Christmas, Trips, and a Decision!

Hi again!  It has been a few months since I last wrote a blog and we have been busy enjoying the winter with family time, hockey, and a few trips thrown in too.  We were home in Minnesota for Christmas and enjoyed the week with family and friends.  The weeks always go so fast and we try and fit too many things in.  It was the last time we would be in MN until June or July so we made the most of it.  The first night we got home the neighborhood kids got together and went Christmas caroling through the neighborhood.  We were happy to be home and hanging with our buddies.  We also spent New Year’s Eve with this same crew!  It was hard to say goodbye knowing it would be six months before we would be back.

Christmas Caroling Crew

Caroling at our house!  

Christmas Eve

In January I met two of my best friends for a long weekend in Austin, TX.  I had never been and we had a great time catching up, getting massages, drinking some drinks, eating some great food, and laughing!   My parents came to visit while I was there to help with the kiddos so Alan didn't have to take any time off of work which was a huge help.  Charlie found a love of football this season and became a huge Vikings fan (poor kid).  When the NFC Championship game ended up being in Philadelphia, Alan surprised Charlie with tickets to the game!  We had been warned about Philadelphia fans being a little aggressive, but the boys wore understated purple to make sure they didn’t stand out.  They said for the most part the fans were fine and figured the score of the game also helped keep things civil.  While the game was pretty terrible, it was a fun memory I hope Charlie never forgets!

One of the only pictures I took in Austin!   :)

Dad and Charlie at the Vikings Game!

February came and the Elder clan flew to Hawaii for 10 amazing days!  We all stayed in one home for the week, there were 22 of us, and were able to spend lots of quality time together.  The kids loved being able to spend so much time with their cousins too.  We got to play in the ocean, go whale watching, go on a helicopter ride, submarine ride (for Charlie and Grandpa), dinner at a luau, and spend lots of time in the pool.  It was a trip we will never forget!!   When we got home Kaylee turned two just a few days later!!  She had a unicorn birthday party of course and talked her brothers into picking Chuck E Cheese for the location.  We all had fun celebrating our favorite girl. At two she has also decided she will no longer sleep in her crib and climbs out every night.  I am in denial as I had planned to keep my last baby and “best sleeper” in a crib until she was 5.  Well apparently that backfired.

Our beautiful pool and our unicorn!

Ka'anapali Beach

Whale Watching

The boys with Marlee (Charlie's girlfriend, I mean Will's)

Charlie at the beach down the street from our house

Twinning!

Luau!

Sunset off our balcony

Sunset views from the house every night

View from the front of the house

Happy Birthday Kaylee!

At the beginning of March Charlie finished his hockey season and started spring hockey.  Not sure who was more sad about it ending, Alan or Charlie?!  They loved spending their weekends at the rink and Charlie became really good friends with his team.  His best friend from his class was also on his team so they spent a lot of time together!  We also have tried to get a few more Connecticut activities in on the weekends now that hockey is done and we went to The Connecticut Science Center for the day.  The boys love the place and we stayed until closing.  Next up in March, Alan went to Las Vegas with his brothers and dad for a weekend over St. Patrick's Day.  They went to a Wild game and saw a DJ Tiesto show while they were there.  It was also the first weekend of March Madness so it was a fun weekend to be out there.  The weekend after Alan got home from Vegas I went to New York City with 8 of my girlfriends that either work at Permasteelisa or are wives of Permasteelisa employees.  We had the best time and got to do some awesome stuff that I hadn't previously done while visiting.  We also got to see a Justin Timberlake concert the first night we were there and he is amazing.  We all stayed together in a brownstone and had fun exploring the city.

Connecticut Science Center

The guys in Vegas!

Beers with lids at the Justin Timberlake Concert at Madison Square Garden

Stanton Social Dinner

Highline

Speakeasy with drinks served out of teacups and mugs

4 am after too many teacups and mugs

We've been having fun spending time just the five of us since moving to Connecticut.  We spend weekends doing bubble baths and movie nights instead of going out on the weekends.  We also spend a lot of time outdoors as this Connecticut winter has been much milder than what we are used to in Minnesota, but they cancel school a lot!  Like 8 times I think...and they make up every day at the end of the school year.  So that means we are going to school until almost the end of June now!  One day we will have lots of snow, but because it is milder the snow is gone within a few days.  In fact we have even had a few days near 70. It has been warm enough this week that the ice cream truck even made an appearance!!

Bubble bath with dad in charge

Snow Day

Movie Night

Ice cream from the ice cream truck and blankets!

