Happy Birthday, my Little Love!

Tutu is here visiting and after Siena and I fell asleep the night before, Daddy and Tutu decorated the RV with balloons, streamers, and banners.  It looks magical.  When Siena opens the divider between our bed and the living space her eyes open wide and her face lights up.  Matt and I start singing Happy Birthday and Tutu opens the divider between the guest room (now named the Peacock Palace), and joins in singing.  As soon as the song ends, we are all hugging and loving on her.  A pre-breakfast is being prepared and she kicks all the balloons around.  We adorn her with a crown as she sits down for pre-breakfast.  The day ahead is full of all the things that she loves with a generous sprinkling of gifts for her to tear open and enjoy.

It really is a spectacular day to celebrate our very special Little Monkey!

xoxo

Proud and veryhappy Mama,

Breezy <3

PS. If you want to see an obnoxious amt of bday pics, feel free to “friend me” on Facebook.  I upload a ton of pics every month.  :)

Oh, and someone tried to steal our scooter… twice.  The first time was around 2AM.  The dogs and I woke up to a thud.  But Matt and Siena were still sleeping, so I didn’t know if it was a dream.  I woke Matt anyways.  I peeked out the back window. I think I scared him as much as he scared me when I opened our blinds and was face to face with a man opening a knife to cut the final tie down.  He ran off and Matt and I stayed awake for a good part of the remaining dark.  The next morning Matt replaced the cut tie down and put a lock on it.  Though we were confident that the would-be thief was long gone.  NOPE!  We came back from our (rainy, cry-y, cold, tantrum-y, sick, feeling huge and very sore, crappy tour-y) day of walking around to find the tie downs cut AGAIN and he lock about half way sawed through.  IN BROAD DAY LIGHT!! That dude really really wanted our scooter.  Suck it, scooter thief!

Adios DC!  Let’s all get our shit together and try again in about 5-10 years.

Mommy #1: “Ummmm, you may not want to go into the city.  Everyone there is on Meth.”

Mommy #2: “Well, you’ll just have to be very careful.  Meth or heroin.  Everyone is on heroin too.  You can see it in their faces.  Just be very careful and don’t talk to anyone.”

Me: “Oh, yeah?  Sure.  Okay, we will be careful.  Thanks for the heads up.” ;) ;)

Some of my nearest and dearest are from the Philly area, so I felt preeeeeeety sure that not everyone was on meth and heroin –assuming that it would have come up in conversation at some point.  “Yeah, philly is great, but when you enter the city limits they give you some meth and shoot you up with heroin.”

Needless to say, we still entered Philly and navigated the small streets till we found our overnight parking spot.  It was in the heart of the Old City District and nobody offered us drugs.  Now, I admit that our parking sitch was a bit sketchy around 2-4AM, but during the day we had walkable access to many of the main historical attractions as well as some of the city’s best Philly Cheese Steaks (here & here, if you were wondering).

We had the honor of getting to meet up with an old soccer pal of Matt’s from his days as a Nomad.  Justin, Heather and their 3 boys are now living in the area.  We shared a couple meals with them, went to a super cute Fall Festival at the Arboretum (with the single most incredible and badass miniature railroad tracks ever!), and Matt jumped in as a sub in one of Justin’s weekly soccer games (the coach only played Matt for about 20 seconds, and they lost.  Guess they should have kept him in longer).  We also got to meet up with our friend Liz and meet her charming boyfriend, also named Matt, for dinner!

Here is a totally awesome 80’s throw back video and some pics of our time there:

A side note on prenatal care on the road:  So many people ask what we do for prenatal care while traveling.  With Siena, Matt made all of our appointments, and I only saw Midwives.  With Ditto, since I know the drill now (and since some of the appointments really seem unnecessary –only because this is a healthy (thank God) pregnancy and I’m low risk), I have been open to seeing anyone who will get us in.  So, when we are about a week out from a scheduled appointment week, we start calling around.  Pregnancy is typically billed as one entire charge, ie: prenatal care, labor and delivery, and your 6 week postpartum checkup.  This makes it unappealing for offices to get us in for just one visit.  But there is always someone who can get us in for one visit within the next week or so.  We have been very lucky!  So far, his appointments have been in Vegas, Detroit, Boston and this last (more informal) one in Philadelphia.  Also, we will have Ditto in San Diego at the wonderful Birthing Center at UCSD where Siena was born.  We have to be checked in and be a regular patient there by 34 weeks (early December for Ditto).

See you tomorrow in our Nations Capitol!

