Back home again!

Well, let's see. I am back from North Carolina. It was a LONG journey to get there, but it was well worth the wait! I will back up though to tell the whole story.

So, a few weeks ago Zak had his wisdom teeth out. While we were in Maine, he started to have some pain in his jaw. When we got home it was determined he had an infection. It's a long story, but he eventually ended up getting admitted to the hospital on Wednesday afternoon. I decided I really wanted to go up and be with my sister, who sounded like she was not holding up super well. So, I packed early and after the girls were in bed for the night, I headed out. I was leaving the next day from the Denver airport, so it didn't matter too much where I spent the night. All though it was snowing in Colorado Springs and most of the way to my sister's house, so it's probably better that I was at her house the night before where there was no snow!

Anyway, I got up there late, about 11pm, and stopped for a quick visit at the hospital to see Zak. I am not sure he even remembers me being there, he seemed pretty doped up on pain meds, but at least I got to tell him I hope he gets better. Then my sister and I went back to her house and crashed for the night!

The next morning we got up and out early. Susan was anxious to get to the hospital and I had to get to the airport. My plane boarded on time, but then we sat there for 2 hours on the plane at the gate while they had a part fixed. Glad they found the broken part and fixed it, but sitting for 2 hours was not fun.

Because of the delay I knew I would miss my connection in Chicago to get to Charlotte. So, while I was sitting and waiting I called United. They went ahead and booked me on the next flight to Charlotte. It was a few hours later than the original flight, so I knew I would make the connection no problem, but that also caused me a LONG layover in Chicago.

I finally got to Chicago. After dinner and a few gate changes, I finally got to my gate and settled in. Of course then they delayed my flight... great! I was worried I wasn't going to be able to get my rental car before they closed for the night! But Cyndi told me she had to pick up someone at the airport about midnight anyway, so they would be there about the same time if I needed a ride! I did end up making it with 15 minutes to spare before closing time!

I spent the night at Cyndi and Jess's house that night, in Charlotte. Their house is amazing. Not only is it really nice on the outside, but it's like a magazine spread on the inside! It was really beautiful! Now I want Cyndi and Jess to come and decorate my house!

The next morning we headed off to Asheville where the wedding was being held the next day. Cyndi and Jess found this beautiful B&B and rented out the whole place. They had a beautiful reception hall right there too! It was so nice! We had our rehearsal, and then rehearsal dinner. They picked up some BBQ from a place in town called 12 Bones. It was amazing, and apparently it won best BBQ on Good Morning America last year. Obama also stopped for ribs there on his way through when he was on the campaign trail. I hate to keep talking about how good it was because Hubby wasn't with me, but oh my gosh it was good!

After dinner they had a trolley come pick everyone up and we went for a trolley ride around Asheville. They guy told us all about the history of Asheville and interesting places. The ride ended up being much more interesting than originally planned because the guy doing the tour wasn't very nice, he was rude, he hit a speed bump full speed, and he also hit a stone column when getting back to the B&B knocking out the headlights and hydraulics to the trolley. It was interesting to say the least.

That night Cyndi and I spent the night in the cottage which they use for the bridal suite. We had fun catching up on girl talk and spending time just the two of us. We finally crashed out about midnight.

Cyndi was up bright and early the next morning. I wasn't. Later I got up, and they had a continental breakfast over at the main house for everyone. After breakfast the bridal party headed out to the salon for hairdos and nails! Cyndi got a manicure and pedicure as well as her hair done. I just got my hair done. And the mom's and grandma's were there for hairdo's too. Cyndi's sister also joined us for a pedicure, and Cyndi's friend Blake, who was acting as our driver, got a manicure. It was fun!After the salon and many mimosa's at the salon, Blake and I took Cyndi to lunch. Then back to the B&B to start getting ready. It took a little work, because Jess was in the next room from where we were getting ready. So anytime someone needed to leave the room, we had to make sure Jess wasn't in the hall. It was cute!

Finally it was ceremony time. Cyndi was a BEAUTIFUL bride! And Jess looked great in her tux! It was a bit chilly, but the fall backdrop was so beautiful!
Then we had the reception. It was fun, the DJ was really good! It was pretty typical for a reception. Before I knew it, it was over. The cool thing was that because they had the B&B rented out, when the reception was over, the employees cleaned up and cleared out, but put on music for us and let us stay in the hall! We played Uno and some people threw a football around. It was really nice not to just be kicked out as soon as the reception was over!

