Rochester Trip

Still catching up on the past month. This post will be about our trip to Rochester. My entire family had plans for a trip to Rochester in October for Lindsay Armbruster's wedding. We were planning to fly-in from Phoenix, but since we moved, we just drove up. This trip was just Madeline and I. George doesn't have very much vacation time yet in his new position so he had to stay back. Luke stayed with him so it was a girl's trip for Madeline and me! 

Hannah and my cousin, Sarah, are both getting married next summer. This was the last time that the whole family will be together before both of their weddings so my mom and my Aunt Lesley threw a shower for them out at the Moore's lake house. We were in Rochester from Friday until Tuesday. On Tuesday, my parents drove back down to PA with us and stayed with us until Saturday. On Saturday (10/15), my parents, the kids, and I flew to Arizona. I had a work trip out in Arizona October 18-20 so the kids came with me and we extended the trip on either end by a couple of days. I know, hard to keep up, right? 

Here are some pictures of the shower....

It isn't a Warren shower without punch with sherbet....

The beautiful brides to be...

 Paisley, Madeline, and Parker are in both weddings. Paisley and Parker stayed back in AZ with Terrisa's mom. Madeline was more than happy to be of assistance to Hannah and Sarah as they opened their gifts :) 

Gabe and Katie's newborn, Lilah, was at the shower. She's precious and so tiny! It's hard to believe that Luke was that small just 7-8 months ago. 

 My dad, Hannah, Madeline, and I went had a nice visit with my Uncle Bob. It is always nice to spend some time with him. This was also his first time meeting Madeline.

We hit upstate New York at the perfect time....apple season.....aka cider and apple cider donut season!  The donuts and cider are unreal. My mouth is watering just recalling how delicious they were. I brought back some cider and have half a gallon frozen in our fridge. I was going to save it for Christmas and use some for hot cider. We'll see if I can hold off until then. 

The cider is so fresh. Here they are making it...

The powdered donuts are my favorite, although I love them all. 

Ok, I need to stop looking at donuts and cider because now I want some SO bad. Haha. Let's move on to the wedding pictures, shall we?

Lindsay and Jeff's wedding was beautiful. The venue, decorations, and little details were gorgeous. I thought they did such a nice job with everything. 

I only got one picture from the actually wedding ceremony at John Knox church, but I thought it was pretty good one! 

I can't remember the name of the reception venue, but it was very, very nice. 

I loved the gold jars with fall flowers...

Apparently I can't escape donuts. Instead of a wedding cake, they had a donut and pie buffet....genius! 

The head table...

Some pictures of table 12! 

Jeremiah also could not make it so Hannah and I were each other's dates. Don't tell George, but she's a better dancer :) 

The handsome couple! 

Another fun evening at the lake...

Back to present day...George is out of town this weekend for his friend Nick's bachelor party in New Orleans. Nick and Shelby are getting married on January 15 back in Arizona, so we will be heading out there for the wedding. Since we will be going back to AZ in January for their wedding, we will not be going back to Arizona for Christmas. It'll be hard not to be home for Christmas, but at least we will see everyone in Colorado in early December. The timing of our January trip will also work out perfectly with the arrival of Brian and Terrisa's baby, due in early January :) I am going to go there a week before the wedding so that I can soak in as much time with my new nephew as possible! Terrisa is now about 31 weeks so he'll be here before we know it!! And if we wants to wait to come until January 7 (the day that I get there), that's fine with me. Haha. George flew out on Friday night and will be back by this evening. The kids and I have stayed busy, but we're ready to have daddy home! Yesterday, I took them to the Please Touch Museum (a children's museum in Philadelphia). My friend, Amanda, came with me and was such a help with the kids. It would have been a complete disaster without her help. Amanda and I worked together in Scottsdale during my first year at General Mills. A year and a half ago, she moved to Minneapolis and then right before we moved to Philadelphia, she happened to move to Philadelphia as well. We both work from our homes and don't really work together, but we both work for General Mills still and chat often. She lives right in the city so after the museum, we grabbed a later lunch and took it back to her apartment. Today, I tried to get us out the 9:45am service at church, but at about 9am, things started to unravel.  Madeline was giving me such a hard time about getting ready, it was time for Luke to eat, and then right after he ate, he fell asleep. Soooo, no church for us today. I put Luke down for a nap, got Madeline a snack, and got out my laptop to blog. Madeline has been playing so well for the past hour. She is so serious sometimes when she plays. Right now, she is telling her Disney princesses what to do....and she had to call one of their moms. I have to pretend that I'm not paying attention to what she is saying. She doesn't really like us to acknowledge her when she is pretend playing. Unless she is playing restaurant or birthday party. Then she serves us food, makes us eat, tells us to finish our vegetables before we eat our cupcakes, etc. I might attempt a trip to King of Prussia mall when Luke wakes up. We have the double stroller so that helps a ton. 

I'll post later this week with the details on our trip to Arizona. 

