VACATION, How do I get away? PT 1

We've been back for about a week now so I figured I would FINALLY update our blog and get some pictures up from our vacation. Wow! It was crazy.

We left Friday morning to head out to VA Beach where our favorite friends are living right now. We were making awesome time in spite of all the terrible rain until we hit West Virginia. Traffic was stopped all the time. Turns out, it's because all those people don't know how to merge, so they stop and creep, stop and creep up. It wasn't even because there was an accident until some lady slammed in behind up. So yup, we got into a car accident which is my biggest fear with my sweet boys but everyone was ok. We had to go to the ER even though everyone seemed fine because you just can't take chances with a Bruiser Baby.

The ER was backed up but the good thing was that Bruiser has a special card that lets him hop the ER lines so we got in right away. It still took about 4 hours out of our trip and we ended up having to stay in a hotel that night from being sore and tired. We left early the next day and got to our awesome friends' place!

Then on to VA BEACH!



Monk has been talking about the beach since his Sheila Grandma went on vacation to FL so it was fun to take him. We had a good time throwing ourselves into the waves and playing in the sand, well, until it got too sandy... It was still stormy so after a couple of hours they closed the beach and we headed back to de-sand-ify ourselves. Rachel and I went to go see Eclipse.



I'm a big fan of the books but so far the movies have been really cheesy and poorly acted. Sorry Twi-hards. Eclipse is my favorite of the series but I didn't expect too much out of it. Turns out though I really loved it and was pleasantly surprised. When Rachel and I got back from our girl date the boys left to go see the Last Air Bender.



Which they said was the worst movie they have ever seen ever, period. And my husband who hates all things Twilight says he wished he had seen Eclipse instead. Huh, score one for the ladies.

The next day we took off around the afternoon and went to Washington D.C. D had never been there before and since I used to go all the time when I went to SVU I was excited to show him. We got an awesome room for under $100.



I almost didn't want to go out and see the sights, but we didn't drive all that way for nothing. We hopped on the Metro and ran to the Holocaust museum. We got there too late to see the regular exhibit and were pretty bummed about that. We'll get to it next time we go. I love that all the museums are free in DC! Then we just walked the National Mall and I showed D where you could see the White House from on top of the hill. We didn't want to walk there since it was sooooo hot. But trucked it up to the Washington monument and the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial. His mom's godfather has his name on there so we looked it up. By then we were sweaty starving and headed back to the hotel. We really loved learning about the history there and seeing the memorials. D and I are closet art fiends so we love to see anything made with some thought and genius. The boys were wonderful and we ate a lot of ice cream from vendors. I also wanted to buy some knock off sunglasses just to say that I did, but I got ice cream instead...






The most important thing was once we were in DC we were finally out of all the rain and traffic that had been non stop since we left. That was the biggest relief out of anything. Plus on our way out we saw signs for the LDS temple and wanted to stop since it's so beautiful and D had never seen it. It was wonderful, then off we went to Massachusetts!



Stay tuned for Part 2...

7 months is old

So far no teeth, crawling or sitting up. And that's the way I like it. Right now, even though he seems so long and so big, in my mind I can still make him a tiny baby. I think this next month is going to change all of that.

Our Bruiser is quite adept at getting around though, so don't let the fact he's not crawling fool you. He can turn full circles on his little tummy and roll over, which is how he gets to things. He also gets up on his hands and tip toes like he's about to do a very graceful push up. That's way different than Monkey. When Monk was learning about crawling, he looked like he was trying to swim. Bruiser looks like he's break dancing.

Bruiser's feet are finally wide enough to wear the cute little flip flops his auntie bought for him. And he's teething an awful lot. His gums are so bumpy. The last few days he has drank more bottle than normal. He usually eats a breakfast, lunch and dinner of oatmeal and some fruit/vegetable and a bottle for naptime. It has saved me a lot on formula. He's easy and happy and healthy and very SHY.

He's been such a Mommy's boy and I really love it. I worked all week for D so he had to go to a babysitter for the first time and by the second day he would cry and cry and cry until I held him. That was very sad for Daddy who was trying to take care of him while I went running. Oh, and Bruiser loves animals. He gets really excited to see cats or our chickens. His arms get straight and rigid and he shakes them like he's having a seizure! But a big grin the whole time. I cannot resist those perfect dimples.

Monk is still being an awesome big brother. His curls are getting out of control with the humidity. He's more defiant lately and I really have been tryin to watch how I speak to him since I know that makes a huge difference. He's learning all of our full and grown-up names in case he gets separated from us. He forgets my first name so when you ask him I'm Mommy Bwooks. He does something funny every day and oh how I love this sweet boy.

Indianapolis Children's Museum

OFFICIALLY- this is the coolest place I've ever been to. The husband's company treated us to the museum and I was so excited to take Monk bc of the dinosaur exhibit. Little did I know that I would get more excited than any of us! When you first drive up there's a ginormous dinosaur breaking out of the wall, then there are two looking into the museum! Monk wanted to ride on one, but they were too big.
There five stories of awesomeness, but we went to the dinosaurs first. I got so giddy! I was nearly in tears because I was so excited to see the fossils, AND I GOT TO TOUCH ONE! AWESOME! I was running around all crazy wearing Bruiser trying to look at everything and D was a little more calm taking Monk to each site, since it's supposedly a museum for children.

Then there was the rock and roll section which was pretty cool. I saw Elvis' actual tiger suit. I got a little misty thinking about how much I wanted to tell my Grandma since I knew she'd get a big kick out of it, so I just remembered her with a little extra reverence in my head and checked out Elvis' guitar and the KISS costumes.
Anyway, I was so excited I was an emotional crazy kid who drug my poor husband and children all over the place. Go there. Go there and check out the 4 stories of awesomeness.

PS My camera battery died so I have a serious lack of pictures.