That night, I spent the night with Cyndi and Jess's dogs. They had brought them up and they had their own room, and I joined them! Alex, their Rat Terrier, slept curled up with me all night long. So cute!

The next morning, after a hot breakfast at the B&B, I had to hit the road. I had to head back to Charlotte to catch my flight home. I did make it back to Denver just fine, but driving home, it was snowing, and the drive was a bit long and slick. It took me about twice the normal time to get home. But, I did make it home and I was happy to be home! Courtney was still awake so I was able to give her hugs before she fell asleep for the night and of course Kasey was still awake.

Kasey has been sleeping though the night as long as we feed her about 10:30pm or 11pm. So, we are moving in the right direction! She also has both bottom front teeth now! AND she has been getting up on all 4's and making a rocking motion, so crawling is not far off. It's happening so fast!

Hubby took the girls to Boo at the Zoo while I was gone. He didn't take pictures, but apparently they had a good time. There was one guy who apparently had on a scary mask and it's all Courtney talks about. It will be interesting to see how she handles Halloween and Trick or Treating. I know last year she started to get a little scared of the costumes, so we will see how it goes this year. But she sure is excited for Halloween!

Well, Kasey is starting to wake up for her last bottle of the night, so I better run! Hope everyone is well!

Back from Maine

I feel like it's been forever since I have updated my blog. I guess it has been 10 days.

So this past weekend was fun! About a month or so ago my mom asked my sister and me to accompany her to Maine for her 40th Nursing School Reunion. So, we did! We had a girls weekend and it was a BLAST! We left EARLY Friday morning. I went and picked up my mom at 5:30am. On the way there I saw a mama bear and her 2 cubs playing in a trash can. Cute, but scary!

My mom and I left from the Colorado Springs airport and we met up with my sister in Denver. From there we all flew to Chicago and on to Portland, ME. Here we are on the plane:Our first night we went to Barnacle Billy's for dinner. We all started with clam chowder, or clam chowdah as they say there. It was soooo good! We also had a few drinks with dinner. Back at the hotel my sister and I made ourselves some more drinks and went with my mom to meet up with her nursing school buddies. What a gang, so fun! A group of them had rented a cottage, and we went to their cottage to chat with them. We finally pried my mom away from reminiscing and went back to the hotel to put her in bed after a long day of traveling. Of course, then my sister and I decided we weren't tired and we wanted to go and check out the happenings in town, which was about a block away. So, we headed down there and stayed there till they shut the town down, which happens at 1am, so not very late.

Next day my sister and I were scheduled for pedicures. I had found this place on line that was right in the center of town. I was cracking up while we were in there. It seems this beauty salon was THE PLACE to be in town during the day. There was a lady getting a blow dry there who was the owner of a the coffee shop/restaurant across the street. The next guy was apparently the owner of half the town. And people just kept streaming in from there. I did overhear the owner of the salon tell one lady that they made it a city ordinance that no franchises are allowed in the city of Ogunquit. Kind of nice, keeps it really a small town!

I was also cracking up while we were in there because so many women came in to get a 'blow dry'. We don't really do that in Colorado. If you go into a salon it's because you are going to get a cut and style, not just a wash and blow dry. Very interesting.

After that we met up with my mom who had walked the marginal way down to Perkins Cove. We did some poking around in the little shops and then went to the Lobster Shack for more lunch which was another bowl of clam chowder. It was at that point that I decided I was going to have clam chowder for every meal except breakfast while I was there. I did succeed at that goal!
The day was sunny, but a bit chilly and the weather people were saying that a Nor'easter was moving in for the next day. We were wearing several layers.

That night was the reunion dinner. It was right at the hotel we were staying at. We accompanied my mom to dinner. After dessert, my sister and I decided we wanted to go and enjoy the hot tub. They said they had 2 outdoor and 1 indoor hot tub. The ladies were all teasing us that we should go in the outdoor one (it was about 35 degrees out).

We put on our suits and headed to the indoor one. When I put my foot in, it was COLD! We then found out the indoor one is not a hot tub, but a whirlpool. So, we braved the cold and headed for the outdoor hot tub. We did go and sit in the one right outside the dinner so the ladies could make fun of us!

