inclusive resort, so we decided to just go for it! And the reviews looked so good, we decided to let our kids come along. We’re all about making memories as a family-even though we got told all the time, “You two have your hands full!” by other tourists, we were so glad we did! The staff loved Harper and Elle and treated them like little rockstars bringing them toys, balloon animals, and little treats. We felt completely spoiled from the beginning to end. It was one of our most favorite trips we’ve EVER done. Our kids loved every minute, and Harper was so excited to meet Barney and Angelina Ballerina! And the unlimited juice boxes, gummy bears, cake and ice cream were a favorite too. For all of us, lets be honest! Harper loved chasing all of the iguanas and growling at them around the resort, until one decided to turn and chase her! We were laughing SO hard.
Our days were filled with going to the beach in the morning and in the afternoon we termed our hours by the pool as “Golden Hours.” Great food, unlimited pina coladas, and Harper had the kid’s pool all to herself! Marcus and I took turns going to the spa and going golfing because it was all included at the resort. When I found out you could have a spa treatment of a chocolate body wrap, I was ALLLL over that. But my favorite thing was not having to make meals everyday! It felt like such a luxury to go and have food prepared everyday and not have to think about what to make for dinner. All the moms out there would be with me on this! Pretty sure we ate our weight at the Brazil Grill and Teppanyaki restaurant.
Harper was so cute as she’d wave to people saying, “Hola!” and “Gracias!” One night she was dancing around, and turned and said “Just Kidding, Guys!” It’s her new go to phrase. But she totally uses it in the right context and everything! Silly girl. And Elle had so much fun splashing in the water. She thought it was so funny to splash her sister, and literally the bigger she splashed, the harder she laughed! She loooooved it. We’re all having major withdrawals after this trip. And trying to talk all of our family to come back with us next time! Ha!
Our days were filled with going to the beach in the morning and in the afternoon we termed our hours by the pool as “Golden Hours.” Great food, unlimited pina coladas, and Harper had the kid’s pool all to herself! Marcus and I took turns going to the spa and going golfing because it was all included at the resort. When I found out you could have a spa treatment of a chocolate body wrap, I was ALLLL over that. But my favorite thing was not having to make meals everyday! It felt like such a luxury to go and have food prepared everyday and not have to think about what to make for dinner. All the moms out there would be with me on this! Pretty sure we ate our weight at the Brazil Grill and Teppanyaki restaurant.
Harper was so cute as she’d wave to people saying, “Hola!” and “Gracias!” One night she was dancing around, and turned and said “Just Kidding, Guys!” It’s her new go to phrase. But she totally uses it in the right context and everything! Silly girl. And Elle had so much fun splashing in the water. She thought it was so funny to splash her sister, and literally the bigger she splashed, the harder she laughed! She loooooved it. We’re all having major withdrawals after this trip. And trying to talk all of our family to come back with us next time! Ha!
XCARET
Our day at Xcaret had lots of ups and downs. We started out excited to see the Butterfly Pavilion, Jaguars, Sea Turtles, and Aquariums. But after being there for an hour we were realizing the hot temperatures were quickly wearing on us! So we decided to make our way to the water. So we started on the color coded “white” path and it lead us completely around the park. We were sooooo lost! We walked on it for a mile back to the water, and we were soooo tired by the time we found a spot in the shade.
I stayed back with Elle while Marcus went with Harper to the underground water canals. We thought she’d love it but the water temperature was 75 degrees! After 15 minutes, Harper started saying how cold she was so Marcus and her were able to jump out. But the path they jumped out on was the “white” path again! Marcus ended up carrying Harper in his arms the whole way back to where Elle and I were. His arms were dead by the time he found us, and I shouted out “How was it!?” He looked at me at said, “Awful, we’ve been walking the white path for the last 45 minutes!” (Insert eyeroll emoji-ha!)
