Fun with Family

We spent the weekend with Matt's family and then went over to my family's for a couple days. We spent the entire day on Tuesday with family. My grandparents came down for a couple of days and my aunt and uncle Luanne and Mike and cousins came for the day. We spent most of time playing games and eating..what could be better?

Playing cribbage

Foosball

Matt learning to play poker

One of the best things about our time home was being able to spend so much time with Matt. And as you can see, the kids couldn't get enough of time with their Dad. (Matt couldn't get enough either!)

Wyatt is my musical child. He loves listening to all kinds of music and constantly pretends he's playing the drums, guitar, or singing along. And thankfully, both of our families are musical as well. Matt's family has the vocal talent (which I hope my kids get) and my family plays the instruments. So when my cousin Jake and uncle Mike brought their guitars, Wyatt was a bit starstruck. He sat and played with them for what seemed like forever and is still asking for a guitar for his birthday next month.

Watching Jake play his guitar

Sadie with my cousin Arielle

Pops and Sadie

We had a great time with all my relatives--I only wish it happened more than once a year!

Good to be Home

We made the trip home to Wisconsin over two days, stopping in Michigan to see Matt's grandparents on the way. Our time with them was too short, but we were thankful we were able to see them and also thankful that our time coincided with the snow storms. We did most of our travelling in the car between the storms, so it was relatively uneventful. (I say relatively because the last hour of our drive to Madison was pretty rough--due to the roads, not the kids--but for an 8+ hour trip, we couldn't complain.)
We got to the Sorensens (Grammy and Papa's) on Saturday night, so excited to see family and lots of snow!

Matt and Kyle on the Wii

Wyatt's turn!

Sadie with Auntie Mollie watching those silly boys

Doubles Tennis

I had to snap these pictures of Sadie playing with her 'babydoll'. She is such a little mother and I think I'm especially intrigued by it because it's amazing to watch the difference between little boys and little girls.

Speaking of differences, Sadie can find a purse or shoes in a haystack! While we were eating dinner one night, Sadie quietly got into my bag and found my lipstick. I wasn't too happy about it, but thought it was hilarious as it seems every little girl gets into her mother's makeup eventually! But I do have to say that she did a pretty good job applying it, don't you think? (nevermind the mess on her hands:)

We were SO excited to see all the snow in Madison and it kept coming while we were there. We spent as much time outside enjoying it as we possibly could.

Uncle Ty and Wyatt

Does this look like a happy kid or what?

The first day we headed out it was only about 8 degrees. Needless to say, Sadie didn't last more than an hour (which I thought was pretty good to begin with). But I had to take this picture of her looking outside at us sledding--she looks so sad! Although she was more upset when she was outside in the cold.

Reading books (one of my kids' favorite things to do) with Papa

Just a disclaimer about the upcoming posts----we were home in Madison for over a week and I took over 500 pictures. No, I won't post all of them or even half of them, but that still leaves for a lot of pics. So I tried to break our trip up into several different posts so it's not quite such an overload. We'll see how it goes! But we were so thankful to be with family for such an extended period of time, as it will probably be our last time in Madison until we are done here in Ohio. And we sure did enjoy it!

NYC

It's hard to believe that it's already been 2 weeks since Matt and I left for our Christmas Weekend Getaway to New York City. Well, it was more like "Matt has a conference and I'm along for the free ride", but 'getaway' sounds so much better, doesn't it? We left on Thursday following Thanksgiving weekend, so I had no time to even think about our trip or plan anything. But that turned out to be a blessing rather than a curse.

We arrived in New York City on Thursday night and after checking in to our hotel, Matt already had a plan. We headed to Cafe Lalo on the upper west side. It may look familiar to you--and it should. It was the sight of the first meeting between Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox (Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks) in the movie "You've Got Mail".

When we were trying to determine if I'd be able to join Matt in NYC, he said, "Babe, you do realize that I will have meetings all day on Friday. Is that okay?" and my answer? "That's great!" Anyone who knows me knows that I love my husband and my children more than anything, but an entire day to myself in the city would be so amazing! And that is exactly what I had on friday--a day to myself to wander the city with just my camera and iPOD. It was so wonderful! I would have loved to have gone shopping, but that will come someday. For this day, I walked from 10am-4pm without even stopping for food or to sit and rest, just walking through the city taking pictures (which I LOVE) and going wherever I wanted. Here is just a sampling of what I saw during the day.......

(note: the ice rink is much smaller in person!)
Famous fountain in Central Park

It was as if this man decided to row his little boat across the lake so that I could get an amazing picture!
View of upper east side and The Great Lawn from Belvidere's Castle in Central Park
Central Park--it never gets old! Strawberry Fields in Central Park--tribute to John Lennon who was shot outside his upper west side apartment in 1980, just across the street from Central Park. Being such a big Beatles fan, I immediately turned my iPOD to my Beatles Favorite Mix as I walked through this area.
Literary Walk in Central Park

Ice Rink in Central Park (seen in movie "Serendipity") with The Plaza in the background
Probably my favorite spot in Central Park--The pond reflecting The Plaza Hotel

Tree at Rockefeller Center and Top of the Rock

By the 5pm on Friday, I was anxious to see Matt and get to see the city with him. Everywhere I went, I thought, "I wish Matt could see this!" So on Saturday, he was able to leave some of his meetings early and we headed to the upper west side again. We stopped at this bakery (Levain Bakery) per the recommendation of a good friend of mine who was recently in the city visiting a friend. As you can see from the picture, it's kind of a 'hole in the wall' kind of place located below an apartment building with not much atmosphere to speak of, but the food was amazing! I can't even describe how incredible the cookies were---definitely worth the hike up to that side of town!
Rockefeller Center Tree--together this time!
As we were walking around on Saturday night, it started to snow--big, beautiful, white flakes--it was picture perfect! You have to love the city this time of year!

My token pic of Times Square

On Sunday morning, we headed down to the village to meet one of Matt's best friends from college and his wife and daughter. We met them for breakfast at a great little cafe called "Schiller's" and then joined them in picking out their Christmas Tree and decorating it. It was quite the experience and much different from our life in the Midwest. We walked a couple of blocks to a corner deli that had christmas trees lining the sidewalk outside their store. They picked their tree right out of the cinder block and carried it home, to their 400sq ft apt. We loved the experience of getting to see what life lived in the city is like and getting to spend some time with Dave, Monique, and Mirabelle.
Matt and I had an incredible (and much needed) time together in the city without the kids. Much thanks to my mom for flying down here to watch the kids for us. The kids had a great time as did we. And when we took my mom to the airport on Monday to head home, Sadie started crying and continued the entire ride home (about 20 minutes). She kept saying, "Nani! Nani! No airplane!" She did recover :) but it was so precious!