Wedding in Utah

We went out to Utah for a quick trip to see Rob's brother tie the knot. We were lucky enough to be able to attend their wedding ceremony. Unfortunately we were unable to attend the rest of the festivities due to a stomach virus. This was what we spent most of our time doing...







Four out of five of us lived next to a barf bucket and spent some quality time on the porcelain throne. In fact, we had to cancel our flight due to sickness.

A day and a half later we arranged to take the Red Eye Flight home. That almost didn't happen because Rob started to feel queasy, but he vowed to make it happen so in order to avoid any problems he didn't eat the whole day. We made it home the next day in time for Rob to go straight to work.

And once we thought we had made the rounds and recovered, we ended up repeating it again, this time with just Garrett and Ty.

It made for an unfortunate week but aside from the chaos it was truly cause to celebrate.

Congratulations Dave and Lara!

Mothers Day Surprise

For Preschool the teachers and children put together a Mothers Day surprise -a fieldtrip to the Stamford Nature Center.



It was a cool day so upon arrival we recieved a cup of hot cocoa.



Nature walk



Finding a caterpillar along the way



Observing the animals



Eating an assortment of sandwiches, salads, and desserts



Playing on the playground



Participating in a short presentaion as they handed out their Mother's Day gifts



Garrett made me a bag and I absolutely LOVE it!



What a great day!!!

Fun Day

What were the boys busy doing? Having their very own Fun Day of course.

Minor Details

This just so happens to be my birthday cake. This is the same type of birthday cake I have had since I was a little girl. After 10 years of marriage Rob has got it down to a science.

As you may have noticed candles seem to be a detail we tend to forget about. Rob found every kind of candle he could find adding up the numbers as the kids placed them in the cake. They almost made it, but were one shy. But, its just a number right? But, in case you are wondering about my age, I am 34. Keep note because if you ask me how old I am tomorrow I will most likely forget.

The TOP TEN LIST

You know you have been married 10 years when...

1. If you take off your wedding ring there is a big enough dent that people will know you are married. OR you could be like Steph and not wear it, then people question whether you are married as you drag 3 kids around. Just for the record the only reason I don't where my ring is it is too tight, if you can actually believe that.

2. Everything falls apart or breaks down. We need to get married again just so we can have another reception. (Donations are accepted and appreciated)

3. A good night together means falling asleep together on the couch while the TV is on. (A typical date night)

4. You now have enough furniture to fill up your 3 bedroom apartment although none of it matches.

5. You are halfway done paying off your student loan. Maybe in another 10 years it will be paid off and we can save for a mortgage. Although, we will most likely be renting because our kids will start going off to college.

6. Your kids can read you bedtime stories.

7. You never seem to get ahead. Yes, we are still BROKE! Any raise seems to go to more kids. (No, I'm not announcing anything.)

8. It is rare to get a good night’s sleep due to kids waking up, or we are up way too late trying to catch up on everything.

9. You get up way too early every morning to work off all your flab, but by the time the evening comes around you have to split a half gallon of ice cream just to make it through to the next day.

10. You own a minivan and you LOVE it!

So what did we do or didn't do for our anniversary? Well, we did have some big plans for our ten year anniversary. A long awaited getaway was in our future UNTIL life happened. In a matter of a few months we have had to replace our brakes and rotors, 4 tires, and a freezer. Our dreams were shattered. So, we arranged for a sitter so we could attend the temple and at least spend the morning and afternoon together.

The morning arrived, we made sure to grab our temple recommends but immediately noticed they had expired in April and it was now the 1st day of May. Surely they would allow a grace period of only one day. Right? Well, we got ready anyway dropped off our kids and hoped for the best. But on the drive to Manhattan we started to wonder if they would indeed let us in. Would they turn us away? If they did, then what? What would we do in our church clothes and how would I survive in my heels in the City and what would we do with our suitcases full of temple clothing?