After that, we decided to let Harper chase the lizard/iguanas while we hung out in hammocks and got a quick snooze. We headed off for dinner, and were glad we waited to eat because we were able to take shelter when a huge storm hit! It was a downpour, so we were completey stuck in the restaurant. We laughed as we realized it wasn’t such a bad place to be trapped under. We seriously ate SO many tacos, desserts, and chips and guac while we were waiting for it to pass. The whole time the lights were turning off and on and wind was blowing all around. We finally had to make a run for it to make it to the Xcaret show. We had heard really good things about it, so we knew we wanted to stay for it. We were glad we did because it was AWESOME. We only made it an hour and a half before the girls were falling asleep on us, so we decided we should probably head back to our resort. Harper looooved all the macaws everywhere, and she is stiiiilllll is talking all about the “big birds” today.
I stayed back with Elle while Marcus went with Harper to the underground water canals. We thought she’d love it but the water temperature was 75 degrees! After 15 minutes, Harper started saying how cold she was so Marcus and her were able to jump out. But the path they jumped out on was the “white” path again! Marcus ended up carrying Harper in his arms the whole way back to where Elle and I were. His arms were dead by the time he found us, and I shouted out “How was it!?” He looked at me at said, “Awful, we’ve been walking the white path for the last 45 minutes!” (Insert eyeroll emoji-ha!)
After that, we decided to let Harper chase the lizard/iguanas while we hung out in hammocks and got a quick snooze. We headed off for dinner, and were glad we waited to eat because we were able to take shelter when a huge storm hit! It was a downpour, so we were completey stuck in the restaurant. We laughed as we realized it wasn’t such a bad place to be trapped under. We seriously ate SO many tacos, desserts, and chips and guac while we were waiting for it to pass. The whole time the lights were turning off and on and wind was blowing all around. We finally had to make a run for it to make it to the Xcaret show. We had heard really good things about it, so we knew we wanted to stay for it. We were glad we did because it was AWESOME. We only made it an hour and a half before the girls were falling asleep on us, so we decided we should probably head back to our resort. Harper looooved all the macaws everywhere, and she is stiiiilllll is talking all about the “big birds” today.
Our day at Xcaret had lots of ups and downs. We started out excited to see the Butterfly Pavilion, Jaguars, Sea Turtles, and Aquariums. But after being there for an hour we were realizing the hot temperatures were quickly wearing on us! So we decided to make our way to the water. So we started on the color coded “white” path and it lead us completely around the park. We were sooooo lost! We walked on it for a mile back to the water, and we were soooo tired by the time we found a spot in the shade.
I stayed back with Elle while Marcus went with Harper to the underground water canals. We thought she’d love it but the water temperature was 75 degrees! After 15 minutes, Harper started saying how cold she was so Marcus and her were able to jump out. But the path they jumped out on was the “white” path again! Marcus ended up carrying Harper in his arms the whole way back to where Elle and I were. His arms were dead by the time he found us, and I shouted out “How was it!?” He looked at me at said, “Awful, we’ve been walking the white path for the last 45 minutes!” (Insert eyeroll emoji-ha!)
After that, we decided to let Harper chase the lizard/iguanas while we hung out in hammocks and got a quick snooze. We headed off for dinner, and were glad we waited to eat because we were able to take shelter when a huge storm hit! It was a downpour, so we were completey stuck in the restaurant. We laughed as we realized it wasn’t such a bad place to be trapped under. We seriously ate SO many tacos, desserts, and chips and guac while we were waiting for it to pass. The whole time the lights were turning off and on and wind was blowing all around. We finally had to make a run for it to make it to the Xcaret show. We had heard really good things about it, so we knew we wanted to stay for it. We were glad we did because it was AWESOME. We only made it an hour and a half before the girls were falling asleep on us, so we decided we should probably head back to our resort. Harper looooved all the macaws everywhere, and she is stiiiilllll is talking all about the “big birds” today.
