Vacations, Accomplishments and A Birthday

We've covered a lot of miles and a lot of firsts in the past 2 months. We began homeschooling the boys in July and that has been an interesting road. I love having them home and spending time together. Aiden does great at getting his work done for the day, so he can do other things, but Cullen is the complete opposite. He would rather whine, complain and dilly-dally, so it takes him 3 times as long to do his work. Our schedule is still a work in progress and our days our pretty hectic, but I’m hoping that we’ll eventually settle into a routine that works for us.

Tony finished all of his pharmacy classes and began his rotations, which is a fancy term for working for free while paying tuition. He works full-time from 9 to 5, which is a big change for us, because we have never worked a 9-5 job as a family. He was right by the house for his first rotation, so he was able to come home for lunch and that was nice. His next rotation is further away, so he won't be able to come home for lunch and we will miss him.

We took a trip to MN in August. We drove and Owen was not into it. He whined and complained about 85% of the 14 hour trip, which we did over 2 days. We had a great time visiting all the relatives and were very sad to go(some of which had to do with riding in the car with a whining 11 month old again).

In September we flew to FL to visit the beach, Disney World and Sea World. Tony, the boys and I flew down on the 15th and we stayed at Cocoa Beach until the 18th. We were a 2 minute walk from the beach and we had a great time relaxing and playing at the beach. On the 18th we drove to Orlando and my mom and Larry came into town. The next day we headed to Disney World and spent the day meeting characters and riding rides. Tony's mom and dad came into town that afternoon, so we had both sets of grandparents with us. The 20th was Owen's 1st birthday and we celebrated with cake and presents at the condo before heading out to Disney World again. Owen was hilarious with his cake! He just wanted it off his hands after he touched it and it took him about 5 minutes to finally try it. After we cleaned him up, we headed to Disney World. We met some more characters, rode some more rides and stayed for the Main Street Electrical Parade and the Fireworks over Cinderella's Castle. We had a great time! We spent the next day relaxing at the condo and swimming in the pool. On Wed. we went to Sea World and really enjoyed the shows and the smaller crowds. On Thur. we went to the Ohana Character Breakfast and met Lilo, Stitch, Pluto and Mickey. The food was great and the boys loved seeing the characters. After the character breakfast we went to Sea World again and ended our trip with the Shamu Believe show. It was so good to spend time with everyone and very special to have both sets of grandparents to share the memories with.

A few days after we got home, Owen took his first 3 steps! He took his first steps before the rest of them, but he is way more cautious then any of the other three were. He's only walked a handful of times since then and only for less than 5 steps at a time. When the other three started walking, they just took off. They just stood up and walked and never looked back! It was also time to get his first big boy haircut. We had his hair cut just a little before we visited MN, but it had gotten so long and grows so fast that it was time to go much shorter. So now he looks like the big boy he is!