As we pulled into the parking lot we realized we were about to find out. As we handed over our temple recommends the gentleman kindly said they were expired and we wouldn't be able to enter into the temple. Looking back we should of known better, after all we are SUPPOSED to be honest in ALL our dealings. Whoops! Yes, RULES ARE RULES! Too often we try to slide by but we can't slide by when it comes to entering into the kingdom of heaven. I guarantee you we wouldn't of thought twice about using our expired temple recommends if the Savior happened to be at the entrance. Yes, we learned a valuable lesson.

So, there we were in the city with no kids wondering what we should do in our church attire. We always told ourselves if we found ourselves in this situation (not exact situation, just the situation without kids) we would do something we would never do with the kids. So we went to Central Park trying to decide what we should do when we were approached by a Russian man trying to persuade us to take a joy ride on his bicycle. The price tag wasn't convincing but the sweet ride was (and I didn't mind his accent either). Walking around in Central Park in heels just wasn't appealing. So we caved, after all this was something we would never do with the kids. We actually learned about a lot of interesting facts. Did you know that the entire park was man made (except for the rocks of course).

Along with learning about the celebrities and the millions of dollars they spend in these high rise apartments we did capture a few pictures of some famous landmarks. Here we are at the fountain you see on the show FRIENDS.



This is the John Lennon mosaic


At the end of our excursion we went to an Italian restaurant called A VOCE for brunch. It was a pretty classy place and the food did not disappoint. It was a great day despite not getting to do what we set out to do.




For our Anniversary I got Rob a SUPERMAN shirt because he is SUPER!!! And he is my MAN!!!

He is SUPERMAN!!! Even though life happened and we had to cancel our getaway at least life happens with you Rob. Love you, Babe! Happy 10 year anniversary.

Spring Break 2010

Over spring break we took advantage of the nice weather and enjoyed a few of the surrounding parks (Sorry no pictures.) We also headed up to the Bronx Zoo with friends.


We spent quite a bit of time in the Butterfly garden. They were determined to find each and every butterfly. Unfortunately there was a lack of butterflies in the Butterfly Garden.





The bug carousel was a must!


We were able to see a few animals, but it always seems as though time flies by so quickly that we are only able to see a few exhibits.

We loved the grizzly bear. He was entertaining.




We were fortunate to spend some quality time with Daddy. I convinced him to take off a few days so we could focus on some much needed family fun days. We are always eager to find new places to explore especially when the nice weather hits. We thought we would check out Earthplace, the Nature Discovery Center in Westport. We spent most of our day there.

They had several small nature trails. (We could go on a hike without the kids really realizing they were on a hike.)





They hid some letterbox clues around the trails. We were on the lookout for small boxes that contained stamps. We would stamp our pad of paper and leave our names for posterity in a pad of paper left in the box.


We learned how to use a compass. By following the directions we were able to decode a message.


We were able so see some different birds and animals outdoors and indoors.



They had an indoor nature place with different activities.




Rob tried to make friends with this reptile...


...at first it tried to make casual conversation...


...then it became a little too friendly...


...and then it tried to take him down. Luckily, he survived and lived to tell about it.


This toy provided endless entertainment.




They even had an outdoor playground.







We also tried to incorporate fun into an errand. Rob came up with a fun treasure hunt at Target. Here are a few of the fun answers everyone came up with:

1. Orange ball: Tasha - basketball
2. Has wheels, but not a car: Tasha - cart, Garrett - bike, Steph -clothes rack
3. In a tube: Tasha - lotion, Garrett - sunscreen, Steph - animals in a tube
4. You can eat it, but you shouldn't eat it: Garrett - dog food, Steph - Snickers
5. You put your feet in it, but it's not shoes: Garrett - hot pad, Steph - socks
6. Very heavy but easy to move: Tasha - wheelchair, Garrett - clothes rack, Steph - weights, Rob - elevator

I didn't include all the questions or all the answers, just a few. The kids came up with everything on their own.




Their reward for finishing the treasure hunt: a trip to Carvels Ice cream and a trip to the movie theatre to see How To Train Your Dragon.


Since we haven't been to the City in quite some time we headed to the Museum of Natural History. I'm not sure we will ever see the entire museum. It's HUGE and our kids have their favorites. The dinosaurs and ocean exhibit are definitely on the top of their list.





We ended up at each computer screen. The kids love to push any and all buttons.