August Trips

So we made a super fast trip to Connecticut last weekend. My Uncle Gordon died unexpectedly and we went to pay our respects. It was great seeing everyone, but at the same time it sucked. I did get to see my cousin Derek though which was cool. I haven't seen him in at least 8 years. He lives in California and works for Jay Leno. Neat huh?

This is my cousin Brittany. She was posing for Aidan who was walking around with my camera taking pictures. He is getting really good I think. He is actually starting to use the eye piece to look through.

It was a very long and busy day on Saturday. Poor kid passed out. These are the beds Eric and I sleep on when we go up to visit. There are two beds separated by a side table. I have been sleeping on the beds MY WHOLE LIFE.

Random shot from spaghetti night at our house. If you look close in the background you can see Aidan licking his lips. I love this picture.


And here's Nate and Eric! Photo by Aidan Monroe Dodson. Remember that name. He will be famous one day!

Such a slacker here

(I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!!)

So....yup. It's been over a month. I am SUCH a slacker here. Hopefully once we sell this house and it is faster to upload stuff I will actually update this more often.

So since last time I updated we have celebrated the fourth of July and had 2 family reunions in one weekend.

(Cake tastes good...)

(Aidan's thoughtful pose on a hammock at the cabin)

It was a good weekend. We saw many many family members, hung out at a cabin in the woods of Virginia, ate homemade ice cream, beat Eric and his mom's butt at badmiton, and had scary freaky crawdads crawl over my feet.

(Awesome pic of a log at the creek)

Also, we have also discovered the joys of splash parks. These are fabulous "parks" where water shoots out of the ground in little fountains. The kids REALLY dig them.

(cute bubble bath picture)
The weekend after the fourth we went to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, NC. It was great and hot.


(Lions say Roar!)


(Yup...I think it was turtle mating season....oops I mean they were giving each other piggyback rides)





(Feeding the Lorikeets. Only got pooped on a little bit!)

(Aunt Morgan enjoyed herself more than the kids I think!)
Unfotunately we had to go back to West Virginia the following weekend for a funeral. Eric's grandma in Florida passed away at the age of 96! She was a sweet lady and lived a very long life. I just wish Nate could have had the chance to meet her.

The first evening up in the Wv we went to Eric's aunt and uncles house and Aidan learned how to play the tuba. Yes he did make noise come out of it! AMAZING! UNcle Chris says he has 5th graders that can't even do that!



Check out the cheeks on this boy!)
(Nate eating an apple picked freshly from a tree)
So we actually had a vacation after this. We went to visit my mom in Greenville, NC. This first day we went to the beach and lasted a whole hour at the beach. We forgot to bring food so we went to get lunch and while we were eating there was a HORRIBLE rain storm so I guess our forgetfullness paid off!
(Nate's first beach trip)


(The family...awww)
After the hurricane we went to the aquarium. Not to thrilling, but Nate LOVES fish. he grunted and pointed the whole time.




(Cookie baking with Grandma)
Thursday we went to Aurora, NC where you can dig through dirt and find shark teeth. I thought it was cool. We drove for 3hours total round trip and the kids played in the sand stuff for about 20minutes. I had fun though. I found a great white shark tooth. AWESOME!
(I'm Free!)





Then it was back to moms for a dip in the pool.

Well that was our trip. We are now caught up.

Busy Weekend

So this past weekend we spent Saturday in Greensboro visiting Aunt Morgan. It was a very busy day. Somehow we got up, got dressed, fed the kids, cleaned the house, and got in the car by 9:15am. This selling the house business is hard!

When we got there me met Morgans mom, had lunch-which Aidan actually ate! It was this taco crescent roll ring thing. It was really good. Maybe I'll be brave and try to serve it to them one night. I am scared that it was just a fluke. Nate ate a PB&J as usual.

After lunch we went to the Children's Museum.

THIS PLACE WAS AWESOME!!!

They had a ball room, a construction zone, a room for kids under 2, an outdoor adventure room with a tent and "campfire", a house, a market, a doctors office, a dentist office, a real firetruck, a police car, a race car, an airplane cockpit, and Hot Wheels was there that day giving out free cars to race. Charlotte's children's museum stinks compared to this place!!

(a real airplane cockpit, complete with hat and stale cigarette smell)

(Morgan and Aidan making an airplane picture with Popsicle sticks)

(Oh did I mention the Curious George was there as well? AWESOME!)

(Hope he doesn't put all his eggs in one basket! Yeah I'm a dork. Couldn't resist)

After the museum we grabbed some milkshakes and headed over to the Natural Science Center of Greensboro. It was great as well! They had a zoo and we got to see Meerkats, Lorakeets, Gibbons-which I want for my birthday, Maned wolves, a tiger, turtles, goats-which we fed,Lemurs, pigs, chickens. It was so fun, yet SOOOO hot outside.

(I keep telling Aidan to quit bugging me! I guess he can't help it.)

After we finished outside we went in and checked out a few things in there. Nate LOVED the dinosaur room.
He thought that the Dino was great. Aidan on the other hand freaked out because when you got close it growled. He started crying a screaming "It's scaring me!" It was sad, yet rather funny.

Then we went home. Aidan passed out after being in the car for 5 minutes. I enjoyed the quiet and I think I passed out for a few as well. Eric was driving. I hope he wasn't sleeping!
Then today...we had an open house scheduled. We cleaned and cleaned and fought with each other and put out snacks and left the house with dogs in tow and did anyone show up?
NOPE.
Oh well the guy doing the open house today says he has some clients that would love the house and they might swing by this week.
Wish us luck!

Our Crazy life

So...in case you didn't notice...it is June.

