Tuck Fall Formal

I will start out by giving credit for all of these pictures to my sweet girl Maren.  Thanks.  Sorry I stole them from you.  :)

We finally made it to a formal Tuck event.  It was SO much fun.  We went to dinner with three of our favorite couples....and then headed out to dance our butts off.  I love these friends so much.  This will be a night that is not easily forgotten.  That's for sure. 

by the way, it rained ALL DAY and we had to walk down a massive dirt (mud) road to get to the venue...hence the rain boots, that we rocked ALL. NIGHT. LONG. That's right.  It's okay though, we weren't the only ones.  

fun. date. night. 

First set of stitches

With two boys, it was inevitable. But I'm actually shocked that Brixton was the first of my kids to get stitches.  He was riding his bike right in front of our house on the sidewalk, turned at the corner, and just fell right off, chin first, into the pavement.  It honestly just looked like a normal minor bike crash.   Mike ran and picked him up, was starting to walk him inside to clean up the blood, and looked right at me and said "this is bad, we've gotta go to the ER."  Luckily, we had only been home for 10 minutes, and hadn't even gone inside the house yet. I grabbed the car keys off the porch and we all piled in the car.  (by the way, we have the most awesome neighbors who within SECONDS had an ice pack and roll of paper towels in our hands)

 the drive to the hospital...was not pretty. 

 the waiting room.....

 waiting....waiting....waiting....

 please don't mind that my son has a giant hole in his chin! 

I figured the fewer people back in the ER room, the better.  Damon and I walked around the hospital, got some lunch, watched some football. 

(these pics were taken after Damon and I did our wandering....the nurse had cleaned out the wound, and they were waiting for it to get totally numb).  

When it was time to get the stitches, Brixton was the most perfect patient ever.  He literally laid there still as can be and got his chin stitched up.  He said at the end "that hurts" in his sweet little voice.  That was it. 

Damon actually found a 'green lollipop" in the gift shop.  It was a miracle.  It was exactly what Brixton told us would cheer him up.  And it did.....

 He also said donuts would make him happy, and so he got some of those too.  

A couple of hours later I made a bad judgment call.  We were going to a neighbors birthday party....I thought I'd just take Brixton for a few minutes...then we'd come home....Well.  He got playing with his friends, tripped, landed on his chin AGAIN and busted his stitches open.  Not kidding.  Mike and I took off running, Damon stayed back and a good friend watched him for the next couple of hours....and Mike and I did it again.  This time, he screamed bloody murder from the first stitch through the last one. It was AWFUL.  One of the saddest moments ever.  It was seriously as though he could feel everything.  But....I did get some cute pics out of our wait in the ER room. 

Can we please wait a while before I have to deal with stitches again?  Please? 

Brixton and Mike. First Day.

Just so happens, that Brixton's FIRST first day of school, and Mike's LAST first day of school were on the exact same day.  The picture says it all.  I love these guys.  

This little guy is seriously such a crack up.  I laugh every single day at him, and can not get enough of his personality.  He has come a LONG way in the last year with his speech.  He is honestly such a fun kid.  By the way, Yea for pre-school.  Seriously.  

Damon. Second Grade?

Can't believe I have a second grader.  I could go on and on about how grown up he is, about how I can remember the day he was born....etc...but I'll spare you. I am not a good writer so I'll just say that I love this kid more than words can say.  He's crazier than I could ever imagine, and I love him so so so much.  

not sure what he's so mad about. 

 headed to the bus.  :).                                                            his arms look creepily long in this picture

Road Trippin'.....Pit stop in NYC.

It was time to get back to real life, and even though I'd prefer to forget about this entire day, we did try to be fun and make an afternoon pit stop (as in a 7 hour pit stop) in NYC on our way home. 

NY skyline

 

We walked through Highline Park in NYC.

                                    This was Mike's apartment during his summer internship.

The main plan was to take the boys to the American Museum of Natural History.  It did not disappoint. Despite the fact that the 4 of us sort of got separated, we tried to make the most out of the time that we had to explore.  

 Spiders Alive Exhibit

 This museum is GINORMOUS.  Not kidding.  The maps didn't even help.  It was so big.

 Central Park

Would have LOVED to spend more time here.   Central Park is one of the most amazing places around. 

Maryland, Pt. 4, Friends

Gotta love showing up to church matching your good buddies! 

 Brixton, Bobby, and Ethan.  

 me and sweet Deb....mother of those cute boys above.   These sweet friends had us over to hang out Sunday night, and it was SO much fun.  We miss our fun MD friends so much. 

 we seriously took 14 different pictures and this one turned out the best.  haha.  Thanks Damon. 

 I met up with my good friend Jenny, for a kidless lunch date.  It was so fantastic to hang out without kids.  We hardly ever did that!  (okay, that's not true, but it was still fun to do it some more!)

This last pic is Mike's sweet cousin, Heather, who I 100% consider my family.  She invites us to stay with her with open arms, she's honestly the most gracious host, and we LOVE getting to spend so much time with her when we are in town!  love you lady! 

Maryland, Pt. 3, Damon's besties

That night....we headed to see my crazy awesome friend, Shannon, and her son Trey.  Damon and Trey were in the same kindergarten class, and lived just across the street from us, so we became really good friends with them.  She had us over for a bbq, and actually had a couple of other boys from Damon's class and their parents over as well.  It was soooo much fun seeing friends from Damon's school.  Watching Damon play with his friends before dinner actually sort of broke my heart.  He had such fantastic friends in Maryland.  

The school boundaries are so spread out up here in NH, and the school is so weird, that I hardly know any of the parents/students from Damon's class.  I loved catching up and laughing with my sweet friend Shannon, but seeing how much fun Damon was having reminded me of how hard it was to move away. 

 just playing some football

 Leo, Damon, Trey 

my hilarious Shannon.