Tyler's Birthday Weekend

Fall is Birthday Season at our house! Tyler turned one year older (he doesn't like thinking about his age anymore) on Saturday, October 12. We had a beautiful sunny day to celebrate him that day! Tyler has made lots of changes this year but one I hadn't blogged about is his physical appearance. Late in the summer, Tyler began a diet routine that worked amazingly well for him and he lost over 35 pounds in less than 2 months. He lost 11 pounds in the first week alone and did so amazing on the program. I'm so excited and proud of him and all he's accomplished this year. This birthday was one of lots of new clothes since pretty much all of his clothes are falling off him now!

We started out with Trader Joes pumpkin pancakes for breakfast: we'd been introduced to them by Jamie Cook in Vermont and Tyler wanted them again! Then we headed off to an Apple Festival in Southington. We met our friends, the Thomas's and had a great morning out! Highlights were the kids watching the little girl dancers (both so intrigued it was hilarious), Jackson sitting on a real police motorcycle, amazing apple fritters (best I've had) and apple slushies. Good thing it was a warm enough day to enjoy it all!

Fritters, Motorcycle, a Fire Truck kids ride and the family walking through it all

Sharing our apple slush!

Tyler and Jackson spent the afternoon at the golf course while I stayed home and Abbie napped. He got him this set of clubs in September and he loves playing in our yard most days, so going to a real course was a special treat!

 

Future Golfer

That night we got a babysitter and went out to Flemings for a nice steak dinner. We had gone here just once before, on our anniversary trip in Naples last year. We had a gift card then and normally wouldn't splurge at such a pricey place. But I guess we were on their mailing list and received an offer for a great dinner for 2 special that Tyler couldn't turn down. We headed to West Hartford for the night and enjoyed a night alone.

Steak makes for a happy husband!

The next day was a Sunday and since we'd had so much fun inviting our friends over for my birthday, we decided to have another cake and ice cream party for Tyler too. I invited some friends at church and everyone we invited ended up coming so we had 24 people over. It was a great time though and Tyler always uses these times to learn the funny dating stories of our now married friends. Luckily I made some pumpkin muffins to give to some of the younger kids so we could feed everybody. That and very thin slices of this 3 layer cake! I made this pumpkin dream cake that turned out amazing. It won't be the last time I make it for sure! It's from this blog,  the cake's pumpkin flavor was subtle but moist and the maple cream cheese frosting was a perfect combo. 

It was a great weekend celebrating the best husband and dad out there!

Oops I guess I'm giving away his age.

He had lots of helpers too :)

Vermont Leaf Peeping

We started off our New England Fall experience right by taking a trip to Vermont. Since it's north and much colder than Connecticut, the leafs are at their peak colors a couple weeks earlier there. LDS General Conference weekend ended up being the perfect time to go and we met up with the Cooks who have been doing this Vermont leaf-peeping trip for years now...

We left on Friday around lunch time and arrived a few hours later in Woodstock, VT at the Billings Farm.

 

The next day we headed to Stowe and while the weather forecast showed rain, we were so glad there was not a single drop all day, and it even got beautifully sunny in the afternoon!

First stop was Ben & Jerry's Factory, then off to the cider mill!

Jackson had so much fun playing with Bryson & Eliza!

We drove around a bit in the afternoon while Abbie napped and then stopped at this beautiful barn and played in the grass for an hour at least. We were just basking in the sunlight that had finally peeked through and just taking it all in.

It was such a great trip and the pictures don't even do it justice (cliche i know) We had a great trip tagging along with the Cooks as they showed us all the places to see. Now we're ready for our family or friends to come for a trip next fall :)
 

Rachel turns 28

On September 30th I turned 28, which means I've got 2 more years to enjoy my twenties! This year my birthday fell on a Monday so we had fun celebrating the weekend before all the way through to my birthday night!

We got our first taste of New England fall that weekend when we went to Lyman Orchard. It was a beautiful cooler (60s) but sunny day and the leaves were just beginning to change colors! We went apple picking for the first time ever and also picked our pumpkins from the vine in an actual patch rather than just a field with pumpkins scattered around on hay bales :)

The apple pickers!

Jackson is a fruit lover and a big fan of apples so this was heaven for him. Abbie who hadn't ever shown too much of an interest in them had a change of heart when she saw how fun it was to eat them straight from the tree. Thanks to her, there were lots of little apples with one or two bites taken out of them scattered around the trunks of the trees. We bought a couple bags of apples and I had intentions to make yummy apple desserts out of them but we ended up just eating them all! An apple a day kept the doctor away for all of us for a couple weeks!

They even had pony rides, Jackson's first time on a "horse"

Such a pretty day!

Off to pick our apples!

Abbie found her perfect pumpkin

The best cider donuts we had all fall!

That night I went to dinner and the Relief Society Broadcast with the women of our ward. We had a ward pot luck dinner on Sunday evening and that night Tyler got the house ready for my birthday the next day.

He is keeping up my family's tradition of the birthday shrine! He got my favorite donuts, juice and even some autumn colored flowers. Thanks to Paige, Michael, Mom and Nana for contributing presents to the shrine :)

After indulging in sweets it was a normal Monday morning and I took Jackson to school and started the laundry. Both kids had coughs that day and were a little more needy than normal which made for not the most relaxing of days I must admit! But we had plans to meet Tyler for lunch at Cheesecake Factory and although the kids weren't doing their best we still went. We got the kids a pizza to share and we shared one of their huge salads and got banana cream cheesecake for dessert!

