Melissa’s Blog

This morning we got ready to go home. Alysia came to the hotel and we all had breakfast together. It was so great catching up with her. After breakfast we headed to the airport. Justin was very excited to go on the big plane again. Going through security went great for Justin, Nicole, and myself-dad got stuck as I had an aerosal can of sun screen in my bag-oops. Justin wanted to sit by me on the plane and Nicole wanted daddy. Before boarding I was in the bathroom with Justin, Nicole came. They started boarding so I sent Nicole to go on the plane with daddy to get us seats (Southwest Airlines). Poor Nicole was crying-I think she thought that Justin and I weren’t going to get on the plane. The plane ride went great.

Grammy picked us up and back in momma car. I missed my car. A four door sedan is not the easiest car with twins and all our junk. We decided to stay at Grammy’s for a bit. The kiddos played but we felt like they needed outside time. So we all went to TeWinkle park. The kiddos had fun, it is a pretty cool park. We had dinner at Grammy’s. Of course the kiddos made towers out of CD’s. It is so silly and what a mess but they love it. They are learning to put them back in the holder but it takes a while. Nicole was happy to see the baby at Grammy’s and when we left she put it to sleep on the bean bag in the play room. We headed home, Nicole was melting down about everything. We got home and she was a mess. We went upstairs right away and read books and told stories. The kiddos fell fast asleep. Bret is playing guitar hero right now, stupid game I got boo’d off stage. Hopefully I will add pictures tomorrow to the blog, so look back from Sat until today.

Today didn’t start out as planned but it turned out to be a great day. I was supposed to go visit Neyha, Krish, and Isha. Unfortunately her kiddos got sick so we were on our home. We dropped daddy off at light rail and came back to the hotel for breakfast. On the way back at a red light a motorcycle cop knocks on the passenger window. I got caught on a cell phone. I was as nice as can be and still got a ticket. Luckily it is just a fine and not a moving violation but still. We had breakfast. We came up to the room to get ready for our day. The kiddos found the remote for the TV so I let them watch Clifford for a bit. Bret called and said he would be out of training early. We went and hung out at The Great Mall. Not a very exciting place but passed the time. The kids got to ride on little ride on toys and just run around.

We did a little shopping and waited for daddy. We went into Dave and Busters so the kiddos could pretend to play games.The kids loved stomping on the lights and Nicole couldn’t keep her hands off Nicole.

Finally dad came and we had a late lunch. We did a little more walking around then came back to the hotel room for a bit. We were just letting the kids run around the hotel-the hotel is a big square so we sat by our room while the kiddos ran around. They loved running to the ice machine. I gave the kiddos a bath and daddy took a nap. We went to Valley Fair and met Arthur there. The kiddos played in the play area for a bit but it was crowded. Justin wanted to ride on all the ride on toys. We went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I got the fudge brownie cheesecake, oh my god that thing was so good. We just walked around the mall for a bit then needed to get back to the hotel for sleepy time. Justin and Nicole warmed right up to Arthur. It was nice to catch up with Artie. Kiddos were as hyper as can be again when we got back to our hotel room. They love the chair for some reason, climbing on it, jumping on it, jumping off of it, etc. Kiddos are sleeping and we are packing up to leave tomorrow. It was a great trip. I am kinda sad to see it end.

Last night Jusitn came to visit me and slept with me. It was kind of cute until he started tickling my feet. Justin and Nicole played this morning while Isabelle and Danny were in school. I decided it was easier to give my kiddos a bath at Kristi’s rather than the hotel. Nicole loved playing with the dolls in the tub and Justin liked all the floaty things. After bath we packed up since we were heading back to San Jose. We grabbed some lunch on the run and headed to the train museum in Sacremento. Justin and Nicole loved it. Justin looked at the trains and said this is a huge train. His eyes were open wide looking at all the trains. They liked walking through the trains. All the kiddos loved the model train area. This was the highlight, the kids loved watching the trains go by. They pressed buttons to make the trains go and loved watching them. The kiddos played by the train tables for a while. Justin made a big train but Nicole kept on getting in his way. Then Kristi dropped us off at the train station. I was a bit stressed for some reason, got our tickets and got right on the train. Nicole was pretty cranky as she was starving but I didn’t want to stop to get her a snack until I was on the train. I got the kiddos a bag of cookies. While I was putting our luggage up and collapsing the stroller, Justin opened the cookies. So the kiddos were really happy. Justin was so excited to be on the big train. I got som great pics of him.