The next day my sister and I went to breakfast at a Blueberry place right down the road. My mom met up with all her buddies. My sister and I shared Blueberry Mimosa's. They were soooooo tasty! My mom met up with us there and we poked around the center of town a bit before heading to the marginal way again for high tide. After we froze and took pictures of high tide we got in the car and headed to Kennebunkport. It was just starting to rain, so we were super bundled up to stay warm. We poked around the shops there and then ducked into a restaurant for a quick lunch when it really started to pour rain. We stayed there until the stores closed at 5pm and then went back to the hotel for a bit.Later we headed out to dinner at one of our favorite places: Billy's Chowder House. I again, had chowder, and fried clam strips, YUM!!! I had been waiting for those! On the way to Billy's it had started to snow. It was still snowing when we left and when my sister and I decided to sit in the hot tub. So, yes, we were even crazier than the night before and sat in the outdoor hot tub in the snow. It was so cold that the hot tub was more like a warm tub. We didn't stay in too long. Even the alcoholic drinks we were having didn't help.The next morning, we didn't have to be on the road to the airport until noon, so we had another leisurely breakfast with Maine Mimosa's at the Wild Blueberry and then poked around in some of the downtown shops we hadn't gotten to yet. Then we got on the road for the airport. It was a smooth, but long, ride home. After dropping off my mom, I finally got home by about 8:30pm.

Kasey was still up, so I got to see her, but had to wait to see Courtney until this morning. One of the first things that Courtney said to me this morning was "I missed you Mommy!" Awww!

Ogunquit was beautiful. The leaves were changing colors, the town was decorated for Halloween, and we were right on the ocean. It was wonderful! We all had a really really good time!

I am home for 2 days before heading out again. My friend Cyndi is getting married this weekend, and I am the Matron of Honor. So, I head out to North Carolina on Thursday. I will be gone again for 4 days (3 nights). I have to say, it's hard being away from Hubby and the girls. I don't know how Hubby does it! So, I have been doing laundry all day, not only mine, but Hubby's and the girls as well, so that everyone will have clean clothes for when I leave again. Hubby seems to have fun with the girls while I was gone and the house was not in total shambles when I got home!

Kasey got up on all 4's for the first time tonight!!! We thought for sure she might crawl! She stayed like that for quite a while, so crawling is NOT far off!!! And her second tooth is ALMOST though. Man, she is growing up fast!

Well, I have got to go and get my Kasey and Hubby time in while I can!

We have teeth!

Yes, just like the title says, we have teeth! Well, tooth to be more precise. Kasey's first tooth cut through her gum today. It's been a long week with the teething. And of course to top it off, Hubby was gone all week. She was so happy to see him today. She's been saying "Dada" and "Daddy" all day. But she is still miserable, poor thing.

Let's see, it's been a busy week here. Like I said, Hubby was gone. Tuesday Courtney had a Physical Therapy (PT) evaluation for her gross motor skills. According to the tests they did, she comes in about a year behind in her gross motor skills. We are also going to have her fine motor skills tested, we expect those to show a delay also. After that, we had her regular therapy for her swallow.

Wednesday was a little slower. Courtney went to daycare and Kasey went to her PT session. Pretty soon I am going to be living at the PT place!

That day we went to my parents' house for dinner. My sister was down for my mom's first chemo session, which was that day. She was feeling pretty good when we got there. But towards the end of the time we were there she was staring to hit the wall and get pretty tired.

Apparently the next day her stomach was pretty queasy. Then she got a Nulasta shot which makes your bones make white blood cells to help your immune system. Apparently it's pretty painful, makes your bones ache. So she has been feeling pretty miserable today. we didn't stay long at my parents house Wednesday night because of the way she was feeling.

Thursday was a fun day. We actually didn't have to get up and get moving for anything, so we had a PJ day. We stayed in our PJ's until we had to change to go to My Gym that night. Funny thing was that it snowed while we were at My Gym, and into the night. It snowed pretty heavy, it was pretty. It caused some road closures the next morning, or mostly bridge and overpass closures because they were so icy. I took some pictures for Hubby since he missed yet another snow! It was also really foggy, so I took some pictures of that too.

