You Got It, Big Kid.

I just like to look at this picture & think about how much fun our trip was. Sigh...



Two very exciting things happened last week:

1. Our dear friends had a new baby! Hello Casper! Welcome to the world! We can't wait to meet you! (Ella just asked if I was going to get a new tiny baby of our own. No, we're not. Sorry kid.)

2. And Lismarie and her family came to visit! HOORAY!!! They stayed at the Peppermill. It was like another week of vacation for us. We went to the pool two days in a row. That pool is FANCY. And the girls are both in love with James. Come back friends! We miss you!

And this week Ella started first grade. I can't even believe it. She has a Big Kid haircut. And a Hello Kitty lunch box. And a pudding pack (dessert is a requirement for your first week of school. I hope she can open it herself.)



Gretchen will be a Big Kid this week too. Our friend Julie gave us a toddler bed (I can't remember if she got free on Craigs List or found on the side of the road. She is one of my Free-Stuff Heroes). I was going to spray paint it the same apple green as the crib, but Ella suggested we paint it black to match her bed. I thought that was an excellent idea. We picked up the paint and drop cloth at Home Depot yesterday, but ran out of paint half way through. So I left it on the balcony. And then it rained. For the first time in two months. Of course. So now it's in a sodden, plastic wrapped heap leaned under the eave. Oh well. We'll deal with it tomorrow.



Remember how we have a "No Playing With Doors" rule at our house? Well either do the girls. I've told them the story of Uncle Ian's fingertip getting chopped off by a door. It didn't scare them enough because this past Wednesday Gretchen's finger got smashed in the bathroom door. And I think she may have lost her fingernail. I can't even handle it. She insists we keep a bandaid on it, and we've kept it smothered in "'Sporin" (her name for Neosporin). Oh baby. I hope I can keep you in one piece as you grow up.

Ella has finally picked up on all the things we ask her to do. But instead of doing them herself, she just dictates them back to Gretchen.
-Gretchen, don't touch the TV! Sit back! Geesh, how many times do I have to tell you that?
-Gretchen, pick up your toys! How many times do I have to tell you?
-Gretchen, are you going to listen to me? Do I have to count? One. TWO. THREE!!!! Time out!

Good thing they're cute.

Did You Miss Us?

We pulled into our apartment complex at 5pm this evening. And then we thought, "Wow, our apartment is really, really crappy!" We've been spoiled, people. SPOILED. We've had a fun vacation. And exhausting, draining, three week extravaganza. I know you don't care, but I'm going to tell you anyway. This is where we stayed:
1. Mom & Dad Stott's
2. Angela's
3. My Grandpa's in Palm Desert
4. Aaron & B's
5. Alisa & Dave's
6. NEW YORK CITY!!! WOOOOOOOT!
7. Back to Alisa & Dave's
8. Aaron & B's again
9. Grandma Liz's

Now we get to open a pile of mail, unpack out evergrowing pile of aquired junk, and find out WHERE THAT SMELL IS COMING FROM.

How did the whirlwind-vacation affect the girls? Beautifully. Gretchen no longer asks for bottles (we didn't bring any on the trip. And I was only giving her water in them anyway. She just likes to be a "baby".) And as an added bonus, when she meets new people she asks, "Where's my present?" We're so proud.

Colby and I went on our first vacation without kids SINCE OUR HONEYMOON. The first totally selfish, purely for our enjoyment vacation. And it was wonderful. Shout out to Mom & Alisa for watching the girls while we enjoyed life without them.

First off, turns out we got the raddest hotel in NYC.



The Algonquin was awesome. We loved it. And not only is it crap-full of history (yes, I said, "Crap full of history"), but it was right in midtown. And it's where my agent's Dad proposed to her Mom. Awwwww! And I think it was on Sex & The City. Awwwww! Plus Dorothy Parker hung out there. A lot. There was stuff about her ALL OVER THE PLACE. Including this poem, which I love:

On Being A Woman, by Dorothy Parker

Why is it, when I am in Rome,
I'd give an eye to be at home,
But when on native earth I be,
My soul is sick for Italy?

And why with you, my love, my lord,
Am I spectacularly bored,
Yet do you up and leave me- then
I scream to have you back again?

(My teenage-self is so getting this, right? Relationships are HARD!)

Our dear friends Martin & Melissa were kind enough to ditch their kid too and join us for the weekend. Melissa & I went to see this:





I am now a huge fan of Kristin. Wow. Seriously. And "that gay dude from Will & Grace, no the funny one..." was pretty great too. Very funny.

(Colby did NOT join us for the Broadway Experience. They went to a movie instead. Which was great, because I was not about to pay $70 for him to complain, "Enough with the singing!!!" and get us kicked out.)

On Saturday we did the Grand Tour of New York. Lots of lovely touristy experiences were enjoyed. We took the subway to Battery Park, walked through the Financial District, took the Staten Island Ferry to get a better (and FREE, ha ha suckers who waited in line for 2 hours and PAID to do it!) view of the Statue of Liberty.



Then we took the subway to the end of the Brooklyn Bridge and walked across.



Then we went home and relived the whole day by watching Cloverfield.

Here's where the Cloverfield Monster decapitated the Statue of Liberty:



Here's where our hapless heroes try to dodge the Cloverfield Monster by hiding in the subway. Uh oh guys! Bad idea!



And their walk across the Brooklyn Bridge was a little more exciting than ours, gosh darn it!


Good times.

We enjoyed our trip so much that Colby & I have decided to start, "living life and getting out of our bubble" a lot more. (Besides, our bubble smells right now. Seriously, where is it coming from! I already emptied the fruit bowl & ran the garbage disposal!!! Apartments are gross!)

xo