ELEVEN YEARS IN THE MAKING:

A week ago Jake and I went on  trip to Mexico.  To some people this may sound like no big deal.  But for us it was.  We have been married for 11 years and have never been on a honeymoon, out of the country, or gone on any type of extended relaxing vacation together. 

To make it even better, we got to go with friends!  We traveled to Cancun on Tuesday with Angela and Alex Wolf.  They are veterans when it comes to trips to Mexico so it was nice to just follow their lead. I didn’t sleep at all the night before our trip.  We left at 3:00 in the morning.   But the excitement got me through the day without feeling too tired.

The trip was so much fun.  We stayed at El Dorado Royale-Riviera Maya.  We had a swim-up room with a lazy river around it.  Angela and Alex were right next door and shared the pool area with us.  It couldn’t have been more convenient.  

On our first full day there I remember feeling like we had all the time in the world.  Jake and I got up early, got smoothies, and walked on the beach.  

It was pretty amazing to know that other people were going to be catering to me and I didn’t have to make meals for anyone, clean up after anyone, etc.   I was telling Jake that I was really enjoying sort of having people at my beckon call and he said, “This must be what it’s like to be Jett and Joss.” 

Speaking of having people at your beckon call, these two always made sure we had a drink in our hands!

Midway through the trip we were joined by Aron and Amy Ferguson (Jake’s business partner and his wife).  It was so much fun celebrating with them as we are both so excited about how far the practice has come in a few years (and we are happy that we all still like each other a lot). 

We spent our days having drinks at the pool, lounging on the beach, and having some great meals.  We also enjoyed playing cards, getting massages, and Jake did yoga on the beach a few times which was a great way to start his day.  We had 4 nights there and of course it went way too fast. 

It was kind of sad leaving.  When we walked into the lobby to check out I saw so many happy/excited/hopeful faces checking in and being handed their free drinks immediately upon their arrival (like we were a few days earlier).  And this time we were on the other end... tired, a little depressed, and sober.  Ha.    

  It felt good to get home and see the kids though.    Joss was so shocked to see me Sunday morning.  She stared at me for the longest time when I went to go get her out of her bed.  And then she finally smiled and leaned forward to kiss me.  She almost seemed a little shy and I think she may have wondered if I was ever coming back.  Jett loved having so many people stay with him and visit him throughout the week but he missed us too.

It was great for Jake and I to have the time together to relax.  I was telling him how different it was for us to be able to talk without getting interrupted.  I feel like we can never finish stories and are always getting sidetracked when we were at home.  So it was nice to have each other’s undivided attention.  We are happy to have the memories and looking forward to doing it again sometime!

THE RUSH:

Ever have those moments where you feel like you are always rushing around?  I've felt like that a lot lately.  With two working parents it seems like we spend our mornings rushing everyone out the door and our evenings rushing through dinner and bedtime routine.  It's a crappy feeling when you realize that someone else is with your kids during their best (and likely happiest) times of their day.  There are times where this bothers me more than others.  This all came to the forefront for me a few weeks ago when I realized we were running out of time (while the trees still had leaves) to take a family picture for christmas cards.  At this point the time had already changed  and it was getting dark early which meant there was no way we could do it at night.  And I knew the leaves in our backyard were going to be gone by the weekend.  So I woke up one morning and had the brilliant idea that we should take our family picture that day before work (with a tripod and the camera timer set since we didn't have anyone to take it....ha).  Jake knows how important it is to me to send Christmas cards because the topic has come up many times since we've been married:).  So he went along with my crazy idea.  We rushed the kids through breakfast and spent the better part of our morning trying to take a family picture.  And this is what we ended up with...

 

Seriously, could I have had a more stupid idea?  I ended up feeling guilty for the rest of the day (gotta love mom guilt) that we spent our morning taking pictures we'll never use instead of just enjoying each other.  I ended up telling Jake that we weren't even going to send Christmas cards because I wasn't going to put them through that again (yeah right).  

In reality I was just having an emotional day.  But seriously, we all have those wake up calls every now and then where we realize that we need to focus more on what is important.  The truth is that I really like my job and I like to work, the kids are really happy at daycare and they learn a lot there, and we do get some pretty great quality time as a family when we are all together.  But I'd be lying if I said we were getting as much quality time as we should be.  I know it will just get harder when the kids get older and are in activities.  They are growing up so fast and will only be this little once.  So we need to make a more conscience effort to soak this time up!  That will definitely be one of my goals going into the New Year!

And now here is a little recap from the end of October!  It was a pretty great month!  One really fun moment for me was that I talked my mom into going along with me on a work trip last minute.  I love me some quality time with my mom.  And no shopping trip is ever complete without a hotel fashion show!  Sorry mom but this picture makes me happy!

Jett and Jake went to a Birthday party for cousin Marek at the Vala's Pumpkin Patch and had a great time!

It's a right of passage for our kids to get their very own Chipotle meal when they are 15 months old.   Joss really got after it!

We also picked out pumpkins for the kids to paint!  In the end we just decided to let Jett paint them while Joss napped.  She'll be good to go next year!

Halloween was so much fun this year.  Jett absolutely loved it and called it "Trip or treating!"  He was super into it and was especially excited about going to houses when it was dark outside.  During the day we had the Simanek's and Grandma Foy over for some Halloween treats, football watching, and playing.

Jake got into the Halloween fun at work too!

And I love this picture of these two little pumpkins at daycare!

The big brother and little sister dynamic has been cracking me up and making me crazy all in one lately.  When I was taking this picture I told Jett to put his arm around her but this isn't exactly what I had in mind.  Don't let it fool you, she is usually the one torturing him.   I do feel bad for her because we are constantly having to keep her from messing up whatever he is playing with.  The other day I was explaining to Jett that someday Joss would be able to play nicer with his toys.  His response was, "Oh, when she turns into a boy?"

I was also recently telling Jett about our Thanksgiving plans and telling him everyone who was going to be there.  He went from being excited to being really concerned about the parking situation.  He wasn't sure that there would be enough places for all of those people to park!  Gotta love how the mind of a 3 year old works!

As far as Joss goes, we keep telling ourselves that being stubborn and strong-willed are attributes that will pay off in her future! No one wants their daughter to be a pushover, right?  Well, she definitely isn't!  This girl knows how to get what she wants!

The first weekend in November Jett got to go to a Tarzan Musical that Jake's cousin directed in Elkhorn.  He had fun going with his Mema, great aunt Leann, and cousins!

We just got back from a trip to Mexico (I will post about that later) and I received this picture of Joss while I was gone.  With her pigtails blending in with the high chair I think she looks EXACTLY like Jett.  I've never thought that more than in this picture.  And aren't her babysitters cute??!!

Until next time...