We headed off to MOPS. It was our group's turn to work in the nursery. Each small group takes a turn so that they didn't have to raise the membership dues. That was sure fun. 4 of the other members of my group were in the nursery with me. Kasey was there as well. There were 14 kids, ranging from age 6 weeks up to about 18 months. It was so fun! The little babies (younger than Kasey) were just so cute! You forget in such a short amount of time just how little they are!

Speaking of which, Kasey turned 6 months old on Thursday! I can't believe how fast time has flown by! My mom told me to take some pictures of her toothless smile while it's still here (which as of today will be going away fast). So, I took a bunch of pictures Friday night while I was getting the girls ready for bath.

Hubby's plane got delayed a few times in Denver, so he got home super late Friday night, or I guess actually really early Saturday morning. The girls were so happy to see him Saturday morning. Courtney is now at that age where she says she misses people. I am not sure she understands what it really means, but she uses it correct, so I guess maybe she does! She told me this week a few times that she misses her daddy. She also told me she misses her Nana. It's pretty cute! We did talk to Hubby a few times on the computer while he was gone, and we try to have Courtney call to say goodnight every night before bed.

This morning the girls and I headed to Target to get some much needed shopping done. Hubby stayed home to watch the Virginia Tech game. The weather was really awful, freezing rain and snow. It made for some pretty slick roads. Hubby made a pot of chili for dinner and I made an apple pie for dessert (yep, still working on using up those apples). Rick came over for dinner and dessert. Finally around 9pm he was going to head for home. However, the roads are so bad, that we all decided it was best that he stay here for the evening. (People were struggling to drive in our neighborhood.) He had also brought his dog, Hershey, with him, so he had no reason he HAD to go home. So, at present we are playing a game of Super Scrabble and downing some alcoholic beverages. In fact Hubby is working pretty hard at making Rick a very happy camper so to speak. He is pouring a shot called a "Duck Fart". It's Kahlua, Baileys, and Crown Royal. Hubby is matching him shot for shot, so it may be a long night for me!

Going back to Courtney, we have decided to pull her out of daycare all together. Since she will be adding at least 1 if not 2 more PT sessions, we needed time to do all these! We really don't want to interfere with afternoons because she still naps for the most part, as does Kasey. I have Courtney signed up for preschool at the zoo one morning a week (Thursdays) so that takes Thursday's out of the loop for therapy. Friday I have my MOPS meetings, so Friday mornings are out. She already has one therapy session on Tuesdays, so as you can see, we were out of days. It works out well since we had already put in our notice at her current daycare, and the new daycare has agreed to give us our deposit back thankfully.

Well, it's late, and I am loosing horribly at Scrabble. Guess I will call it a night! Hope everyone is well!

More apple picking pics

Kelly sent me a few of the pictures that she took. As you can see from one of them, even Kasey got in the spirit of things!

Apples, Apples everywhere!

Fall is here and the month of October is always so much fun! By that I mean that all these activities for the kids are going on. Hubby and I took the girls to the Harvest Festival at Rockledge ranch. They had all kinds of activities for kids. They had a candy scramble where the kids got to get in a pile of hay and dig around for candy. They had a maze built from hay-bales that included tunnels and everything. Courtney had a ball! They also had a tractor ride. One of our cadets was over and tagged along with us. It was beautiful weather and so much fun!




Today was a super fun day! Kelly and I took the girls apple picking! Let me give you some background first. Here in CO, if you want to pick apples you have to head south about 45 min. The next town down, Penrose, has lots of farms with apple orchards. The most well known is the Happy Apple. They really cater to us city slickers. They have a lot of things to pick too, like apples, pumpkins, berries, etc. Of course you have to be sure what you want is in season. They also provide a wagon ride or tractor ride to get there (a trailer behind a tractor).

However, since they are the best known farm in Penrose they charge an arm and a leg for apples! Plus, because they are so popular, they get picked over really fast. So, even now if you want apples, and you go there, you have to buy a box of them. Which I found out today doesn't even come from their farm, but other local farms. They are charging $55 a bushel.

Another mom from MOPS shared info with me about a guy who had an apple farm that he has basically as a hobby. So, he lets families come and pick apples for $12 a bushel. Quite the price difference! And it was just his farm, so there were no other families to compete with or worry about. It was so fun! The girls could have the freedom to wander around and do what they wanted without us having to worry about them getting in the way of others, or getting too far from us. And he had so many different kinds of apples!

