Bye Week

Ben had his bye week last week and we were so grateful that he had Tuesday through Sunday off.  But we were even more grateful that for the first time in Ben's 7 year career that the Bucks were finally home on his bye week!  So we headed back to Ohio last week to spend time with family and friends, but also paid a long awaited visit to Ohio Stadium!

The girls got to experience fun around the farm and the Circleville Pumpkin Show!

Driving a tractor

Linds was apparently afraid of the tractor, but warmed up when she could go with her daddy

Up, up and away, with a little apprehension

Playing in the corn

And soy beans

Taking a ride in the combine with Uncle Tom

Playing in the corn in the semi

 At the Pumpkin Show with the big winner

And a camel ride...I mean what more could you ask for?

We also made a visit to see my brother and Meghan

Sleepy girls on the way home...

And a visit to see Aunt Faythe and Grandma

Whitney went on her first fishing trip with my dad and caught two blue gill.  She said the fish felt "gooey".  I love how proud she is of her little fish.  I remember fishing with my dad feeling the same way! :)

The girls also visited a pumpkin patch with my parents where there was a goat named Whitney!



A Shiner

I wasn't planning on blogging about this, but when I took this picture to text message to Ben (in Denver) so he could see, I thought it was too cute a picture, so...here's Whitney...she has a shiner on her eye via hitting and skidding her face on the hardwoods after going over the front of their little scooter car.  There were tears, very briefly, then I tried to ice it, but after literally 3 seconds, she said, "It feels better mommy." And she was back on the car.  She is a tough little girl.

Walk For A Cure

The Jets Womens Organization teamed up to participate in a breast cancer walk this morning.  So proud that my mom is a 10 year survivor!  As you can see, the girls got in on the action.  Fun morning, Beautiful day!

We Finally Got to Meet Casen!

Our friends Keith and Nikki came to visit us over the weekend and they brought their new baby boy, Casen, with them so we could finally meet him.  He's already 4 months old.  The girls loved playing with him and Whitney "kept an eye on him" all weekend to help out.  We all went to the Monday night game against the Vikings, which we won despite the absolute torrential downpours before and during the game.  It was the hardest rain I've ever been out in.  Nikki and I couldn't stop laughing about it!  Anyway, after we dried out over night, we headed into the city on Tuesday to see the sights.  Too short a visit, but such a great one!

Ben, Keith and the kiddos in Battery Park

Our little fam in Battery Park

Our little fam in Times Square

All of us in Times Square



Spoon!

Lindsey is currently working on mastering the art of using a spoon.  In the process, she has decided to make some "art" herself with her canvas being her face, bib, highchair...pretty much anything around. :)

Just Fun Stuff

We all took a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge

The girls enjoying a show and some popcorn!

Look out NYC!

Some of my girlfriends from Georgia came up to visit over the weekend and we all had a girls trip in New York City.  We stayed in a brownstone in Brooklyn so we could live like "real" New Yorkers. :)  We all had a blast and well, I think we all need a vacation from our vacation.  We hit it pretty hard, up late, up early, but there were things to do I tell 'ya!

Thursday (Arrival Day): We quickly dropped our stuff at the apartment in Brooklyn and headed into the city via subway to hopefully make to the 4:30 taping of the Jimmy Fallon Show.  (Just a side note here, the subway became our best friend on this trip, useful, entertaining, enlightening and I'm sure a few unmentionable things, but we had that thing licked by the end of the trip!)  Back to Jimmy Fallon, Mandy signed up for the free tickets, we all just thought it would be something interesting to see and do. 

Here we are waiting in line to go into the stage and our cute little, purple wristbands.  I'll reference names once here for those who don't know these great girls!  L to R: Andrea, Pamela, me, Mandy, Kim

Fast forward a few minutes.  Notice the color change? 

We were, along with other people, pulled out of line to be dancers in the background for the band performing on the show that night. What! Oh my, we didn't know what to expect, but we were determined to make ourselves the best backup dancers "Pavement" had ever seen! That's right, Pavement? Turns out they are band full of screamers, not quite our cup of sweet tea, but it was an experience none the less. Oh, and we couldn't just be on the risers on the sides of the band where we could fade away behind the die-hards, no, we got the lucky draw and were front and center, directly behind the band, I'm talking 2 feet behind the drummer, like, in clear view of the cameras...I don't know if we'll ever be able to live that one down...

