Jaymie and Justin

New Orleans!

2012-02-11T15:52:00.005-05:00

We took an impromptu trip to New Orleans with our good friends Laura and Donnie. We had a blast!

Pictured above is gumbo, dirty rice, and duck quesadillas

Beautiful St. Louis Cathedral

Inside the St. Louis Cathedral

Laura & Donnie

A New Orleans favorite! A muffaletta sandwich

We would eat at Cafe Du Monde for breakfast every morning. They had delicious beignets and hot chocolate!

They are doused in powdered sugar!

We didn't have a gator dog, but we tried a delicious gator burger! We also tried a Boudin Po'Boy sandwich which is sausage stuffed with rice and some other things. The Boudins were fried and were Cajun style!

There was this adorable little cafe that had live jazz music that we loved! It had white lights in the trees and a water fountain. It was so picturesque! It was just what I pictured for New Orleans!

Bourbon street. Pardon my hair. It rained everyday and had 90% humidity, so I looked like Weird Al with my frizzy head of curls. (Thankfully ponytails were my friend :)

There were signs everywhere for the "strongest drink" in New Orleans, "A Jester." Justin got a kick out of it!

Donnie's crab fried up and ready to eat!

Crab Nachos that were really delicious! Always when we are with Donnie and Laura we all make an effort to try as much of the local food as possible and we did! We ate a lot! We had such a great time!

Baby # 2

2012-01-18T16:51:00.003-05:00

Most of our family and friends already know that we are pregnant, but I forgot to post it for those of you who do not know. My due date is June 19th and we will soon find out the baby's sex! We are very excited! We'll keep everyone posted!

More Tacky Than the Griswolds

2012-01-05T17:48:00.001-05:00

My aunt took us to this old house that had the most Christmas lights and decorations I have ever seen!

It looks really neat from far away

As we walked closer we could see that the whole lawn was filled with rows and rows of glass cases and each case had toys and dolls. I think they were collector's items, but I still kept thinking I can't believe how much junk these people have! I kept thinking that these people are tackier than the Griswolds (from Christmas vacation)!

We were laughing though b/c a big tour bus was pulling away as we pulled up. Apparently this house is quite the popular Christmas site.

Here is an example of one of the glass cases dedicated to Colorado sports teams. This one was not very Christmasy, but we like how Hooters bears and Barbies were included.

Justin liked this picture of the cords to show how much electricity they needed. They actually had train tracks that went the length of their yard and through a dog door into their house and back out another dog door. It went up onto their roof and made a few loops around the yard. It was quite interesting to see the set-up.

Easton enjoyed his day at the park today! You can see we still have traces of snow (we took Easton sledding last week), but today was a lovely 66 degrees! I love this time of year cause you can do fun snow activities and nice day activities too! This park has a huge slide (the picture only captures 2/3 of it) that slides down the hill to the playground! He enjoyed the playground for a bit, but I couldn't pull him away from this slide. He probably slid down 20 times and I had to bribe him with food to leave the park.

The park is next to one of my favorite neighborhoods! We love to look at gorgeous houses just for the fun of seeing the beautiful architecture and features!

I love this neighborhood b/c many of the houses look like mountain lodges/hotels! We are enjoying spending time with my family, eating out, and just doing some fun activities before we head to Texas.

Cross Country and Man vs Food!!!

2011-12-17T23:23:00.000-05:00

We are done in Philly and now are embarking on a new phase of our lives. We are going to visit my family for about a month while Justin studies for the boards. On our way to Denver we decided to plan a stop over in St Louis and Kansas City. As you can see we went to the St. Louis Arch.

Justin actually go to go up in it but I opted to stay with Easton because he was not being so cooperative with us when we got there.

We then went to this place that Justin found from Man vs Food called Pappy's Smokehouse. We have to say once again that our taste is in line with that of the Man vs Food show.

I had the spicy sausage with sweet potato fries and corn on the cob and Justin had the pork sandwich with corn on the cob and spicy cole slaw.

Also, this corn was the best corn that either of us has ever tasted. Perfect without butter, salt or pepper. (That was a first for Justin)

We also looked up the St Louis temple and ran by to take a photo. It is a beautiful building that is easily visible from the highway like some of the other temples are.

To wrap up the night we drove to Kansas City and went to this place that is actually in a gas station. It is called Oklahoma Joe's. When we arrived the line was out the door and all the way down the building. 2 hour plus wait! And of course that would not work with Easton. So we decided to put in a To-Go order like we did earlier to avoid the huge lines that were at both of these places. But even the To-Go order would take 2 hours to get filled. We almost walked out but decided to put in the order and go people watch at walmart for a while. That was the best decision that Justin ever made, he said.

