My Favorite Moments in NJ

So I don't forget them, here in no particular order are some of my favorite moments from our trip to NJ last week:

- Seeing AJ & Daniel running around on the sand & in the water in Seaside.

- Watching the boys get to know our extended family & friends who live there. It was great to see everyone & I'm so thankful everyone made the time to spend time with us while we were there.

- Hearing Daniel, AJ & Pop interact, especially when Daniel called him "Great Pop." Then hearing Pop still be excited about it a week later

- Taking the boys out to a hibachi dinner with us for my birthday

- Meeting my beautiful niece, Isabelle

- Going out for drinks with great friends from high school not once but twice!

- Catching up with a friend from college that I haven't seen since 1998 & meeting her beautiful family

- Watching my kids play with my friends' kids

- Introducing Zachary to everyone & hearing how he's so cute, such a good baby, looks just like me & the other boys, etc. It never gets old hearing how great your kids are.

- Having Sunday family dinner with my Aumente side of the family & laughing SO hard it hurt. I'm still looking for more forks so the mafia doesn't get me!

- Saying my own private good bye to my grandmother, since I was unable to travel for the funeral. So grateful we were able to stay in her house for the week. I feel like she was with us the whole vacation & that she got to know my boys a little better.

- AJ grabbing my hand as we got ready to leave the beach on Friday saying "Mom, thanks for taking me here & letting me play in the water. Can we come back another time with everyone when it's warmer so we can play more?" I still get teary thinking about this for so many reasons.

- Eating REAL pizza, bagels, sub sandwiches & funnel cake on the board walk...and so many other yummy things although ironically no pork roll.

There were so many great moments the whole week, this is just a quick snapshot of my mind. Above is a picture of all of us on the boardwalk in Seaside. More pictures will be up on Facebook, eventually.

Recovery Week

Welcome to our blog! I decided to start this a few months ago & have finally decided to try to add some posts. I wanted to start this to keep family updated on what we are doing out here in Ohio. I also hope to use it as a memory book for myself & the boys. I have no idea how often I will post, or how long I will keep this up. I'm hoping for at least once a week, but we'll see how much time I really have.

This past week I have been calling our "recovery" week. We were in NJ 2 weeks ago & have needed the whole week to recover & get back to normal life. Adrian & AJ both played hooky on Mon since we got in late Sun night. We enjoyed the day at home together, probably too much, since we barely got any unpacking done. The rest of the week was spent trying to get back on our schedule with Adrian & I working, AJ going to school, Daniel going to soccer & various play dates & Zachary on a schedule period. Next week is our first full week with all of our activities since Zak got here, it should be interesting.

It amazes me that I now need a week to recover from a week long vacation. I'll be honest, I'm probably going to need more than a week. As I type, there is still mail to be sorted, bags to be unpacked, thank yous to write...not to mention normal house running things like cleaning. Oh well, I guess it will get done some day.

I hope you enjoy taking this journey with us & "Keeping up with the Joneses."