Family Vacation

So I have posted a countdown (got the idea from my cousin, thank you!) to our first official Gehle Family Vacation! We have the airline tickets and will be leaving for the Jersey Shore on Thursday, July 31st for nine days. My most super wonderful friend Sadie has offered us their family bungalow to stay in.

Our reasons to take this trip are so we can:
1-see friends (we lived there for 8 years);
2-Jared can take Brayden to a Yankees game (last year playing in the old stadium);
3-visit N.Y.C
4-so we can get some decent Chinese take out (Jared also wants his deli)!

I have to admit at first I was hesitant (who, me?!!?!). I just didn't know about spending the money on plane tickets, etc....since now we need to buy 3 tickets! But we found a great price on tickets, my super wonderful friend offered us the bungalow, and Jared got a great price on the Yankees tickets. So I guess it was just meant to be!!! I am getting pretty excited about going, since I realized today is exactly 4 months from when we leave! Obviously since there is still 4 months to go I haven't thought about the dreaded part.....packing!!!!!!

Explanation

So I've posted a couple of times and was going to try to explain why it had been so long since I had posted any pics in one of those postings but it didn't seem to fit with the topic. So I am going to just post an explanation all by itself.


As you can see I didn't post one thing in the month of February. If I would have posted it would have gone something like this........


Posting option #1: It is so freakin' cold in the d--- state. Why did my husband move us here. I am going INSANE sitting in this house because the high today is -10 degrees!


Posting option #2: Well they are sick AGAIN! That makes it almost 3 straight weeks of runny noses, ear infections, inhalation treatments, etc..... I don't leave the house except in the evening after Jared is home and we've put the kids to bed. Does anyone have a guess to what the temp is AFTER the sun goes down when the high for the day was 1 degree??!?!? It's the kind of cold that makes your jeans feel like they might shatter if you hit them with a grocery bag hard enough! Yes, I unloaded plenty of groceries many different times during these frigid nights! One thing I learned about myself, when I've been shut in with 2 sick whiney kids all day, I have no problem being outside in
-20 degrees loading groceries in my car. I even take the time to return the cart to the store or coral just so I can spend a few extra minutes away from my house! The following is the ONLY picture I took the WHOLE month of February! Note: he is smiling!

Posting option #3: I was sitting in my living room on one of the first nights where the temps were going way down and I hear a really loud bang. The kind of bang that makes you jump and freeze up at the same time. I look over at Jared who's asleep on the couch thinking he had to wake up with that noise; he didn't! So I woke him up and said "I think a deer just ran into the back of our house". I know it sounds silly, but I couldn't think of any other explanation (besides I was exhausted from the sick kids). He finds nothing but announces how cold it is outside! I didn't hear the noise every night but when the temps really dropped I would hear it. Turns out when it gets that cold out, houses will 'pop'. Again, where the h--- did my husband move me to where house 'complain' because it is so cold!!!!! The scientific reason; the wood contracts and the water in the wood expands and where two pieces of wood meet they will move and pop. Doesn't do any damage but it is unnerving to hear. On one of the record days/nights for cold (-40 degrees) I had to turn the radio up just to cover all the noise so my poor dog would stop hiding! By the way on that record cold night Jared was out of town (probably in Texas!!!) and I had to take the dog out. Yes -40 degrees does feel A LOT colder than -20 degrees, even though Minnesotans say it doesn't.

So as you can see if I would have posted it wouldn't have been very pleasant. I can look back and laugh and make jokes but at the time I really was just plain fed up!!!!! So for future reference, I hear Minnesota is brutal in February (this was the worse it had been in 7 years) so don't plan on hearing much from me during that month. Or if you do just remember I'm going through a BAD case of cabin fever and don't hold it against me!

Watch out for the 2 year old!!!

So we made our first snowman of the season (on March 9th), it finally got warm enough (above 0 degrees) so the snow would stick. As I was working on the head of my sons snowman he was standing beside me and asked if I would make him a snowball. Of course, not a problem! Never did I imagine that he would take the snowball and proceed to throw it at ME!!!!! He thought it was hilarious! This is a picture of him throwing one at me.

Here is a picture of Brayden with his snowman; just his size! This snowman has melted and we could even see grass and the start of the tulips last week. However, Easter weekend we got a new 'dusting' of 10 inches of the white stuff! We woke up Easter morning to the sound of the snowplow!

1st Birthday!

Just wanted to share a picture of Camden at his 1st birthday party! It was a really nice day spent with friends and family. Camden didn't dive into his cake but he still managed to get messy which is all I wanted! The bigger kids helped to show him what to do. And believe it or not, after all that sugar they still took great naps!