I stayed back with Elle while Marcus went with Harper to the underground water canals. We thought she’d love it but the water temperature was 75 degrees! After 15 minutes, Harper started saying how cold she was so Marcus and her were able to jump out. But the path they jumped out on was the “white” path again! Marcus ended up carrying Harper in his arms the whole way back to where Elle and I were. His arms were dead by the time he found us, and I shouted out “How was it!?” He looked at me at said, “Awful, we’ve been walking the white path for the last 45 minutes!” (Insert eyeroll emoji-ha!)
After that, we decided to let Harper chase the lizard/iguanas while we hung out in hammocks and got a quick snooze. We headed off for dinner, and were glad we waited to eat because we were able to take shelter when a huge storm hit! It was a downpour, so we were completey stuck in the restaurant. We laughed as we realized it wasn’t such a bad place to be trapped under. We seriously ate SO many tacos, desserts, and chips and guac while we were waiting for it to pass. The whole time the lights were turning off and on and wind was blowing all around. We finally had to make a run for it to make it to the Xcaret show. We had heard really good things about it, so we knew we wanted to stay for it. We were glad we did because it was AWESOME. We only made it an hour and a half before the girls were falling asleep on us, so we decided we should probably head back to our resort. Harper looooved all the macaws everywhere, and she is stiiiilllll is talking all about the “big birds” today.
ARIZONA, YOU'RE SO FINE
May 3, 2017
Getting the chance to spend a weekend away with my best friend, Laurel, was something we’d been planning for awhile. Originally, we had planned for September but when she found out she was pregnant we both decided we needed a trip away sooner and the dates worked out perfect to meet in Phoenix.
We hit a few of our favorite places like In-N-Out, The Shake Shack, and Sweet Republic for ice cream. But we also got to try Blanco’s Tacos and The Mission. Both two of the highest rated restaurants in Phoenix. The only bad thing was the wait was an hour and a half! We decided it must be worth the wait if it was rated #1 on TripAdvisor, so we thought, “We don’t have kids, we can totally wait!” We were glad we did too, because the table side guacamole was soooo good. We were still thinking about it the next day!
We had such great weather while we were there and spent the mornings relaxing by the pool with our Dirty Diet Cokes, and in the afternoon on Saturday we decided to check out the hype of “Last Chance: Nordstrom Clearance Center.” The place was a nuthouse. Seriously, SO many people there and just racks and racks of clothes. But we both walked out with bags of clothes for SUCH good prices. Before we knew it, we realized we’d been there for 3 hours! Again, something we couldn’t have done with our kids so it was nice being able to shop without feeling crunched for time.
But as much fun as we were having we were both so excited to get back to our kids. Our husbands were so great at sending pictures and videos all weekend. It was my first night being away from Elle, and I was having some serious “mom guilt” being away from her. But the warm sun, palm and orange trees, and cactus provided such a nice getaway. And can we talk about all the cactus!? They were EVERYWHERE and I was obsessed with pointing them all out-they were like right out of a cartoon movie! It was so fun being able to stay up late chatting like we used to in high school, and having “girl time” again. We both decided we’d come back better moms because of it-or at least that’s what we kept telling ourselves!
Getting the chance to spend a weekend away with my best friend, Laurel, was something we’d been planning for awhile. Originally, we had planned for September but when she found out she was pregnant we both decided we needed a trip away sooner and the dates worked out perfect to meet in Phoenix.
We hit a few of our favorite places like In-N-Out, The Shake Shack, and Sweet Republic for ice cream. But we also got to try Blanco’s Tacos and The Mission. Both two of the highest rated restaurants in Phoenix. The only bad thing was the wait was an hour and a half! We decided it must be worth the wait if it was rated #1 on TripAdvisor, so we thought, “We don’t have kids, we can totally wait!” We were glad we did too, because the table side guacamole was soooo good. We were still thinking about it the next day!
