Ryan's Birthday

Rain cancelled baseball Friday, so Isaac was able to meet up with my brother Joe at Arnold's Go Karts. He had inherited a gift card from a coworker. Isaac had a blast with him.  I was a bit lonely at home on a Friday night with no Isaac and no Ryan.  Isaac didn't come home until after 10 o'clock!  Miss Banana happened to be up, so Joe got to squeeze in some time with her.  He calls her a meatball, which is pretty apt these days.

Saturday Isaac had a baseball game.  My dad drove in to see it and to keep me company since Ryan was working.  It was a nice spring day and afterwards he was able to come back to the house for a bit to fix something of Isaac's.

Isaac then went to spend some time with his dad and Banana and I headed into the city to see my friend Becca and her baby Wolfie (and yes, our kids have normal names like Hannah and William and we just chose to refer to them by bizarre nicknames.)  Her neighborhood was hosting the Kinetic Derby (you can read about our adventures at the Derby last year here).  We missed the actual race but there was still live music, booths, and food trucks.  We did catch this one biking away.  There were pictures on the panels that created a mini-movie as the cylinder spun. 

Then Hannah and I were off to meet Ryan at the Phillies game.  Ryan had asked to go to a rock concert for his birthday, but I feel like I am too old to be on my feet all night, listening to screaming and elbowing my way through crowds of middle schoolers.  His second choice was a Phillies game.  Baseball games are usually my personal hell, but I did it for Ryan.  I felt bad going to a MLB game without Isaac, but they had a special promotion going that if you brought a canned good you got a voucher for a free ticket.  Ryan said that he will use the vouchers to take Isaac.  We had some interesting characters around us and in true Ryan fashion he had made friends with all of them by the end of the game.  This was my favorite photo of the night.

  

 

Total photobomb for our family selfie. I could see him in the view finder, hence my cracking up but I guess Ryan didn't see him.  The ushers took a special liking to Hannah.  They arranged for the Phanavision guy to put Hannah on the big screen.  He did a close up of her little round face.  A coworker of mine was at the game and texted me that she saw us.

As usual, Hannah was ridiculously good and seemed to love looking around at all of the action. 

The next day we did church, picked up Isaac and did a soccer scrimmage.    We rounded out the weekend with a cake and candles. 

.

Happy Birthday Ryan!  We love you so much!

Favorite Holiday

We had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you did too.  Ryan, Isaac and I spent Christmas Eve with my family.  Jenny and Drew have been here for several weeks and Joe slept over.  Tom and Kelly Ann joined us later during the day on Christmas.

My mom has so many fun Christmas decorations.  She collects Nativities and has tons of them.  It is always comforting to go home and see all of the familiar holiday decorations.  Here are a small sampling of her collection.

Christmas Eve was a low key night.  We were going to do the light show at Hershey, but there was actually too much snow falling.  We set off but turned around after a few miles, since the roads were quite slippery.

Isaac did a great job waiting until 7:00 until her got up (despite a false alarm when he misread the clock at 1:00 in the morning). Isaac got me so many thoughtful presents and it was adorable because he could barely wait to give them to me.  I had to beg him to wait until Christmas.  This stamped coaster was my favorite gift from him:

 

Isaac made himself photographer for a while and here are the blurry results:

Ryan liked all of his gifts, but especially his tortilla pan set:

My parents got us a zoo membership and Ryan got me the Up fitness band, a beautiful pearl necklace and a bunch of Lush products.  Isaac was spoiled with helmets, jerseys, sports posters, and books. 

I also forgot to take pictures, but a few days after Christmas we had Ryan's kids over to open their presents from us.  His kids surprised me and Isaac with really sweet, thoughtful presents.  Ryan's parents and sister Katherine ended up dropping by and then later on his brother and his wife Patrick stopped by.  Patrick's present to Ryan was converting some hilarious home movies from VHS to DVD.  Ryan's siblings and cousins put together some hilarious "mystery" movies complete with soundtracks and previews.  We watched the movies together and it was HILARIOUS.  It was a really fun night with his family.

