sweet-awesomeness: My NY Trip!! And Lagoon!

My long anticipated trip with my mom to NY finally happened!! It was AMAZING!! I LOVED being with Mom, Arianne, Carter, James and Louisa!! It was such a pleasant week. I have pictures from some of the highlights!

Highlight #1: Arianne picking us up at the airport!! Happy happy full hearts!!

James made us this welcome sign. How cute!!

As shown from the pictures, we couldn't get enough of these kids.

We went to the coolest, oldest cemetery. I think it's called Mt. Hope; it was just beautiful.

There was SUCH a cool big OLD tree, I LOVED it. And LOVE these kiddies!!

Louisa was almost always ready to give you the cheesiest cutest smile for the sake of a picture.

And look at Mr. James! So cute!

Louisa always needs some sort of accessory when going "out". Multiple is preferred. She was sooooo much fun.

We went to this place called the Devils Bathtub. It was absolutely gorgeous. The pictures do NOT do it justice.

Loulou is my happy place. :)

We got some yummy Thai food at this place that we thought looked really dodgy. I love that you can see Louisa's chipmunk cheek in the background.

ALWAYS when Louisa eats she is AGGRESSIVE, and stores the bite immediately in her cheeks to be quickly chewed and swallowed. Or chewed and spit out. Usually she swallowed. :)

Insomnia cookies was a must stop. The kids were too into their cookies to pose. Those kids are SO gratifying to buy stuff for. They love all the things. :)

My mom and I had SUCH a fun time at the HUGE, MASSIVE farmers market!! It had ALL the people with ALL the things, not just food! Everything. The crazy huge market gives Arianne and Carter a little anxiety so we appreciate their efforts as good hosts in taking us there. It was so cool!! I wish we had something like that close to us!

One of the days my mom rented a van and we all went to the most BEAUTIFUL place I've ever seen. It's called Watkins Glenn and it blew my mind.

I think this is one of my favorite pictures of the trip! I love that we are ALL in it. I love these people!!

Made the necessary ice cream stop afterwards. I've NEVER seen such agressive ice cream eaters. Louisa was devouring that ice cream. So gratifying to watch!! :)

We also tried some "Grape Pie", I guess it's a thing...? GROSS is what it is.

We toured the University of Rochester, it was SO pretty and so old!! I loved it!

My mom is so funny! :)

We had this girl take a picture of us all in front of the most beautiful library, she didn't get any of the library, and a lot of the sidewalk. So Carter, with the help of Arianne took a much better one. :)

PRETTY CAMPUS!!

There is a BEACH in Rochester! Lake Ontario is SO big you can't see the end to any of it; there are even small waves!

Holding little chunky hands is one of life's great pleasures.

Everyone was so brave. I didn't get in until we had already been there for a hour, un-cholorinated water isn't really my jam. But I finally did get in because they were all having so much fun and the kids were being so cute! :) I had to. :)

These babies were so sweet. We loved all the snuggles they would give us. The best way to get snuggles is to give Louisa a phone. Preferably with Moana or Frozen songs playing, but that isn't a requirement; she will find them even if you don't have them going...! :)

These pictures are just killing me as I look at them, I miss these kiddies so much!

There were such cool store there!! I love to shop and Arianne obliged, she she did such a good job of taking us to such fun places! The shopping was really amazing, such variety of things at so many cool places, I loved it!

Other crazy thing--there are barely any kids there! We went to this "Cafe and Play" we were literally one of 3 families that showed up in an hour. In the entire huge FUN facility!! We had it all to ourselves! That's the way it was for most kids things! It couldn't be more different then Utah in that way.

The "Garbage Plate" is a necessary experience, apparently... and it's.... something! Carter loves it! It's 2 white hotdogs (I don't know how or why they are white...) over macaroni salad and fried potatoes with meat sauce, 1/4c of Mayo, some sprigs of lettuce and a tomato slice....YUM???