We had such great weather while we were there and spent the mornings relaxing by the pool with our Dirty Diet Cokes, and in the afternoon on Saturday we decided to check out the hype of “Last Chance: Nordstrom Clearance Center.” The place was a nuthouse. Seriously, SO many people there and just racks and racks of clothes. But we both walked out with bags of clothes for SUCH good prices. Before we knew it, we realized we’d been there for 3 hours! Again, something we couldn’t have done with our kids so it was nice being able to shop without feeling crunched for time.
But as much fun as we were having we were both so excited to get back to our kids. Our husbands were so great at sending pictures and videos all weekend. It was my first night being away from Elle, and I was having some serious “mom guilt” being away from her. But the warm sun, palm and orange trees, and cactus provided such a nice getaway. And can we talk about all the cactus!? They were EVERYWHERE and I was obsessed with pointing them all out-they were like right out of a cartoon movie! It was so fun being able to stay up late chatting like we used to in high school, and having “girl time” again. We both decided we’d come back better moms because of it-or at least that’s what we kept telling ourselves!
OMAHA, NEBRASKA
April 24, 2017
Traveling to Omaha, Nebraska to visit Marcus’ family was such a personal trip for us. His parents have been spending the last year there on a church service mission and it was only the second time we’d seen them. So it was so nice to be able to visit and have more time introducing Baby Elle to them!
We were able to stop by the Lauritzen gardens on our first day. We were just a little early before all the tulips opened, but it was great to stroll around to see the lego formations and trees that were in bloom. Halfway through Harper turned to us and said she “needed to go potty.” Marcus had to run her back to the main building because we were already a half mile out! I was dying laughing as he put her on his shoulders and I stood there thinking, “I sure hope she doesn’t have an accident!” Luckily, no accidents were had.
Hurts Donuts makes any doughnut into a milkshake, and then adds a doughnut on top of your shake. We were seriously in heaven and walked away with a dozen doughnuts! The flavors were crazy, but Harper was ALL about the “Cookie Monster” doughnut. That afternoon we were able to go to the Omaha Zoo which is rated as the #1 Zoo in the World based on TripAdvisor. Go ahead, look it up, I totally didn’t believe it either at first! Every exhibit seemed like it was out of Disneyland-only the animals were real! We got to watch as the giraffes were herded back to their pen for the night, and Harper got up close and personal with a HUGE gorilla! I totally thought she was going to be scared by it, but she put her face right up next to him. They totally had a “moment.”
The Durham Museum was an unexpected surprise. I didn’t know how Harper would do seeing a bunch of trains but it was honestly, one of my favorite places we toured. The train station was restored from the 1930s and the trains inside were actual passenger trains. I couldn't believe how people travelled back then. I was so impressed with the trains cars and amenities! Elle was the perfect baby as hopped from train to train, and saw lots of memorabilia from the 80s exhibit they had going on.
Everything over the week led up to Winter Quarters. Right outside of the temple is a cemetery where more than half of the gravesite are children ages 3 and under. It was a sobering experience as we sat there as a family holding our children, thinking about what the pioneers had to endure so that we could be together as a family today. We loved taking the tour of the Visitor’s Center there, and Harper passed out hand sanitizer to the Sister Missionaries about a dozen times! Harper looked so cute dressed up in her pioneer getup. The sisters there looooved Harper. And she looooved having people to show off for!
Before catching out flight home we had one more stop and the Bob Kerry Pedestrian Bridge. It was HUGE, but it was so windy out. If you stayed still, you could feel the bridge rocking back and forth beneath your feet. I’ve always wanted to say I’d been in two places as once, and I finally got my chance as I straddled the Nebraska/Iowa border. By the end of our trip I was seriously ready to move to Omaha. The weather, the people, so many things for children to do and see-we decided it has the amenities of a bigger city, but with a small town vibe. And seriously, every where we went, everyone was SOOO nice. Maybe it’s a midwest thing, but people were so patient with our kids. Which we definitely needed on our flight back home when Elle cried the last 20 minutes of the flight. We were so luckily when a stranger behind us offered to hold her, and Elle quieted right up! I couldn’t believe it. But at that point we were willing to try annnnything. We asked her if she could come home with us and help put her to bed-Ha!
