Trip to Illinois

Last week we took the kids home to meet my relatives. The night we flew in they met Uncle Jeff and saw Grandma and Grandpa again. They were lucky enough to each have their own pack n play which was great since I don't think there woukd have been enough room for two in one! 

They slept great!

Our first day we went to the petting zoo! This has been there since I was little!

With the horse - don't they look thrilled?

With Grandma and Grandpa Aussieker

Grandpa and goat

Daddy milking the fake cow

Yes babies you have a lifetime of photos like this to look forward to!

That night we went to see their Great Grandma Aussieker. She loved them!

4 generations! 

Playing at great grandmas

Kylie and great grandma before leaving

The next day started with playing with Uncle Jeff and then a trip to meet their other Great Grandma and Great Uncle Kevin

4 generations!

Then we tried our first time at the pool. Kylie didn't hate it but Alex sure did!! In fact I couldn't even get an individual pic of him!

She's not impressed

That night they finally met Uncle Jason, Aunt Katie, and cousin Jayden! So much fun I forgot pics! The next day we got donuts then did family pics

Sorry Kylie no donuts for you

Then we spent the day letting the kids play! 

Our last day we relaxed in the morning and then the rest if our family came by!

With Grandpa....meanwhile Grandma was using her Grandma powers to get Alex to nap on her!

Kylie and Great Uncle Tom and Great Aunt Beth

Family pic

It was a wonderful time home and we can't wait til next time! 

First Plane Ride

On the 16th of July we finally did the twins first plane ride! We were traveling back to Illinois for them to meet the rest of my side of the family as they had only met Grandma and Grandpa. Ed and I had been preparing for a few weeks making sure we had car seat covers, birth certificates printed, goody bags for everyone around us. We were a little nervous of how the ride would go.....but were we lucky! It went fantastic. The whole experience was smooth and everybody was so helpful. It helped we took off around bedtime so the kids were ready to eat and sleep!

Here we are arriving at the airport.....we have about 4 times as much stuff now when we fly. One of the suitcases was 50% toys! Heaven forbid we have a bored baby!!

We then went to the Delta desk to check our two bags and two car seats (yay for free bags and car seats!!). We were relieved to be rid of all of that! Here are the kids waiting patiently while we check bags. The gate agent just loved them:

Then it was time for security check. Our biggest fear was we would take a long time and hold people up but we were actually pretty fast. We took each took a kid and passed the stroller off to be inspected. We quickly sent our diaper bag, Bjorns, and carry ons through. Alex must have been super smiley with daddy because when I saw him after we went through he'd manged to snag a TSA sticker :)

In all it took 40 minutes from parking to being through security. Fantastic!! We thought at least an hour! This gave us time for some dinner before the 3000 step (yes literally that much, according to fitbit) trek to the gate! Here we are sitting at the gate:

Everyone at the gate was helpful. They let us gate check the stroller early so we just held the kids. When we got on the plane (first ones to board!) We placed little goody bags I'd made up on the seats around us. Each bag had chocolates and ear plugs plus a note that read: "Hi! We are 5 month old twins and this is our first flight. Our mom and dad are going to do their best to keep us quiet but just in case we hope these chocolates and ear plugs help! Love Alex and Kylie". The note was a hit, the people around us (for the most part) were very appreciative and didn't seem to care they had two babies near them. In fact the couple behind us told us they have 16 year old triplets! The man by me has numerous sets of twins in his family. Its like the airplane seating world was working with us! The only grumpers was a younger couple in front of Ed and Alex who were clearly mad to be near babies. Made us happy to prove them wrong!



The flight lasted an hour but we sat for 45 minutes before actual take off due to all the planes ahead of us. Luckily the kids were completely content. We gave a bottle on take off and then they both snuggled up and fell asleep the rest of the flight. 

Kylie asleep on the plane

When we landed we re-situated everyone and out we went to meet Grandma and Grandpa.

It was a smooth start to a great long weekend! But thats another post for later this week :)

The Zoo!

IToday my work had our summer party at the zoo! It was great! Good food, good company, and it meant the kids could go to the zoo for free! The kids were very excited as you can see:

At the zoo we loaded the stroller up and off we went! 

Outside the Zoo

After lunch I won a target gift card (yay me! I never win!) then we took the kids on their first carousel ride:

They loved the up and down of the carousel! It's crazy how fast it seems to go when you are holding your little one on to make sure they don't fall! After this we were going to explore the zoo but it started pouring. So we peaked at a few animals on the run back to the car.

Tiger....saw it attack a log, hilarious

Kylie and the Cheetah....."mom are you sure this is a good idea"

The kids in front of the wild boars, you can see him behind their stroller 

Mommy, Alex, and the brown bear

Watching the bear swim!

Daddy, Kylie, and bear

After getting to the main entrance and toweling off the kids, Daddy bought them a stuffed penguin and stuffed tiger and we headed home. The kids were perfect angels at the zoo! We were there over 3 hours and they didn't cry once! They were smiley and awake the whole time! So good :)

When we got home they played with their new toys 

Mav even let Alex pet him in hopes that he could take the penguin! 

About an hour after getting home they crashed! It's hard work being cute all day ;)

Can't wait for the next zoo trip :)

5 years <3

It's been five amazing years since we said "I Do"! I can't believe how much time has flown, it seems like just yesterday we were having our first dance! It's amazing how much we've been through together (both good and bad). We have been there for each other through ups and downs. We have traveled to Antigua, Hawaii, Singapore, Florida, Oregon, Jamaica, Turks and. Caicos, Bahamas.....to name a few! 

We have gone through job changes, pregnancy, loss, the birth of our twins. It's been a wild ride and I wouldn't change a thing!!

For our five year the plan was to go to Europe, but since the kids are so young we are post poning until next year!

So we had Aunt Lesley and Jamie come over to watch the kiddos and we went out to eat. Here we are before leavin the peanuts: 

To celebrate we went out to Mannys, it was delicious!

(Yay for free dessert!)

I love this man more then anything and am so excited to see what life brings is next. Cheers to many many more years!!!