Playing a game of peek-a-boo!

Ya all the pics we took were out of focus, oops!

Their favorite part was stopping at B&N afterwards.

During quiet time that afternoon, we talked to Uncle Michael and had fun taking some silly face selfies to send to him.

Cross Eyed Zoolander?

Jackson had a hard time waiting until Tyler got home to help me open my presents so I must admit he opened a few throughout the day. But we opened most of them about 20 seconds after Tyler walked in the door. Jackson soon realized these presents were not that exciting but he had hopes that I'd receive trucks and toys for my birthday... I did receive lots of fun pants, shirts, sweaters and boots!

We had a yummy chalupa dinner at home and then invited some of our new friends over for cake and ice cream. Tyler didn't have much time to make the cake so he ended up buying it from the grocery store but it looked and tasted great :)

My sidekicks are never too far away :)

Getaway in NYC!

Tyler and I were lucky enough to spend the weekend together in NYC! After a few fun days with the Jennings, they were kind enough to stay at our house and watch our kids while we drove down for a fun weekend away! It is so awesome to live 90 minutes from the city :) This was my first time away from Abbie for more than a few hours and my second time away from Jackson. Living away from family makes trips like this tricky so we're grateful for Vicki and Terry. And from the pictures and report, it sounds like they had a pretty fun weekend too!

This trip started out as a present to Tyler for graduating with his MBA back in May, but with the timing being a week before my birthday it kind of ended up being a birthday celebration too. We only had 36 hours in the city, but we crammed a lot in! And most of the cramming was food, I must admit.

We had breakfast at Norma's and wow that place was unreal. I got the Chocolate Decadent French Toast and it really just looks like a huge slice of cake. It was amazing and way too good for breakfast! Tyler got an southwest omelet that was really amazing too but kind of got overshadowed by mine! We also went to the Manhattan temple that morning which was a very neat experience, its a bit trickier to get to a temple now living so far away! And of course we had to get more sweets after the temple so we stopped at Levain Bakery - I'd heard about their cookies for years and was determined to try it this trip. Wow, so glad we did! Then we finally got to go to our room at the Waldorf and freshen up before our night out!

happy early birthday to me!

Norma's, our meals, the temple

The Chocolate Peanut butter, aww so good!

Thank you Hilton Points!

That night we saw a Broadway show, Once, which we probably should have researched a bit more before seeing. We loved the music but it wasn't our style. We had some amazing Italian for dinner before the show and had plans for dessert that night but I think we had both hit our food limits for the day!

Gotta love a good Times Square selfie

So fun running into Kelli White!

The next day was beautiful weather and after sleeping in and getting yummy wraps for breakfast and pudding from Magnolia Bakery - we took the subway to Brooklyn. We tried the famous Grimaldi Pizza and like all of our food that week, it didn't disappoint! I also really loved that area of town, it was actually a place I considered much more liveable, unlike Manhattan! There was a huge line to get in so Tyler let me explore alone for a bit while he waited in line. It really is such a strange feeling walking around a city without a baby in arms, diaper bag on back and toddler to tote around! Tyler and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge back to the city and then got lucky enough to get last minute tickets to Matilda! I love that show and would recommend it to anyone but especially if you're a fan of the book, movie or just young at heart. It had everything I love about Broadway shows.

Subway rides are much more enjoyable with banana pudding!

I'm so glad the rain didn't come like the weather forecast said!

The bridge was packed but it was a beautiful day!

The stage setup at Matlida was so awesome!

Tyler's collage of the trip!

Grandma & Grandpa come to CT!

So remember how I just talked about the summer ended and in came structure and routine? Well that was a lie, we had one more fun event in September - Grandma and Grandpa came to visit!

This was their first time visiting our new house and we had a good time showing them around our town and to the sights beyond. One day we headed to Boston, and the next day we went to the Big E fair up in Springfield, Mass. The kids both adore their grandparents and even Abbie was going to them willingly (even preferring Grandma over me on the first day!)

Jackson, Abbie and I went to the airport to pick up Vicki first, she flew in a day earlier than Terry. And the whole drive there, Jackson was so giddy and excited to get there and see Grandma! It took a while with a road closed leading to a major detour and then making a wrong turn but finally we got there and he was thrilled to see her again!

Playing with his new lego cars

Our favorite "motorcycle park" was so much more fun with Grandma!

 Our day in Boston was so great! We saw the USS Constitution, Freedom Trail, amazing Italian food, Mike's Pastrys, played with ducks in Public Garden, took a train to Cambridge and hung out at Harvard before calling it a night and walking back to our car after a stop at a carousal. We couldn't have asked for better weather on a sunny but crisp beginning of autumn day :)

Abbie loves her Grandpa

Loving all those extra kisses!

One of my favorite pics of these two!

My little ducklings!

Both in awe of the ship

Trying out real fire gear, our amazing lunch, carousel ride.

The next day we went to the Big E Fair in Springfield which is only about an hour away. It was quite the scene and actually was really warm that day. It might not have been my activity of choice but I'd do it again every year with how much the kids loved it and Jackson keeps talking about it weeks later! We got some fair food and Jackson and Grandpa did a few rides, but we spent most of our time watching the farm animals. Pig racing, horse shows, pony shows, cows, sheep, baby chicks, ducks all on display was heaven for my animal loving girl especially. 
 

Another bonus, sometimes Tyler and I can hold hands and walk alone :)

My little sheep!

We spent a lot of time in this arena watching the horse shows.