Grandparents

My mom offered to watch the boys while I went into the game with my dad and Mario went in with his dad, Christian, and Michelle's dad.

Here are all 3 Marios (and Joey in the stroller) just before the band went by.

I knew I'd lose track of time and not take pictures of the boys with my mom. So I'm glad I at least got these. This is our way of trying to get a very tired MJ to look at the camera.

And this is the very tired Joey who I just took out of the stroller. The band is walking by behind them.

Tailgating and Band

Joey has a new friend. Moria is the daughter of one of our extended ND family, sometimes referred to as the Chicago boys. It's a cute story how we met up with these people... long story short, we met as tailgating ND friends over 10 years ago, and have been getting together for games ever since.

Moria is going in to 4th grade and really loves babies!

Other special people at the tailgate:

• Christian, Michelle, Natalie, and The Smiths (Michelle's parents)
• Anna Franzonello - Mario's cousin
• My aunt Brenda, Uncle Steve, cousin Jessica (Jr at ND) cousin Stephen and his wife Marisol, and Uncle Gene
• Dad Suarez, my Mom and Dad, and sister Kathy
• Kelly, Kate, Austin, Kristin ... and more ND friends or ours
• the Chicago boys and their family
  

Before every ND game the band has a concert and then marches into the stadium. The Marios headed over to catch the concert and then my mom and I took napping Joey to find a good spot for when the band marches by. Joey was bound to wake up for this event, which he did. He didn't cry at all, just kind of looked tired and out of it. So we took him out of his stroller so he could watch too.

MJ watched the band from Mario's shoulders. He was likes the band a lot but says its a little too noisy. We're proud because MJ can sing the fight song.

Tailgating

Saturday has arrived... NDs first football game of the year! We load the minivan and head over to ND at about 9am with Mario (my father-in-law) who came in for the weekend too. My parents and family and all parties involved hosted a terrific tailgate as usual. MJ started off a little shy. He was playing happily by himself when he heard "the fight song!" Actually, he just heard the band warming up, so all three Mario's and some others headed over.

MJ and Joey had a great time with Grandpa. Joey was a bit tired when we tried to take this picture. There were other cute ones, but this one was funny. It looks like Joey is saying, "Who's this guy?"

Joey had his own special chair for the tailgate (I used the stroller for so many things this trip). Here he is making a funny face at some friends who stopped by.

We tried to get a cute picture of the boys, but this is the best we could do.

First days of our trip

We left Wednesday August 29th and returned Tuesday September 4th. We had a great time, everyone was healthy, the weather was great, the car rides went smoothly... we just extended our trip 2 days longer than I planned and I ran out of clean clothes for me. All in all it was great.

Wednesday we drove from here to Cincinatti. (We've been spending so much time there lately). We stayed at a Residence Inn which Mario picked b/c he thought I'd like it for the boys, and it was great. If you haven't stayed there, they are set up like apartments, even the way you enter is like an apartment. And it has a full sized kitchen. It was nice b/c I don't think MJ felt like he was in a hotel there... except that he slept on what we call the transformer bed (aka sofa bed).

Thursday was a very cool day (too cold to swim) so we went to a park I found on google maps near our hotel. It was nice and we were the only kids there for a few minutes. A nice woman showed up with a little girl. I later learned she was the grandmother (she looked so young!). It was nice to hang out and relax like it was a normal day in our home town.

Here's MJ at the park...he's very good at finding dirt wherever we go. This was on the baseball field nearby.

And here's MJ and a very tired Joey in the rental car Mario had for the week. As you can see, we are in our pajamas.

Friday we drove from Cincinnati to South Bend, IN (about 6 hours). We took this crazy tiny country road (which was a short cut that worked out well) and it was a pretty drive. Both boys were sleeping so Mario and I were able to talk. He also did work on the drive thanks to the awesome aircard so he was able to be online. We got in later than we wanted. And of course the first thing we had to do was go shopping. Our favorite places to buy ND apparel are not the ND bookstore by the Walmart, Sams, and Meijer in South Bend. We found some good stuff for great prices. Then we checked into the hotel quickly and headed over to ND to pick up my sister Kathy and her friend Emily. We went out to dinner at Fridays and then it was off to bed to get a good sleep before the game on Saturday!

Dr. Monday

With only 2 days left before we leave for Notre Dame (by way of Cincinnati) I began to chip away at my list of things to do. I have been feeling icky since Thursday night...Sunday night I started thinking it might be strep. Since I didn't want to be sick and in need of medicine while away, I made a quick call to get in to the doctor to check that out. I don't have Strep A but they sent away for the long strep test just in case. After the doctor, I rushed over to First Choice WHC to pick up Julie's kids who I watch on Monday mornings. It was fun fitting 5 kiddos (4 in car seats) in the minivan. Julie was running a bit late (normally she's done about 2:30) but I had a 3:00 doctor appointment for MJ. He had red dots under his eyes since Sunday morning and I wanted to get those checked out. We were 13 minutes late, though I called to give them a heads up, and they managed to squeeze us in. MJ being the big 2 1/2 year old he is was given big boy treatment. They tried to take his temperature under his tongue (which didn't happen, but they tried). Since he's been visiting doctors more lately (for both me and Joey) and reading books, he seems more aware of what's going on. Turns out they think the dots are just from crying while we were cutting his hair on Saturday. They could be bacteria related (hopefully the strep culture I had would show that is not the case).

We were totally hot and exhuasted from running around, so after the doctor, we headed out to the pool. MJ also seemed to learn some lessons at the pool and what happens when he breaks the rules because this time he was well behaved. He understood when the whistle blew it was adult swim time and we had to go to the small pool. I was able to nurse Joey then. Joey was really tired, so he went to the stroller while MJ and I swam for 10 more minutes. He also didn't throw a fit when it was time to leave. We then picked up my camera which I left at Molly's house (part of the reason I don' have any pics now) and headed home for dinner.

I should go tackle more items on my list... but it is just so nice to sit here in the quiet.

The rest of the week

This is Joey in the Double Jogging stroller from our Saturday rollerblading trip.

Monday Kristin and Pete came over for dinner. MJ was doing something cute and then asked if we could take a picture. Of course, by the time I got the camera, he was bored with the whole idea. But I managed to get this.

This is an old picture from when the Kazas came over. Catherine and Joey had a little bit of fun together. Oh, and very exciting news from this week is that we have a new neice. Maria Clare was born Wednesday night. There will be 4 Suarez grandkids in the same grade. Catherine, Joseph, Natalie, and Maria. Bobby and Suzanne will complete the cousins being born this year, but their little one is due in October and I guess technically would be in a different grade than Joey.

Oh, and while I have no picture of it. We tried out a new babysitter last night. I went out for a baby shower for my friend Molly. We had a terrific time. Our favorite babysitter, Jessica, is going off to college :-( but she has 4 younger sisters. The next in line, Sarah, is very nice. MJ and Joey were well-behaved and fell asleep just fine. Yay!

Park fun!

These were from our park day on Saturday. I thought I'd get Joey out of the stroller for a bit and try out some new things. While he can sit up on the floor, sitting up in a swing like this is a little tricky. But he had a blast.

MJ can do the bigger kid swings, but he has fun on these too.

Joey's a bit young for sliding, but we tried having MJ and Joey go down together. MJ loved it...Joey seemed a bit concerned.

I'm not sure why I suggested MJ try the monkey bars. You know it has only made our park trips more difficult. We have to lift him across the bars, but he is able to just hold on and hang by himself.