Best ribs ever, HANDS DOWN! And Justin has been around a pig or two. They were so meaty that he could not finish them. That was also a first. Though he did make a valiant effort.

So meaty and juicy!

Yay! It's over!

2011-12-06T09:16:00.003-05:00

He did it! Justin is now a PA! His graduation ceremony was yesterday. Here he is with his program director. He loved Pat because he was so personable and involved with the students every step of the way. He would call to check and Easton each time he was in the hospital which we thought was so considerate. He's just a great guy!

Justin with his buddies! He definitely will miss these guys!

Here he is actually getting his diploma! I was a little teary b/c I know how hard he worked and I really am amazed that he could keep up with the intensity of the program with all we went through with Easton last year. I am so proud of him!

Very random

2011-11-16T16:56:00.002-05:00

My friends do a Girl's Night once a month. They are so much fun and they have delicious food! There are usually a few more of us, but since Justin is working the ER shift I couldn't get over there until 10 PM (which is OK since people usually stay until 1 AM).
The theme for this Girl's night was Pies! Unfortunately, since I was late many pies were already gone, but the ones I tried were delicious!
This pizza was from a place in Maryland. Justin had an interview in the DC area. It was on his birthday, so Easton and I went too. We walked around the mall while he interviewed. We got a cheap, but very nice hotel (thank you Hotwire.com) and ordered this Chicago style pizza. We had a great time! I wish I would have taken pictures of the area. We drove through some of the most beautiful neighborhoods! Autumn colors were at peak timing and these houses were surrounded by orange, red, and yellow!
One of Easton's favorite activities right now is playing ball! He loves to throw, try to catch, and kick.
Easton is cracking us up lately. He likes the weirdest commercials. He loves the "Blinds to Go" commercial (no idea why cause it is boring and cheesy), some eye drop commercial, and one of the depression drug commercials where the cloud follows people around. Very random, but it makes us laugh! Also, for his 2 favorite books he will bring them to me and make me read them usually 5 times in a row or more before he gets bored! He has way too much energy, but he is sweet boy :)

Trespassing

2011-11-04T18:43:00.002-04:00

Easton was a rocker for Halloween. It definitely did not go as we planned. The church party was cancelled due to a snow storm. We then went to a friends party on Halloween and had a great time there. Following that we went to a couple of houses to trick or treat with some of the kids from the party and Easton tried to go into each of the three houses that we went up to. When we tried to pull him away and tell him no, he went ballistic. Crying and screaming, so that ended our night.
With better news, Easton has been picky with food lately but we discovered that he loves sweet and sour chicken and pizza.
And he loves Scout. Thanks Brittany!
Easton learned to jump from a little boy at the park about a month ago and this is the first time I actually got a chance to catch it. Its some major elevation!
And here is our dare devil trying not to do anything the way you are supposed to do it.

A trip for the history books

2011-10-24T22:06:00.004-04:00

I was lucky enough to have my grandparents, my aunt, and 2 cousins come to visit last week. None of them had been to Philly before, so I gave them a city tour and here are some of the highlights.

My cousin, Mallory, and myself in front of Genos steaks

Here we are at Valley forge near the house George and Martha Washington stayed in.

This is the only picture with either of my grandparents, so I posted it to show they were in fact here.

We also went to New York. Here we are in Times Square. We ate ate a lot! Katz Deli, the Doughnut Plant, Lombardi's pizza (first pizzeria in America). It was all delicious!

We stopped at "Rice to Riches" too b/c we saw it in Soho and recognized it from the movie "Hitch"

Here we are at the Philly Art Museum on the "Rocky steps" and below with the Rocky statue. We also saw the Liberty Bell, toured Independence Hall, the Betsy Ross House, and saw Ben Franklin's grave.

We all had a great time! A big thank you to all of them for coming and to Tiffany who had to drive up

My kid is a monster!

2011-10-13T07:48:00.007-04:00

Easton has been a monster for much of the past year. He has had several problems with his shunt and all the pressure in his head causes him to be very irritable and sometimes intolerable. As one of his doctors put it, "shunt problems make a good boy turn into the devil." He has had a tough year full of surgeries, plenty of CAT scans and way too many doctor appointments. The good news is that that the shunt is now working and is on the right setting for him, so we are hoping for a healthy year!

Easton turned two last week and the theme for his birthday party was "Terrible Twos," so everything was decorated with monsters. We had the party with one of Easton's friends who is just a few days younger then him.

We had several games for the kids at the party to do. Above is "Color in the Monsters"

This one is pin the eye on the monster. The other kids were blindfolded, but Easton didn't like the blindfold.

