Road Trips!

I've decided I really need to step up my blogging game!  I really love doing it, so I need to make more time.  My goal is once a week.  This is so doable.  As I mentioned in my last blog, we bit the bullet and bought a minivan last Friday.  Although I still cannot believe I now drive a minivan, I absolutely love it!  I (we) have been going back and forth between a minivan and an Acura MDX for months now, but I finally decided that functionality wins and the minivan works best for our life right now.  I was dreading the process of actually buying a new vehicle, but Andy and Josh made it much more enjoyable.  (Ben was with Papa John, thankfully!  We were there for about 3 hours!)   Andy did an awesome job finagling the price!

Josh was so good the whole time! We were there until about 9:00, and it wasn't until about the last 10 minutes that he started to squawk.  Mostly we heard giggles like these:

In the few short days that we have had it, we have all fallen in love.  We ended up going with a brand new 2015 Toyota Sienna, the Limited edition, and it is so fancy!  It is probably more than we need, but once we drove it, it was hard to go back to the ones with less bells and whistles.  I'm still not sure that I like that it has a TV in it, but it was nice for the road trips we took this past weekend.  The van has a ton of safety features, it has plenty of room to change a diaper or nurse a baby, and even Andy "I'm never ever driving a mini van" really, really, really likes it.  I was afraid I would have buyer's remorse the next morning but I totally didn't.  After all, I have to transport precious cargo!

We set off on our first minivan adventure the very next morning.  We headed to Green Bay to go to Bay Beach.  Ben loved it last year, and it did not disappoint this year either!  There is no entrance fee and the tickets cost $0.25 a piece.  We literally spent $5 the whole time we were there.  Ben was loving all the rides!  He looks so grown up compared to last year.  Too big, too fast!

I got lots of Joshy snuggles that day.  Love this baby boy so much!!!

The only ride Josh and I went on was the train.  We didn't mind though.  :)

Another highlight was our picnic lunch in the van.  

Look at these cool dudes peeking out of the sunroof!

On Sunday, we headed to Madison for Andy's back to school picnic.  It was fun to meet some of Andy's classmates that I have heard so much about, and it was also nice to talk to some of the newbies.  I got to warn the wives about how tough it is for us moms! ;)

Tonight, I was able to get out of work a little early, so we headed to the Wisconsin State Fair!  Look at how little Ben was at the fair 2 years ago!!  Sadly, I did not do a great job taking pictures tonight.  It's a little more challenging when you have 2 boys that want to be held plus you're pushing a double stroller. ;)

These little piggies totally reminded me of "Charlotte's Web" and suddenly the barn smell didn't bother me quiet as much anymore.  ;)

Gosh, I love spending time with my 3 boys.  I want to remember all of these fun times we spend together.  I have 1000's of photos, but is is nice to have a few pictures in a blog post help bring back the memories.  I am one blessed momma. 

Vacation! Days # 6 & 7 (07/17/2014 & 07/18/2014)

The main reason we were only in NYC until Wednesday is because we weren't sure how well Ben would sleep away from home, but it was really nice to have a 4 day stay-cation as well.  I love, love, LOVED being with Andy and Ben for 8 days straight.  I thought I would potentially be ready for a break, but it was so fun and I loved every minute of it except for when Ben was sleeping perpendicular to me in bed.  I am going to attempt to highlight the main events of the remainder of our fabulous vacation week.  We started our Thursday morning with a leisurely breakfast.  We ate outside, waved to the people and cars passing by, and acted silly.  I could get used to this...

I finally got to go to Ben's story-time/play group at the library.  He loves going and it made my day that I got to go with him.  He ran right in like such a big boy!  There was a special drum presentation, so we watched that as well.  Ben loves music and especially banging on drums.  He got a special "drum" that was perfectly loud for him.  (My mom has a 6 minute video if you're interested in hearing the music.)

I can't remember how we spent the rest of the day, but I'm sure it was doing something fun!  We had to rest up though because we had big plans to go to Ben's first amusement park on Friday.  I am too tired to expound on the details, but I can summarize by saying that it may have been Ben's happiest day…EVER.  I am not a big ride person, but Ben was in heaven.  He was shaking with excitement when it was his turn after he waited patiently in line.  Just look at that face!  My face looked like that, too.  

He actually cried almost every time he had to get off of a ride.  "Again! Again!  Fun!!!  Ride!  Ben drive!"

We started with a ride that Andy could go on too, but he was just fine going by himself as well.  

I still cannot believe he never tried to get out of any of the rides as they were going.  

He liked them all, but I think his favorite ride was probably the boats.  

I lost track of how many times he drove the boats.

I think I had equally as much fun watching him.  I was that obnoxious mom calling out to my kid every time he passed me.  

My one and only ride was the train, which was probably boring to Ben compared to getting to drive his own vehicles.

Too cool for trains. 

Thankfully the train would switch speeds to keep things exciting.  And Mr. Friendly was sure to wave to everyone he saw.  

Surprisingly, the only ride Ben did not want to go on was the pony ride.  "Watch 'em." 

We did break for lunch in between all of the fun, and the rides were an excellent motivator to get him to eat!

I'm pretty sure he is thanking Andy profusely for taking him to the amusement park in the pictures below.  I love you as much as the rides daddy, so that's a lot!!  Someone wants to be just like daddy...

It was a bit of a drive (2+ hours) but it was totally and completely worth it.  Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that each ride was a ticket and the tickets cost…$0.25 a piece.  We initially bought $5.00 worth of tickets and we had at least 8 tickets left at the end of the day!  As if we needed another reason to return!  Ben was getting a little antsy on the way home, so we stopped for happy hour and dinner.  

Dinner = Fries in Ben's world. 

Talk about a great ending to a great day!