The trip to Philadelphia

*disclaimer again, our houses are being babysat haha*

Tuesday night we headed to Seatac Airport to catch our plane at 11pm.  Our plan was to fly all night to have more time during the day.  Sleeping on the plane was a mess.  It was FREEZING blowing air everywhere (and yeah, we turned off our personal blowers) I had 3 layers of jackets and 2 blankets and still froze.  Oh, did I mention I hurt my tailbone 2 months ago? Apparently it hasn't healed because I was in pain the whole time. Ick.  Our layover in Atlanta was delayed like 40 minutes too, but we were so exhausted, we all fell asleep before the plane even took off and slept the whole way to Philadelphia. It was supposed to be foggy and thunderstorms so they had to wait for it to burn off a bit.

After the freezing airplane, we stepped outside expecting rain and it was bad.  80 degrees and I think it said 90% humidity.  I had to wear my under tank-top all day!  First, we waited for the train at the airport. The rental cars at the airport were $400 more than if you paid to take the train to the amtrack station and rent from there instead!

We drove downtown.  I hate cities because they are concrete and have too many people, and Philly is no exception.  Luckily, we made our way to the historic area, which it much better.  We saw independence hall, the liberty bell, Ben Franklin's burial site, the mint, a copy of the declaration of independence earlier than the one in DC, and even George Washington's actual handwriting.  It was just this crazy feeling to know that all of the founding fathers had walked in the same footsteps that we had.

Independence hall

constitution bldg

the mint

Ben Franklin's grave

We were getting hungry and wanted something local.  There were random little silver food carts all over the city with hot dogs and stuff and decided one of those had to be the place.  I had the most delicious lamb gyro ever!  I'm sure it was not up to health codes but that makes it tastier.  And like Will Smith said, it isn't Philly if it isn't leaking grease through the bag! Plus, everything was super cheap and lots of food!

This sweet back alley fire escapes, I don't think I can do it justice

Next we drove downtown to see the classic love statue (didn't get out), and to go find the rocky steps.  We found some pretty sweet statues there too, and of course, climbed the steps.

joan of arc i think? super shiny lol

rocky

skyline

the steps

george washington

Next we decided to drive out to Valley Forge (about a half hour but a little longer since it was rush hour.)  We got there and it is pretty much a place that everyone goes to jog, but you can drive through too.  We were tired and had a time crunch so we drove around.  It is so hard to believe the hardships there when it is so beautiful there now!  I could never take a picture to do it justice!  We got to see wood shacks that the men stayed in and even George Washington's house!  It was very cool.  I would love to be able to jog/bike through there all the time.

Memorial arch for all the soldiers that died

G.W.'s house

I'm sure GW did that to get to his house

You in there Mr. Washington?

For our final act in Philadelphia, we wanted to get some REAL Philly cheesesteaks.  We seriously had to drive through the hood (like Will Smith BEFORE moving to Bel Aire lol) to get to the place I read about, Chinks.  It was worth the drive.  That place was real.  My mom ordered a chocolate cherry coke! I had regular cherry (which was flavoring, not a real cherry coke so its better!), Andy had a chocolate coke and dad had regular.  My mom and I ordered ours "whiz wit" which means cheese whiz and with onions.  Lingo lol.  Yum yum!  We even got whiz to dip the fries in.  Definitely worth it for the real experience!

See, ghetto.

Chocolate cherry coke

Afterwards we headed to New Jersey!!!  The weather was so warm and we took kind of back roads (i think the GPS was avoiding toll roads- there are so many here) so we rolled down the windows and it smelled like awesome summer.  We got here to the hotel and I got to hang out with Toni for awhile...awesome!!! Tomorrow we head to New York!

The cell phone waiting lot

We were all waiting for Andy's mom to arrive at the airport so we were sitting in the cell phone waiting lot.  Andy and I were on our phones and Sawyer was reading his book when all of a sudden...

Sawyer:  Poop!

Me: What?

Sawyer: Poop!

Me: Andy, go change him.

Andy: We don't have the diaper bag.

Me: Seriously?

Andy: Maybe if we ignore it, it will go away.


Top-notch parenting right there ;)

For anyone wondering, we took the 2 diapers that were in the car "for emergencies" wiped him with one and put the other one on him. Success!