Monster Bowling

Monster Cupcakes

Here are Easton and Jax. The Birthday boys about to eat their cupcakes.

Monster sandwiches

Apples with a cream cheese & brown sugar filling with slivered almonds as the teeth.

Delicious punch! We also had monster cheese balls (so good)!

Some of our party guests.

Here we are, the hosts after the successful party! By the way Charise, we didn't take pictures of the food, so I copied a few pictures from your blog. Thanks!

We also did a small party at our house when Easton opened presents. Here is the Super Why cake I made him. It didn't turn out great, but he didn't seem to mind. All in all, our little monster had a great 2nd birthday!

Timeline

2011-10-04T21:37:00.002-04:00

Many of you know Justin graduates from his program in mid-December and we keep getting asked when we are moving and where we are moving. We don't know the answer to either question yet, but we hope to know by Thanksgiving. Justin is applying to several states (mainly Colorado, Texas, Florida, Washington, and some jobs around here). We will definitely update this when we know something!

Cool and crazy pictures!

2011-09-26T12:48:00.002-04:00

We have been having fun lately! We have been to the Smith Playhouse a couple of times lately. Here are Easton and Justin on a rug sliding down the big wooden slide. Easton used to be scared of it, but he ran right up to the top last time.
Here is flooding right by our old apartment. We saw the pictures on the news and couldn't believe it. They closed a bunch of schools and businesses that day b/c so many roads were flooded and b/c of the mudslides! Crazy!

Justin is pretty proud of this picture! There have been some crazy storms lately!

Is Justin a Fun Guy?

2011-09-15T08:23:00.005-04:00

Our family went to a Mushroom Festival last weekend. There is a town just outside Philly that produces 60% of the mushrooms in the U.S. It was basically a fair or carnival, but in addition to the regular carnival food there were all kinds of foods with mushrooms in them.

It was very popular! Look closely and all you can see between the tents are heads.

They had a tent showing different mushroom types and how they grow.

Some mushroom art

Read the sign

Here I am eating a mushroom ice cream bar. You have to try everything once, right? It was actually good! It tasted mostly like vanilla! I also had the most delicious mushroom mac & cheese!

For a mushroom lover like me, it was a great day!

Anomaly

2011-09-07T15:51:00.007-04:00

Starting a couple of weeks ago was a very strange week for the east coast. An earthquake and hurricane in one week! Both are very rare here in Philly, so to have both in one week was crazy! Everyone was freaking out. I went to the grocery store 2 days before the hurricane and it had the longest lines I have ever seen! I had to wait in the parking lot next to someone's car to get a cart cause they were all in use. Luckily there was not very much damage in our area besides some trees down.

There was at least one bright spot, my parents came to visit! We took Easton to the park a couple of times.
Such a lovely butt shot, but he just got out of the bath and he could hear the rain and wind outside, so he wanted to see. Because of hurricane season we have had a ton of rain lately and I am tired of it. It is so hard to entertain a child inside all day.
We went to the children's museum. Philly has so much beautiful architecture! Even the children's museum is so ornate and beautiful! Too nice for a children's museum. I wish I could have captured all the detail.

Activities at the museum: They had this little home where the kids could plant carrots in the garden.

This was in the hospital section. There are doctors' kits and baby patients to practice on.

Easton loved the grocery store section. We had to keep putting food back, so he could fit more in his cart!
Easton loved these snap together squares in the craft room!
These are the "shrinking" doors from Alice and Wonderland. They also had the hedge maze, and the Mad Hatter's table.

They also have a transportation room where the kids can be a bus driver, fill a car with gas, get in a monorail, etc. the room has a huge mural of downtown Philly! It's really impressive!

Really? That was the most interesting part?

2011-08-14T10:22:00.006-04:00

First of all Justin's parents came for the weekend a couple of weekends ago. It was great to see them! Unfortunately, Easton wasn't feeling well, so he was irritable the whole time, so I don't know how much they really could enjoy him.

Yesterday, we took him to a small zoo near us and here are a few of the highlights:

We thought this sleeping porcupine was so cute!

This jaguar was so gorgeous and they had a black one that was beautiful too, but he didn't show up in pictures.

We had fun although it was frustrating that Easton enjoyed the playground and the Prairie Dog Hole (pictured below) much more then the animals! There 's nothing like paying $24 to watch your kid play on the playground! Oh well! The animals were interesting to me and Justin at least!

That was so 4 weeks ago

2011-07-23T19:11:00.005-04:00

I'm a little behind on blogging. We took a day trip to DC about 4 weeks ago and I never posted about it, so here are the highlights.

