Jacob as his Daddy

Clay put his shirt on Jacob one afternoon. Jacob loves playing in our closet. He has this new thing with shoes. If he sees a pair of our shoes laying around, he will bring them to us, put them on the ground by our feet and scream at us until we put them on. Once you put them on, he claps for you and walks off. It is so funny. If you come and visit, don't think you are safe from this. If he knows the shoes belong to you, he will make you put them on.

"Look. I can still pick up a ball."

"Cheese!" Isn't his smile amazing!!!

Jacob and Dog Dog

I just love this picture!! I think this was taken after leaving day care on his first day back after going to New York. He actually moved up to a new class that day. I love our new room!!!

Our New York trip to stay with Jen and Dylan

Jacob was a traveler this summer. He and I went to New York for 8 days to stay with Jen and Dylan. We had a great time!! We can't wait to come back, Jen and Dylan. Thanks for an amazing trip!!!! And before you ask, Clay did not want to go with us. He stayed home and fenced in our back yard with Joanna and Josh's. It looks great. Jacob and Debo can run around in the back yard now and be safe. So, I would say that it was a very productive week for both of us. Hope you enjoy all the pictures from the trip. I took over 800, shocker I know. So this is just a small sampling of our trip.

Jacob's first plane ride. He did great! He was the entertainment most of the flights for everyone around us. Enjoyed passing his toys through the space between the seats to the people behind us. Luckily, they all liked children.

Jen and I had a Girls Night Out together the first day that we got there. Anthony kept the boys (thanks!). We ate supper at Ruby Foo's. I had lettuce wraps and fried rice with pineapple, chicken and cashews. I wish I had taken a picture of what I ate. No one would believe me, but it was really, really good! I can't wait to go back there. Then we went to see Wicked. It was awesome!!! I highly recommend it. I had so many emotions in that play. It was just great! Then we got cheesecake at Junior's. It was a great Girls Night Out.

Jen and I also did the TV/Movie tour in NYC. Here we are sitting on the front steps of the Cosby House. One neat thing about this picture is the fact that right across the street from where we are is a park. There is a pool, playground and baseball field. Just something that you would not think that you would see from everything we know about New York.

Us in front of the Friends apartment. Notice that that is not Central Perk at the bottom. That is the power of Television! We saw so many really cool places, but way too many to post. These are just the best that we saw.

Dylan and Jacob after church in front of the Ditcharo's house. We tried so hard to get a good picture of the two of them together. This was the best we got!

More New York

They live in Glen Rock, NJ, and have a community pool that was amazing!! The boys had a blast together. The part that we stayed in most of the time was for smaller kids. It was like a water park. There was another much bigger pool for the "older" kids that had a big water slide. Somehow, Jen talked me into going down the slide, and I had a blast!


Jacob loved sitting in the water that came up to his chest.

Jacob loved playing in this part of the pool.

He liked to let the water come down on top of his head.

This was a long pipe toy. Jacob stayed at the bottom of the pipe, drinking the water. I could not get him to stop. When I pulled him away from it, he would go right back to drinking the water again. That is Dylan playing a little higher up on the pipe.

See! Drinking the water. It made for a very nice diaper later that day.

Another attempt at getting a good picture of the boys. Dylan was ready to move again. Jacob was ready for snack time. Plus, his lips started turning blue. It was pretty cold in the shade.

There was a nice grassy area just outside the pool. Perfect for snack time and laying out.


Food would keep them still for a minute.

Jacob was so tired after playing. He fell asleep in the wagon. Dylan liked Jacob's wagon he got for Christmas from Nana and Pappy so much that Jen and Anthony went and got him one. It was a much needed item on this trip.

We also got to go to Big Bear after a full day of shopping at the New Jersey outlets the next day.

Children's Museum of Manhattan

This was an amazing place! Here is a link to their website. http://www.cmom.org/

There was one floor that was for Jacob and Dylan's age kids. There were four floors total. We spent a couple of hours in there and could have stayed longer. I think Jen and I had as much fun as they did.


Everyone knows how Jacob is completely obsessed with balls. Well ... when we got off the elevator and turned the corner into this room, there were balls everywhere, and he went crazy. He started screaming, "Ball. Ball." He picked them up as fast as he could. It was so cute. They had this thing that you see in the picture where they had to put the ball in the holes and then it would roll at the bottom. It reminded me of Plinko on The Price is Right. I thought about you Grandma!

In the picture behind him to the right, you can see this obstacle course they had for the kids to play on with all these foam blocks. He liked the blocks better than climbing.

