Other Summer Happenings

Since we came back from vacation, the days seem to just pass us by so quickly. Ben is home with the kids 3 days a week and they go to day care 2 days a week so he can get some things done around the house. It took a few weeks for Ben to get into a routine, but things are much better with the routine, but he still says (in his own words) the kids "beat him like a rented mule" every day he is with them! Glad to see they are keeping daddy on his toes!!!

The kids have been busy this summer between Wednesday morning music class, Saturday morning swimming class, and all the other things we have had going on this summer.

Olivia is starting to understand a lot and starting to speak with a lot of words. These days we think her favorite word is "no", and it sounds so cute when she says it. But one day at day care the teachers were doing the kids hair, and Olivia went over to the teacher and pointed to her head indicating she wanted her hair done - - it was a little tough since she doesn't have too much hair on top, but it did come out very cute!!!

She's still doing goofy things......And she is still very much into shoes! Perhaps a future shoe salesman?!

Alex is starting to pick up a lot of words, but isn't very good on using them. He prefers to point and use his caveman sounds. It isn't very helpful to us in trying to figure out what he wants. He has turned into a little joker. Everything is so funny to him and he is always being sneaky! All of that leads into Alex always getting into trouble!!! But he still has a heart of gold when it comes to his sister and he will pretty much let her have whatever she wants.

We bought the kids a playhouse that we have on our deck. It is amazing that they can be entertained by just walking in and out of the house for at least 30 minutes!!

The kids are getting so big....Alex has been into hats lately and here is with one of my hats on, and to be honest it wasn't that big on him!!!

Each day the kids get a little better with Dudley, but we still have a ways to go, but they are definitely succeeding in tiring him out!

Summer Vacation Part II

Part II of our summer vacation was spent visiting with friends who we haven't seen in a while. Our friends, The Zinks, let us stay with them in their house for our trip, and this was a blast. The Zinks have 2 boys, Phil who just turned 2, and Daniel, who just turned 1. Needless to say the kids all had a blast playing with one another. We did a lot of things while in Indianapolis. The highlights include:

-Watching the Zink kids and the Jarboe kids play with each other

-Enjoying Arnie's in Lafayette for lunch

-Watching the kids run around Purdue's campus - as you see the number of kids increased tremendously since our last trip to Purdue with the Zinks and this one.......
Here we are with Paul and Phil in 2007 (I am pregnant with Alex and Olivia)

And now we have added 3 kids to the group in less than 2 years! (Paul unfortunately couldn't make the trip to Purdue with us - - he had to work! Bummer!)

-Having our friends, Brooke and Dan, who are professional photographers take pictures of Alex and Olivia
-Having a Zink Family BBQ, and watching the kids play in the backyard


-Spending good quality time with Jen and Paul every night after all the kids went to bed
-Seeing all of our friends in Indy, including The Lubsens, Jess & Adam, The Clarks
-Stressfully trying to get Olivia to go to sleep every night and naptime, which resulted in Ben doing the 465 Loop in Indy 2 nights in a row to get her to sleep.....due to the ear infection (which we had no idea but had photographic proof when we got home)
The ride back to Connecticut was a bit rough due to Olivia's ear infection and the tooth she was cutting. We made it back driving straight through (in retrospect we should have stopped). We were exhausted when we got home and unfortunately the kids were wide awake!!!

Thanks to all of our friends (especially the Zinks) for making our trip to Indianapolis an unforgettable one!

En Route to Summer Vacation Part II

Summer vacation part II was spent in Indianapolis which is 3.5 hours from Ben's parents in Evansville. We left Tuesday afternoon, after lunch to head to our friends Jen and Paul's house in Indianapolis with the hope to make it there in time for dinner. They were gracious enough to let us stay with them and their two sons (Paul and Daniel).

The drive was very rough - - Olivia was very cranky, she had a tooth cutting through, and the ear infection was brewing (but we had NO idea). We were stopped on US 41 for about 30 minutes for an oversize truck, and with a screaming child in the back it was not fun!!!

A few highlights that I always love to see on the way to Indianapolis are.......

The Big Peach
And, the bank that has way too many drive up tellers - - come on, are we really all that lazy that we can't get out of the car to go into the bank???

We finally rolled into the casa de Zinks at around 6 just just in time for some spaghetti and meatballs!!!

Summer Vacation Part I

This summer's vacation was a trip to Indiana to see friends and family. Since we have to bring so much stuff with us on vacation we decided to drive, plus it gave us the flexibility to see a lot of people and places. Many thought we were crazy. As the time drew near, I started to think we were crazy as well. We drove 11 hours last year to Michigan through the night, however, this trip was different given that it was 16 hours, and the kids were older and more willing to state their opinions which isn't always pleasant.

Based on advice from friends who often do road trips with their 3 children, we decided that we would leave right after lunch, drive till dinner, have a sit down dinner to let the kids use some of their energy, and then drive until 1 or 2 in the morning when we would get a hotel and sleep a bit before doing the rest of the drive the following morning.

We picked up the kids from daycare the day we left at 12:45, and day care naptime is 1 - 3, so they were beat, and we knew they would sleep at least for the first couple of hours. We were right, they slept in the car for just about the first 2 hours. They had a snack and then attempted to play with toys...accept Alex's idea of playing with toys was to pick up a toy, throw it on the floor and say "BOOM". He thought it was hysterical until all the toys were gone! I ended up sitting in the back with them to entertain them. We stopped in Allentown, PA for dinner. It was kids night at the Perkins, so they ate free (WOOHOO!), there was a guy dressed up as Diego (from Dora the Explorer) who Alex was terribly afraid of (I think he thought Diego was going to take his food) and the kids got cookies with their meals that Ben and I enjoyed later on in the evening! Here's Olivia covered with macaroni and cheese.

Now onto Evansville, or the hotel where we would stop for the night. We both felt pretty good driving...I drove until midnight, and Ben listened to a book on CD while driving and the next thing we knew it was 5 a.m, and we were in Louisville, Kentucky only 2 hours from Ben's parents. So we figured, what the heck, why stop now! We got to Ben's parents a little after 7, they took the kids and we went off to sleep!

We stayed with Ben's parents for the first 4 1/2 days of our vacation and the highlights included:
-Alex and Olivia got to meet their great grandmas, and great grandpa for the first time

-Playing with their grandma and grandpa


-Playing with Grandma and Grandpa's Blackberrys

-Alex celebrating Jelly Sunday (instead of Ash Wednesday)

-Alex and Olivia learning to climb the stairs and running around grandma and grandpa's house
-Lots of eating!!! (It seemed like the kids were always hungry!)
-We got to see Ben's uncle for the first time in a long time (he is in the Navy) and meet his new wife.
-Having the kids meet their extended family for the first time.
-Olivia loved playing with Mammy (Their dogs....Maggie and Sammy!)
-Ben and I spending sometime with his high school friends
-Olivia developing an ear infection (although we didn't figure it out until about a week later)
Everyone had a blast at Grandma and Grandpa Jarboes!!