And I dream of Pittsford Dairy on a daily basis. The BEST custard I have ever had, in my life. And YUMMY baked goods! I had custard in sundae form and it was AMAZING with their fudge drizzled all over it. I can't even...my mouth is watering.

AND THEN I had THE BEST cheesecake of my life, the one in the middle with the raspberry drizzle. I also, dream about it on the daily. How did they get that amazing texture?? I will never know... It was mind blowing.

Lou lou is the only child I have ever seen with front cellulite. The girl is SO soft and SO squishy. It's all I could do not to just devour her constantly. She was a constant temptation.

I miss those Rochester folks so badly!! I CAN NOT WAIT until they move closer!! The day cannot come soon enough!

I had so much help from so many people in order for me to make this trip happen. Natasha, Ashleigh, and my dad where so great to step in and take the boys. Justin also did extra parenting loads to make it happen. It was so appreciated!!

Meanwhile I was getting the cuttest pictures sent to me of my Cal.

Debbie sweetly had the kids make these little signs for me on the ground, they were so cute to see when I got home!!

Calvin may have missed me most, he was SO adoring when I got back, just as sweet as can be. He couldn't stop hugging and kissing me. It was THE BEST!!

The night I got back, Rodrik finished off his soccer season! He has been with this same group of boys for the last 3 seasons and they do a really good job together.

Also that night, Justin and my dad helped Jax with his pinewood derby car. Jax had a great time making it and loved watching it race!

Apparently Jax was so agitated after he saw his car was doing so well, he couldn't sit still during the rest of the racing, he kept pacing and pacing with a grin on his face. Little cutie. He finished 3rd!! He was super happy about that!

Justin had his work party the next night! We got into Lagoon for free and were able to take Jason, Debbie and Ethan and Linc. It was a blast!

I LOVE ALL THESE BOYS! :)

This is the kind of ride that is Calvin's speed. He did NOT like anything fast or much of an up/down motion. He had only a few rides he would actually, willingly go on.

Jax and Rod were super brave and did this little droppy ride. Ethan and Lincoln are dare devils and weren't afraid of almost anything!

Jax started refusing to go on rides, we knew it would be a long sad night if he didn't start going on more. So we did "that thing." I had Justin drag him, and force him, kicking and screaming onto the ride, (blue ride pictured below) I'm sure people thought we were the worst. Or they just thought, "yep, that's what you do." Anyway, turns out, that was his favorite ride of the night. He did it again immediately after and from that point on was a LOT braver and had a lot of fun on a lot of rides. It was one of our few parenting wins...

He is in the red shirt with Justin in the second to last car.

Though Rod was brave and did a few scary rides, he didn't really like them. I feel like he must be more like me, I never have liked those butterfly in the stomach kind of rides. So he and Cal quickly became small ride buddies. This is Calvins favorite ride. The "Whale ride," Rod is giving him a big hug, contrary to what it looks like! :)

Debbie and I were with the little boys and doing little rides when we happened upon a ferris wheel type ride that appeared to be going very slow. I got Calvin to go on it and we were both enjoying it very much. There was a nice lookout from the top --it went pretty high-- and we liked looking. I took these pictures with him because we were having such a good time. THEN, suddenly, we start MOVING, FAST. Calvin immediately starts screaming and so do I, I HATE rides like this. We are moving SO fast around and around this HUGE wheel, It was AWFUL. I was holding to Calvin so tightly and trying to reassure him through the zipping wind in our faces that "I am SO SORRY!!" Mommy's right here!" "the ride WILL stop! soon...!" I NEVER would even go on this ride by myself, much less with a terrified 3 year old. It was, seriously, the worst. I think Calvin was skeptical of EVERY ride we went on after that, unless it was obviously a baby ride. He wouldn't go on anything. And I wanted to go home. So that ride sucked. But here is some cute pictures of poor, ignorant us.