What's up Wednesday

Today, I’m linking up with Shay, Shaefer and Mel for What’s Up Wednesday!

What we're eating this week: 

Pasta Salad, Copycat Cafe Rio Sweet Pork, Spaghetti, Grilled Chicken, BBQ Pork
What I'm reminiscing about:
I'm reminiscing to back in the day when I lived in Arizona and could go to Bahama Bucks whenever I wanted. They just opened a Bahama Bucks in Utah (where I lived Bahama Bucks-less for 5 years) and they also opened one in Birmingham (where we lived Bahama Bucks-less for two years) just a few months after we moved to Iowa! With our luck, they will open a Bahama Bucks in Davenport, but only after we move somewhere else! Whaaaaaaa!!!

What I'm loving:
David, who now has a habit of crawling into bed with us at the crack of dawn and then falling back to sleep for another hour or so. I love that he falls back to sleep, I love that we now have a bed big enough to fit three bodies comfortably, and I love waking up next to this sweet sleeping boy :)

What we've been up to: 
The John Deere Pavilion and a couple of trips to the zoo!

The sloth was up and moving (which is really rare) and David was so excited!

What I'm excited about:
Disney World in less than a month!!! Our magic bands came in the mail on Monday and I seriously can't wait!!!

What I'm dreading:
The 18 hour drive to get to Disney World :/
What I'm working on:
At beginning of the month, I did some deep cleaning and also organized the boys' toys in the basement. It's nice that David is finally to a stage where I can get things done when he is awake! (for the most part ;)
 
But for the last week or so, I've been doing nothing but the bare minimum and have just been enjoying the good weather outside with these two:)

What I'm watching/reading:

The Office and My Five Wives :)
This month, I read A Garden in Paris by Stephani Whitson for book club. It was a quick, easy read and it made me want to go to Paris again!

What I've been listening to:
My Disney World researching has become obsessive and addicting! I guess the blogs and facebook pages weren't enough so I started listening to a Disney World prep podcast too ;) How do you become a travel agent? I seriously want to be a travel agent!
What I'm wearing: 
It's been warm enough to wear shorts a few times this last week! Yay!
What I'm doing this weekend: 
We have a work dinner on Friday night and then unfortunately, I have to work this Saturday.
What I'm looking forward to next month:
DID I MENTION DISNEY WORLD YET?!

Friday Favorites

Today, I'm linking up with Narci, Erika and Andrea for Friday Favorites!

I'm pretty sure that 50 percent of my blog is dedicated to venting about cold weather and the other 50 percent is just pictures of us playing outside when we have good weather. My apologies :) Today, you will be getting "playing outside in good weather pictures". Some favorites this week:

• Our Chicago day trip on Saturday! We went to the zoo, we biked on Lake Michigan, and we ate yummy food! Full Chicago post -------> here. 

• Walks on our bike trail! Have I mentioned that on this blog before?! ;) I'm like a broken record. On our last walk, Jack found a snake and without hesitation, he walked over to it and PICKED IT UP!!! Spencer and I were laughing so hard and were pretty impressed with his bravery. He named the snake "Hider." :)

•  This:

 

•  My view from my bedroom window:

Our tree is so beautiful right now.

•  Watching my boys play out in our yard. On the side of our townhouse, we have a line of pine trees that make a pretty cool tunnel/fort that is perfect for a little boy's imagination. They chase bunnies and birds and catch worms under there. David calls it his "bunny work" :)

Digging for worms

Feeding their worms to the birds :)
 
My problem with David lately is that he now knows how to escape to our back yard that isn't gated using the sliding door. Whenever he sees a bunny or a bird, he leaves the house to "run the bird/bunny" or even to "run daddy" :) It's cute, but it's also a problem if I'm not on the main floor with him when he escapes. Does anyone know of a good sliding door child lock? Do those even exist?

•  Jack and David's "outfits" on Monday when it was 80 degrees :) They are ready for summer!