We were able to stop by the Lauritzen gardens on our first day. We were just a little early before all the tulips opened, but it was great to stroll around to see the lego formations and trees that were in bloom. Halfway through Harper turned to us and said she “needed to go potty.” Marcus had to run her back to the main building because we were already a half mile out! I was dying laughing as he put her on his shoulders and I stood there thinking, “I sure hope she doesn’t have an accident!” Luckily, no accidents were had.
Hurts Donuts makes any doughnut into a milkshake, and then adds a doughnut on top of your shake. We were seriously in heaven and walked away with a dozen doughnuts! The flavors were crazy, but Harper was ALL about the “Cookie Monster” doughnut. That afternoon we were able to go to the Omaha Zoo which is rated as the #1 Zoo in the World based on TripAdvisor. Go ahead, look it up, I totally didn’t believe it either at first! Every exhibit seemed like it was out of Disneyland-only the animals were real! We got to watch as the giraffes were herded back to their pen for the night, and Harper got up close and personal with a HUGE gorilla! I totally thought she was going to be scared by it, but she put her face right up next to him. They totally had a “moment.”
The Durham Museum was an unexpected surprise. I didn’t know how Harper would do seeing a bunch of trains but it was honestly, one of my favorite places we toured. The train station was restored from the 1930s and the trains inside were actual passenger trains. I couldn't believe how people travelled back then. I was so impressed with the trains cars and amenities! Elle was the perfect baby as hopped from train to train, and saw lots of memorabilia from the 80s exhibit they had going on.
Everything over the week led up to Winter Quarters. Right outside of the temple is a cemetery where more than half of the gravesite are children ages 3 and under. It was a sobering experience as we sat there as a family holding our children, thinking about what the pioneers had to endure so that we could be together as a family today. We loved taking the tour of the Visitor’s Center there, and Harper passed out hand sanitizer to the Sister Missionaries about a dozen times! Harper looked so cute dressed up in her pioneer getup. The sisters there looooved Harper. And she looooved having people to show off for!
Before catching out flight home we had one more stop and the Bob Kerry Pedestrian Bridge. It was HUGE, but it was so windy out. If you stayed still, you could feel the bridge rocking back and forth beneath your feet. I’ve always wanted to say I’d been in two places as once, and I finally got my chance as I straddled the Nebraska/Iowa border. By the end of our trip I was seriously ready to move to Omaha. The weather, the people, so many things for children to do and see-we decided it has the amenities of a bigger city, but with a small town vibe. And seriously, every where we went, everyone was SOOO nice. Maybe it’s a midwest thing, but people were so patient with our kids. Which we definitely needed on our flight back home when Elle cried the last 20 minutes of the flight. We were so luckily when a stranger behind us offered to hold her, and Elle quieted right up! I couldn’t believe it. But at that point we were willing to try annnnything. We asked her if she could come home with us and help put her to bed-Ha!
Traveling to Omaha, Nebraska to visit Marcus’ family was such a personal trip for us. His parents have been spending the last year there on a church service mission and it was only the second time we’d seen them. So it was so nice to be able to visit and have more time introducing Baby Elle to them!
We were able to stop by the Lauritzen gardens on our first day. We were just a little early before all the tulips opened, but it was great to stroll around to see the lego formations and trees that were in bloom. Halfway through Harper turned to us and said she “needed to go potty.” Marcus had to run her back to the main building because we were already a half mile out! I was dying laughing as he put her on his shoulders and I stood there thinking, “I sure hope she doesn’t have an accident!” Luckily, no accidents were had.