We are so lucky and so blessed!  Merry Christmas!!

Biebs

Next weekend is my birthday. Since we will be tied up with our last soccer commitment of the season (insert Hallelujah chorus here) Ryan made plans to celebrate my birthday this past weekend. I had often spoke of how much I had loved my 30th birthday and I wasn't sure if it could ever be topped.  I guess Ryan took this as a challenge because he told me to pack an overnight bag with warm clothes but he wouldn't say anymore than that.

We dropped Isaac off with his dad and started heading north.  I had tried to do some snooping and I had assumed we were heading for Washington DC, so then I was really baffled and actually kind of freaking out.  I don't like not being in control and not knowing the plan.   We drove along forever and then I finally deduced we were going to New York City.  After it seemed like we had been in the car for an eternity, I noticed a huge billboard for Justin Bieber's concer that night at the Meadowlands and then when we got off at the exit for the Meadowlands I began seriously freaking out. Yes, I may be turning 31 but I am a huge Justin Bieber fan.  I had REALLY, REALLY wanted to see him when he was in Philly, but we couldn't get tickets and I tried to be okay with that.  I was thrilled when I put it all together and was more than happy to join the throngs of purple shirted Beliebers heading into the show.

Through a long series of events, we ended up with FREE tickets in the thirteenth row, right near Govenor Christie's daughters and some Victoria Secret models.  We also spotted Perez Hilton.

 

 

The arena was deafening.  If I would have known better, I would have seriously worn earplugs or some kind of protective earcoverings. Justin started the show strapped to a pair of silver wings and flying out over the audience.  

 

 

 

 

Best iphone shot of the night.

 

 

He played a few guitar songs for the audience from a crane.

 

 

He also wore hammer pants the entire time.  I guess they are making a comeback with teen pop sensations.  Who knew?  The show was excellent, our seats were amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  The only thing that would have made it better was if Isaac was there.  He would have loved it, and I felt more than a little guilty that I was seeing the Biebs without him.

 

After the show we drove into Manhatten and crashed.   The hotel was very beautiful and swanky.  Here is the view from our window.  It has been a few years since I have been up to the city.

 

 

Since we did not have to pay for our tickets to see the Biebs, we decided to spend that money on a Broadway show.  One of the first conversations Ryan and I had was about how he wanted to see the shows Mary Poppins or Spiderman.  So we decided to hop in the TKTS line in times Square to get tickets.   There must have been a hidden camera because we noticed ourselves on a big billboard in Times Square.

 

 

We ended up at the matinee for Mary Poppins. The show was great.  We had great seats there as well.  (Thanks mom and dad for chipping into the birthday fun fund!)  We ended up getting a bit lost and wandering around the city for a while.  We did Rockefeller Center, some shopping and dinner in Times Square.  There was so much we wanted to do, but didn't get a chance to, that we are already planning our next trip back.

 

Thanks for making my 31st birthday so special Ryan!

A few pics for a Monday

 

Sometimes I can't believe how big Isaac has become.  He is a skinny little beanpole-- all legs.  We went for a family walk last night and Isaac turned it into a family jog.  (He would probably be mortified that a picture of him in his nightshirt has been posted to the internet too... He is easily embarassed and apparently I am *quite* embarassing!)

 

We went to King of Prussia Mall the other day and MAC Cosmetics was having a huge event in honor of their new fall makeup line.  A random lady asked me if I wanted to have my make-up done and I agreed.  It is not every day that I get a chance to have my makeup done by a professional artist.  I thought it turned out really nicely.  I wish I was more capable and could recreate the look on myself again.

 

 

 Ryan did his best to hang, but his schedule of overnight shifts continues to take it's toll....

 

 

 

 I survived back to school night and today will be my first day with students!!!

 

Have a great Monday!!

 

Engagement Photos!

Probably you've already seen the sneak peek from facebook, but we got our cd full of pictures from the delightful Erin Bertoni.  Here are some of our favorite shots that didn't make the cut for our Save the Dates.  

We started at Boathouse Row, worked our way through the Water Works, the gardens behind the Art Museum, the Rocky Statue, the art museum steps and then the other way with the city as a backdrop.

