Our Trip to NY

Luke and I are back home in the Windy City and on the path to recovery. We had so much fun in NY that I don't even know where to start. I apologize in advance that this is going to be a moster post. Luke took part in so many activities and events that he has had enough stimulation to get him through the rest of 2009. In Corning, we swam in the pool (and attempted the diving board), bounced on the trampoline, rode on some kiddie rides, played the piano, pretended to drive every vehicle under the sun (especially the lawn mower) and visited with friends and family. As you might imagine, the trampoline was a huge hit. And even more fun was the beach ball on the trampoline that was used as a wrestling partner. Luke is a professional "seat dropper" and "popcorn kernel." I'm not sure who laughed harder during the trampoline shows, Luke or the people laughing at Luke laughing. Mimi taught Luke to say "kawackers!" Pretty funny :0

The second leg of our trip was in Canandaigua. Again, Luke did so much here as well. He played with second cousin, Charlie, went to Wegmans, ate lots of ice cream cake, played on the hammock, monopolized the lawn mower (again), went to a "fly-in" breakfast and also went to the Esperanza. So I mentioned above that Luke has been into driving everything and anything that is motorized and has a steering wheel. Well in Canandaigua he got to drive a real fire truck, a model T car, and a golf cart (he has an interesting technique). The fire truck was his fave and he garnered a reputation among the firemen as "the one that won't get out if you let him in." No joke, I kid you not. He's such a vivid little soul.

July 2nd was Matt's birthday and our 4th wedding anniversary. Two funny stories.

#1 Matt's mom made him an ice cream cake for his birthday Thursday morning and before it went in the freezer, Luke got to have a few tastes of the cool whip topping. He apparently remembered how much he like it hours later when we got it out for dessert. The ice cream cake was sitting on the dining room table thawing while we were finishing up and cleaning up from dinner. Luke was playing in one of the chairs and nobody was really watching him until he grabbed a spoon and quickly scooted up on the table and dove right into the ice cream cake. He proceeded to shovel scoops of the whip cream topping into his mouth. We all thought it was so funny that noone dared to remove him from the top of the table and the cake.

#2 The Esperanza is where Matt and I had our wedding reception so we headed over there with Luke and Matt's parents for a late lunch on friday afternoon. Well there happened to be a wedding going on in the main event room. The music was pretty loud when you walked by which of course, attracted Luke like gum to a sneaker. He was wiggling his little booty all over dancing to the music! The funny part was that this was a Latin wedding and Luke lurrrrved to Latin music.

Matt and I even got to go to the movies TWICE since we were taking advantage of the free babysitters. We also went out to lunch, to our favorite pizza place for a late night snack, golfing, shopping and out for drinks - all sans kid. Why oh why are there so many miles between Chicago and Corning/Canandaigua?!?!

I MUST share more pictures, ta-da!