Hurts Donuts makes any doughnut into a milkshake, and then adds a doughnut on top of your shake. We were seriously in heaven and walked away with a dozen doughnuts! The flavors were crazy, but Harper was ALL about the “Cookie Monster” doughnut. That afternoon we were able to go to the Omaha Zoo which is rated as the #1 Zoo in the World based on TripAdvisor. Go ahead, look it up, I totally didn’t believe it either at first! Every exhibit seemed like it was out of Disneyland-only the animals were real! We got to watch as the giraffes were herded back to their pen for the night, and Harper got up close and personal with a HUGE gorilla! I totally thought she was going to be scared by it, but she put her face right up next to him. They totally had a “moment.”
The Durham Museum was an unexpected surprise. I didn’t know how Harper would do seeing a bunch of trains but it was honestly, one of my favorite places we toured. The train station was restored from the 1930s and the trains inside were actual passenger trains. I couldn't believe how people travelled back then. I was so impressed with the trains cars and amenities! Elle was the perfect baby as hopped from train to train, and saw lots of memorabilia from the 80s exhibit they had going on.
Everything over the week led up to Winter Quarters. Right outside of the temple is a cemetery where more than half of the gravesite are children ages 3 and under. It was a sobering experience as we sat there as a family holding our children, thinking about what the pioneers had to endure so that we could be together as a family today. We loved taking the tour of the Visitor’s Center there, and Harper passed out hand sanitizer to the Sister Missionaries about a dozen times! Harper looked so cute dressed up in her pioneer getup. The sisters there looooved Harper. And she looooved having people to show off for!
Before catching out flight home we had one more stop and the Bob Kerry Pedestrian Bridge. It was HUGE, but it was so windy out. If you stayed still, you could feel the bridge rocking back and forth beneath your feet. I’ve always wanted to say I’d been in two places as once, and I finally got my chance as I straddled the Nebraska/Iowa border. By the end of our trip I was seriously ready to move to Omaha. The weather, the people, so many things for children to do and see-we decided it has the amenities of a bigger city, but with a small town vibe. And seriously, every where we went, everyone was SOOO nice. Maybe it’s a midwest thing, but people were so patient with our kids. Which we definitely needed on our flight back home when Elle cried the last 20 minutes of the flight. We were so luckily when a stranger behind us offered to hold her, and Elle quieted right up! I couldn’t believe it. But at that point we were willing to try annnnything. We asked her if she could come home with us and help put her to bed-Ha!
We were able to stop by the Lauritzen gardens on our first day. We were just a little early before all the tulips opened, but it was great to stroll around to see the lego formations and trees that were in bloom. Halfway through Harper turned to us and said she “needed to go potty.” Marcus had to run her back to the main building because we were already a half mile out! I was dying laughing as he put her on his shoulders and I stood there thinking, “I sure hope she doesn’t have an accident!” Luckily, no accidents were had.
Hurts Donuts makes any doughnut into a milkshake, and then adds a doughnut on top of your shake. We were seriously in heaven and walked away with a dozen doughnuts! The flavors were crazy, but Harper was ALL about the “Cookie Monster” doughnut. That afternoon we were able to go to the Omaha Zoo which is rated as the #1 Zoo in the World based on TripAdvisor. Go ahead, look it up, I totally didn’t believe it either at first! Every exhibit seemed like it was out of Disneyland-only the animals were real! We got to watch as the giraffes were herded back to their pen for the night, and Harper got up close and personal with a HUGE gorilla! I totally thought she was going to be scared by it, but she put her face right up next to him. They totally had a “moment.”
The Durham Museum was an unexpected surprise. I didn’t know how Harper would do seeing a bunch of trains but it was honestly, one of my favorite places we toured. The train station was restored from the 1930s and the trains inside were actual passenger trains. I couldn't believe how people travelled back then. I was so impressed with the trains cars and amenities! Elle was the perfect baby as hopped from train to train, and saw lots of memorabilia from the 80s exhibit they had going on.