 It was nearly 100 degrees in thick, eastern PA humidity. I am surprised I didn't end up with sweat marks everywhere. 

I am also completely unaccustomed to not wearing sunglasses outdoors (no exaggeration, I wear sunglasses

all

the

time. 

I am very squinty in these pictures that made the cut, so I can only imagine how many pictures on the cutting room floor must have featured me with my eyes totally closed, grinning away.

Yay for touristy monuments in Philly!!

 FYI wedge flip flops were a terrible choice for this session.  We did a lot of walking that day and I felt like I spent a lot of time clenching my toes together to keep them on while I tottered up hills and stuff.  Also, I feel like they photographed like of oafy looking. 

Bueller....

I'm still here... pinky swear... Girl Scout's honor...

Here's a quick rundown of what we've been up to...

1 -  Summer vacation officially begins!

Which means we are living the dream.  There is finally time for things like haircuts:

(for the first time since February)...  and lots of time for books!!!

We have taken several trips to the library and used bookstore over the past few weeks and that is a small sample of what I have brought home. I am excited to start devouring books again. Ryan and I watched the movie version of One for the Money (and enjoyed it) so I decided to start reading the Stephanie Plum book it was based on. Ryan is further ahead in the series (I think book six). We have also recently watched and enjoyed The Time Traveler's Wife (almost as good as the book!), Madagascar 3 (da duh duh duh duh duh AFRO da duh duh duh duh duh CIRCUS),and 50/50 (really well done but so sad).

 Other books I have enjoyed include A Journal of Mortifying Moments: A Novel by Robyn Harding which was great fluffy chick lit, I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella which was EXCELLENT fluffy chick lit, and a book about Stepparenting which was "eh".

I am teaching summer school a few hours a day (super easy), taking a grad class (also not too bad if I keep on top of all of the work and don't procrastinate!), writing some summer IEPS for extra cash and trying to take care of the house a little better.... maybe one day I will be domesticated... maybe...

2. Ryan has been home!

I can't remember how much I have blogged about this in the past, but Ryan's new job has been requiring him to travel for extremely long periods of time.  We were lucky to have him home for about 10 straight days this past week.  He had requested some time at home to go to his cousin's wedding, and then was able to stay a little longer.

Among other fun things, while he was home we made good use of our Dorney Park/Wild Water Kingdom Season Passes (heading up twice).

That's Isaac on the right....

We made it to another Reading Phillies game-- this time a double header that ended up going into extra innings.  An eternity for a non-baseball fan like myself, but great fun for Ryan and Isaac.

Although we had great fun when Ryan was here, there was a little bit of pressure to make every moment fun and exciting and thrilling before he had to leave again.  Our life has sort of become dealing with being apart and then trying to cram over the top fun into every second before he has to leave again.  I miss regular life as a threesome.  Unfortuneatly, it looks like once he wraps up his current assignment in Charlotte, his next stop will somewhere in Wisconsin until mid-September.  So looks like we will be in the current cycle of saying hello and then saying goodbye for quite a while.

3- Isaac Updates

Isaac has officially finished first grade, which I suppose makes him an unofficial second grader.  I can't believe how grown up he is.  His summer is consisting of soccer, soccer and more soccer.  His travel team is having twice a week practices (I just bit the bullet and ordered him over 100 dollars of uniforms for travel!). 



He is one of the tiniest ones on the team, playing with nine year olds, but he is fast and scrappy.  He was very frustrated playing intermural soccer this spring, so I am excited for him to play more competitively with kids at a higher skill level.  He is also enrolled for about 5 different soccer camps  so he will have lots of opportunities to hone his skills, run around and get out of the house. 

Hope things are well with all of you!!!

Medieval Times!

While we were in Myrtle Beach Ryan was able to scratch an item off his bucketlist....

Heck yeah, Midieval Times

Yes, Isaac brought binoculars, which were unnecessary since Ryan got us the VIP package and we sat in the first row.

My favorite shot of the night.

In case you haven't heard...

My finger looks much prettier these days.  =)