We drove up to the cabin to see Grandma Jackie, Grandpa Noel, Tante Nanny and Onkel Lynn on Memorial Day weekend. Of course we had to stop at the Olive Garden in Middleton on the way up.

Had a busy day yesterday. We got up around 8:30 and had breakfast at the hotel. We all went down to the beach and I took the kids in the water and played in the surf with them while Brian and Liv watched. Then we went to the pool and I jumped in to cool off and then took Liv while Brian went in with the boys.

We checked out at about 1:30 and headed over to my Dad's. Tor and Liv fell asleep on the way so only Jack and I went in and visited with Papou. We left there and got BK, gas and headed to the airport. We actually got there almost 2 hours early. Going through security with two strollers, three kids, 5 pairs of shoes, two cell phones, one laptop, one DVD player and two video games is a nightmare. It wasn't as bad since we were early though.

We got to the gate and waited for a while, and Brian realized there was no plane there and we were supposed to have been already boarding. I asked and they said it would arrive in about 10 minutes but we could play on the playground around the corner. Three hours later we were still playing on the playground :). We ate dinner there and boarded the plane.

Liv slept most of the time. Jack feel asleep right before we landed and Tor stayed awake. I waited with the kids, the bags and the car seats while Brian got the car. After driving through the worst parts of Jersey, we got home at 1am. Tor fell asleep halfway home.

This morning Tor brought me his PJ's and asked me to change him out of his clothes into them so he could take a nap with me. He NEVER wants a nap, poor baby. He and I are still in our PJ's

The kennel sent these to us while we were away...

• Cried a lot the night before my Mom's memorial
• Cried driving up to Tarpon for the memorial, thought a lot about my Mom and my grandparents
• When my Dad and brother went to get communion, some one took his seats at the front of the church
• Very sad visiting my Dad's house and not having my Mom there
• Very sad visiting my Mom's grave and realizing I wasn't there for the funeral
• My brother asking if I had Tylenol at lunch, realizing that if my Mom was there she would have it
• Leaving my Dad alone in his house
• Watching my Dad cry as we left
• Driving around Clearwater and realizing how old the houses are and how they did not hold up well
• Telling that to Brian, saying the houses were so much nicer when I was a kid and realizing that I was a kid 30 years ago.
• Realizing that Clearwater isn't as nice as it used to be but the beach is still gorgeous
• Missing my Mom terribly, worrying about my Dad
• Kids played with GPS, wouldn't take toll roads, got stuck in traffic going to EWR, then went through really bad part of Jersey coming back.
• 3.5 hour delay coming home and actually got to airport 2 hours ahead of time, thank goodness for playground in terminal.

All in all, can't complain :).

• Liv giggled for the first and second time -- Saturday night in her sleep
• Tor told his first pun. Brian told Tor he was happy that Tor slept well, Tor said, "You mean nappy"?
• Visited with my Dad, Georgie and Darcy -- Liv met them for the first time
• Saw my old house
• Stayed at the beach and took my kids twice. Reminded me of my Yiayia
• Visited my Yiayia's old house on the beach
• Hung out at the pool with Brian and the kids
• Liv went swimming in the pool for the first time
• Saw some of my relatives at my Mom's memorial, kids played with their cousins
• Ate at a great Greek restaurant
• Ate at Frenchy's -- twice
• Showed Jack where Mama and Daddy were married (he cried, he wanted to be AT the wedding)
• Got my wedding video from Dad's house along with three photos of me as a child (baby pic of me looks just like Liv, child photo of me looks just like Tor)
• Saw a lot of things mom saved for me in my room
• Saw lots of pics of the boys displayed in the house
• Visited with David and his mom
• Kids had a great time
• Jack caught sand fleas
• Jack and Tor collected shells, played in surf
• Kids did great on plane both ways
• Kids made me happy, so did Brian. Realized again what a great little family I have!

It was a nice trip.

Haven't put up new photos in a while because my free 30 day Photoshop trial membership expired a little bit ago. The copy I have been using is really old and didn't transfer over to my new laptop, hence the trial. I really like Photoshop but I don't take advantage of everything it does. Basically I just adjust the colors, crop, resize and save pics as a .jpg for the web.

So Brian and I have been going back and forth about whether we should buy another copy or should we find something else. We have been trying a bunch of different products but we didn't like any of them. We finally just went ahead and got Photoshop again and we are happy with our decision. We really tried to find something we liked better at a reasonable cost but for one reason or another we couldn't. So more photos soon. Yay!

Next big decision -- which hybrid to get to replace Brian's car.

But she is fine -- Thank God.

Here's the story:

Keisha and I took the kids to the beach yesterday. Liv was hungry and started fussing and then crying as we got there, so I took her out of her car seat and nursed her as we were walking down to the beach. I was wearing flip flops and there is a steep concrete ramp to get down to the sand. It was covered with sand and I slipped going down. As I was falling Liv fell out of my arms (about 1-1.5 feet) and landed on her left side, mostly her left forearm and her head! She immediately started crying and I put her up to my breast again to calm her and she latched on.

I called 911 from my cell phone but they told me I was out of their area and to go through the operator. I was so hysterical I argued with her begging her to help me or to transfer me to the right place but she couldn't. I hung up and ran to Seaside Johnnie's and had them call 911 from their land line.