First, we went to the National Zoo. So nice because it's free and we got street parking as opposed to around a $50 zoo trip in Philly for the three of us.

Next we went to Ford's Theater where President Lincoln was shot. It was very nice on the inside and they still show plays there. The picture below shows the box where Lincoln was shot.

We learned a lot of facts about the night Lincoln was shot and I found the tour very interesting.

Lincoln was actually taken to the house across the street from the theater after he was shot. We couldn't go in because it was closed for repairs.

We went to a Nationals game and had a good time. On our way to the game we actually saw a "Shake Shack" which was one of our favorite places to eat when we lived near NYC a few years ago. Burgers and cheese fries. Delicious!

Justin and Easton enjoying the game!

Snookie & The Situation's turf!

2011-07-10T21:42:00.005-04:00

There was a BBQ championship this past weekend in a New Jersey shore town not too far from us. There were these huge smokers everywhere.

Injecting meat for extra tenderness.

These were some of the ribs we tried. One set of ribs was the best we ever had and the other set were smothered in the best BBQ sauce we had ever had.

We also ate delicious grilled corn, honey basted chicken and a brisket sandwich!

We thought this was a creative name for a BBQ restaurant.

This is the sasquatch from the beef jerky commercials. Justin loves those commercials, so he couldn't pass up a photo op!

We went to the beach after that. It was pretty packed, but we found a little spot of sand for our stuff. It was a hot day, but the water was freezing. The water is pretty much always cold in the northeast, but it was colder then it should have been in July.

The cold water didn't bother Easton one bit, so that's good. This was his first time to the shore this summer and he loved it (he didn't want to stop playing to pose for the picture). He would run towards a wave & then turn around & look back. He laughed and we think he thought the waves were chasing him! It was such a fun day!

Fun Filled 4th!

2011-07-05T14:11:00.005-04:00

Family picture while we were waiting for the parade to start

This guy is a local weatherman, but people freaked out when they saw him (even Justin). Justin made him feel like a celebrity by calling out "We love you Glenn! " You're the best weatherman in the world!" He is memorable because he always wears a bow tie and his news team calls him "Glenn 'Hurricane' Schwartz."

Our friends had a BBQ and Easton enjoyed playing on the mini slide and with friends! We had fun too because there was a lot of good food and friends there!

Easton and some friends being patriotic. Sadly not one picture had all kids looking at the camera, but considering it was 8:30 PM & two friends had already gone home to bed, the picture turned out pretty cute.

Our friend put on his own fireworks show at the BBQ which was a lot of fun! Afterwards we went to see a big fireworks show! It was a fun filled 4th!

Haven't done that in years

2011-06-28T21:33:00.004-04:00

We went to a summer carnival that was a few minutes away from us. We went with friends and had a great time!

Eating funnel cakes and water ice (everyone loves water ice in the northeast)!

Justin and Easton on the super slide! You can see Easton was in shock the whole time he went down. He didn't know what to think.

Ellen, Easton and me

Here we are on our favorite ride there! Justin and Kevin tried it out after we did and we all had fun! I haven't been on a carnival ride in so long, but this ride was a blast!

Justin and Easton on the carousel

A family photo

Its the Pitts!

2011-06-21T11:04:00.009-04:00

Pittsburgh of course. We went to Pittsburgh last week and had a blast!

Here is a Primanti Bros. sandwich which is a popular food in Pittsburgh. It has meat, french fries, & slaw. It was delicious!

We went to a Pirates game & their park had many great views of downtown. Justin says this is the coolest park he has been to.

Easton loved the play land & the Pirate's mascot. Justin took him to meet the mascot & he was laughing & giving him high fives.

A great city view at night!

Pittsburgh has 2 inclines that you can ride up & down. It was fun and gave us great views of the city!

Pittsburgh is a beautiful city! I was really surprised. It reminded us a lot of Portland. Green hills, rivers & bridges everywhere. From the top of the incline we could count 19 bridges within our view.

This fish sandwich is called "The Wholy Whaler!" It was delicious! It was at a public market that was full of delicious food!

Easton enjoyed the fish, but he also enjoyed just the plain bun like in the picture above.

We went on an alpine slide that was in between Pittsburgh and Laurel Park where we camped. We hadn't been on one in years, so it was a lot of fun! Easton was scared for the first half, but he seemed to enjoy the bottom half.

Here is our camp food & afterwards of course we had smores! We weren't sure how Easton would do on his first camp out, but he did well! He even slept through a huge rainstorm that happened over night.

We went swimming in a lake nearby.