They were just looking out the windows, we saw bridges, tunnels, cows, ships, etc. The excitement of the train wore off after a couple hours, the kiddos were getting bored. I brought out their sticker books and paper and pen. The kids loved drawing with the pen. We took walks around the train but the kids didn’t hold on very well and it was shaky so mostly we were sitting and playing in our seats. We made it and Bret was right there to help me off the train. The kids were so happy to see daddy-it was cute. Bret was carrying both kiddos and the kiddos were wild. We had a quick dinner then headed to the hotel. We got back around 7:40ish and there was no way the kiddos were going to bed, they were hyper. They were playing and being so silly. We were laughing. Finally we let them run around the hotel and do some laps. Nicole finally went to bed at 9:00. I missed Bret a ton and we had a great time but it would have been better if Bret was with us.

The kids slept pretty well. I woke up and saw Justin cuddling with Nicole, so cute. We woke up this morning and the kiddos were so excited to play with all of Isabelle and Danny’s toys. The kids played really well all morning, it was really nice. Justin and Danny played really well together. Justin loved playing with the trains. Nicole finally asked where Isabelle was-she was at school this morning. We went to pick Isabelle at school, then headed to John’s Incredible Pizza, Chuck E Cheese on steroids. The kids had a blast. They loved all the games, ski ball, basketball game, jump rope game, the play area. It was a cool place.

After we came back to Kristi’s and the kiddos all played outside together. Nicole wanted to ride Isabelle’s pink bike, so we all went for a bike ride. Justin rode Danny’s Diego trike. We went around the neighborhood and looked at Halloween decorations. Then the kiddos all went in the backyard and loved swinging. Then we played catch with the football and went down the slides, etc. Nicole was inside most of the time playing with Isabelle’s baby, putting it in Brennan’s swing and bouncer. The kiddos did dress up for a while, I got some cute pics that I will add later.

Justin was too busy with trains and couldn’t be bothered with dressup. Then we decided to take the kiddos to the park and have dinner. The kiddos loved this park, lots of climbing, ladders, and huge slides. Justin went to bed easily and Nicole was a challenge tonight.

The kiddos and I are in Lincoln right now. We miss daddy. Yesterday we had a great time in Monterey. The kiddos did great in the car as Kristi’s car has a dvd player. Justin’s eyes were glued to the TV. We went to the aquarium. The kids loved the sea otters as they swam by the kiddos squeled in delight. They loved looking around at all the fish, the play areas, etc. They loved watching the waves and loved touching all the ocean stuff, sea grass, sea stars, etc.

We walked to the beach and the kids had a great time playing on the sand. It was fun watching the kiddos be kids. We grabbed dinner and brought it to this awesome park but it was just a tease as it was getting too dark to play. Nicole got to sit next to baby Brennan in the car so she was thrilled. The kiddos fell asleep on the way home. This morning we packed up and got ready to stay in Lincoln for a few nights. We caught up with some old friends at the park this morning, Jen and Katie from the Gap and Global Center days. It was great as we all got to meet each other’s kids.

We played at the park for a while. Nicole and Justin were melting down a bit as it was getting too close to lunch. I always feel bad when it is my fault for them melting down. I knew if I gave then snacks they would never eat lunch and I wanted them to eat well. Luckily I had an apple and Katie had some fruit. What do you know the kiddos survived and we stopped and got sandwiches. I have never seen my kids eat so much of a sandwich. Then we headed for Lincoln, about a 3 hour drive. Overall the kids did really well in the car. When we got to Kristi’s my kiddos did not want to eat much dinner-they were too excited to go out and play with the swing set. It was so cute watching all the kiddos swing together. We picked out some books and Justin loved Danny’s saw and wanted to sleep with it. Nicole is idiolizing Isabelle. Nicole is all of a sudden interested in dinasours because Isabelle loves them. We read a ton of books and Justin went right to bed, snoring. He has a little runny nose. It took Nicole a while to go to bed-ugh. Now we are just hanging out watching some TV and I am getting my dog fix with Abby.

