Texting with Daddy

Declan was missing Daddy today - he's still away on his business trip.  I thought it would be fun to send a picture of Declan to Brendan - and he sent some back!  Declan was delighted!!!

The Last Few Days of R&R

 We finished up R&R with all of the normal stuff that you do over a weekend!  Soccer games for the girls,  a little shopping at the mall (and bouncing), Mexican for lunch, a haircut for Declan - his first - and then a trip to the airport.  We had such a fantastic two weeks and it was really hard to say goodbye.  The only good thing is that we get to start counting down for the next four months.  Hopefully it will fly by!!!!

Daddy's Home for R&R!!

 Brendan got in to Nashville this morning!  His flight was supposed to get in at 9:00 am which meant that we'd have to leave by 7:00 to get there a half hour early to park, walk in and get our passes to go out to the gate.  Leaving at 7:00 meant the kids had to be up at 6 which is even earlier than they get up for school!!  No one had a problem though - they were all really excited!!  We left the house right on schedule but the only problem was that I didn't check on the flight status and the plane ended up coming in 30 minutes early!  We didn't even realize until we got to the ticket counter to get our passes and the man at the desk said that the plane had already landed and was at the gate.  There wasn't time to get us through security so we had to wait outside the secure area.  I was pretty disappointed.  After such a long flight, I wanted Brendan to see the kids right as he got off of the plane.  It was not to be and in the long run - the short run, even - it didn't matter in the slightest. We waited about 10 minutes (which probably would have been enough time to get through security) because Brendan had gate checked his bag and then he came out and the kids were so super excited to see him!

We walked out to the car and drove home!  A whole day to enjoy before the leave days started counting down.  They have a day of travel, then 15 days of leave and then another day of travel on the other end.  We lucked out having a good amount of time on each travel day!

We were a little worried about how Declan would react to Brendan but our worries were unfounded.  He went right to Daddy and was happy and smiling right away!  I think I would have been more surprised if Declan had been upset - he doesn't get upset about much!!

Skating Lessons

Aidan started skating lessons last weekend but Emmy and I didn't go until today to watch. He got through about 12 minutes of the 30 minute lesson before he wanted to stop. That's better than the 4 minutes they got through last week before he got tired. They made it through the entire lesson and Aidan is getting better quickly. He hates to fall because he can't get up by himself. We got him a cool hockey helmet because kids' bike helmets don't fit Aidan - he has a very large head - it is only 2 inches less in circumference than Brendan's!! The helmet really is necessary - I guess he took a pretty bad fall last week that would have been really bad without head protection! The best part is that Aidan's friend Will is in the class with him and all the guys go out for donuts afterwards!Here they are trying to get a feel for the ice - Will and his Dad are on the left.Here is Aidan standing by himself! He is sliding forward in this one - the teacher has the kids practice moving on the ice with their hands in different positions - even bending over to touch the ice - to get them used to shifting their centers of gravity