We also stopped at the Flight 93 Memorial on our way home. There wasn't much there because the permanent memorial isn't quite finished yet (it will be done this September for the 10 year anniversary of 9-11), but it was still nice to see it.

You can see part of the permanent memorial, but just past it in the grassy area is where the plane crashed. There were signs posted that gave a detailed account of what happened that day & there was definitely a somber yet patriotic feeling there.

Well done!

2011-05-31T21:19:00.003-04:00

We were so impressed with the Memorial Day celebration in our area. There was a parade a couple blocks from us. Though you can't tell from the picture below, Easton loved it. He was waving to all the firemen & grabbing for the candy that was thrown from them. He was crying in this picture b/c I was holding him in my lap & he was trying to break free to grab some candy.

Old restored truck that Justin liked

What impressed us the most was after the parade. The whole crowd sung the national anthem & a military officers told stories of soldiers & talked about the real purpose of Memorial Day.

The area looked so beautiful. I have never seen so many American Flags! The day's festivities were so well done!

It was 94 degrees with like 90% humidity, so we had to go to our pool to cool off! Easton was in heaven!

After the pool we enjoyed a BBQ with friends! We had a wonderful day!

Nothing left but crumbs

2011-05-23T14:17:00.006-04:00

Funny story about Easton. I am a YW leader. Here are some of my YW hard at work making cookies for our camp fundraiser. We're doing a 3 week bake sale featuring a different item every week. Two weeks ago we made 170 cinnamon rolls & last week we made 96 jumbo cookies.

One person in our ward was out of town last week, so I made one batch of cookies on Saturday night (so I could bring them to church yesterday). I put the plate on our kitchen table (all wrapped up), so I would'nt forgot to take it to church. I sat Easton down for breakfast. I went to grab him more food & when I came back this is what I saw. He moved the Saran Wrap & helped himself to a cookie. Not much left besides crumbs (bottom left of the picture)!
I was so mad I woke Justin up with my yelling. I was just so sick of baking, I was sick, oh & the Band-Aid on Easton's forehead is to cover the puncture wound he got the night before. I was just in a bad mood! I made another batch before 11 AM church & by the time we left I was laughing about it!

One more thing. While I was making the cookies Easton splattered his applesauce all over the wall. He found it a lot funnier then I did!

Anyway, we got so much rain last week. Here are my pants one day just walking about 15 steps from my car into our apartment building. I was soaked!

As you can see the bottom of my pants were soaked!

This week is supposed to have a little less rain, but it will be hot & muggy instead. Oh well! Our pool will open Saturday, so I that will help.

Ahhh, perfection!

2011-05-14T22:17:00.003-04:00

We just had the most perfect week of weather! It was in the 70's everyday, so it was not too hot, not too cold, & low humidity! Easton loved it because we went to the park everyday.

We didn't take pictures at the playground, but we took pictures of Easton feeding the ducks one day. Here he is (above) watching the ducks.

Now chasing the ducks.

Here I am restraining him from walking into the water.

Finally! Throwing bread to the ducks!

It was nice while it lasted, but this week will be full of the rain coming from the South & Midwwest. Yuck!

Short fuse!

2011-05-03T14:04:00.004-04:00

Easton loves his blocks! In the photo above he felt like building the tallest tower possible. The problem is when it fell, he got all mad and even threw a block, so I started holding it steady. Needless to say I am going to have to watch for signs of a short temper. Uh oh!

Enjoying a Play Day at the park! He loves the swings & trying to climb up slides (which doesn't work too well).
Hanging out before church! He finally cut his hair, so we decided to spike it for church.

Smith's Playhouse

2011-04-22T17:52:00.002-04:00

We went to Smith's playhouse today. It is an old mansion that has been converted to a free play land for kids of all ages.

Inside the house there are 3 floors with different stuff on each floor. This is in the basement. It is a car riding area for the tots.

This is outside in the back where there are tons of different areas that they can play.

This will have to wait for Easton. It is for the bigger kids.

But he loved the train and just running around with the other kids.

This is him on the see-saw. He really liked it. I wish we would have brought our movie camera.

And of course, Easton's favorite is the classic swing.

once upon a . . .

2011-04-16T20:46:00.002-04:00

We took Easton to a cool playground today called Once Upon a Playground. It is shaped like a castle and has many fun features! It featured many drawings from kids painted on tiles (in case you are wondering what the bottom of the picture above is)
Easton and Daddy enjoying time together!

Easton is so happy with the new skills he has learned recently. He loves feeding himself with a spoon. He's used a spoon for a while now, but he recently mastered it! He buckles himself in his high chair, sweeps the floor, & is learning how to color.
He loves to play outside & he is excited to go to the pool & beach again soon!