I know the real reason most people are STILL reading this is to hear where we have decided to land after our lease is up in June.  The answer has honestly changed multiple time over the last few months.  We had hoped to have an answer back in January, but it didn’t really work out to make a decision then.  Finally, in March after lots of discussions, spreadsheets, poster boards, and votes we have decided to move back to our house in Eagan.  Alan will still be working in Connecticut initially and hopefully over the first few months home we will have a better idea of what that will look like going forward. The initial game plan is for the excessive travel to stop by the end of the year.  The whole reason we moved out here was to be together, so to be going back to Eagan with the kids with Alan still out here working seems silly when I write it.  But, it is temporary and we realized that while we LOVE Connecticut we really missed our home, family, and friends.  We actually had our house all ready to sell with it freshly painted, stuff moved into a storage unit, and deep cleaned (thanks, Mom), but we kept postponing the listing.  It just never felt right.  We told the kids and they were so excited to be going home to their friends and family.  They have made some really amazing friends here, so I am glad they were still excited about our decision.

Truth

We have a few more months left in Connecticut and are hoping to make it to a few more places before we leave.  The kids are actually on spring break in one week so looking forward to some exploring!  Thanks for everyone back home that has always checked in on us and helped make the transition easier!  You realize who your really good friends are when you move far away!  And to the new friends we made here, you helped this place feel like home much faster than we could have imagined.  

As always, thanks for reading the blog!  

XOXO

Jaime

Goodbye to our Remy!

I had actually written most of this post last night and had to update it this evening with some sad news.  Our pug, Remy, has gone to doggy heaven.  Remy started to go down hill a few weeks ago and we knew at Thanksgiving that our time with him was limited, but he took a turn for the worse yesterday and then today he was so miserable we knew it was time.  I have had Remy for 14 1/2 years and can still remember bringing him home to our apartment our first weekend of living in Chicago.  I had just graduated from college in 2003 and moved to Chicago with Alan.  Remy was a graduation gift from Alan and my first baby.  We lived on the 6th floor of our apartment when we got Remy and potty training in an apartment building was interesting.  He barely made it outside, in fact he usually made it to the elevator and then thought this was his bathroom.  We eventually litterbox trained him (yes I promise he was a dog) and this worked great in our apartment until he decided he wanted to lift his leg to go potty like the other dogs at the dog park.  Then the floor lamp became his bathroom, and for some reason Alan insisted that he learn how to go to the bathroom outside.  He figured it out just in time for us to move back to Minnesota in the winter!  I of course got him booties for his little paws for his first MN winter.  We got Remy a few weeks before Alan's mom, Paula, passed away and he was a wonderful distraction during that difficult time.  He moved all over with us and loved all three of our kiddos.  He was an important part of our family and was with Alan and I through the best and hardest parts of our life together. Unfortunately, when we moved to Connecticut our lease didn't allow for pets so he stayed in Eagan with my parents and brother.  He probably loved that more and got a lot more attention the last few months with them, but I'm sad his last few months were apart from us.  We will miss his snoring, hairy snuggles, and his high maintenance lifestyle:).  We loved our sweet pug.

My mom took pictures of each kid with Remy at Thanksgiving

It's hard to transition into much else after that, but we have been having a great couple of weeks getting ready for and enjoying the holiday season.  We were in Minnesota for about 10 days over Thanksgiving.  It got off to a rocky start when I left my phone at the airport, right after reprimanding Charlie for leaving our iPad in the car. Sorry, buddy!  Luckily someone found it and turned it in and Alan was able to get it for me when he was back in CT for work that week.  It made for an interesting few days being phone-less when I was trying to make plans with everyone back home.  We made it work, but I don't have a ton of pictures because of this.  Our first day home the kids played with their neighbor friends from the moment they were up until the minute they went to bed.  We had really missed our neighbors and it was great to reconnect with everyone.  I had my parents around so I pretty much took a PTO week and enjoyed shopping by myself, meeting up with my friends in the evenings, and sleeping in most morning.  It was wonderful!  The kids were also really excited that we were able to celebrate their cousin's 3rd birthday while we were in town!  We got see a lot of friends and family that week and it was pretty difficult to think about coming back to Connecticut at the end of the week.  It had been 4 months since we had been home and you sort of forget what it feels like to have a village.  We definitely missed it.  But, unexpectedly, when we got back to West Hartford it felt good to be "home" and get settled back into our routine.  We also knew that we would be back to MN in a few weeks for Christmas.

Celebrating Michael's 3rd Birthday

Back in West Hartford the weekend after Thanksgiving Grandma and Grandpa Elder came out to visit and watch the kids.  The first night they were in town we went the center for the Holiday Stroll.  The kids got a chance to visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus.  Jack, who has never asked for a specific present for any birthday or holiday in his 4 1/2 years is now asking Santa for a drum set.  Seriously?  A drum set?  Wish us luck on that.  Who does Santa disappoint?  Jack or his parents?  Alan and I actually headed back to Minnesota for about 30 hours for Alan's holiday party for work.  This is always a highlight of the holiday season and we had a great time, too much fun based on how I was feeling Sunday morning.  Back in West Hartford, Grandma and Grandpa were running the kids all over for hockey, basketball, and birthday parties!  The kids loved having them here and they were sad when they left after the long weekend here.  We really appreciated having them come all the way out here so that we could make it to the holiday party!