Everything over the week led up to Winter Quarters. Right outside of the temple is a cemetery where more than half of the gravesite are children ages 3 and under. It was a sobering experience as we sat there as a family holding our children, thinking about what the pioneers had to endure so that we could be together as a family today. We loved taking the tour of the Visitor’s Center there, and Harper passed out hand sanitizer to the Sister Missionaries about a dozen times! Harper looked so cute dressed up in her pioneer getup. The sisters there looooved Harper. And she looooved having people to show off for!
Before catching out flight home we had one more stop and the Bob Kerry Pedestrian Bridge. It was HUGE, but it was so windy out. If you stayed still, you could feel the bridge rocking back and forth beneath your feet. I’ve always wanted to say I’d been in two places as once, and I finally got my chance as I straddled the Nebraska/Iowa border. By the end of our trip I was seriously ready to move to Omaha. The weather, the people, so many things for children to do and see-we decided it has the amenities of a bigger city, but with a small town vibe. And seriously, every where we went, everyone was SOOO nice. Maybe it’s a midwest thing, but people were so patient with our kids. Which we definitely needed on our flight back home when Elle cried the last 20 minutes of the flight. We were so luckily when a stranger behind us offered to hold her, and Elle quieted right up! I couldn’t believe it. But at that point we were willing to try annnnything. We asked her if she could come home with us and help put her to bed-Ha!
TACO, TACO, TACO...
April 7, 2017
This week with everyone gone for Spring Break, we decided to stay close to home and slow things down before our schedules start to get a little crazy. The other night we tried making authentic Neapolitan pizza. After spending three hours on it, it turned into a disaster when it wouldn’t slide off our pizza peel. And if you have to look up what a pizza peel is, don’t feel bad, so did we! We turned them into calzones and they only turned out-alright. It was SO disappointing.
So last night we declared it taco night to get ourselves out of the kitchen, and also, out of the house. We stopped by one of our favorite taco trucks. And it was closed. Then we drove to another one-and it had turned into a hamburger truck! So by the third truck we were so hungry! Luckily, they were all only 5 minutes apart. We will never have a shortage of taco trucks living where we live. After ordering, we realized we had gotten 15 tacos-for the two of us! We justified it because they were “small street tacos.” Ha!
After that we headed down to the park, and had the whole place to ourselves. It was so nice being able to spend the evening outside. We got some visitors of a few Canadian geese after a while. Harper wanted to feed all the radishes to the geese because after trying them, she decided they were “spicy.” I was pretty excited too until they started hissing at us! It totally freaked me out, and the mother bird in me completely took over. We also got to see an incredible sunset. I might be biased but I’m pretty sure where we live has the best sunsets-hands down.
This week with everyone gone for Spring Break, we decided to stay close to home and slow things down before our schedules start to get a little crazy. The other night we tried making authentic Neapolitan pizza. After spending three hours on it, it turned into a disaster when it wouldn’t slide off our pizza peel. And if you have to look up what a pizza peel is, don’t feel bad, so did we! We turned them into calzones and they only turned out-alright. It was SO disappointing.
So last night we declared it taco night to get ourselves out of the kitchen, and also, out of the house. We stopped by one of our favorite taco trucks. And it was closed. Then we drove to another one-and it had turned into a hamburger truck! So by the third truck we were so hungry! Luckily, they were all only 5 minutes apart. We will never have a shortage of taco trucks living where we live. After ordering, we realized we had gotten 15 tacos-for the two of us! We justified it because they were “small street tacos.” Ha!
After that we headed down to the park, and had the whole place to ourselves. It was so nice being able to spend the evening outside. We got some visitors of a few Canadian geese after a while. Harper wanted to feed all the radishes to the geese because after trying them, she decided they were “spicy.” I was pretty excited too until they started hissing at us! It totally freaked me out, and the mother bird in me completely took over. We also got to see an incredible sunset. I might be biased but I’m pretty sure where we live has the best sunsets-hands down.
