Could you be mad at this face?

Today Hudson decided that drawing on the walls was a good idea. When I firmly said that was not okay his eyes welled up with tears and that too cute for words bottom lip came out. Hudson doesn't cry very often but when he does he pulls this face and every time it kills me. I love it. I never have my camera near by but today was my lucky day, finally I got it. This picture doesn't do it justice but you get the idea.

Brooklyn Half Marathon

We did it! We finished a half marathon. Mike and I went and ran the Brooklyn, NY half marathon on May 30, 2009. It was a lot of fun - I guess if you call running 13 miles "fun". The race started in Prospect park and ended at Coney Island. The weather was perfect that day - not too hot and not too cold. There were 12,000 runners in the race. Once the horn blew at the start of the race, it took us 15 minutes just to get to the starting line. Mike ran with me for the first 6 miles, at which point I demanded he go ahead of me as I did not want him to feel like I was holding him back. Mike felt like he had run a pretty fast race, so much so, that he thought he could finish the race, go to the car, get the camera and a gatorade and then get back to the finish line to catch me coming over the finish line. Well, as is nearly always the case, he was wrong and 1 hour later he came back to the car to find me there locked out of the car, without a gatorade and wondering if my husband had lost his mind. I was a little upset about this situation, but the worst was the fact that he actually thought I would be that far behind him - has he not learned anything in 12 years. Well anyway, I guess I should forgive him, since I did force him to run 1/4 mile maybe (or if you ask Mike a mile) before the race began to go back to the car to get some money for the train ride, only to find out that it was a free ride (just as Mike had told me it would be). Aside from these minor mishaps, the race was a lot of fun and it was great to be able to finish.

Memorial Day/ Hudson's B-Day Party

Summer time is here again?? at least we think. With the wet and colder weather in the last month, we have been wondering whether we are just heading into another spring. We love summer and look forward to another good one. We always get to start summer out with the celebration of two major holidays - Memorial and Hudson's B-day. If you asked Hudson, I think he would only think there was one holiday and it isn't memorial day. His birthday is all-consuming. I think we celebrated his birthday for at least 4 or 5 days. He thought that everything we did for Memorial day weekend and later his birthday was all in celebration of his 4th b-day. It was too cute to tell him otherwise, so we let him go on celebrating. We had a great time, including a family/friend BBQ, pinata, baseball, presents and a lot of food and drink. Happy B-day Huds! He already wants to start celebrating his 5th - it could be a long year:)

Giants for a day!

On the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend we were invited by some friends to join them in a day of football and festivities in the old Giant Stadium in the Meadowlands. Bart Oates, former NY Giant football player and currently in our Ward was in-charge of the day and did a great job ensuring that all the families in attendance had a great day. They are currently constructing a new field for the NY Giants, which is looking like it will be amazing. Although old, the old Giant stadium was amazing. Mike was thrilled to be playing a pick-up game of touch football, while the kids were enjoying the pylons, football and other festivities. After a great time in the stadium, we joined a couple other families and went into NYC for lunch and a little gelato in SoHo. It was good times for all.










Hudson loved running and knocking these Pylons down


Waiting for their Lunch From Amy's in Soho


Mike & Braxton enjoying their Gelato- YUM!!!

Bermuda Part II

Mexico+Swine Flu=Berumda instead!! Part I

Since February we had a wonderful trip to Mexico planned for our whole family leaving on May 8th. Less than 2 weeks prior to our departure, the Swine Flu broke out. Needless to say we decided that Mexico was probably not a good idea for our family. We changed our plans and travel to Bermuda. Because Mike and I had been to Bermuda before, we knew that it would be a great vacation for our kids. With the white sand beaches, beautiful clear blue water and fun little streets that wind through the amazing colors of Bermuda. So for 5 wonderful days we explored the island, enjoyed the beaches, swam in the pool, played tennis, snorkeled, swam in caves, climbed 200 stairs to the top of a light house, ate at the famous Swizzle Inn and in all had fun as a fam in Bermuda. Below is Part I highlights of our trip.

Preschool trip to the Zoo with Hudson

This year Hudson's class took a field trip to Turtle Back Zoo. I went along as a chaperon. We had a fun time, all the animals were out, the zoo train was running, and we had great weather. Here are the highlights!



Pony rides are always a hit!



These were the girls on the seat right behind Hudson on the Zoo Train. I just thought it was a cute picture. Hudson has a little crush on the blonde on the far right. We think she is pretty great too!



This was one of Hudson's favorite things about the zoo. This was the first time he actually held his hand there the whole time until they had eaten everything out of his hand and some of the goats were pretty aggressive.



Lunch- Hudson is such a goofball.


Huds playing on the park toys



The whole 3's class! They have such a great group of kids and they all get along so well. Hudson loves it! There is a Lizard of some sort under all those kids.

Braxton gets 2nd place in the Space Derby!

We had a great time this year at the first annual Space Derby for troop #333. The boys had fun designing and painting their rockets. I loved it because the boys really can do the whole thing by themselves, there in no need to cut with major saws. All they needed was a potato peeler and sand paper. We had the derby, awards, and ended with Root Beer floats. Braxton was pleased with second place and had a fun time doing it with Mike.

Mike and Braxton adding some final touches.






The display board that they boys made as part of their requirement. I thought it turned out pretty cool.

Uncle Chad came to visit!!

Uncle Chad came to visit back in April and the boys couldn't have been more excited!! They love when their Uncle comes to visit. We grilled the first night and then Chad was nice enough to watch the boys while I went to my monthly neighborhood Ladies Bunco night and Mike went to a Stake youth activity. The boys loved that one on one time with Chad. Then Saturday we had baseball games, water balloon fights, grilling again, and some mean games of Jenga and Pass the Pigs. Sunday we all went to church and then it was time to say good bye:( Thanks for the great weekend Chad and we hope you can visit again soon!

Take Your Kids to Work Day

It was take your kids to work day and what better place to take kids than Toys R Us. The boys had so much fun. They had a photo shoot with Geoffrey, built legos, shot nerf guns at targets, tested some new products, painted T-shirts and went to lunch at Fuddruckers. Oh, and after all that, they even managed to help their Dad finish up his work before calling it a day.

Another year of Madison Little League!

The boys enjoyed another year of Little League in Madison. As usual they started out the season with the little league parade through downtown Madison. They end it at the ball field with a speech from the Mayor and ice cream at McCool's. The Dawson family helped us cheer on Braxton and Porter. They were even kind enough to make this FABULOUS banner, which B and P loved. They were the only kids in the parade that were cool enough to have a banner made by Millie.