Slugger

I am not sure when, where, and why this came to be...but Nixon has become a bit obsessive over baseball. He always wants to watch baseball on TV and he LOVES playing baseball outside (or inside which mommy isn't the biggest fan of). We got him a bat and glove which is super cute. He does I really good job catching, throwing, and hitting the ball. (I may have written about this, I'm starting to think I have...if so I apologize) Anyways, we love our little slugger and of course being his mommy I can say that he is quite the little stud!

A WIN WIN SITUATION!

With my last semester beginning, the homework always falls right behind. Sometimes it gets a little hard to fit in everything I need  (or want) to do as far as homework, blogging, catching up on my dirty Real Housewives shows, etc. So, an awesome solution for me to get my homework in is sitting outside in the morning while Nixon plays away. In the house, Nixon still won't play on his own. I have to be by his side every sparing second of his life. If he wants to play cars, guess who has to play with him? He has to help me with anything and everything I do, he has to always have me in his sight or he will flip, AND he even has to flush my toilet after I use it...if I do it be prepared for a royal meltdown! So, when I discovered that I could sit outside for an hour sometimes longer and get my homework done was one of the greatest discoveries I have made yet! We get a perfect amount of shade in the morning, and Nixon keeps busy riding his bike or playing in the dirt. I may or may not look a little white trash sitting on my porch in my camping chair. BUT don't worry...I don't leave it out there as my pretty porch furniture...no no no! The one bad thing that came about this is that our lovely neighbors from China have a boy Nixon's age. When they first saw us out there they were out in a split second! It was good for Nixon to have someone to play with, but it didn't help me get my homework done when the mom and mother-in-law camped out beside me. When the boys were done playing the mom said, "We see you tomorrow?" So...the rest of that first week they came out without fail. I know this sounds mean, but now I have to pick wisely when we go outside, otherwise I can't get any reading done which is kinda important for me! (Am I rude?!) Being outside always just makes me SO excited to have my own fenced in yard someday. I LOVE going to my parents house and letting Nixon go outside whenever he pleases without me having to watch him. Someday...until then, this will do perfectly fine!

ZOOOOOOO!

My lovely mother had the idea to spend Labor Day at the Zoo. I was all for it because we had been wanting to take Nixon all summer. We ended up going with the entire family which was super fun! It happened to be my 26 year old brothers first time at the Zoo! weird! 
Nixon had a GREAT time running around everywhere and seeing all of the animals. The one animal that was the hardest to drag him away from was a squirrel. Seriously? Most of the time Nixon wasn't in his stroller, and let me tell you that kid can and will take off!! He is fast and doesn't even care if someone is following him or not. Conner has always been anti- leash, but I think he is actually considering it for Disneyland. As much as I think they are tacky myself, I rather have a son then worry about him being hooked to a leash! 
Anyways, back to the zoo....I think we all could say we really enjoyed the day together and seeing all of the kiddos happy as pie! Thanks dad for a fun and memorable zoo trip!

HAHA! I love this picture of Ellie!

 

THE BIG APPLE

Conner and I just got back from a little vacation to one of my most favorite places, NEW YORK CITY. We went to New York with his mom, sister (Lauren), and brother, (Taylor).
The reason why we went: Lauren attended school at Wasatch Academy in Mt. Pleasant, Utah. They had a fundraiser for their school with different ways to raise money. One of the things was a pent house in NY for a week. Lauren & Micci bid on it and low and behold they won. Micci didn't know for quite awhile what she wanted to do about going and who she was going to go with. SO 26 days before we left, she made her decision and our flights were booked.

DAY 1:
We flew into Newark and took a shuttle bus to where we were staying, (211 West Central Park, yep right across from Central Park!) Unfortunately we landed in New York on a Friday during rush hour, so we spent an extra two hours in the shuttle, with a HORRIBLE driver might I add! Once we made it to where we were staying, we had to check everything out...ESPECIALLY OUR AMAZING VIEW. After getting settled in we asked the fella running the elevator where a good place to eat was. We were highly interested in walking to the Shake Shack (A hamburger place). Conner loved it SO much that we had to go there again before our trip was over. When we were finished eating we walked around a little more and then journeyed back home for a good nights rest, after all we had a busy few days ahead of us!

The view from the top of our condo was pretty dang awesome. The deck wrapped around the top so you were able to see different parts of the city. One of my favorite parts!!

DAY 2: I am not going to be able to remember everything we did on this day but here is what I do remember doing: Mob Tour, Little Italy, Chinatown, Canal Street, Ground Zero, WTC Tribute Center, bus tour, Beast boat, dinner at BELLA VITA, and the Broadway Marry Poppins.

Conner's first experience in Time Square...

We found a little cafe close to where our Mob Tour began, but the problem was that we only had 20 minutes to order, eat, and walk back to where we needed to be before the tour began. As you can imagine, I thought we were a bit crazy attempting this, but we did it anyway. We scarfed down our food as fast as possible. The REALLY sad thing about this is that I can honestly say this was THE BEST french toast at a restaurant I have ever had! Plus, the mini OJ's were pretty cute too!

After the mob tour we walked through Little Italy.

This was at the WTC Tribute Center. As you can see, it is a piece from one of the planes that it the towers. Seeing this really made me emotional to think someone was sitting in that very window! The tribute center was really neat, and really sad all at the same time!

Conner and I standing in front of the Freedom Tower. I can't wait to see that puppy finished someday!

Beast Boat!!

Taylor & I on the Beast Boat, we got pretty soaked at one point!

(9/12/2011) From here I have put this post off a little too long and my memory has faded away...so I can't remember exactly what we did and the order we did it. I'll just throw the pictures up and let them do the talking. Needless to say, we kept very busy and had a good trip!

Foggy/ rainy day on top of the Rockefeller

Don't think I have EVER been in rain that was so hard and poured for so long. Can you imagine walking down time square with thousands of people all holding umbrellas? Not easy..just glad I didn't take an eye out!

Empire State Building. Luckily we went here on a different day than the Rock...so it was a very pretty view. Put the process getting there was a different story...PS. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THE SKY RIDE!!!

Conner can't have a picture with his eyes open for the life of him!

Yes, I realize these are crappy pictures. Sorry...

 On our last day we rented bikes at Central Park. It was something I really wanted to do on this trip. After ten minutes...no 3 minutes, of riding I quickly changed my mind. We were in a time crunch to begin with so Conner and Taylor were HAULING!!! Central Park isn't like riding your bike on the sidewalk, oh HECK no! I felt like I was climbing Mt. Everest a time or two! I was sweaty, red, and totally out of breath and trying my hardest to keep up. I had to walk my bike a few times up the mountain and luckily I was able to give the "I'm preganant...I can't work this hard" excuse! YIPEE! Next time I will definitely want to have longer than 40 minutes to go throughout the whole park so I can actually ENJOY the ride!

 Right before our car picked us up to take us to the airport I HAD to fulfill my Italian food craving. We went to a pretty good little place...the only not good thing is what came with the calamari.... full on octopus. I swear I saw their little legs wiggling a time or two! ha!