Saturday, March 22, 2014

Ally's 16th Birthday Trip!!

Ally is 16… SIXTEEN!!…. old enough to drive!! It is INSANE!! The fact that we talk about college and what she wants to do with her life when high school is over is CRAZY! She is one of my best friends, and I thank God every day for FaceTime to make it feel like she is never that far away. She is the best auntie ever to my little boys, and they are absolutely crazy about her!! 

Soo… her sixteenth birthday fell over spring break. Hailey had a missions trip with her school to El Salvador so my mom and Ally decided to make the trip up. We also got to plan a fun trip to NYC in the mix as well that Auntie flew up for! 


YAY… They made it!!! Ally babysit while my mom and I drove to Philly to pick my aunt up the first night. 

 Saturday everyone wanted to do our trip to Amish country. We did our usual thing, and we enjoy it every time :) 



 Ryder chasing the cat he named Sweet Love last summer. She was a teeny tiny kitten then. We joked they it looks like she made some sweet love this winter, and I have a feeling we'll be holding her babies when we visit this summer. 

 best.ice cream.ever!


 think they are so cute….

 and then they stole his ice cream… I think my mom has the pictures of him hysterically crying. We all just laughed because it was too funny. You can see in the pictures below Ryder offered the rest of his ice cream cone to calm him down :) Major big brother points for that one! 
 These next five photos are a great example of what it's like to get pictures with these boys!




 A few more photos from the farm that Ally sent me off her camera...



 On the bus to the big city! 
 Girl Weekend!! Sisters Weekend :)
 We ate lunch at Ellen's… the waitresses sing the whole time. It was pretty cool experience, but the food wasn't that great. 
 Mom and Auntie playing along to one of the songs. 
 Ally had been FREAKING OUT all week because Glee was filming in the city, and we were totally going to miss stalking them. Teenage girls are amazing these days with all their different forms of social media to track stars down. As we were paying the bill she freaked out that they were filing on broadway. We literally RAN across Time Square to make it in time to see Lea Michele. It was pretty cool to see how it is all done, and of course my sister's birthday weekend was made! 


 Next up… Cinderella



 It was such a great show!! Sometimes these things bore me, but this was honestly the best i've ever seen :)
 The view of Time Square from our room
 Next up was dinner and dessert at Serendipity! I've been wanting to try their frozen hot chocolate forever. Guess what? Glee bought the restaurant out for the night so instead of having my frozen hot chocolate I froze my butt off glaring through a window with a bright light to catch a glimpse of four of the guys from the show…We did get to see them hop out of their car and into the restaurant. It was still pretty cool :) 
All ready in out Saint Patrick's Day gear for the Today Show.. 
Also Ally 16th birthday!!!
 We made it just in time to see Enrique Iglesias (sorry if I butchered that!) 
 After the Today Show it was time to leave the city. It was cold cold cold… 
On the bus back to our car with my girl :)
 Plus these cuties were anxiously awaiting our arrival for Ally's "party"



 It was decided over their Christmas visit that Ally would have a Frozen birthday party at our house. We had the house decorated when they arrived from Florida, and that night we went to dinner and then had some ice cream cake! YUM!!!


 Tuesday it was time for Ally's birthday present… her first tattoo!! First of many i'm sure :)
 "Love You Gigi"
Our Great Grandma's (Gigi) signature. Ally and her have been writing letters back and forth weekly since she's gotten sick, and it's really special to her. Something she'll cherish forever :) 
 The rest of our week was a little more low key, and left us with a few candids…. 


 Proud of his pooping skills… I am too! Finally :)
 This morning the first words Landon said to me was "Mommy, my Grammy and Ally are gone!", and he laid his head on me crying for a few minutes. Breaks.My.Heart!! I love the relationship he still has with them even with all the distance. FaceTime is SUCH a blessing!! Plus we already have two pretty concrete trips in the works over the next four months… makes the distance slightly easier… 
until next time….
We Love You Guys!!