Pittsburgh!

This last week Ryan had a business trip to PA and Cole and I decided to tag along for the ride!  I am so glad we did!  The first two nights we stayed in a hotel downtown.  Cole and I spent our first full day at the Children's museum! He had a blast! Lots of things to day, train sets, water area, painting, sewing, climbing, sliding and building, whew! That was a lot!  Here are some pics:

The next day Ryan was finished with work around lunch time and we headed to Heinz Field for a tour of where the Steelers play. We actually really enjoyed it!

For our last two nights we rented an apartment that was very different from anywhere we had ever stayed. Spiral staircase, loft style with a tiny yet very efficient kitchen.

We spent our last full day at the Carnegie Science Center and walking around the North Shore area.

We had a great time!  This was the first time we've flown that Cole was not a lap child. He was very excited about having his own seat but was very surprised to learn he had to wear the seat belt, haha. Once he got over the initial shock of being 'stuck' he did great traveling.

Cole's Creations

 Cole's new favorite toy is definitely the legos, he even says 'block time' when he wants to get them out!  I can't say that I blame him, they may be my favorite too :).  Here's a couple of his lego creations!

 

 

 

 

And then I threw in something that Ryan just found yesterday.  It was too cute not to share!  There are small cars that go with the truck but I guess he decided these cars needed to be hauled. 

 

 

 

This next one is definitely my favorite, Cole calls it 'doggie with hat', haha.  He even insisted on bringing it to my parents' house

 

 

And now I've also thrown in one of my 'creations'.  We'd been looking for a side table for Cole's room so every couple of days I was checking out craigslist and then I stumbled upon this set of furniture that included a side table, a dresser and a dresser with a hutch for less than I had budgeted for just the side table, I couldn't pass this up.  I didn't take a before picture of the bed side table, but here is a before picture of one of the dresser, so you get the idea.

 

 

Here is the after of the side table!  I love it!  Cole helped me paint it too!

 

January Catch All

 Where is the time going?  January definitely seemed to fly by.  Here's Cole sporting some 49ers attire ready to watch a game.

 

 

Cole has probably a new favorite phrase 'cupcake time'.  It's usually a question, sometimes a statement and once he meant business.  Cole and I had a cupcake date and GiGi's Cupcakes and he loved it.  We have since found out that when he asks for cupcakes he really means muffins tho...

 

 

We spent one day a couple weekends ago at the Home and Garden show.  Cole's favorite part was the John Deere tractor display.  He spent quite a bit of time pretending to drive and run the tractors! 

 

 

I spent a few days in Houston for work the last week of January and I was lucky enough to finally get to meet this sweetie, Adalyn!  She is the daughter of my oldest friend (20 years! going strong!).  She is a doll!  Unfortunately it was dark in the restaurant and to get pictures I needed to use the flash so the only pictures I got of her she kind of has a deer in the headlights look going on.

 

 

Cole has become obsessed with Mr. Potato Head's glasses.  They are a 'tad' small and he struggles keeping them on his face, but he really enjoys them!

 

Gaylord Texan

The weekend after Christmas Ryan's sister, Jamie and her husband, Bruce came down. They were able to make it to Cole's bday party (which I'll do a post about as soon as I get the pictures on my computer) and then we headed down to Dallas to stay at the Gaylord Texan.  It. Was. Awesome.  We definitely need to go back with kiddos. The Christmas decorations were amazing!  We did quite a bit of walking around and eating and perusing the shops.  (sorry for the blurry pics)

 

 

 

 

 

Lubbock Science Spectrum

The weekend before Christmas we headed for Lubbock for a family reunion. While in town we took Cole to the Science Spectrum. We spent many hours exploring there as kids so it was fun to bring Cole. It was just as awesome as I had remembered it being! Cole loved it! Ryan loved it too!

Snow Day

A couple weeks before Christmas we got several inches of snow and basically the entire city shut down so we got to enjoy a couple extra days at home with Cole.  He enjoyed the snow and insisted on wearing Ryan's snowboarding goggles!

 

 

Things were great for about five minutes and then some snow got down his shirt and he was ready to go inside.

Salisbury

Part Three of our trip we headed to Salisbury for a day to check out Stonehenge!  The area surrounding Stonehenge was gorgeous and it is neat to be able to say we've been there! Here are a couple pics:

 

 

 

After Stonehenge we stopped by the Salisbury Cathedral. It was gorgeous! We also got to see an original of the Magna Carta (no pictures allowed) and read up a bit on the history of democracy.

We returned to London and tried to do some more sightseeing, tried being a key word. There were people everywhere and it was impossible to effectively sight see. We tried to hop on a bus but it was so stuffed with people they would only let one stroller on.  Ryan and I decided to wait for the next bus which never showed up,  so then we just started walking.  Traffic was so backed up we're petty sure we caught up to the original bus. We decided to hop on the tube just to get away from all the commotion. We actually ended up finding an over ground line that stopped about a block from our apartment. (That could've really come in handy had we realized its location earlier in the trip, oh well.)

 

 

 

Overall it was a great trip and I am so glad we went. I am so glad we brought Cole and that he got to experience this, however, the time change was VERY difficult to deal with for such a short time and Cole was unimpressed with such long flights and I would not call London a stroller friendly locale.