Santa and Mrs. Claus

PNA Holiday Party @ The Varsity

This last weekend we got our first snowfall in Connecticut!  The kids loved every minute of it.  They spent most of the day Saturday and Sunday outside playing in the snow.  We also made our annual gingerbread house.  It was a total failure this year, but the kids didn't care and decorated our masterpiece just the same.  On Sunday we took the kids on the North Pole Express Train ride.  We went with a couple of friends from Charlie's class and their parents.  We went to the North Pole, picked up Santa and Mrs. Claus, had a dance party, and got to have hot chocolate and cookies, all while in our comfy pajamas.  The kids loved it and having the snow made it even more magical.  They have something similar back in MN, but we had never done it before.  It is fun when you can find an activity that is great for all the kids to enjoy.

#gingerbreadfail

Our first snowfall

Playing in the snow

Waiting to head to the North Pole

Mrs. Claus

Kaylee's face when she tried the hot chocolate that was too hot

Santa!

In between all of this we have been busy with hockey, basketball, boy scouts and getting ready for the holidays.  We went and got our Christmas tree a few weeks ago.  We got a small one this year since we won't actually be here for Christmas and most of our gifts have been sent to Minnesota.  We also don't have a ton of Christmas decorations put up this year, because I didn't bring any out to Connecticut with us.  We left them in Minnesota so that my parents could decorate our house for when we came home.  While this seemed like a good plan in theory, I am missing all the decorations around the house.  I went and bought a few, but not a lot. We are finding it to be an adjustment with living in one place, but celebrating in another place and how to manage all of that this year.  We have had to travel in other years, but never so far away and figuring out Santa's logistics has caused some silly issues as well.  The kids are really concerned with how Santa will be getting to them this year.  Will they bring everything to Minnesota?  How will we get it home?  Will Santa remember that we won't be in Connecticut?  What if our alarm is set, how does Santa get in?  Soooo many questions!  If we decide to stay in Connecticut we will likely try and spend part of the Christmas holiday here so we can wake up in our own beds on Christmas morning.  This year is unique, because we have our home in Eagan, so while we are traveling the kids will still get to wake up in their own beds on Christmas morning.  We can't wait to get home and be with our family for the holidays and our countdown is on!

Picking out our Christmas Tree

Thanks for reading the blog and for caring about our family.  We feel really lucky to have such a great support system even though many of you are so far away.  We are starting to make some really great connections and friendships out here in Connecticut too, which we are so grateful for.  I love this time of the year and we are trying to make some new memories here in Connecticut.  We definitely miss being home surrounded by family and friends during this time of year, but we are finding that we are able to make our own new traditions with our kiddos and that has been fun for everyone!  We hope everyone has a great holiday and we hope to see many of you while we are home in a few weeks!  A special thanks to my parents and brother who had to take Remy to the vet today and be there with him at the end.  It was a sad day and hard to be 1300 miles away from him, but we are thankful he was in such good hands.  He will be missed. 

XOXO

Heading Home for Thanksgiving!

We are getting ready to head home to Minnesota in one week!!  We haven't been home in 4 months and to say we are excited would be a giant understatement.  I am most excited to drive thru a Caribou Coffee first thing Saturday morning...followed closely by getting to see our family and friends!  We are flying in next Friday and staying until the following Sunday, so we will be able to get a fun filled week in!  We can't wait to get back to our house in Minnesota and Kaylee is most excited to see Remy!  She asks to see him every time we FaceTime with my parents.  The boys can't wait to meet up with their friends!  Charlie and Jack have a countdown going and when it hit single digits this week they were both ecstatic. 

A few days after I wrote the last blog we headed to Las Vegas to meet up with some of friends.  We were so excited to see them again and had a great time!  The girls even got to go to Britney Spears one of the nights which was pretty amazing.  We really miss our neighbors and community back in Eagan, but we are so glad that even if we are states away we could all get together like no time had passed.

Las Vegas

Las Vegas

We had a great Halloween weekend and night this year!  We even got to see uncle Joe!  He was in the Boston area for a Patriots game and so we met him for dinner in a town between his hotel and our home.  It was great to see him!  For Halloween the kids dressed up as a Lego Ninjago (Charlie), Jack Sparrow (Jack), and a League of Their Own Star by day and a puffy Unicorn by night (Kaylee).  The moms club that I am in puts on a Halloween Stroll in town and the people that volunteer to run are amazing.  It is quite the event and I think I read that over 5,000 people came this year.  The kids get to trick or treat through West Hartford Center and Blue Back Square and also they have other little activities set up for them.  On Halloween night we went trick or treating with one of Charlie's friends from school.  They had a lot of fun and were already asking the next day how long until Halloween again!   We have also been hitting up a lot of the fall activities in the area.  I get to take Jack and Kaylee during the week and have had some fun visiting different farms and orchards.  We were able to get in one on a weekend so Dad and Charlie could join!  