XOXO

Bree.

So, Manhattan is a little crowded.  Not much room for an RV park (or even an RV).  BUT, a quick PATH or water taxi ride away is a parking lot/RV park that is absolutely perfect to use as a home base while enjoying the bright lights and big city. We parked.  We took the PATH into the city immediately and we dove right in!  We have a couple friends living in the city and so we reached out and made plans.  Our friend Kent and his lovely girlfriend were our first guides and they created a little list of “Must do/see/eat” for us.  We checked off several of the dining spots with them.

We saw as many of the expected sites as we could walk to and squeeze in.  From our RV spot in New Jersey we could walk over and get pretty close to the back of the Statue of Liberty.  It was a really nice walk and although her rear is less appealing than her front, the view was still pretty great!  We had a little picnic in the grass and meandered through Central Park watching all the horses go by.  In Bryant Park we savored bagels and joined the Bryant Park Jugglers for an afternoon session.  We passed through Time Square in the evening just as it was getting dark so that we could fully experience the lights (very Vegas-y). We walked past 30 Rockefeller Plaza , just so I could sing the into song to 30 Rock.  We also went to Ground Zero and took a moment to honor those that were lost and the heroic people that day.  We skipped going up in the Empire State Building, but got an amazing view of it from Kent’s place.  It’s the picture at the top of this post.

One of my High School friends is living there now too and she has a daughter that is just about Siena’s age.  We got together with her and her family one morning and she showed us around Tribeca.  AND, my cousin Sarah flew in for a friends wedding and we got a couple hours with her to catch up!  How fortunate!

All of that was truly wonderful and very fun, BUT here are my favorite NYC moments:

1. We had just got into the city and were walking to grab a coffee with Kent.  A woman on her cell phone walked right into him.  She shoved him and started cussing at him to watch where he was going and to get out of her way.  “Yeah, I’m the one on the phone not paying attention!” Kent replied.  It was soooo New York.  I loved it.
2. On one of our exploring days I wore a long skirt.  This city has many grates in the sidewalk to ventilate the subway.  I walked over one of those and my skirt flew up around my waist.  It was soooo Marilyn Monroe.  I loved it.
3. We saw the Naked Cowboy!
4. Move over food trucks!  Food Courts are the latest and most awesome thing!!  Our favorite 2 were Gotham West Market and Hudson Eats.  The food was sooooo delicious.  I loved it.
5. Also, the moment in the video below that was followed shortly after by sipping delectable hot chocolate at Max Brenner!  Again, sooooo very New York.  I loved it.

Loved it.  Loved it.  Loved every moment of it.

Love,

Big Apple Breezy

PS. On our way to NYC we went through Stamford, CT because a guy at a poker table some years ago told Matt about a pizza place that we just “had to try”.  We stopped for the night at Colony Grill and had their Hot Oil Pizza.  They guy was not wrong.  The pizza was incredible!  Hot Oil, who’s ever heard of such a thing?  It was legit.

Today we are in Concord, NH.  My Uncle Bruce (my dad’s brother) and his wife Jamie live here.  They have such a great 1950’s home with original character and a lot of art work of naked fat women.  I love it!

My Uncle Bruce sat with me and helped me fill in a line of my Ancestry.  We Gildays (my maiden name) have 2 murderers in our family –who doesn’t, right? :/ While one of my murdering family members was serving his life sentence he found he had some time on his hands.  What better to do than to document his family as far back as he could? They also took us on a tour of cemeteries where my family is, or will be, buried.  (This is not for everyone.  I loved it.  Matt maybe could have skipped this part.)

Another thing that I have really enjoyed in our travels has been to visit State Capitals.  Vermont is the smallest State House, and by far our worst tour yet.  I posted these on our Operation Tally Ho Facebook page, but here were some of the non-helpful tidbits from our VT tour: 
-“See this door? It’s only painted to look brass on this side. The other side is painted to look mahogany. Vermont frugality.”
– “This is a famous battle of Cedar creek. I’m not sure of the details, but I’d imagine…”
– “I’m not really sure about that. You’ll want to look into that some more.”
– “I should really learn the names of these ceiling tiles.”
– “Most people ask where our rotunda is. Your standing under it. We needed the space for offices.”

Now, Concord is the capital of New Hampshire, and my Uncle was our tour guide.  He was super knowledgeable and gave us a really great tour!  After the tour we went apple picking!!  This was too fun and very cute with a super curious toddler who loves apples!

This was the end of our time with family on the East Coast.  Don’t worry, we aren’t done exploring.  But from here on out there will be no family ties.

