Balloons Balloons everywhere!

We are a few weeks back from our wonderful trip to Albuquerque New Mexico and I am finally blogging about it.
We went to visit Grammie Sue and Papa Ron (Raja kitty too!) and made sure we planned our visit over the weekend of the International Balloon Fiesta! http://www.balloonfiesta.com/

This year Riley was able to focus on the balloons and she was even able to say what shape one of the balloons was - our favorite Mirabel the Cow.

We had a great time down in the 505; weather was great perfectly sunny with no clouds in the sky and just warm enough for shorts. We took Riley to 2 different parks where she ran the entire park and played on all the toys. She loved the swing and we all took turns taking her down the slide.

We also celebrated Papa Ron's birthday while we are down there with a yummy dinner cooked by grammie and the following day another fun Mexican feast from El Pinto.

We were apprehensive about the flight with Riley as she was so good the year before, but now that she is a toddler and more mobile we were not sure what was in store for us on the short 2.5 hour flight. On the way down she did pretty good, she ended up falling asleep in my arms thanks to Tylenol but was pretty cranky for most of the flight.
The flight back was better, though we had gotten to the airport 2 hours early and the flight was delayed... so she fell asleep of course right before we loaded the plane.
We were walking her around the airport and playing with her when all of a sudden she pointed to my back carrier and wanted in. So i put it on thinking she would just get in and want out, but she babbled a bit and we walked around and around - came around the corner to see Andy and he said: she's out.
So the carrier was her bed that morning and she rested until we loaded on the plane.

My biggest saving grave was for buying a selection of new toys. I purchased a coloring book with washable crayons, stickers, a new (cheap) doll and new books and it made her happy for the majority of the flight.
She was a super baby and did not poo on the flight - it was great!

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Riley & Mia

This weekend was a very low-key weekend of cleaning, working and playing. Our friends Amber and Mia came over Sunday to spend girl time with us and we had a blast!

I took a few pictures and a few videos. The girls enjoyed chasing each other around the house. Though they both fought over a laundry basket. YIKES! :(

Mia chasing Riley #1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By6rodj-4Qs

Mia chasing Riley #2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZghCao-dpqc

Amber with both girls:


Mommy & baby time:


The girls starting the chase:

Time of the season

As the short-lived summer season is quickly running away from Seattle - so starts the season of runny noses and cold-like symptoms.
The season is in full swing at the Lodato house Riley has a nasty runny nose, congested chest and is overall Miss Grumpy pants. She wakes up several times a night now and morning decided that 430am was the time to wake mom up.
All she wants is to be held by mom and I wont argue, its wonderful cuddling time!

I kept Riley home yesterday for one big reason but was glad I kept her home to rest as she was not feeling good at all. Yesterday Andy had to take my car into Les Schwab and we threw out another fat wad of cash out to them again to replace the Ford's 4 tires. This is after we had already tossed out a wad of dough for Andy's car the week before AND 2 weeks before that replacing the washer and dryer.
Any bonuses or any amount of $ we had saved is not gone. BLAH :( Sorry Riley you will not be going to college, mama has to do laundry. HA!

This weekend is Labor day and full of festivities for us. Saturday we are headed up to Aunt Sue's house for the annual Horseshoe tournament. Andy is hoping to take home the glorious gold plated toilet seat this year; go Andy!

Sunday is Kendra's wedding (Andy's employee/PT) which we are super excited about. Riley is excited to spend more time with Grandma and Papa Kletchka, though she does not know she will be spending the night yet. Better not to tell her this.
Plan is for us to get there, hang out and get dressed for the wedding, then sneak out before she seems us leave. Usually she is so busy with grandma she could care less about Mom, but with her runny nose she is a bit clingy.

Andy is taking bets on how early I leave the house to pick up Riley the next day. :( And I am sure my mom will be happy when I pick her up, if she continues to do her 'wake up in the middle of night' routine she is on.

If we get some cute pictures from this weekend we will post!

Here are a few that I have put on FB, but had to share:

Pictures from Cecily's Babysitting day: