Dueling Pianos - Date Night

The night before Scott left for his 3 week Europe trip, the two of us went on a very nice date night. We had a babysitter for Brendan, got dressed up and went out to see Dueling Pianos. We had reservations to At My Place, a local restaurant in Corona that features Las Vegas style pianists every weekend. Although we didn't take any pictures, we had a wonderful time. The food was good and very decently priced. I would defiantly recommend this place. We can't wait for an opportunity to go back. I think next time we will try to go on a Thursday night since there isn't a cover on Thursdays.

Overall, it was a wonderful date night for the two of us to spend together. Three weeks is a long time to be away from your spouse!

Aquarium visit and sick again!

During my 3 weeks of Family Bonding, our family spent some quality time together at home, our Staycation. During that week I got us tickets to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Since Brendan was almost 1 year old, he was much more observant of things around him and basically walking, we thought he would enjoy seeing the fish. While we were there we decided to go ahead and upgrade to a year pass, so we can go back a few more times throughout the year. It turned out to be a good thing we did.

• We arrived in Long Beach a little before our entrance time, so we walked to Starbucks for Breakfast. Mommy and Daddy reved up with some coffee while Brendan ate his oatmeal.
• Our entrance time was 10:00, we get to enter through a "Member's only" side entrance and received our members information and members ID card.
• Almost immediately, we let Brendan out of his stroller to walk around some and see the fish with Daddy.

• Not long after, Scott was attacked by the giant jelly fish!! (A goofball I know, but I love him anyway!)

• We then found a seat in the lobby to watch the whale show (huge disappointment) and to calm Brendan down, he was getting a little fussy. Brendan felt a little warn so we gave him some Tylenol and a bottle and let him lay down in the stroller.
• The kid slept for the rest of the aquarium. So Scott and I enjoyed the rest of it while pushing around a sleeping baby.

• I'm not really sure what I am doing here...maybe yelling at Scott to take the picture?

• After petting the sharks and rays, and looking (not feeding or touching) the scary birds, we decided to call it a day.

• We had lunch out while Brendan seemed to get more and more fussy. It was defiantly time to go home.

By the time we got home, Brendan was burning up with a really high fever, we decided to go ahead and call the doctor (our poor baby is always sick). Our doctor wasn't in, but we were able to see the on call doctor, who was wonderful! Turns out our kid had Roseola. Although we were worried, apparently it is extremely common in babies where almost every baby has it at some point between the ages of 6 months and 2 years. So the next few days were not as planned since we had to stay home with a sick baby, but we enjoyed the time spent together anyway, and used the time to pack Scott for his trip to Europe.

We were so glad we did buy the year pass for the Aquarium so we can take Brendan back to experience it again!

Quick Update

Wow, I have been really bad at posting lately! I am alive and well, as is my family (finally). Scott and Brendan both had a major flu a couple weeks ago, I am very lucky that I did not catch it. Here are a few things that we have been up to lately (well, since June) that I haven't gotten around to posting about yet, hopefully I will be better at updating the blog.

1. Family Visit to the Aquarium of the Pacific
2. The rest of our "Staycation"
3. Indio with my Family
4. Visit to Sacramento
5. Europe for Scott
6. Brendan's (2nd) first Birthday Party
7. Idaho with Scott's family
8. Brendan's (3rd) first Birthday Party
9. 1 Year update
10. ....much more....

Wow, there really has been a lot going on that I haven't shared. If I do at least one a day, I should be done in two weeks....we'll see how that actually goes.

Until then, life is as it always is: busy, stressful, but wonderful!

New Hair Cut

Some of you may have noticed that I recently changed my hair. I have to admit that the new cut and color was more dramatic than I originally intended, but it is really growing on me. My husband is getting used to it as well. I really do like it, I have never had my hair this short before, it really is a nice change. It makes doing my hair in the morning a lot easier! It dries so much faster! An added plus, Brendan doesn't have as much hair to pull now!

Happy Anniversary

Yesterday, Scott and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. I must admit, our celebration was a lot better than last year. Brendan was born on the 14th, which means we came home from the hospital on the 15th. So on the 16th, our third anniversary, and the first full day home with our baby. Scott wanted to go out to dinner just the two of us, even though Scott doesn't remember this, but even then we knew something wasn't right with Brendan. He wasn't eating well, he didn't really cry, and all he did was sleep. But we tried to go celebrate together anyway. My mom stayed home with Brendan and Scott and I just ended up going to Islands. We were back in less than 45 minutes. It was so hard for me to be away from my baby at that point, I was still too emotional! Scott still gives me a hard time about that night! :)

While I was at work yesterday, Scott brought me some lovely flowers and a nice card. It was such a nice surprise. For my anniversary present, Scott got me another very sweet card that was very heartfelt, and a beautiful bracelet from Switzerland. I didn't take a picture but it is beautiful with pearls and a silver chain. My husband has good taste in jewelry, he has picked out all of the jewelery he has bought me, including my wedding ring. What a wonderful husband.

But yesterday evening we decided to go out, my mom stayed home with Brendan again (this time completely healthy) and Scott and I went out to Victoria Gardens. We had a lovely dinner at Lucille's BBQ, If you don't know Scott and I very well, we LOVE Barbeque. For dinner we had their "Feast for Two" let me tell you, it was a FEAST, the two of us couldn't finish it and brought home most of the meat and one of the desserts! What a deal!

We walked around Victoria Gardens for a short while, but Scott was just so tired, he is still a little off from his travels to Europe, so this time it was Scott that wanted to cut the evening short, at least we were out for three hours this time.

Happy Anniversary Babe, "I love you more today than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow!"

Brendan turns 1!

Yesterday was Brendan's first birthday. We are sad that Daddy missed it, but he will be her for the actual birthday party on Saturday! Last night Grandma, Aunt Bekah, Uncle Kevin and I had a small birthday dinner for Brendan, complete with cupcakes!



Grandpa also created a video of Brendan's first birthday from clips Aunt Bekah took on her camera phone. (If you haven't already, you should check out my dad's blog of Brendan's trip to the train museum.)



Happy Birthday Brendan!!

Back to work

Today I am back to work after being out for three weeks. It was odd getting up today to head to work but I am happy to be back (I think). It is a little rough getting back to normal at work, there are some things that have sat on my desk for three weeks that I need to take care of today as well as new stuff that was added to my stack.

All in all, I am glad to be back and ready for my normal routine, but I loved spending my time with my baby boy.