Courtney would pick an apple and take a bite, and pick an apple and take a bite. At one point she had an armful of about 6 apples that she tried to put in our basket, but they all had a bite missing out of all of them. It was so cute! Hailey and Courtney had so much fun because they got to do their own thing. The two of them wandered around the orchard picking apples and eating them. Kinsey had a great time picking apples and putting them in the baskets.
Kelly and I each gathered a basket, totaling 1 bushel between us. So, we paid our $12 and headed out.

Then we headed over to the Happy Apple. We took advantage of the free tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch. The girls all picked out a pumpkin. After we paid for the pumpkins we decided to eat lunch at their little cafe. I had a turkey leg, I love turkey legs! Then we got each girl a lollipop and loaded they up in the car and headed for home with 4 very tired girls!
We got home and we had sooo many apples! Hubby and I made homemade applesauce first. I now have an apple bread baking in the oven. And we still have tons of apples left, so I think I see a lot more apple bread and applesauce in my future.

I forgot to mention last post that Kasey now says Mama and Dada. Today she actually said Daddy! This has all taken place just in the last week. It's so cute to hear!

I had such a fun day today! The girls didn't nap, so they were both pretty wiped. Kasey took a short nap around dinnertime. We put Courtney down early and she just crashed! I have a feeling I will too! Hopefully I will get some pictures from Kelly too and I can post them here also! Hope everyone is well!

Welcome to October

Well, here we are in October already! I can't believe it got here so fast! Another busy week here has flown by.

We went and saw Courtney's speech therapist on Tuesday. She was very encouraged that there was some improvement and we have only had 8 therapy sessions. Courtney's pediatrician, on the other hand, was not impressed. She wants Courtney to see a cleft pallet specialist at the Children's Hospital in Denver. I say "whatever". On one hand, the swallow study did look the same to me and I would really just like this whole thing to be fixed. On the other hand, I feel like I am just done with doing all this stuff. But I know we will end up going to Denver to see the specialist.

Other big news, we are going to be switching Courtney's daycare. With me being a stay at home mom, our budget is tight and her daycare she was at was expensive. Probably one of the most expensive in town. So, since she is only going 2 days a week, we decided to change. We are putting her at a Kindercare that is really close to our house, and she will now go 2 full days instead of 2 half days. Even making the change from half day to full day, we will save $50/month, plus the cost of food. We always had to bring our own food to her current daycare. Her new daycare provides meals. If we want to save more money, we can cut her down to half days again, and that will save us another $100/month.

We took Courtney to go and check out the place and she jumped right in! It will still be an adjustment for her, but it was good to see her just jump right in!

I changed my hair color this week. It is more back to my normal color with highlights now. I was always getting so many comments about how Courtney had Hubby's hair color and Kasey had mine. Since mine wasn't real, it really isn't the case. So, I actually changed it because of all the comments I was getting! But I like it, and I was ready for a change anyway.

Hubby had a dinner in Denver on Tuesday night that he had to go to. So the girls and I went down to my parents' house for dinner. I was able to get some more cleaning done while the girls got some good quality time with Nana and Papa. Nana and Courtney made cupcakes. I think Courtney really liked it, what do you think?

Last weekend Hubby dressed the girls on Saturday. Can you tell?

Tomorrow we are going to a harvest festival. I took Courtney last year, Hubby was on a trip. She had a blast last year, so I am sure she will love it again this year. Hubby gets to go, and we have a cadet at our house who is also looking forward to going with us! The weather should be agreeable so it should be a good time!

Today was MOPS as usual. This morning we went out to breakfast with our small groups. We are assigned a small group that we do things with all year long. Our group went to a little restaurant right across the street from the Church, which was a nice short walk. Which was doubly nice because it was pretty chilly out this morning. We just got to spend the morning talking and eating! It was nice! We are meeting up for coffee and dessert on Tuesday evening as well. Here is our small group:

My neighbor who has 2 girls the same age as my two girls (practically) came over a few times this past week with her girls. Last Sunday evening the weather was beautiful, so we let the girls play together in the backyard for about an hour. Then they came over again on Wednesday and played inside for about an hour. Courtney is loving having a friend so close who can just pop over to play for an hour!

Well, I just pulled some brownies out of the oven, so I am going to go and serve those up while they are still warm! Hope everyone is well!