Live from New York

I have so much to blog about. We have been ON THE GO the last few weeks. This post will be about our trip to New York City and I'll do separate posts about our other trips. 

When we first found out that we were moving to Philadelphia, George entered his name into the Saturday Night Live lottery. On a previous trip to NYC, George and I did the SNL standby line, which was a super huge pain, and we didn't get in. The lottery is much easier, but the chances of being drawn are really slim. Well, George's name was drawn.....FOR THE SEASON PREMIERE!! :) Also, I should note that you do not have a say in the date that you are selected for. There are so many dates that wouldn't have worked for us because of other trips, but we happen to be completely free the weekend of the premiere. He was notified via email that he was selected about 2 weeks before the show. He was required to reply 3 days beforehand to secure our spot. We actually weren't planning to go because ya know, we have 2 kids and what would we do with them? I did some research and found a reputable babysitting agency called Pinch Sitter, George researched hotels and parking, and we decided to go! 

New York is only about two hours from us so we drove up first thing on Saturday morning. It was a super easy drive, exactly two hours from our place in PA to our hotel in Manhattan. The show didn't start until 11:30PM (we had to arrive at 10:15PM) so we had lots of time to explore after we checked-in. We stayed at the Kimpton in Chelsea (got a great last minute deal). Our room was so nice and even had a great view. I was pretty nervous about how things would go with the kids in NYC. George and I absolutely love NY (like we would move there in a heartbeat), but I wasn't so sure that we'd love it with the kids along. It was definitely a different trip with the kids, but had very compact "baby gear" so we were able to get around easily and had no where to be (until SNL at 10:15PM) so we could play it by ear. Luke was pretty oblivious to the whole thing and slept a lot in the Ergo. Madeline loved walking everywhere and enjoyed the couple of sites that we did see. We stumbled upon the kids area at the New York Public Library and spent an hour or so there. Then we walked to Grand Central Station and checked that out. We grabbed an early dinner and then took the scenic route back to our hotel. We relaxed in the hotel for a couple of hours and then took Madeline for ice cream. 

The babysitter arrived at our hotel at 8PM. I did a lot of research on Pinch Sitters and spoke to the owner, but we were both still pretty nervous about how it would go. However, once our sitter arrived, we felt so relieved. She was awesome right off the bat. Luke was asleep, but she immediately connected with Madeline and we left without any tears (yay!). We had a couple of hours to kill before we had to be at SNL. The ASU game was on and I found a bar right around the corner from our hotel that was playing it. It turned out to be an ASU bar and the NYC ASU alumni group was there watching the game. So, we hung out with the alumni group and watched the game until half time....it was so much fun! And I actually saw someone I know from my undergrad. 

When we got to Rockefeller Center, we sought out "Jen's line" per the instructions on the email. George gave his name and we were on the list (phew!). I'm going to be honest, I felt so VIP. Haha. They checked his ID, gave us our tickets, and sent us to a waiting room with the other audience members. We were told not to take any pictures. George took a picture of our tickets and I got so nervous....I was convinced that we were going to get kicked out. We didn't. Next, they brought us up to the studio. We had to take an elevator up several stories (I think we were on the 10th floor or so). We shuffled into the studio and they pointed us to our seats. The majority of the audience (with the exception of a small amount of VIP audience members who sit right on the floor) is raised up about 15 feet off of the stage level. We were in the front row of that section. When looking at the stage, we were to the right a bit. There is the main stage in the middle with the house band. Then there are a few other stages. We had very good visibility to all stages except the one on the far left, which ended up being the musical guest's stage (we could see the frontman, but not his band). 

Margot Robbie was the host and The Weekend was the musical guest. The premiere was the same week as the first Presidential debate so the highlight of the night was the debate skit. Alec Baldwin was Trump. He was HILARIOUS! The debate was my favorite skit and my second favorite was the sink hole skit (check it out on Youtube!). George was really excited that Larry David (creator of Seinfeld) was on the show. He was also very excited for the house band -- he is a big fan of jazz music. 

George is an SNL fan and has watched many episodes. I, on the other hand, had never seen an entire SNL episode prior to watching it live, so I had no idea what to expect. A lot of it was funny to me, but I also found some of it kind of stupid/weird. Maybe my sense of humor is not that sophisticated??? We both found the "behind the scenes" perspective fascinating. The pace at which the cast and crew move during the live show is insane. They were literally pulling Margot Robbie off of the stage as soon as it cut to commercial for her costume changes. It was clear that the crew had every detail thoroughly planned. The sets were so intricate. Many of the props/scenes were leaning against walls throughout the studio. The cast is full of comedians, but many of them had very serious game faces on before their skits....you could even see some of them sort of rehearsing their lines prior to going live. We have been to other shows (Live with Kelly and Price is Right) and those shows gave direction to the audience. SNL did not give much direction. The laughter and audience reaction is all very spontaneous and genuine. 

We were both so glad we went. It was a once in a lifetime thing and we had a blast. 

