Seven Days With Nana, Papaw, Kelley & Dusty

Last Saturday Nana, Papaw, Kelley and her boyfriend Dusty came to visit us for seven awesome days!  We had a wonderful week, ate lots of yummy food, Luke and I got to go on several dates, Luke and Dusty got in a couple rounds of golf and the kiddos got lots of quality time with Nana and Papaw who they're crazy about!  It is the best when they come to visit!  Luke and I didn't change a single diaper or give a single bath!  We strapped carseats into their rental and Papaw took Leah to all of her activities while Nana stayed home with the napping boy each afternoon and got dinner ready!  That in itself is like a vacation for Luke and I, but we did in fact get two overnight dates while they were here!  Amazing!  Worth their own blog posts!

Papaw and his babies!

And Nana and Leah and all of her babies too!

I can't believe I don't have a single picture of Nana and Lane from the week!  Lane preferred his Nana over his Mama all week.  (My feelings must have been too hurt over this to take a picture!  Just kidding!)

Saturday night Luke grilled his famous tri-tip for our favorite sandwiches on garlic bread with blue cheese and I made Susan's awesome blue cheese potato salad that we always have with it (the BEST)!  Sunday Luke grilled his awesome beer can chicken, Papaw smoked his famous ribs (these actually might be Uncle Chris' recipe), Luke made his famous cheesy hashbrowns and Nana made Mimi's cornbread salad!  Then on Monday Nana made her out of this world chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, cauliflower salad (Papaw made this) and beans for me!  This is a requirement when she comes!  All week the girls ate inside while the guys ate outside and watched baseball!  It worked out perfect!

 Sunday night Kelley, Dusty, Luke and I went to watch Grownups 2.  The movie was not the best, but my date sure was!

Every single time Nana and Papaw are here, they take Leah out to breakfast at Mimi's Cafe, just the three of them.  The rest of us aren't invited, but I bet Lane will be before too long!  This trip was no exception!  She looks forward to this little tradition so much!

Leah's favorite breakfast (besides a McDonald's sausage biscuit with grape jelly and strawberry jelly, all thanks to Nana and Papaw of course) is cinnamon toast!  Nana texted me this picture one morning!  Leah told her how she liked her toast cut into a gingerbread boy and girl (they subbed a Christmas tree) and then decorated with icing! This is my fun thing that I do for Leah, but Nana was so sweet to do it for her too!  Looks perfect Nana!

Silly faces!  We love Aunt Kelley!

Hittin' The Road With Daddy

I know, I know, I know.....I'm so behind and need to blog all about our fantastic vacation in Texas!  Hopefully soon I'll find the energy to sort through my millions of fantastic pictures!  Until then, I'm moving on!  One of the perks of summer.....we can hit the road with Daddy!  Wednesday, July 17th, after Leah got out of tumbling at 5:00 pm we hit the road and headed to San Jose for the night!  Thursday morning we were up bright and early after very little sleep!  (I won't mention any names, but one of the four of us REFUSES to sleep in hotels.  We don't let this stop us from traveling, though!)  Luke headed to his account and the kiddos and I headed to San Jose's Children's Discovery Museum!  It was AWESOME.....a definite MUST to anyone in the area!  We drove fire trucks and ambulances, made pizzas, played with Curious George, played in sand, stacked blocks, pushed buttons, made art projects, at lunch in the little restaurant and so much more!  This was one of my very favorite places that I've ever taken the munchkins!

Fun in the hotel!

Off to the museum!

Leah's favorite was the pizza restaurant!

An entire wing of the museum was devoted to tots four and under.  Everything in here was perfect for Lane!  Leah was a good sport and actually had fun in here too!

 Lane's absolute favorite thing was the amazing sand table!  He could have stayed there all day!

There was an entire exhibit on Curious George where the kids could "play" in George's little town!

More fun!

My kids got soaked because they were the only ones not wearing the provided smocks!  Have you ever smelled those things?!?!  GAG!!!!!  I'd rather have two sopping wet kids!

A healthy lunch in their little restaurant!

And a little more fun!  I let them choose one more thing to do before we left.....Lane "chose" the tot wing and Leah chose the pizza restaurant!

Daddy picked us up around 1:30, just in time for someone's nap!  We drove to Salinas for his next appointment where he dropped us off at the movies to watch Despicable Me 2!  This was Lane's first movie so I was a little unsure about how he would do!  He loved putting his Icee in and out of the cup holder and getting a drink over and over and over and of course the popcorn was a huge hit!  He sat with Leah for the majority of the time that he sat and then he stood and roamed for a bit.  I didn't watch too much of the movie as I had my eyes glued to him, but we made it through the entire movie and both kiddos had a blast!

After the movie Daddy picked us up and we were off to Monterey for the night!  We stayed at InterContinental, The Clement Monterey (that's a mouthful, I know) because it's super duper close to the aquarium!  Super nice hotel!  We didn't know what to expect as we're both partial to Monterey Plaza Hotel where we usually stay, but the hotel was amazing!  The kiddos were even greeted with an otter and a little "sand table" in our room and I was greeted with a super comfy bed and a fabulous bathroom!  And we had a fireplace to enjoy on the cool night!

We were so LUCKY to have TWO button pushers with us!

We quickly changed from our shorts into our winter gear (or so it seemed) and walked to dinner at one of Luke's Monterey favorites.....The Fish Hopper!

Cannery Row was beautiful as we walked back to our room!

After dinner we got cozy by the fire (with our iPhones)!  Then we all went to sleep.....I mean then Leah went to sleep.  Lane refused to sleep which meant that Luke and I didn't sleep either!  He's lucky he's cute!

Friday morning Luke and Lane went to get us Starbucks for breakfast while Leah and I got ready for the day!

Luke then headed off to his account and the kiddos and I headed to Monterey Bay Aquarium!

This was my favorite!  These are sardines that swim in complete circles on the ceiling!  So cool!

HUGE!

Don't let this picture fool you!  Lane loved the aquarium, but at this particular moment he wanted OUT of the stroller!  Too bad so sad!  He was fine as long as the stroller was in motion!

Leah's favorites were the jellies!  I was so proud of her because she asked me if the tiny jellies sting and I told her I didn't know but that she could ask one of the nice people that worked there and she did all by herself!  She wouldn't even let me go with her to ask!  They had the coolest thing where you drew a jelly on an iPad and then it floated up onto the screen to float in the water!  Even Lane drew a "jelly"!  I'm sure you can spot his!

The Splash Zone was Lane's favorite!  He was finally able to roam freely!

Daddy called and said he was all done working so we grabbed souvenirs and then met him out front!  After a yummy lunch with an amazing view at the restaurant in our hotel we headed home to get ready for our very special guests coming the next day!

On the way home the kiddos slept, I crushed candy and Luke worked in his "mobile office"!  Such a fun little vacation!