Next stop?  NEW YORK CITY!!  It was just as fantastic as you’d imagine!  See you tomorrow for that post.

XOXO,

Briana.

I think what we all need is a really long Boston blog post , yeah?  Maybe a bunch of pictures of my family?  Yep, I thought that may make hump day a bit easier to swallow.  ;)  Let’s go…

So, you may have seen this tiny tot in the video and pics from our York post.

His name is Miles Kai, and though he’s my cousin, he’s Siena’s age (and her “Little Guy”).  Here’s the quick family breakdown:

So, my Grandfather and Carmen had my Uncle Michael 2 years before I was born.  We are basically the same age.  Now we have children and Miles is my cousin, but he’s basically Siena’s age.  And why am I telling you all this on a Monday when you may not want to figure things out? Because this is my blogging world and I can pretend that you all really do care whos who. ;)  Also, they are who we Boston’d with!

It was a total score that we were able to fit (with a bit of finagling) into their driveway, and a total score that they invited us to do so, and that their landlord was willing and able to let us be temporary squatters!  So we parked our bedroom window almost right up to their front door and got cozy.

They live perfectly between 2 T stations (the public transit name in Boston), in a the cute little area called Jamaica Plain.  Getting anywhere in Boston was a breeze and nobody could attempt to steal our scooter! (Foreshadowing!)  So we did what all great Boston tourists do.  We took in a Sox game with Aunt Diane and my cousin Charles!, walked 2/3’s of the Freedom Trail, toured the State House, and walked and walked and walked.

When we weren’t gallivanting around Bean Town and soaking up the history, we were hanging with… you guessed it, my family.  My (Auntie) Courtney was the exact hostess that I hope to be some day when we have a home and guests come plant themselves in our driveway.  She feeds Miles the types and frequency of meals that we feed Siena and always had an extra plate for our little Monkey.  She hooked us up with passes to tons of fun toddler places, showed us the library, took us to the local playgrounds, AND they live walking distance to Whole Foods!  AWESOME!! (If Siena were writing this post, she would be focusing on ALL THE LEGOS and books, and toys that Miles had to share!!)  While there, we were able to schedule Baby Ditto’s 20 week check up and Fetal Ultrasound at the local hospital.  This is where we discovered that HE’S A BOY!!  A very healthy, very active, perfect little boy!

See you next time, Boston & Crew!!  And we will see you Readers tomorrow in Concord, NH to meet my Uncle Bruce & Aunt Jamie!

XOXO

Bree et al.

 We spent Labor Day weekend (and a couple days beyond) in York, ME. I have never been so in love with a little beach-y town. This was our chance to get to spend time with my Aunt Diane & my Aunt Wendy (my dad’s other 2 sisters, 2 brothers to go in this visit). My Aunt Wendy lives in York and works at the most charming little school. My Aunt Diane lives abroad and works for the State Department, but had rented a beach cottage for the week. Naturally we crashed her entire vacation, “Don’t mind if we do!!”

The term “cottage” is funny to me because a lot of these houses are big! I actually googled “cottage” to see of my idea of a small dwelling was a weird CO thing–it’s not. Anyways, her cottage was mega cute and right near the beach. We spent our days relaxing, walking around the cute town, playing in the sand (toes only in the chilly Atlantic), eating ice cream and checking out the local Nubble Lighthouse.

On one of our visits, when I was a youngster, we went out with my Aunt Wendy and pulled up some lobster traps. Cool right?! We took our bounty home and began to prep and cook them. I don’t think I had ever been so traumatized. Those poor lobster!! Once they were on our plates, the mental scarring continued. My brothers (who felt no remorse for the crustaceans), began to rip apart their bodies, dumping fluid (“Look! It’s pooping!”) and stabbing various lobster eating tools through the eye sockets. Neeeeeless to say, I hadn’t eaten lobster for a looooooong time! AND BOY WAS I MISSING OUT!! Holy cow! We were in lobster heaven! We ate all the lobster rolls we could get our hands on, whole lobsters, took a Lobster Boat tour that my Aunt Wendy guided and held lobster!! No more Miss Nice Claws! I dove into my lobster feeding frenzy! (And so did Matt, Siena on the other hand was not too fond of lobster.  It’s just about the first food that we’ve introduced that she feels “meh” about.  More for us!)

