Santa Barbara weekend

What a great weekend in Santa Barbara!  Our friend from high school was getting married there so we made a little weekend vacation out of it.  We all had a great time!

We went on a hike along the coast.  Kyle & Emily loved it.  Kyle was really into running the trail.  He has got some pretty good endurance and speed for a 4 year old!  Emily was really into the beautiful flowers all around. 

And the wedding!  Jeff with Eros & Ryan

Me with Alison & Jenn.

Kyle & Emily together

Kyle and Emily dancing with the bride and groom. 

Randoms

Just some random pictures of random cute moments we captured.

Kyle hanging out in the bathtub with the Mikos looking on.

Beach day! Taking some time out to learn some numbers.

Breakfast with the Mikos

Cuteness with sunglasses

Whistlers

Look who can whistle!

With training wheels

A nice bike ride along the harbor...

Fun with Grandma

Kyle & Emily with Grandma at her house on the deck

30 Rock

So this summer we spent some time in Chicago and Jeff and I went to New York for a long weekend during that time for a friend's wedding.  We had fun taking in NYC while the kids had a blast with Grandma. 

No trip is complete without a stop at Magnolia Bakery.  Delicious cupcakes and delicious banana pudding!

We also made a stop at 30 Rock in honor of the show.  We have loved catching up with the previous seasons of the show on Netflix. We sang a little Warewolf Bar Mitzva in front of the building for kicks.  It's a ridiculous, funny song.

And Kyle knows the song too! Okay just the small part that we know - the refrain(?)

Happy 4 years home Emily!

Four years already! Wow how time flies when you're having fun! Emily was born on July 9th and came home about 5 weeks later on August 11th after getting the hang of breathing.

Kyle's special day

While Emily had her special day at American Girl, Kyle and I had a very special day too. We did a lot of "something funs" of Kyle's choosing. Each day Kyle has to do his "something fun" in order for the morning and then the afternoon to be complete. So Kyle and I got to do a lot of "something funs" together of Kyle's choosing.

We started the morning off with some glow in the dark golf. Kyle likes golf and putting, but I wasn't sure how he would take to golfing in the dark. But the glow in the dark was light enough for him and there were some monkeys so he was very happy with this first choice.

After a round of 18 holes (though we skipped a few because there was a HUGE group in front of us so we went around them instead of waiting 15 minutes for them to finish a hole), we headed to the bowling alley down the street from golf to bowl a few games. As you may recall, Kyle sure does love bowling.

Happy bowler

9 pins down!!

No spare, but still happy

We finished our busy, active morning off at Potbellies. Mmmmmmmm such a delicious sandwich! Whenever we are in Chicago, we make sure to get our fill of Potbellies sandwiches. Kyle and Emily always wolf down their entire sandwiches there.

American Girl

One thing Grandma Beth always said was how much she wanted to take her grand-daughter to American Girl for a tea party. Emily is the first and still the only female on Jeff's side (paternal line) in several generations. After talking about it for awhile, Jeff and Papa decided that Emily was at the right age for this meaningful, momentous event.

So early Wednesday morning, Papa and Kari picked Emily up for their big morning downtown. Emily picked out an adorable doll who she has named "I love Crystal" and puppy, "Peppermint" and then had a fun tea / lunch party together.

Afterwards, Emily got to try on her first lipstick. Needless to say, she had a fun, memorable morning!! Thank you Papa & Kari!

Bounce house!

This summer at Grandma's house, we put up (rented for a weekend) a bounce house in her backyard to celebrate all the summer birthdays - Grandma's, Kyle, Emily's, Uncle GT's, Ryan's and friends who joined us that day. Needless to say, the kids bounced to their hearts content and loved every second of it!

Party at Ike's!

The kids had a blast playing together in Chicago. All of the mobile cousins had a party at Ike's pad! Ike entertained Kyle, Emily & Ryan in his palace for a while. Ike is quite the host!
Welcome to my crib!

Wisconsin State Fair!!

This year was the first year Kyle, Emily and I had been to the Wisconsin State Fair. Jeff has told us a lot about it, having gone to it many a times while growing up. He has always talked up the milk and cream puffs and roasted corn on the cob (though I have to say the best roasted corn on the cob comes from my Grandpa's farm in Ohio that we go to each summer). So this year we had the pleasure of going to the fair with Papa and Kari, Josh, Stephanie, Ben and Davie.

We did have some roasted corn and fresh brats which were pretty good. We tried some milk, but didn't get the fresh squeezed milk, but rather flavored milk - cherry, strawberry, chocolate, vanilla and banana. They were all tasty. Kyle being the purest with his milk just wanted plain milk. And to top it all off (later in the day) we had the cream puffs. Now these cream puffs are HUGE! The four of us split one and it was more than enough! All in all, it was a great day - lots of fun, family and food.

He wasn't too happy about getting it in his hair.

I love this picture of Davie, small enough to fit under the tall tables and getting cream puff passed to him from Stephanie.

After the fair, we went to visit with Grandma Sondra and Grandpa Newt. The kids had a blast playing and visiting.