Saturday, we got up and went to the children's museum.
We haven't been for awhile, so Owen had a great time re-discovering all of the fun things there are to do there.
They are having a special train exhibit right now and Owen is very into trains, so he had a great time!
Sunday, we went to church and left Owen in the nursery. I know, exciting morning! It was so pleasant to be awake and alert for Mass and not have to spend it chasing after Owen. After Mass, we went to brunch at the Dixie Kitchen. It was delicious. We also got some new, easier to put on mittens for Owen.
Mike and I didn't get a date night, but we did watch some great 80's movies on instant Netflix. Again, I know it might not sound like too exciting of a weekend to most people, but we had a great time just being together and awake!
The first week of Nov (I realize it's been a couple of weeks now!) I went to a 50 hour lactation conference with my friend Vicky from work. It was in Schaumburg. It was jam packed with important info. I swear, the first 3 days, all they did was lecture from 8-5:30 with 2 15 min breaks and an hour for lunch. It was good but very intense. More than once, I felt like we might not make it through the week! I'm really happy I went, though. There was a test at the end, which I passed!!! Now, I am a certified lactation specialist. That certification really means nothing, but I did learn a lot and I have fulfilled the education requirement to sit for the lactation consultant exam in July. Hopefully I can keep studying between now and then. Thanks to my mom for coming to watch Owen!
Check out my "hair gel" (it's mac 'n cheese and applesauce. Gross! Never leave your child unattended in their high chair, even if it's only for 20 seconds and your really have to go!)
On this particular morning, Owen wore a washcloth like a hat for 20 min
Boy in a basket
I got myself up here, but I don't like it very well!
We got home from FL the night before Halloween. Thank goodness, because there was lots of Halloween celebrating to be done! In the morning, we went to a party with my work friends. Owen had lots of fun playing with the other kids (and all of their fun toys!)
The group picture didn't turn out quite as well as when these guys were babies. It was a little easier to keep them all in one place back then! I think they have more fun now, though!
After Mike got home from work, we met our neighbors for a little Trick-or-Treating. The boys had a blast! Owen didn't really care about the candy, but he loved trick-or-treating. He lasted a lot longer than I would have guessed, too! All in all, it was a very fun Halloween!
We made it to Kansas City (just barely, but we did make it!)We left 2.5 hours before our flight, but sat on I-55 for about 50 min and then had to wait while the bus from long-term parking picked up people at about 10 stops (it seemed like!)We checked our bags at 5:12 and the curbside check-in man laughed at us and was very rude (our flight was at 5:20.)As all of the remaining flights to KC were oversold, we decided we better just try our hardest to make it!Somebody was watching over us!We walked through security with no line.We ran our hearts out (I carried Owen, the stroller, and 2 bags and sent Em, who was also loaded down, ahead.)Somehow, we made it!!!I don’t think I caught my breath until we landed!Our baggage was checked so late, it didn’t even get onto the next flight!Southwest delivered it to my parents in the middle of the night.They even gave us a loaner carseat.
Our first day there, my Mom, Owen, and I went to visit my Grandparents.They live about 2 hours away from my parents.My Grandpa is doing very well in an assisted living apartment.Grandma is in a nursing home after getting really dehydrated from the flu.We’ll just say she is adjusting.
We took Owen's Halloween costume and I think the nursing home residents enjoyed seeing our little puppy. The rest of our time in Kansas City was so relaxing. We got to spend lots of time with my Mom (Grammy) and Uncle Al. You can tell Owen had a great time.
Unfortunately, my Dad was out of town for most of our visit, but we did get to see him Friday night and Saturday he got to drive us halfway to Omaha where we were met by Mike and his Mom.
It was great to see Mike after almost a week (and he was working like a crazy man the week before he left town, so we really hadn't seen them for 2 weeks!) After we arrived in Omaha, Mike and I got ready for the wedding and kissed Owen good-bye at 1:30 in the afternoon! We didn't get home until after midnight! And we didn't worry about him a bit! It is so nice to have family watch your kiddo! He got to go to the zoo and out to dinner with his grandparents and Aunties Liz and Kathryn. He was spoiled with fun and treats and attention and I'm sure he was sad to leave :o) They took lots of great pictures and made us a CD (which we forgot, not surprisingly!)
Mike and I had a great time at the wedding, too. Our college friend Jen Lueth married her sweetie, Thuc Tran. It was a beautiful wedding! Jen looked absolutely gorgeous and Thuc looked very handsome! They got married at St. John's at Creighton, which was the same church where Mike and were married. In the last 4 years they have renovated and it is absolutely beautiful. It was always a pretty church, but now it is grand. It is always nice to go back. After the wedding, we went out with the college gang to a new bar in Omaha. It was so much fun to catch up with old friends (and to get to talk to adults without constantly having to keep one eye and most of your concentration on a very active toddler.) A highlight of the afternoon was Jello shots. Very appropriate for our little college reunion! Eventually, we headed over to the reception.
We had so much fun eating, drinking, dancing, and continuing to have fun with our old friends.
Sunday morning, we went to brunch at Jen and Thuc's house to celebrate a little more (and to show off our little man.) Most of our friends hadn't seen him since the last Creighton wedding, when he was about 6 months old. After we got back to Mike's parents, it was Owen (and Mommy's) naptime. Mike went to Elizabeth's volleyball game and had a lot of fun. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and hanging around with the Walsh family. Owen's Godfather, John, stopped by for a little while, too. It is always fun to see him! We missed his wife Beth, though. Hopefully we'll get to catch up with them more over the holidays!
Monday morning, we flew out at 7 am to St. Louis and the on to Ft. Lauderdale, to spend a little more time with our friends Jay and Lisa, and their son Jonah. They are friends from college. Lisa was in my nursing class and we were RAs together and Jay and Mike lived on the same floor freshman year. Jonah is about 7 months older than Owen. They are so much fun and we always wish they didn't live so far away (they live in South Dakota.) Jay's family has a condo and they were generous enough to let us stay. We went to Ft. Lauderdale with Jay and Lisa about 2 years ago. Most of that trip involved sitting at the pool/ beach and drinking margaritas. This trip went a little bit differently, but it was still really fun. The boys had a ton of fun swimming in the pool and running around on the dock.We went to the beach one day, but it was kind of chilly. That night, we played cards and when the news came on, we saw that the high that day had been 68 degrees. The overnight low was 48. Everyone was wearing coats and scarves on the news! Apparently, it was the coldest October weather in Ft. Lauderdale (ever!) Go figure! The next day, because it was still a little chilly, we decided to go to the botanical garden. It was beautiful. Very different foilage than we saw the week before at the Morton Arboretum. They had lots of animals and birds, too. The boys loved it. On the way home, we saw this crazy motorcade (thank goodness it was going the opposite direction we were!) The interstate was clear for over a mile. There were tons and tons of cops on motorcycle, quite a few police cars, a couple of large, black SUVs and a black bus (that kind of looked like a party bus.) We joked that it might have been Barack Obama's motorcade. After dinner, we went back to the condo and the Barack Obama infomercial was on every channel. Then at the end, he delivered his address live from south FL. Kind of cool. Mostly because we weren't the ones stuck in all of that traffic!
We had a great time in FL, even though it was a little cool. It was so much fun to catch up with Jay and Lisa and to see the boys together. Mike and I always love seeing Jonah because it gives us a glimpse of what Owen will be doing next. Jonah is such a little talker! It is so cute! He also loves singing and knows several songs. By the end of the trip, when Owen would start crying, Jonah would start singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" to cheer him up (and it worked!) It was so sweet! We look forward to the next time we see them. Who knows what these boys will be doing by then!