The Doggies of NY

One of the things that excited Grant (and Husband) about our summer vacation was the promise of doggie play time. Since our doggie, Brodie, passed away last year there has been a serious lack of doggie loving for those two and some serious Doggie Fever going on. My sister and her boyfriend have two dogs - why do you ask? - Lennon (a black lab who's mom, I think, had an affair with a horse and never told anyone) and Kiya (a boxer). Lennon we know and gets along famously with Grant. Kiya...well, we'd met briefly. 

Grant, I think, adjusted quickly to living with two dogs for a week. It helped that neither of them is the type of dog that will swipe and eat his toys. And Husband spent as much time as he could laying on the floor cuddling with Lennon.

Lennon is a very handsome guy and Grant adores him (I believe the feeling is mutual - you can read about their doggie BFF relationship HERE). He's a good boy unless there is good around...for instance: if there is a little boy not much taller than Lennon who is about to take a bite of a piece of cold pizza but Lennon wants it - so he takes it. And let me tell ya, the "drop it" command doesn't work then. It happened so fast that Grant just stood there stunned. And even after that, I can't tell you how many times I tried to keep Lennon from eating something when Grant would defend him with "He's a hungry boy, Mama!"

Taken shortly after the pizza theft.

He's a rather photogenic guy, don't you think?

"Oh hey. I'm just sitting here being huge."

"I have pretty eyes too. Want to give me pizza?"

So, I'm not gonna lie. When I met Kiya briefly last year my reaction was "Oh my". She's got some wonky eyes that are a little off-putting at first. But she grew on me quickly and I found out she's a very sweet girl. And much more polite about food! Grant loved her too and she put up with a lot from him (I'm pretty sure she was shot with a Nerf gun at least once) so she's OK in my book :)

She's pretty mellow too (unless you just got there).

"Quit talking about the treat and just give to me already!"

When she gets tired, her tongue sticks out :)

I think these two are probably still recuperating from our stay. We - especially Grant - wore them out.

Always had to say goodnight to Lennon.

"I love you Lennon"

 All week, if you were trying to find Lennon...you pretty just had to find Grant:

"Hey! Why are you upside down?!"

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren and Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past two weeks. I skipped last week because of vacation so I'm combining them!

1) On Saturday, July 26, we left for a vacation in upstate NY to visit my family. We make this trip once a year and look forward to our summer vacation! Grant loved it because we stayed in a hotel on the way up and the way back AND he got to play with doggies all week at my sister's house!

He's allowed to jump on hotel beds (when Husband isn't looking).

Grant loves Lennon! (And Lennon loves Grant)

2) We did a TON of good eating on vacation (and by "good eating" I mean not the least bit healthy). My sister and I were desperately craving some exercise - never thought I'd say that - and got to go on a hike one evening just the two of us. It was a great trail with some awesome views!

Me & Sis

Seriously gorgeous, right??

3) It was pretty chilly for summer while we were there but on our last day before our two day journey south, we managed to get over to my Aunt & Uncles house for a swim. I just had to. I spent so much time there as a kid and LOVE swimming in the lake. It was too cold for Grant to willingly go any farther than his waist so I was the only one actually swimming (and it was really too cold for me but I had to!).

So pretty and peaceful :)

I love bringing Grant to the places where I spent so much time as a kid!

4) FOOD. There is so much food I miss from back home and I bring back as much as I can with me. This time it consisted of my favorite cheeses, favorite hot dogs (3 packages in my freezer and I'm the only one in the house who likes them!), favorite store-bought cookies, and salt potatoes - which are really just little potatoes boiled in extremely over-salted water and they're fantastic!

THE best store-bought chocolate chip cookies!

Salt potatoes cooked with Monday night's dinner

5) For about year we've been scouring places looking for the perfect toy box and just haven't found anything worth buying. My sister still had the toy box my dad built for us when we were little and was willing to part with it so we brought that home for Grant's room. I started re-organizing his room this week and got the toy box set up in its new home. I love that we're able to use what my dad made!

Happy Friday!

Have a great weekend!

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren and Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week.

1) Friday night we got free tickets to take Grant to see Marvel Universe Live! We don't very often let Grant stay up (or out) that late but this was a can't-miss opportunity and we really didn't get home as late as I thought we would. It was a great start to our weekend!

2) Saturday afternoon we did some shopping for our upcoming vacation and ended up having a late dinner at our favorite mexican place. I spent a really great weekend with my two favorite guys!

3) Sunday morning I had planned to cook us a good breakfast and had a very willing volunteer. I've said time and again that I love having Grant help me in the kitchen and he loves it too. Sunday after I scrambled the eggs and poured them, he actually cooked them! He added the cheese and stirred the eggs in the pan until they were ready for me to plate them. When we sat down to eat I complemented him on how good the eggs were and thanked him for his help. He said "Mmm! You're welcome. They are tasty!"

4) My sister is once again participating in a one mile swim to benefit Hospice back home. She was asked to do a radio interview about her fundraising efforts! I thought it was pretty cool :) (If you want to help with her efforts you can go HERE!)

5) I was asked to make yet another farewell cake for work. I think the only cakes I've made lately are for people leaving our office!

Happy Friday!

Have a great weekend!

Marvel Universe Live

I first heard about the Marvel Universe Live show coming to Raleigh through a Groupon offer. Husband and I debated on it and eventually decided on not going. We do a lot with Grant throughout the year and, not knowing exactly what to expect, this would be an expensive event to have to leave if Grant got scared. But on Friday, the day of the event, Husband got free tickets from a co-worker (Thanks Rocco!!) and that's pretty hard to pass up. 

When Husband got home from work (I had told Grant there was a surprise for him), he told Grant what we were doing. Grant started laughing - he has this funny crazy laugh he does when he gets excited. He asked if it would be loud and would we bring his "ear things" and we said of course. I know he was excited but I could tell he was nervous too (Monster Jam - with ear protection- is no problem for this kid but other events just seem to freak him out).

I tried to take a picture of the two of us before we left (him
in his Iron Man shirt and me with my Avengers scarf) but
he couldn't stop being Iron Man long enough.

Nervous and excited :)

Intro to the show

So the show starts with a kind of explosion and then Thor appears. It was unexpected and even made me jump. 

Well, that pretty much started the waterworks with the little mister. He was ready to go, even with the ear protectors. We sort of baby him about that stuff but we had just gotten there so I said no.

Introducing the characters

Wolverine & Iron Man argument

We made it to intermission, Grant insisting we go home. I still said no. After potty breaks, Husband asks if we can go downstairs - toward the souvenirs. He asked Grant if a sword to protect him would make him feel better (Daddy is a sucker!). Of course, with pitiful tears glistening in his big green eyes, Grant nods yes and in 10 minutes is holding his new sword.

We went back in for the rest of the show and I'll bet you won't be surprised to find out that not another tear was shed (even with the explosions and gunshots).

At the end when the good guys were winning, Grant kept
holding up his sword and we kept having tell him to stop.
I was sure he'd nail the lady behind him!

"Curtain call"

It was a pretty good show. Definitely kid oriented. And once Grant kind of got over his fear, he really enjoyed the show. He talked about it the whole way home and at 6:05 the next morning (after going to bed almost 2 hours later than normal) he was climbing in our bed asking "Can I play with my sword?"