The kids did really well in the hotel overnight. Justin did wake up screaming “people are scaring me”, nightmares from his Rainforest Cafe experience. We got up and gave the kiddos a bath. They had so much fun playing with bars of soap. I don’t think they have ever had a bar of soap. They kept on saying slippery and it kept slipping out of their hands. We met Kevin and Kristi and gang downstairs and had breakfast. Daddy put juice in a mug, and the kids thought they were drinking cups of tea. I got to get my baby fix and held Brennan. After breakfast we all went to the park and let the kids play.

The kids had so much fun. Then we headed to The Discovery Science Center. What a great museum for our kid’s age. There was a fire engine and ambulance to play on. There was an awesome water area, Justin was in heaven. He just loved this area. The kids were touching, pushing, and playing with everything. I will download some pictures when we get home. There was a bubble area as well.

After the museum we headed to a great park to meet up with some friends and have a picnic dinner. There was a train at this park, so since Justin and his buddy Danny love trains, we had to ride on it. The kiddos played on the play structure for a long time. There was a big army plane as well as a train to play on. It was a really cute park. Nicole and Justin were sliding down the slide together. This is the first time they have gone done like a choo choo, they were all smiles and loving being with each other. We went to eat dinner and there were so many bees wanting to eat with us, so we ate in the car. The kids loved it. They were more into playing in the car rather than eating. Bret’s old college buddy Andy and his wife Corey and son Grant came to meet us at the park. It was so funny we were watching Justin and we watched him go up to another dad. He grabbed his leg and asked the guy to swing him. He thought it was Bret, we were laughing so hard. In Justin’s defense the guy was dressed like daddy with a hat, etc. I can’t believe how much our kids did today and only one little meltdown from Nicole. It was getting late and dark so we headed back to the hotel. Of course the kids were starving. I was talking to the kids about their huge day and Nicole said don’t say that word huge, I don’t like that word. We were laughing so hard. We got the kids to sleep as soon as we could and now we are unwinding and getting ready for our trip to Monterey tomorrow. I am excited to take the kiddos there. We are having such a great time with our friends.

This morning we finished getting ready. We had so much stuff, we checked 5 bags (2 bags were car seats)+ stroller. But before getting to the airport, we went to a 1st birthday party for Noah (Wendy and Brian) at Rain Forest Cafe. We were kind of worried about this place as the kiddos didn’t do well there once before. The kiddos were a little hesitant but seemed to do ok. The balloon person was a distraction, Justin got a blue dog with a leash and Nicole a kitty. Nicole was fine but Justin was just laying on me. He does this when he is overwhelmed. It seems like he is so sick but he is just trying to tune everything out. The minute I took him out of the place, he was as happy as can be. So we decided to get our food to go and leave, no point torturing Justin. We went to Grammy’s and Nicole got her sparkly baby then Grammy took us to the airport. The kids were great. While we were waiting for the plane that just sat there entertained by looking at the planes. We borded and the kiddos were pretty excited. The kids wanted to sit with Bret. We finally convinced Nicole to sit by me. It would have been ok but I wanted to experience the first flight with them. The kids did great on the plane and people even complimented us on our kids. I bought the kiddos sticker coloring books and it kept Nicole occupied the entire time, Justin a little but he was happy just looking out the window. It was a little bumpy going through the clouds but the kiddos didn’t seem to mind. It went better than expected, just so many bags. The kids were so excited to go on the shuttle bus to the rental car place. The weather was cooler than we thought so I had to dress the kids in jeans and jackets while Bret got the car-the kiddos are out growing all their clothes. The kids are so confused why we are in another car other than ours. It is funny! We got to the hotel and the kids love hotels. They drew on their dry erase books, played in the curtains, played with the phone, lots of fun stuff. We grabbed some dinner then tried to find a place outside to play. We saw the Howard gang. It will be so fun having our kids all get to know each other. Nicole loved the baby, of course as did I. I am looking forward to every day on this trip-it will be all fun. Kiddos went to bed a little later than usual but did pretty well since we are in a weird place.