After our humiliation, although at that point we weren't really humiliated, it hadn't aired yet, we headed to Little Italy to drown our sorrows with delicious food and dessert.  I mean, let's be honest, besides the great fellowship, this trip was about the FOOD!

One of the many streets in Little Italy.  They were having a huge festival to celebrate one of the saints.

This is from dessert at Farrara's, any kind of scrumptious pastry you can think of.  I don't know where we had dinner, but it was amazing!

Friday:  Big sight seeing day, Grand Central, Chrysler Building, New York Public Library, Bryant Park, Carnegie Deli, 5th Avenue, Central Park...and since we were now so famous, we made it our goal to get on tv as much as possible throughout the weekend...

As we were leaving the public library the super classy show, Inside Edition, was interviewing people concerning the salary of the CEO of the library.  Andrea, Mandy and Kim all participated.

Then in Times Square another super classy show, Extra, was interviewing the lead singer of Motley Crue, Vince Neil, so we snuck in the background of that shot.

At Grand Central Station

Inside the New York Public Library...You should totally go here if you are ever in NYC, I know it sounds cheesy to go to a library, but it is so beautiful and peaceful.

A building at Bryant Park, this happens to be one of Ben's favorite buildings in the city

Central Park

The Mecca, at least for Andrea and Pamela

Ok, seriously, this is one sandwich, a pastrami reuben, from Carnegie Deli.  We split them, I couldn't even eat my half.  It was amazing though!

Later that night we met up with one of Mandy and Kim's friend, Julie, and went to see the show Mama Mia!  It was super...laugh, cry...just entertained.  And we were blessed to see funniest ticket taker at the end of the show.  For the closing number he was at the back of the theatre doing every single dance move, I mean, I haven't laughed that hard in forever!  It's really hard to explain, but I had to write something in here about it because when I am 90 years old I want to be reminded of this moment.  It was hysterical!



Saturday:  Run across the Brooklyn Bridge, Chelsea Market, Ground Zero, Battery Park, Butter!

What an awesome thing to do, running across the Brooklyn Bridge.  This really is something everyone should do.  The view was spectacular and it was actually quite peaceful up there above the traffic.  Really a cool thing, probably my favorite thing we did...maybe...

Before the run

Getting ready to start

Super cool

Waiting for the subway after the run...we spent some time here at this stop...

After we got cleaned up we headed to breakfast at Mandy and Kim's friend, Julie's, friends apartment in the East Village.  She lived on the top floor, 6 flights of (straight up) stairs, no elevator and had an amazing view from her roof top terrace.  Probably won't ever get to do something like that again.

Then we headed to Chelsea Market to shop around and eat.  Lots of cute little stores and fun, delicious food.  Oh, and cupcakes too...we have no shame!

Then to Ground Zero.  This cross is probably my favorite thing in the city.  I'm not a real artsy person, but this is just a beautiful thing.

Battery Park

Ok, now for really probably the best part of mine and Mandy's trip.  We went to eat at a restaurant called Butter.  The chef is Alex Guarnaschelli, she is on Food Network.  We like her.  And she was there that night.  Not just there, but like, there, cooking.  Our food.  Wow!  And when we asked our waitress if she could pull some strings...she did.

Yeah, that's us, with her.  She came out at chatted for like, 10 minutes.  I think she liked all of us :)  Very cool!  And the food was not too shabby!

Here we are before dinner...who knew what our future would hold!

Sisters

At our table

Sunday: Last day, but not before a run in Central Park and a bagel...finally!

I guess Kim was the only one we got running.  Let me tell you, she is a beast (in a good way), she ran 6 miles and wasn't even breathing hard or sweating!

Saying good bye.  What a great weekend!

It was an awesome weekend!  Thanks to my parents for watching our girls and to all of the friends, family members, hubbies, whoever for making it possible on the Georgia side.  I am so blessed in every way!