This slide was part of a huge playhouse that they could climb on. It had tunnels, and of course, the boys liked to stay in those. There was one tunnel that went up to the second floor of the playhouse. I could not figure out how Dylan came up it. I had to get down and look up into it to see what it was. It was like a climbing tree for cats. He had a blast on it.

They had this great dress up area. We dressed the boys up like firefighters, and they played in the big fire truck. Jacob loved playing with this hat.

Our little drivers!

This was a huge Light Brite for all of us that grew up in the 80s. It was really neat.

As amazing as this is, they really did not make that big of a mess in the sand box. They probably would have stayed here all day long.

They had yet another area where they could cook.

The boys loved crawling on the mini version of a subway car.

"Now, how does this work?" My little engineer. Daddy, you may get one after all.

Serendipity and FAO Schwartz

One of my favorite movies is Serendipity. Jen surprised me after the Museum by taking me to the restaurant called Serendipity at the beginning of the movie. It was a very long walk (we were trying to let the boys sleep), but well worth it. Of course, I had to try their famous "Frozzzen Hot Chocolate." It was so good!!!! I searched the Internet and found the recipe.

What kind of Mama would I be if I had not shared it with Jacob. He loved it!

Then we went to FAO Schwartz. This was probably the best day for the boys. We let them run wild in the store. They were laughing and having the best time.

This is one of the best stories from our trip. Jacob loves dogs. When we walked into the store, there were these displays all over with stuffed dogs on them. Jacob went crazy screaming for him. He pulled tons off the displays. He selected two to walk around with. The brown and white in the picture above and a bulldog (gotta love that!). We had to have been in there for 2 hours or more, and he never put those dogs down. Of course, I had to get him one. He selected the brown and white dog, which looks a lot like the "doggy" that I played with growing. Renee, I thought you would like that. Thank goodness "dog dog," as Jacob calls him, was not too expensive. But I probably would have paid a small fortune for dog dog with the way Jacob was loving him.

Where's Jacob???

Only Jacob would find the lone ball in the section where they were not supposed to be! He soon found the large display of balls though.

We could not leave the store without letting the boys play on the piano. We got to the piano right at closing time, but the workers were nice enough to let the boys play for a bit.

Jacob and Dog Dog on the streets of New York waiting on a bus. Dog Dog goes with us everywhere now. Along with his green blanket Gabby and Perrin gave him when he was born. The blanket is in the storage part of the stroller. I was doing my best to keep NYC street mess from getting all over it.

The boys were so tired after the day. Notice that they are holding hands. Isn't that sweet!

Bronx Zoo

The Bronx Zoo is by far the best zoo that we have ever been to. One day is not enough to go through the whole thing. We are saving the second half for our next trip.

Jacob loved the ducks.
This was a petting zoo that they had for the little kids.

The things we do for our children! And I didn't even get sick. Glad we only did it once though!

Jacob loved it!
This was a great exhibit for the gorillas. You can see them in the upper right hand corner of the picture. The boys liked this one.

New York Yankees Game

This was an amazing experience. Jen and I had never been to a Yankees game before, and of course, the boys had not either. We went on a Thursday afternoon. Look how packed the place was!!! We actually got to see history. They are tearing down Yankee Stadium after this year. And then to make it even better ... The Yankees were down by two going into the bottom of the ninth. They scored one run making it 8-7 in favor of the Blue Jays. Jason Giambi came in to pitch hit with two outs. The count was 0-2, and he hit a walk off, two-run homerun right over where we were sitting!! The ball was just fair. That was the first time in Yankee history that a pinch hitter hit a walk off homerun. It was a great game!!!

My favorite picture of the four of us from the trip.

Jacob and I walked behind homeplate to get some good shots of the field. This is one of the better ones I got.
Everyone going crazy after Giambi hit the homerun.
Giambi's interview on the Jumbotron.

Our Last Day in NYC

The morning of our return flight, we took the boys to another park in Jen's town that she likes to go to a lot. There are so many great parks in her area.
Jacob laughing on the swings.
The boys liked swinging high!
This is the life!
Check out how big that black and white dog is. Those are average size adult women sitting in normal size yard chairs behind him. At one point in time, his owner, one of the women behind him, got him to sit down in her lap. Oh yeah ... this was a fenced in dog park beside the park we were letting the kids play at. They have every thing in New York!

Jacob on the ride home with his new book ... Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you see? I had to get it for him because I was tired of reading his favorite book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? I read it at least 20 times on each leg of our flight to New York. I was getting some variety for the trip home. It was a great trip!!!