• I saw this on Hungry Runner Girl's blog the other day and it made me laugh :) The Parent Trap was one of my favorites and I was obsessed with Lindsay Lohan (and Hillary Duff and Mary-kate and Ashley) as a tween :)

• "Worm class!" There was a one day worm class at Nahant Marsh Education Center that Jack's friend invited us to and the boys loved it! They got to play with a worm (they are pretty good at playing with LOTS of worms at home already - I found a live worm in David's pocket on the way to the class! haha!) and they did a bunch of worm activities. The highlight for them was touching all of the snakes and turtles afterwards!

 
 
Happy Friday!!!

Chicago Day Trip

For the last month or so, Spencer and I have been anxious for good weather and to get a little break from the Quad Cities. We saw that the weather this last weekend was going to be gorgeous and then I found out that a Costa Vida opened up in downtown Chicago and that sealed the deal for me! Sweet Pork Salad, here I come! 

We left at about 6:45 on Saturday morning and drove straight to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We got there around 10 am and lucked out and got free street parking. Spencer's favorites were the gorillas, my favorite was the hippo, Jack's favorite was the dwarf crocodile and the sand boa, and David's favorites were the gibbons and chasing the birds during our picnic lunch ;)




We love the Lincoln Park Zoo and seriously can't believe that admission is free! And you can't beat the Chicago skyline in the background.

After four hours at the zoo, we were exhausted so we headed to a big grassy area to relax for a bit. After six months of cold weather, just sitting in the grass under the warm sun felt like heaven. This seems to happen every year, but when spring finally comes I feel like I come back to life even though I didn't even realize that I was dead. haha It's like my body says, "See?!  This is what happiness feels like." #thewinterbluesisnojoke
 
At around 2 or so, we headed back to the van and got our bikes out to ride on the Lakefront trail.
Jack and David were excited :)

David fell asleep about one minute after we started biking! haha We wore him out!

This was my favorite part of the day - we had never biked Chicago yet and it was my favorite way to tour by far. There is just something about leisurely biking that makes me feel so alive!

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(Side note: In between my freshman and sophomore year of college, I went on a 6 week study abroad to Italy and England. By some stroke of luck, my dad happened to have an international business trip in London when I was in London, and he was in London the ONLY weekend that I had off, so we went to Paris for the weekend! We were there for three days, and we spent TWO of the days in Versailles riding bikes around the palace (because we had so much fun the first day!) Sometimes I look back and can't believe that we chose to go to Versailles again over seeing the Louvre and that we didn't even go INSIDE the Palace of Versailles (because we were having so much fun biking) but then I remember that riding bikes around the palace grounds (twice!) with my dad was one of the highlights of my entire 6 weeks in Europe :) Long story short, biking is the way to sight-see :) At least for me.)



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Now back to Chicago! We rode to Museum Campus then stopped for a minute to order Spencer's pizza since deep dish pizza takes about an hour to cook. Then we really debated about whether to ride into the heart of downtown (the Magnificent Mile area) because we thought it would be really tricky riding through all of the crowds but we decided to go for it! Turns out, it wasn't bad at all (we did avoid the Magnificent Mile though). Spencer said it was much easier pulling the boys through the crowds on a bike than pushing them through crowds in a stroller. We finally got to Costa Vida (at this point I was salivating and SO EXCITED for a sweet pork salad) and it turns out IT IS CLOSED ON WEEKENDS!!!! I have never heard of a restaurant that is closed on weekends and I was so so soooooo sad. I know we were in Chicago, home of the deep dish pizza and other amazing restaurants, but all I wanted was that darn Utah chain food. haha

We went from Costa Vida to Uno's Pizza to the original McDonalds (because Jack and David didn't like the pizza even though they ate it just fine last time we went to Chicago!) then to Magnolia Bakery (to get Spencer's favorite banana pudding) and then to Sprinkles cupcakes. The line at Sprinkles was out the door and took over a half an hour to get our Red Velvet Cupcakes but it was worth it!!! Jack and David did amazing the entire day and we surprisingly had no meltdowns! They were even happy waiting in line!