PASSPORTS AND PAPERWORK
March 22, 2017
There are nice people in the world today. I’m sure of it. Did you know you can take your own passport picture? All you have to do is follow a few requirements on the official passport website, and then get them printed at your local Costco. Genius! I’m pretty sure I have one of the worst passport pictures-ever. So without begging the passport photographer for a retake, this is a for sure way to capture the best picture and without having to take a million pictures of your kids.
The day we went to get the girls’ passports, we found out the courthouse closed at 3:30pm. So our plan was to leave the house at 3:00pm and meet Marcus fifteen minutes later. Well, when a blowout occurred, and a quick potty break was needed, and we left the house at 3:15pm. Thankfully, we showed up in line at 3:28pm. Phew! Sigh of relief. We got up to the register and we told her what we were there for and she said, “I’m sorry, we stop taking passports at 3:30pm, and it’s now 3:33pm.” For reals? I knew she had to have seen us standing just two people back for the last 5 minutes! As she saw us struggle with our two wiggly children, she must have had mercy and asked us if we had all the paperwork already. We replied we did, and she said she’d stay and process it. First miracle answered.
When we handed her the paperwork, she asked if I had taken the passport picture, and I responded I had, and she said, “You’ll have to go to Costco or Walgreens and have them take it.” I told her that online I had submitted my photo and it says you can take your own. She then asked another women in the office who responded that you could! Second miracle answered.
We gave her copies of our IDs and birth certificates, and she said she needed two copies. We told her we only had the one and she pointed up to the big sign that said, “WE DO NOT TAKE PHOTOCOPIES.” Ok. By this point, I literally wanted to cry. The tears were going to come, I could feel them as she was sending us away. When an old legal assistant of Marcus’ who works at the courthouse came up and said, “Hi Marcus! I’ll make your copies for you!” Third miracle answered.
Are prayers answered? We sure think they are. That and maybe these women saw a frazzled mom and had some serious grace for her.
There are nice people in the world today. I’m sure of it. Did you know you can take your own passport picture? All you have to do is follow a few requirements on the official passport website, and then get them printed at your local Costco. Genius! I’m pretty sure I have one of the worst passport pictures-ever. So without begging the passport photographer for a retake, this is a for sure way to capture the best picture and without having to take a million pictures of your kids.
The day we went to get the girls’ passports, we found out the courthouse closed at 3:30pm. So our plan was to leave the house at 3:00pm and meet Marcus fifteen minutes later. Well, when a blowout occurred, and a quick potty break was needed, and we left the house at 3:15pm. Thankfully, we showed up in line at 3:28pm. Phew! Sigh of relief. We got up to the register and we told her what we were there for and she said, “I’m sorry, we stop taking passports at 3:30pm, and it’s now 3:33pm.” For reals? I knew she had to have seen us standing just two people back for the last 5 minutes! As she saw us struggle with our two wiggly children, she must have had mercy and asked us if we had all the paperwork already. We replied we did, and she said she’d stay and process it. First miracle answered.
When we handed her the paperwork, she asked if I had taken the passport picture, and I responded I had, and she said, “You’ll have to go to Costco or Walgreens and have them take it.” I told her that online I had submitted my photo and it says you can take your own. She then asked another women in the office who responded that you could! Second miracle answered.
We gave her copies of our IDs and birth certificates, and she said she needed two copies. We told her we only had the one and she pointed up to the big sign that said, “WE DO NOT TAKE PHOTOCOPIES.” Ok. By this point, I literally wanted to cry. The tears were going to come, I could feel them as she was sending us away. When an old legal assistant of Marcus’ who works at the courthouse came up and said, “Hi Marcus! I’ll make your copies for you!” Third miracle answered.
Are prayers answered? We sure think they are. That and maybe these women saw a frazzled mom and had some serious grace for her.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
