New York in July

We were able to spend the 4th of July in Rochester, NY this year with Cory's family. So, we packed up our new mini-van (which I just cannot rave enough about for the space & comfort!) and headed out for the 10+hr drive. Here's Owen all ready to go:

Our first stop on the trip to let Owen burn off some energy. As a bit of a germ & control freak, I had to let go of a lot of my anxiety by letting Owen play at the McD's play land!

Now, there's a bit of a lapse in pictures here - we only drove half way to NY and planned to spend the night at a hotel. We got there, checked in, had dinner and did our best to put Owen to bed but despite everything we tried he screamed & cried for about 2 1/2 hrs. I've never been so scared that someone would bang on our door and get angry. So, after trying everything we could we decided to get back on the road and finish out the drive - hoping that Owen would fall asleep in his car seat for the rest of the night. We left the hotel around 1:30am and within 30min he had fallen asleep and slept almost the whole rest of the drive to New York.

Here we are after just arriving at Gma & Gpa Alberts!

We had Cory's favorite pizza that night - here's Gma giving Owen some crust to chew on. Just before this shot, he had been splashing & playing around in the kiddie pool!

The next day we went to visit Gpa Albert at work - here's Owen checking out all the lawnmower & getting some good Gpa cuddles.

Then, we headed over to watch Auntie Sara in her VBS performance. This was the last day for VBS and the church was nuts with excitement. Here's Owen watching the show:

Hanging out with Sara on the stage:

The following day we had a family wedding to go to - and unfortunately we didn't get hardly any pictures for some reason. It was over 90deg at the outside wedding - Owen did good, but we ended up going through 2 outfits. Eventually, we had to take his shirt off and let him rock the bare belly! Here he is drinking ice water from a CUP for the first time!

The next day was the 4th and we also did an early first birthday celebration for Owen. Here's his party cake:

And his little smash cake!

Rocking on the porch together before cake time:

Cory and his momma:

Video of Owen smashing his cake!

Cake Time from Julie Albert on Vimeo.

The cake aftermath, ha!

On the drive home, we stopped at a fantastic outlet mall in Ohio. They have a model train that you can ride around the complex so Cory, Gpa Albert, Owen and I checked it out. Here's Owen and I:

Gpa Albert and Owen:

Finally getting closer to home - Gma Albert riding in the back with Owen:

Owen watching Baby Einsteins on the DVD player and trying out the headphones - he was so tired at this point that he didn't care if they were on or not, ha!

The drive home was much more uneventful that the drive there. Cory's parents came home with us and were a huge help not only on the drive but also with some house projects we needed to get done. Cory and his dad put up the baby gates (one at the top & bottom of the stairs), assembled Owen's new crib, moved Owen's old crib to Eleanor's room and shuffled a bunch of furniture around between Owen & Eleanor's room. We were able to run a ton of errands with their help - in spite of the 90deg weather & a 26wk pregnant mommy, ha! It was a great visit, we're so happy that Owen was able to spend such meaningful time with his NY family.