Halloween

Halloween Stroll

Halloween Stroll

Belltown Orchard Hayride

Belltown Orchard

One day a few weeks ago when we were walking Charlie to school we were walking by our neighbors house (across the street) and we saw a large black bear just lounging under a tree.  I pretty much lost my mind, thankfully the big guy never moved and we just quietly made our way by him and on our way.  One of the first weeks that I was here while out with some people I had been told about all the bear sighting around town and would also see posts on the local Facebook page about sighting near us, but to actually see one with your kids was pretty crazy!  The picture below was all I could get, but he is laying under the tree.  By the time we came by again he was gone so I couldn't get a better one. 

Bear!

Charlie continues to love school and is keeping busy with quite a few activities outside of class.  Hockey is definitely the biggest time commitment for us.  He is now at an age level where he actually gets to play real games with refs, which according to Charlie is a big deal!  In his first game Charlie scored 3 goals!  He was pretty excited and even more excited than Charlie was his dad!  Alan even started uploading all his videos of C on YouTube!  They have a lot of fun going to hockey all weekend together.  Last weekend Charlie had his second game and scored 4 of his teams 6 goals.  Other than hockey Charlie is also going to classes at church getting ready for his First Holy Eucharist next year when he is in second grade.  Charlie is having fun with Cub Scouts and has been enjoying the activities he gets to do with his pack including a hike to Heublein Tower.  He has an overnight at a museum coming up and it happens to be when Alan and I are out of town.  So Grandpa Elder is the lucky guy that gets to take him!  Last week we also started basketball!  He has a couple of friends from his class on his team.  It's just a Saturday morning practice and then a 30 minute game at the end.  He even scored a basket in the game.  Charlie is really adjusting well and making some great friends.  We have conferences next week and are excited to go visit his classroom and chat with his teacher.  Oh, we also got Charlie's 1st grade pictures back!  We love them, but seriously why does my baby look like a 10 year old?

First Grade!  

Hockey Man

Heublein Tower

First Basketball Game

Jack is also keeping busy and enjoying preschool.  He has made a good little group of friends in his class.  One of his friends has a brother that plays hockey with Charlie, so Jack and his friend get to play together while the big brothers play hockey.  Jack also started basketball last weekend and he is on a team of 3 and 4 year olds.  This might be the cutest thing ever.  Watching the little girls and boys dribbling and putting their hands up to play defense is so cute. And the parents that are willing to coach these little kids at this age...I mean they are amazing.  It was really fun to watch them.  Jack was pretty excited to have us all on the sidelines cheering him on.  Jack is also doing a class at the library once a week and really enjoys it. 

Flamig Farm

Baksetball

Kaylee is our little trooper and is just happy to tag along to all of her brothers' activities.  West Hartford has the cute little place called, My Gym, where kids can take age based classes.  Kaylee does a little class on Friday mornings and is absolutely loving it!  She tries to tell Alan about it when he gets home and asks to watch videos of her doing the gym activities when we get home.  Her favorites are the swings and the ball pit.  We also do a little class with her at the library.  I know I have mentioned it before, but West Hartford has so many great options for things to do with kids.  We are trying to take full advantage of what they offer.

Ball Pit @ My Gym

My Gym

Flamig Farm

Our where to call home dilemma is still very much that...a dilemma.  We have continued to house hunt and have even found a house that we really like here in West Hartford.  Charlie would also get to keep going to his same school.  We obviously aren't ready to take any steps at this point.  Our MN realtor is coming over while we are home over Thanksgiving to talk through our plan if we do decide to put the house on the market late winter/early spring.  We continue have regular check-ins with each other and the kids, and honestly depending on the day and sometimes even the hour our vote on where to live changes.  Although Jack doesn't sway his vote, EVER.  It is always Minnesota.  :)  While Alan still hasn't traveled over night more than 2 nights in the 4 months we have been here, he is slowly starting to end up in NYC more often than we initially thought.  So he is missing evenings with the kids now, but is usually home to put them to bed.  So the work life balance is much better, but some days/weeks can still be a struggle.  We are really looking forward to being home a couple of times in the next two months and hopefully helping us gain some more perspective on our next step.  We know that we can't make a bad choice, but making the best choice is is a little harder than we would have thought.

As we settle more and more into a routine I am feeling like this blog is starting to get a little repetitious!  I am going to work on that, but with hockey season upon us it is harder to do much exploring and traveling.  As always, thank you for reading the blog!

See some of you in one week!!!  YAY!!!

XOXO