Last weekend before vacation!

We tried to get some fun in at home before we leave for the east coast!

*I wanted to point out that our houses will be OCCUPIED...I am not dumb enough to post that we are leaving and then leave our house wide open for robbers lol, we have family staying here*

Anyways, Friday we went to Amie's to hang out with the rugby crew.  Andy came in with Sawyer to say hi, but they went home right after and Sawyer went to sleep.  It was pretty amusing!  Andy came back and picked me up with a sleeping Sawyer at like 1:30 and he was so cute in the backseat.  We got back in the car and he woke up and was just staring at me with big eyes.  I went to take a picture and he goes CHEEEESE!

blurry. 

Andy and Krissy dancing to backstreet boys

Cheese!

Saturday morning Andy made eggs for us as usual.  Sawyer can eat 3 eggs by himself!  Andy always feeds him in his chair, haha!

We cleaned up the house and had Andy's work friends over for BBQ hamburgers.  We love our grill if you can't tell lol.

The guys grilling, Andy, Sawyer, and Joe

I thought Sawyer looked cute here

Burgers...sooooo good. Leslie, Andy, and Krissy

Today we had my parents and Erik and Destiny over for more bbq- ribs and chicken.  Grandma (mama) brought Sawyer a ton of paper to color on and some new outfits, and Erik and Destiny brought him some Cars plates and the cutest little sweater-.  Lucky him!

Here he is demoing his papers (he liked the sound if he danced on them) and his sweater

We had a good weekend, and only 2 days left until we will be on vacation!  It is so weird how you get paid to have fun, kudos to the guy that invented vacation time at work lol.  I am excited to see new things, but I am so sad to be leaving Sawyer for so long.  He has been so cute lately and I don't want him to be sad.  I am sure he will have plenty of fun with grandma though, and we will have to skype him often :)

Edward Bagel hands

Not sure why but Sawyer has been eating all the bagels lately.  He won't even let us leave the house in the morning without one.  He didn't even eat it until he got to Janelle's yesterday, he just held onto them which cracked me up.  Here he is yesterday and today, the pictures just cracked me up.

I love bagels!

He saw me taking the picture today so he tried to show one off

I let him take one into the orthodontist

Modeling while eating one.

Coke Tower

It cracked me up but Sawyer pulled over the box of cokes, took each one out, then started to build with them.  What a goof.

I can't believe he will be two in just over a month :/  We have been so busy that we couldn't really try to potty train yet...every time we would put undies on him we would have to go somewhere in a few minutes and put a diaper back on so it was kind of useless.  I realized I probably haven't posted that he's been off pacifiers for a while now (couple months?) thank goodness.  He just kind of gave up on them.  He found one yesterday hiding in the car but didn't even put it in his mouth so I know he's done for good.  He likes to go with me everywhere like lay on the couch and stuff but he wiggles so much I wish he liked Andy better to avoid all the kicks in the stomach lol.  He drinks pretty well out of normal cups but I prefer the sippys to avoid spills.  His favorite food has to be bananas (nanas), bread (bed), and fruit cups (hoot), because that's all he ever asks for.  He actually loves daycare now since the boys have been so nice and he goes in and doesn't ever say "bye".  He is going to have fun this summer because they have a lot of play dates and field trips planned with other people from Janelle's ward...which is good because I would put him in a big daycare if we could afford to foot the $1,000 a month bill just so he can be more social.  He doesn't like going to bed and will try to go through all means to avoid it.

bbq

It was 80 degrees today.

I went in the baby storage room and pulled out some of the shorts we packed away from last summer because we assumed they wouldn't fit Sawyer this summer.  They do.  He has no hips. I think these shorts are either 12mo or 12-18 months size and he's almost 2.

We also tried out the grill for the first time.  Yum.  I just love steaks.  (You might notice the ones in the pictures are quite tiny so we may or may not have thrown 3 more on a few minutes later)

Sick update:  I have felt the exact same the entire time I've had it (which is not bad at all), Sawyer seems happy and though it means he doesn't get full doses of his meds, we have been hiding them in juice and it hasn't ended up on the couch again...and Andy felt WAY better today for the first time in a week, even though his voice still sounds awful.  Yay!