Yup. Haven't added anything here in a month. So here goes.

May17th 2009. The big boy turned three. Three! Can you believe it?!?!

So we had his birthday party on Saturday the 16th and we had bunches of people there and of course it rained. It was sunny his first birthday and for the past two rain. Pouring down crazy rain. Not the whole time though, just when we were trying to eat so that was fun. There were 16 adults and 4 little ones trying to cram in our house and under a tent.

My Grandma came down from Connecticut for the party so that was a nice surprise. We weren't sure if she was going to come down or not until the week before. I think she looks fabulous.

Aidan got lots of great stuff. Some stuff disappeared and wont surface again until we move. Crazy how things go into our garage and don't come back out.

Speaking of our house we got it painted. The home selling isn't going to spiffy so we thought a new coat of paint would help. I only have a back shot of the house but you get the idea.

This year we are trying to take the boys out and experience more things. True Aidan is officially a nut ball now,but he also enjoys more things and gets super excited.

The pool at the YMCA has opened up so we are trying to get out there at least every Sunday. Aidan is really digging it. It is amazing how confident he has become in the past year. Last year he was really timid in the pool, now we get yelled at because he is not within arm distance in the kids pool. (only goes to 1ft deep-don't freak out people)

Unfortunately Nate is gaining independence as well which means he doesn't want to be held, yet he doesn't want to be in the water. The picnic area is his favorite area of choice.

We also have gone to baseball games. Well this past weekend at least. Friday night we went for free kids t-shirts. Nothing thrilling about them. Just a t-shirt with a number on the back and a lot of advertising. We watched a bit of the game. Then it started to rain around 7pm when Eric's parents showed up. And it rained and it rained and it rained.

We left at 8pm and went home.

Cool thing is that if the game rains out you get a free ticket to the next game. So we went Saturday night as well. We got there 30minutes early thinking that was early enough to get the free hat they were giving to the first 3000 people.

Did we get a hat...Nope.

Oh well. Nate did discover how cool Homer the Dragon (the Knights mascot)is. He kept pointing to the field when he saw him and then he would point to a sign behind us with a picture of Homer on it. I think he was a bit confused how he was in two places. Nate and I hung out in the handicapped area most of the night. Aidan. Eric, and Teresa (Eric's mom) ran around together. I have now learned that I must bring a friend with me to the games. They are so late, 7pm, that Nate has to stay in his stroller because it is close to bedtime and he will go bananas if you let him walk around.

So all this excitement creates a couple of exhausted kids. Here is my favorite shot.

Mothers Day Smothers Day

(Nate blowing kisses)

So my day started out wonderfully. I slept in until a whopping 7a.m. (Yup that is late here)

Checked my email.
Eric made these apple pancake things for breakfast. Not real flip on the griddle pancakes-you bake them and they poof.
Went grocery shopping without kids.
Ordered Aidan's awesome Spider man birthday cake.
Came home, both kids napping.
It was great!

Then that is when the fun began.

So for all of you who think that I have the most wonderful well behaved, sweet cute kids I am about to prove you wrong. These pictures might be shocking, but I think they portray accurately what I lived through yesterday.

Pure evil people!
We went out for a nice meal at P.F. Chang's. Always wanted to go there. Told lots of people bring kids there. Not a problem. Thinking everything will be okay. Nate had a two hour nap as well as Aidan, so everyone should be well rested and ready to eat.
From the second we walked in there Nate went bananas. Apparently he was getting sleepy again. (Woke up at 11:30am, it is now 1p.m.)
Got him a kids cup with a straw like Aidan's gave them both crackers, thought we were cool.

Nope.

Aidan decides to crawl under the table, needs to go to the bathroom twice, tries to pick up everything with the kids chopsticks, slides under the table again, jumps around.
Nate squeals like a crazy man at the cat on his cup.
All before food gets to our table.
I am literally sitting there with my arm wrapped around him trying to hold him down and eat the food that was just brought out.

Do my kids eat you ask?

Nope. (well unless you count a dumpling for Aidan and crispy won ton strips for Nate)

So Eric, wonderful guy that he is, puts Aidan in a death grip on his lap, devours his food, almost chokes, and tell me to finish my meal and meet him outside.

As he is leaving the mother at the next table gets up and sits next to me. She says that she is compelled to speak to me and proceeds to tell me that I am beautiful, my kids are gorgeous, and she knows what it is like to be a mother since she is one. Today is my day and I need to enjoy it. Today is the day for me.

The tears start flowing and I thank her for her kind words then she goes back to her table. I continue eating and look like the crazy woman sitting there by herself, table full of food, highchair with no baby, and silently having tears go down my face.

Then the lady comes back and asks my name. I say Sarah and she tells me that hers is Crystal. Then she tells me that she is going to put something in my hand and she wants me to go out and enjoy myself. It's mothers day and I need to enjoy myself. I look down and see cash. I tell her no, no thank you. But she still puts it in my hand and says go treat yourself. She gives me a hug and I tell her thank you and she goes back to her seat.

I reach over to put it in my purse and look and there is a 5 on it. I think to myself what am I going to do with $5? Well at least Starbucks will be $5 richer.

The family gets up and leaves and they all walk by and tell me Happy Mothers Day. I had a hard time looking at them because I was so damn embarrassed at this point.

The bill comes and I reach in my purse for my wallet (Eric is outside) and I go to put my $5 in my wallet. Is it $5 though?

Nope.

She gave me $50! A complete stranger. Gave me $50. Just thinking about the kindness of Crystal makes me want to cry. I hope one day I am financially in the position that I can do that for someone else.

I just had to share this story of Crystal with all of you.

Happy Belated Mothers Day everyone