They also got the lifeguards and the emt's stationed at the beach to come help me until the ambulance arrived. The police also came. I was hysterical. Keisha went and told my friends at the beach who we were meeting and Aviva came up and helped me out so much. She really comforted me and got me to calm down as much as I could. I kept thinking of all the kids I took care of in Peds ICU with head trauma and she knew it and told me not to let my mind go there. She hugged me a lot and really really helped me. I don't think I would have been ok without her, really. I felt horrible and I couldn't believe she slipped out of my arms when I slipped. I kept saying I should have held her harder or something. I knew it was an accident, and accidents happen but I was really beating myself up about it.

The boys were great too, they were so worried about their sister, Jack started jumping up and down, screaming and crying when it happened. Thank goodness Keisha was there to calm them and stay with them when I left to go to the hospital.

While we were waiting for the ambulance the officer asked me to stop breast feeding but I refused saying it was best for the baby -- to calm her down and comfort her. Her doctor said this morning that they were probably uncomfortable watching me nurse her because I wasn't all that concerned with modesty at that point. The officer was ok with it when I told him I was an RN. He was great too. They all were great, they were just as concerned about me as the baby and got me ice water to drink.

I nursed her all the way to the hospital and she calmed down and was fine. We got to the ER and the doctor there checked her out. She had a bump and a scratch on the side of her head and on her forearm. He said she was fine and consulted with her pediatrician. They decided not to give her a CAT scan so they didn't unnecessarily expose her to radiation, I was fine with that.

I called and talked to Brian and the boys from the ER. The kids were so concerned, they really really love their sister. Jack said that we shouldn't take the baby to the beach anymore and Tor said, "I was really worried Mama." How sweet for a 2.5 year old.

They came and got me after about 2 hours of observation. I woke her up every 2 hours just to check on her all night and she was great. She has literally been attached to me since it happened. She doesn't want a bottle, only me and every time I put her down she fusses. God I love this baby.

I took her to her pediatrician, who I love, this am and she checked her out. You can't see a scratch or a bump on her head anymore but her forearm is still a little scratched up. Boy were we lucky, we are so very blessed.

I love my family so much and when things like this happen I appreciate them even more!

I bought Eagles tickets a few months ago when I was pregnant with Liv not thinking that Liv would be only two months old by the time the show came around. I so did not want to leave her. Brian really wanted me to go and I think he waited until the last minute before he asked Walter and his Dad to go so there would be a good chance they couldn't go and I would HAVE to go.

The show was great. I saw them in Miami from the third row for the "Hell Freezes Over" tour but Brian has never seen them. I also saw Glenn Frey with Joe Walsh and Brian hasn't but Brian saw Don Henley from the second row. My seats weren't as good but I got to meet him. It was in '90 and when he learned my name was Niki, he said, "Oh like Darling Nikki" and then he said, "But I bet you get that all the time." I swooned and said, "Yeah, but not from Don Henley." I was such a dork :).

I have mentioned several times about how Jack is a great big brother, well Tor is a great little brother too! At the sand playground the other day, one of their friends threw sand in Jack's face. That is a huge no-no. Luckily he had his sunglasses on so not much got in his eyes. As Jack was crying and the other boys mother was taking him away for time-out, Tor ran up to the other boy and yelled at him. He said, "You hurt my brother, don't you EVER throw sand at him again." Too cute. He was pointing at the little boy and he was so angry. You had to see him defend his brother, it was great.

Last year I put up this post about Jack being conceived. I also went on to say we had tried to have a third baby for about a year and we were now trying with a fertility monitor and it was our first month. Well it took two more months after that post to get pregnant but we did it!!!

I was talking to Tor the other day and I told him that Keisha thinks that Liv looks like him and I asked him what the thought. He said that she looked like Jack. I asked him why and he said, "She has blue eyes like Jack." Cute.

I was just looking at Jack and Tor's baby pictures and she does look more like Tor than Jack :).

We took these pics of Liv last week.

After I took Jack to his classroom today, I took Tor to the library and we got a few books to read. We got one Backyardigans book and three Charlie and Lola books. As I was checking them out Tor came to me with another book, a Norse Mythology book. How cool is that? I told him his Daddy would love that book and he was so happy about that.

We went to Leapin' Lizards after that but Tor feel asleep on the way so we ended up getting something for me to eat, having the car checked out by the auto body place, getting something for the kids to eat, having a picnic at the school waiting for Jack and then actually going to Leapin' Lizards :).

Sam, Charlotte, Jack E., Eason and Andi went too so the kids had a blast. After that we all went to eat at Maryanne's a really good Mexican place. It was a great day!

Tor and I went to the Yankees/Mets game on Sunday night while Daddy stayed with Jack and Liv. The previous week I went to see Iron Man with Jack, so this was my date with Tor. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to go because I really hurt my back lifting Jack Saturday morning, but I was ok by Sunday night. Motrin helped a lot too.

Tor and I had a lot of fun. We had to park a long way from the stadium so I pushed him back in his stroller then I folded it up and carried it on my shoulder up the stadium stairs. We had hot dogs when we first got there and Tor wanted Dippin' Dots but I told him we would get them later. He kept asking for them so the really nice lady sitting next to us offered to get us some when she went down for food. That was a huge help. We gave her the plastic Yankee hat/cup it came in as a souvenir because they were visiting from Canada.

Here we are in a self pic, the only pic he let me take.

Jack also made me a flower for Mother's Day. I taped it in front of the sink so I see it whenever I wash dishes. Makes me smile :). He made it purple because purple is my favorite color.