Wow what a difference it makes when you have two other little people to pack for. This morning I did lots of laundry and tried to pack up a little. Vena came over to hang out. The kids played really well. Vena helped address birthday invitations, I can not believe the kiddos will be 3 in about a month. Justin and Nicole went upstairs for a while, it was really quiet. I walked up there to find all the clothes I was packing up for them on the floor and the dresser emptied, socks and underwear, jammies, and blankets everywhere-all I could say was oh my god and just laughed. Vena and I took the kiddos to lunch at the marketplace. 2 sets of twins, so we attract lots of attention. After I dragged the kids into Carters to start looking for some fall/winter clothes. The kids loved playing with the lego table and picking out clothes. Nicole wanted to try everything on and so we did. She was running around the store. After we went to Lowe’s to try and find sprinkler parts for daddy. Justin was so fascinated by the forklift. He doesn’t get excited about a lot of things, so it is great when he does. Then the kiddos went into the little market and picked out some apples. They love to do that and then they eat them up. We walked back to Target and ran in to get a few things. We came home and the kiddos played while I did more packing and then shower time. Grammy came over to have dinner with us and help with the birthday invitations. The kids had fun playing on the greenbelt with Grammy and daddy. We went to The Counter for dinner and the kids had a blast playing on the grass area, running and rolling around. So cute to watch them just be kids. We came home and dad put the tracks back together on the train table, so the kiddos played for a while. Grammy was talking about Jack and the Beanstock-fe fi fo and all of a sudden Nikki blurts out thats not funny. I couldn’t believe she said that. Anyway Grammy went home and we went upstairs, told some stories and the kiddos fell fast asleep.

Last night I went out for a much needed girls night out. It was great, just hanging out with friends without the kids. I actually got to know some moms better. I got home and found out Bret had to go to LA for work @ 10:00. He didn’t get home until 3:00 in the morning, ugh. Anyway the kids slept in a bit, thank goodness-Nicole was in a much better mood today since she got a lot of sleep. Anyway today was preschool and I was working. It was fun to be there with all the kiddos and see my kids love playing there. They had to bring something to share and Nicole brought a baby and Justin a police car. Justin showed everyone how the police car made noises, he was so cute sitting on the teacher’s lap. Nicole brought her baby and showed everyone all her limbs and her jammies, so funny. The kiddos played outside a lot and Justin used the potty-yeah 🙂 They liked checking in with me but did not care that I wasn’t with them. I had fun working there too. We came home and the kiddos showed me all their art work. Then they just ate lunch and played. Justin dragged all the stuffed animals into the kitchen. We played at home for a while then ran out to Michaels and Toys R Us to start getting things for the kid’s birthday. We were at Toys R Us forever playing with toys, riding bikes, reading books, etc. The kiddos had fun. We came home and tried to start packing for our San Jose trip but the kiddos were crazy. They came downstairs and were chasing each other carrying pumpkins, saying I am the gingerbread man and you can’t catch me.  Paula came over with her kiddos. Nicole and Justin were so excited. The kids all played really well, inside and out. We all had dinner together. The kids all sat around the picnic table, so cute. Our kiddos went to bed a little late but we had fun.

I couldn’t sleep last night-ugh. Daddy was up early and off to work for a 7:00 meeting. The kids and I played at home for a bit. The kids were so excited to see the tree trimming on the greenbelt. There was a tractor and the truck people sit in to get higher. Justin was fascinated. We went over to Victoria’s for a play date. The kiddos had so much fun. Nicole was fascinated with Victoria’s new baby, Winnie. Nicole got to sit in the chair and hold her and was so happy. The kids loved all the toys. Nicole and Justin loved the baby swing and kept on putting stuffed animals in it and buckling them in and putting a blanket on them. Then they would rock the swing, so cute. It was a nice morning, we came home and the kiddos ate lunch. Then we read and read and read…I almost fell asleep. It was nice though as we were all cuddled up on the couch together. After TV we went to the grocery store. Nicole hasn’t been listening to well today, I think she is just tired. We had fun at the grocery store. The kiddos love helping me shop and pick things out. We came home and played with Lincoln Logs for a long time then daddy came home. We all went outside and daddy worked on planting the plants in the backyard-it is hot. Justin was using the fishy sprinkler and screaming like a girl (ha) every time he got wet, it was funny. Nicole was playing baby and I gave her an old bib of hers so she was thrilled. After dinner we got out the Halloween decorations and started decorating. The kids were looking at all the stuff, the pumpkins. I love decorating for the holidays even though with all the toys and decorations it does make my house look messy. The kids read us books tonight, they stand on Justin’s bed and read us books, so funny. I was telling them a made up story about babies and when I said the babies pooped, they cracked up in hysterics. I said it was stinky and Justin made us laugh so hard. He was trying to repeat stinky and couldn’t get it out, he was laughing so hard.