With our pores practically oozing butter, we headed South again to visit and stay with my dad’s mother, or Gigi for Great Grandma as she’s now called by Siena. She resides in Portsmouth, NH– another great little coastal town. Gigi gave us a tour and we had a really nice picnic in the park. It was really wonderful to get to spend some one-on-one time with her. I think one of my fondest memories is of hearing her reading to Siena and them both laughing.

Alright, travelers. Tomorrow we hit Boston!! Love that dirty water. See you then!

XOXO

Bree.

And welcome to the most North and East point of Operation Tally Ho!! Grab your bowl of CHOWDAH, or your LAHBSTAH ROLL and settle in. GO SAHX!!

Wanna get personal? Here’s a little background on me. My parents got divorced when I was about 4. I have some fragmented memories of the end of their marriage and of time as a “whole family”, but then it was gone. My mom moved my brothers and I back to Colorado where we all lived and grew and became the spectacular people we are today. (That may be bragging a bit, but my mom and brothers really are spectacular and fascinating peeps. If you get a chance, you should get to know them!) I remember my mom once taking us to the gate at the airport and we flew alone to New England as kiddos. I know that I also came out to New England right after my High School graduation (though, that trip was cut short). Point being, we were not much of a part of my dad’s side of the family.

I was beyond excited and eager to get to spend this time up in the North East with my dad’s side of the family!  This was an opportunity for me to get to know my aunts, uncles and cousins through adult eyes.  It was also a chance for them to get to meet Siena and to get to know Matt.

We begin in Vermont with a phone call to my Aunt Nancy (my Dad’s Sister).  They were our first stop in Maine, but before we got there, they had some suggested detours.

#1 Ben & Jerry’s Factory Tour.  Uh, YES PLEASE!!!  We had already driven past there, but back tracked immediately and got there just in time for the very last tour (and sampling session!).  This was Siena’s first ice cream –you can’t get much better.

#2 Polly’s Pancake Parlor.  This place was the pancakity bomb diggity!  I would never ordinarily order it, but if you find yourself in Sugar Hill (how appropriate is that name?), you must go here and order the cornmeal coconut pancake.  I know how it sounds, but trust me, I’m sort of an expert.

Once we got to my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Erik’s home we were so spoiled by all the delicious home cooking!!  But, what I loved more than the really great food were the family stories, recipes and history that were shared with me.  Siena was in heaven with all the toys, books, love from my cousins (2 of the 3 are living at home and spent time reading many books to Siena), and the forest and zip line in the back yard!  And Matt spent his time introducing Uncle Erik to disk golf and mastering the Rubik’s Cube (under Nancy’s tutelage). She also introduced us to our first lobster rolls, and the Maine coast, where we all put our feet in the Atlantic Ocean–Siena for the first time!

And, there was a family reunion!  This was held by my Dad’s cousin, and most of my local family went.  It was a perfect place to get to see everyone together and for Siena to meet her Gigi (my Dad’s Mom) for the first time!!

 A huge thank you for the wonderful time we had in Maine to my Uncle Erik, Aunt Nancy, Dana, & Kara!!  <3

Tomorrow we will continue exploring the paternal branches of my family tree.  See you there!

Love,

Bree XOXO

While we were in Denver this year we went to the Passport office to get Siena’s first passport. So, you know how you fill out all that paperwork for your passport at the local post office, you include your Walgreens pics and it takes 6-8 weeks to get your special passport? Well, go directly to the office, pay $60 extra and you can pick up your passport the very next day!! Then it’s all yours to decorate with what ever country stamps you’d wish!!

So we got Siena’s and headed excitedly toward Canada!!

Our excitement faded considerably though when we were stopped on the US side of the border, made to leave the RV, escorted inside, filled out paper work, separated for some questioning, and then finally sent on our way…only to be stopped to do it all AGAIN on the Canadian side. At the same time we were trying to sort out our cell phone usage in Canada. Blah! By the time we got on the Canadian road, we probably looked like shell shocked troll dolls.

I wish I could report that things improved. Alas.  We stopped first in Toronto and since we had limited data use on our phones, no tour guides, and knew nobody from there, we were basically flying blind. My least favorite way to fly. Using Wifi from a Starbucks (or something), we searched out a laundromat, made our way there (it was in the ‘hood!) and were looking for a place to park when we realized that our quarters were useless. POOP ON A LOOP!!

Side note: I was shocked at how many ads there were. It was like being assaulted by marketing. You walk into a Tim Hortons and there are huge Visa ads and portable units for you to sign up for credit cards. As you drive along the roads companies have groomed the grass and rocks to make an ads for insurance (or whatever!). I even saw ads inside of satellite dishes!!