We rounded out our trip with donuts at Doughnut Plant in Chelsea and coffee at Stumptown on Sunday morning. We hit the road after lunch and got back in the early afternoon. I even had time to do my weekend grocery trip.

We will be back soon, New York! Here are some pictures from our trip... 

George connected a strap to our umbrella stroller so that he could sling it on his back when Madeline wanted to walk. 

 

Luke was in the Ergo the entire time. He loves being in it and it's simple for us. Win-Win!

 

Roy and Christa's Wedding

We got back from our trip to Arizona yesterday.....aaaaand Madeline is still on AZ time and is just now going to bed. It's almost 10PM here!! George and I are exhausted yet she is wide awake :( 

We had a great trip. It was so nice to be with family and celebrate Roy and Christa's wedding. For those that don't know, Roy is George's cousin. He is a couple of years younger than us (graduated high school with Emily). We knew when we found out about our move that we would need to travel back just 6 weeks later for their wedding. It made it easier to say goodbye knowing that we would be home so soon. It actually turns out that I'll be home a couple more times in the next few months due to work trips (the kids will most likely come with me for both trips). Madeline was so excited when we were leaving for the trip. She seemed to completely understand that we were going to Arizona to visit everyone. It was really fun for us to see her get so excited....and it made us pretty excited too. I was worried about how she would be when it was time to go home, but she was totally fine. It's so true when people say that kids are very resilient. 

When we left PA it was pretty warm still (about 80-85 degrees). People were saying that it was unseasonably warm. This week it is in the low 70s all week and suddenly feels like fall. One of the things that I'm most excited for here is four seasons, especially the leaves changing in the fall. 

More about our upcoming travel plans. We may go to NYC this weekend because George got selected for the SNL lottery. If we go, we will hire a babysitter on Saturday night. Next weekend, Madeline and I are heading to Rochester for Lindsay Armbruster's wedding. Brian, Terrisa, Emily, Stephen (Emily's boyfriend), Hannah, and my parents will be there too. George doesn't have much vacation time in his new position so he won't be able to come. Since I'll be by myself, Luke is going to stay here with George. My parents will drive back down to PA with us and stay for 4 days. Yay for our first visitors!! Then, on October 15 it is back to AZ for the kids and I (one of the work trips). November will be a more quiet travel month for us. We may head up to my Aunt Lesley's for Thanksgiving. In early December, we will all head to Colorado for our annual ski trip. Then, there is another potential work trip back to AZ in mid December (still TBD). We will stay here for Christmas this year because we are traveling so much over the next few months. Plus, we have our good friend Nick's wedding in mid January in AZ. This is the year of weddings for us -- 5 weddings in 10 months!

Biggest cousin, littlest cousin (although I have a feeling that eventually Luke will be the biggest cousin and Paisley will be the littlest cousin)

 We had a photo shoot with Granna :)

 I didn't get a ton of pictures at the wedding, but here are a few...

 My family watched the kids for both the rehearsal dinner and wedding. It was SOOO nice to to have a couple of nights out with George and no kids :) :)

Dutch Wonderland

It's hard to believe that we've already been here for over a month! It feels like we just got here. That being said, we are feeling pretty settled. The boxes are all unpacked (I'm pretty OCD that way so they were pretty much gone within a week!) The kids are doing great at their new daycare/school. Madeline looks forward to going and she seems so happy when we pick her up. We have our morning and evening routines figured out for the most part. And our jobs are in full swing. 

Over Labor Day weekend, we took advantage of the three day weekend and drove up to see family in Syracuse and Rochester. Two weekends ago, we went to Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA (about an hour away). Madeline loved it. I think she thought she was at Disney World! Haha. This past weekend, we were planning to do some more exploring here in the old city section of Philadelphia (Liberty Bell, etc), but we all got the stomach flu (except Luke) so that'll have to wait. This weekend, we are off to Phoenix for a wedding. George's cousin, Roy, is getting married and George is one of the groomsmen. Madeline has been telling her teacher that she is going to see "ParkerPaisley"...her teacher had to ask me what that meant. I can't wait for them to be reunited for a few days of playing :)

Here are some pictures from Dutch Wonderland...

Luke was doing lots of people watching

I was so shocked at how brave Madeline was! She is tall so she hits (and exceeds) the 36 inch height requirement for a lot of the rides. She wanted to ride everything that she could. If you look closely at the picture on the left, you can see Madeline holding up her arms!

Driving a car (her dream come true!) and riding a roller-coaster!

Luke went on the train :)

They had a gondola ride across the park. Daddy and Luke raced us from the ground (they won)

 

This massive slide was Madeline's favorite. She rode it 5-6 times. I must say, it was really, really fun. 

Luke had a check-up yesterday at our new pediatrician. He is in the 65th percentile for weight and 95th for height. The doctor said that he is a very healthy boy!!

Daddy and Luke Dance Video

I came across this video on our computer of George and Luke dancing :) :) :)