Well, here it is Christmas Eve and I'm admitting I'm waaaaay behind on my blogs! Maybe I know my New Year's Resolution already? I plan to spend some "free" time over the holiday break catching up on some so there will be October posts in December or January but would you expect less of me? :)
My sister gets to spend a fun Christmas in Jamaica with her boyfriend and his family so we took a quick trip to Manhattan (The Little Apple) for some early Christmas fun with them.
My kids think it is great fun to go to Manhattan. As someone who bleeds purple, I love this! Even though the city is changing so much every time I go there, I always feel a little bit happier just driving down the hill into town.
First order of business when we got to town was of course lunch and where do you feed super hungry people? Why Pizza Ranch of course. Its a great place to feed hungry boys!
Right across the street is a K-State Superstore and Wyatt couldn't wait to get there so we had to shop a bit, hit Starbucks and drove by the renovations that just got started at the football stadium before heading back to relax at Shelley and Dan's. Shelley had to work so Dan got to entertain us for a while until she got home. He is an angel for putting up with all of us!
Our favorite part of the trip was ice skating! Right across from their apartment is an ice skating rink and you can see the skaters from their kitchen windows. As soon as Shelley got home from work, we set out. I couldn't skate since I'm pregnant, Mike had never skated before and neither had the kids so Dan and Shelley had their work cut out for them. My Dad even skated a bit and used his skates from when he was younger. It came back to him pretty quick!
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| Dan, Wyatt, Shelley and Dad |
The kids were so excited to get on the ice....until they got on the ice. Lorelai made it about 30 very tough feet and and said she was done. Wyatt clung onto everything for dear life and just couldn't get his feet headed in the right direction. He just wouldn't give up and with tons of help from Aunt Shelley and Dan, he kept at it. We figured out that they had double blade skates in Lorelai's size and once I talked her into trying those out, she stepped on the ice and just took off! I have no idea how many times those 2 circled that little rink but I'm pretty sure we wore out Shelley and Dan! By the end of our skating, Mike had it figured out and so did both kids and we couldn't get the little people off the ice. They didn't want to leave!
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| Action Shot!! |
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It was so much fun and I know Dan woke up the next morning with a back ache from helping the kids out. He was by far the best skater out of all of us so he took the brunt of the work keeping the kids on their feet. Thanks so much Dan!
After skating we headed back to the apartment for some yummy chili and chicken noodle soup and opened presents. Dan and Shelley got Wyatt a very special gift (and my Dad too). It was a maple bat, just like Dan uses with his name engraved on it along with his birth year. It is beautiful and Wyatt just adored it. Something he will have forever.
After dinner Shelley forced us all to play a game and the boys won. This was a feat in itself because my Dad is great at disappearing when games come out. He has never liked playing them and even though he had to play to make the teams even I'm pretty sure he had a good time. By the way, the boys cheated.... more than once ;)
Thanks for hosting us Shell and Dan and we can't wait to visit again! Love you both!