We got back to our car around 7 pm and then headed back home. It was such a perfect day and Chicago is way more fun (and easier!) when Spencer can play with us instead of sit in meetings!
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Chicago October 2015
Chicago March 2015
Chicago June 2014 with my mom and siblings was unfortunately not documented because I was taking a blogging break at the time

Show and Tell Tuesdays: A Day in the Life

Today I'm linking up with Andrea for Show and Tell Tuesdays for "A Day in the Life."

Here is Friday, April 15th documented from start to finish:

6 am - Jack and David crawled into bed with us. David fell back to sleep but Jack stayed awake and we told each other about our dreams - Jack dreamed about turtles and I dreamed that we had bedbugs at our hotel at Disney World (I'm seriously traumatized from The Bedbugs of 2012!)

6:30 am - Spencer's alarm went off and we all woke up and went downstairs.
6:45 am - I left for a run. I did a 4 mile negative split run with mile times of 8:38, 8:24, 8:06 and 7:40.

Meanwhile, Spencer fed the boys their first round of breakfast and got ready for work. He's the best.
7:30 - Spencer left for work.
7:30 - 9:30 - I showered, got ready for the day, got the boys ready for the day, ate breakfast, cleaned up breakfast, and packed lunches for the park. Jack and David played toys and watched Barney on my phone.
9:30 - we loaded up on the bike and headed to the park with friends! Before we got to the park, we stopped to throw rocks in the creek.


We played and ate lunch at the park before heading back home.

11:45 - we rode home from the park but the boys didn't want to go inside yet! They dug in the dirt and chased bunnies and birds outside while I sat in the grass and read a book. It was one of the first days of warm weather (high 70s and low 80s) and we took advantage of it!

 
 
1:00 pm - we went inside and ate a snack. I bought drinkable yogurts for the first time and will never buy them again! They are a mess!

1:30 pm - David went down for a nap and Jack settled down with his "cozy animals" for a reptile documentary on Netflix. (I don't know how he can pay attention to it! I think it is so boring! haha) My boy sure loves reptiles and sea animals!

Meanwhile, I made some phone calls and stalked some blogs and enjoyed a diet mountain dew (Spencer is officially hooked and I'm trying so hard to resist but I feel like those cans of soda call my name from the fridge!! haha)
 
2:30 pm - Jack and I did a quick turtle craft. (Jack makes sure EVERYONE knows that turtles are his favorite and a sweet friend from school gave this to him)

 
 Then, we prepped for dinner (my favorite Chinese Chicken Salad) since it's a lot easier for me to get dinner ready when David isn't around ;)
 
3:30 - David woke up from his nap. Since his diaper was dry, I had him try to go to the bathroom. Whenever he tries to go potty, he holds his hands together like this and I think it's so cute! haha

Then they wanted to do play dough!

 While they were playing downstairs, I folded a load of laundry and watched what I think is going to be my new guilty pleasure -  "My Five Wives". haha
 
 It got way too quiet downstairs and when I went to check on Jack and David, they were outside watching the lawn mower :)

4:00 pm - we played outside again until Spencer got home from work.
 
They always ask me to open the van so they can play in there too :)

5:00 pm - Spencer came home, we ate dinner quickly, then headed out for a backup activity since our babysitter for the night fell through last minute.
I love this boy and his hot, messy curls!

We rode bikes on the Mississippi! We started at downtown Davenport and rode to the park at Credit Island.

 
Jack and David love playing on the army tank at Credit Island!

7:30 - we got home from biking and Spencer bathed the boys and put them to bed while I cleaned the kitchen and downstairs.
8:30 - we watched a few episodes of The Office then went to bed early since we were heading to Chicago bright and early the next day.

And that's a day in our life! Nothing too exciting but man, I'm grateful for these slow, simple (and 70 degree!) days with my little guys!

Other day in the life posts:

October 2015
September 2014