The next day we got brave and decided to explore Toronto. We pulled into the heart of the city right near the ball park… on game day. Holy hell! That was a logistical nightmare that almost became a homicidal nightmare! The roads were tiny, people were everywhere, and we just could not find parking– we left.

But we tried again! We got a couple passes for public transportation and explored on foot. It was… meh. I wanted it to be better. Alas, it was lackluster.

ON TO MONTREAL!! Okay, now this is where Canada gets good (for me). We had access to wifi, we found this blog, we made a list and had a map!! We were in business!

We did the Plateau Mont-Royal (BEAUTIFUL!), we had poutine at La Banquise, ate delicious smoked meat sandwiches at Schwartz Deli on blvd St. Laurent (seriously, sooooo good, and the first thing Matt mentioned when we were reminiscing!), we had a crepe dinner at a lovely and romantic restaurant on St. Paul St. in old Montreal, did some underground city window shopping and saw the Basilica Notre Dame. Also, I was unaware, but there is apparently a Montreal/NY debate over which bagel is the best. (It’s possible that Montrealians made this up), but who are we to argue? So we had bagels at St. Viateur. We got a half dozen to go and ate them within 24 hours. This was also Siena’s first subway or train experience and it was so adorable to watch her get so excited when a train was coming! Life with an almost 2 year old is truly magical! (Check back in a year or so to see how I feel after the second year of her life!) By the time we left Montreal, I was fat and happy (no really, I am getting fatter and happier–see previous post, or use your eyes and see the pics.)

So, Siena has her first passport stamp. We came back into The States through Vermont (with a much more pleasant border experience) and started making plans to see some of my dad’s side of the family. See you tomorrow for that post!

Bon Voyage,

Breezy.

PS. I had been attempting to re-learn French using Duolingo. It failed me. Sigh. I guess I needed to get past “Bonjour! Le chat est noir.”

PPS. Have a really great weekend!! See you again on Monday.

After leaving Vegas this year we Tally Ho’d to my home state, Colorful Colorado (with a quick stop at Arches National Park).

Once in CO, we got to see my cousin get married, see a lot of my family (thank you weddings!), camp on a lake, and spend a good chunk of time with some of our besties.  The weather was great and we loved our CO time.

 After leaving there, our next big stop was The Windy City. We’ve blogged about Chicago before. This year, we parked in a truck yard and walked into the city. It was a pretty long walk, but it was along Lake Michigan and had a couple playgrounds. It also provided Matt and Siena with their first lightening bug sightings. Aww! We devoured our 2 favorite pizzas there, and this year Lou Malnati’s was the clear winner. We took the obligatory Bean Pic (see below). And we were called out by some teenaged/maybe 20 year old girls!! Here’s what happened, we had parked on the street and were walking away from the RV.  The girls were walking by and Matt overheard one say “They livin’ in there. They Gypsies.” Too funny…and true.

From Chicago we made our way to Motor City, USA.This was a big deal. For starters, it was as far East as OTH had ever been AND it was a virgin city for all 5 of us on board. (Henery said he used to play jazz in a nightclub in Detroit back in the 60’s, but he’s known to stretch the truth.)

As we pulled into Detroit we played 2 songs, this one and this one.  We all preferred the Trick Trick one.

I was really pleasantly surprised by Mo Town! Sure, if you look closely it will depress the hell out of you that all these beautiful buildings are crumbling and spray painted. But I actually LOVE graffiti. I appreciate it as a very colorful and expressive art. So I was in heaven with all the graffiti! We also had a really knowledgable and friendly host and tour guide (even if he can’t parallel park for a crap! BTW, if you can’t either, here’s an answer that spells out the formula). Matt met Brother Wood playing poker in Vegas in 2011 and we have been blessed to meet up with him about 4 times in different areas of the country. He’s now in Detroit and knows of all the greatest places to shove food into our faces (Buddy’s Pizza is THE SPOT! When Matt found out I hadn’t mention Buddy’s he almost blew a gasket! Anyways,) Brother Wood is awesome company and introduced us to some of his local family and friends. He and Matt played poker a couple times at Motor City, but Ben Affleck wasn’t there–I asked Matt to keep a look out for him and to lick him if he saw him. (It’s possible he DID in fact see him, and just not want to lick him.  It’s always easier to lie to your wife than to lick a celebrity.  I don’t blame him.)  ;)

We had a blast! Thank you, Detroit!!

Next stop? Canada!

Gypsy Bree, OUT!!

XOXO