Cross Country and Man vs Food!!!

We are done in Philly and now are embarking on a new phase of our lives. We are going to visit my family for about a month while Justin studies for the boards. On our way to Denver we decided to plan a stop over in St Louis and Kansas City. As you can see we went to the St. Louis Arch.

Justin actually go to go up in it but I opted to stay with Easton because he was not being so cooperative with us when we got there.

We then went to this place that Justin found from Man vs Food called Pappy's Smokehouse. We have to say once again that our taste is in line with that of the Man vs Food show.

I had the spicy sausage with sweet potato fries and corn on the cob and Justin had the pork sandwich with corn on the cob and spicy cole slaw.

Also, this corn was the best corn that either of us has ever tasted. Perfect without butter, salt or pepper. (That was a first for Justin)

We also looked up the St Louis temple and ran by to take a photo. It is a beautiful building that is easily visible from the highway like some of the other temples are.

To wrap up the night we drove to Kansas City and went to this place that is actually in a gas station. It is called Oklahoma Joe's. When we arrived the line was out the door and all the way down the building. 2 hour plus wait! And of course that would not work with Easton. So we decided to put in a To-Go order like we did earlier to avoid the huge lines that were at both of these places. But even the To-Go order would take 2 hours to get filled. We almost walked out but decided to put in the order and go people watch at walmart for a while. That was the best decision that Justin ever made, he said.

Best ribs ever, HANDS DOWN! And Justin has been around a pig or two. They were so meaty that he could not finish them. That was also a first. Though he did make a valiant effort.

So meaty and juicy!

Yay! It's over!

He did it! Justin is now a PA! His graduation ceremony was yesterday. Here he is with his program director. He loved Pat because he was so personable and involved with the students every step of the way. He would call to check and Easton each time he was in the hospital which we thought was so considerate. He's just a great guy!

Justin with his buddies! He definitely will miss these guys!

Here he is actually getting his diploma! I was a little teary b/c I know how hard he worked and I really am amazed that he could keep up with the intensity of the program with all we went through with Easton last year. I am so proud of him!

Very random

My friends do a Girl's Night once a month. They are so much fun and they have delicious food! There are usually a few more of us, but since Justin is working the ER shift I couldn't get over there until 10 PM (which is OK since people usually stay until 1 AM).
The theme for this Girl's night was Pies! Unfortunately, since I was late many pies were already gone, but the ones I tried were delicious!
This pizza was from a place in Maryland. Justin had an interview in the DC area. It was on his birthday, so Easton and I went too. We walked around the mall while he interviewed. We got a cheap, but very nice hotel (thank you Hotwire.com) and ordered this Chicago style pizza. We had a great time! I wish I would have taken pictures of the area. We drove through some of the most beautiful neighborhoods! Autumn colors were at peak timing and these houses were surrounded by orange, red, and yellow!
One of Easton's favorite activities right now is playing ball! He loves to throw, try to catch, and kick.
Easton is cracking us up lately. He likes the weirdest commercials. He loves the "Blinds to Go" commercial (no idea why cause it is boring and cheesy), some eye drop commercial, and one of the depression drug commercials where the cloud follows people around. Very random, but it makes us laugh! Also, for his 2 favorite books he will bring them to me and make me read them usually 5 times in a row or more before he gets bored! He has way too much energy, but he is sweet boy :)

Trespassing

Easton was a rocker for Halloween. It definitely did not go as we planned. The church party was cancelled due to a snow storm. We then went to a friends party on Halloween and had a great time there. Following that we went to a couple of houses to trick or treat with some of the kids from the party and Easton tried to go into each of the three houses that we went up to. When we tried to pull him away and tell him no, he went ballistic. Crying and screaming, so that ended our night.
With better news, Easton has been picky with food lately but we discovered that he loves sweet and sour chicken and pizza.
And he loves Scout. Thanks Brittany!
Easton learned to jump from a little boy at the park about a month ago and this is the first time I actually got a chance to catch it. Its some major elevation!
And here is our dare devil trying not to do anything the way you are supposed to do it.

A trip for the history books

I was lucky enough to have my grandparents, my aunt, and 2 cousins come to visit last week. None of them had been to Philly before, so I gave them a city tour and here are some of the highlights.

My cousin, Mallory, and myself in front of Genos steaks

Here we are at Valley forge near the house George and Martha Washington stayed in.

This is the only picture with either of my grandparents, so I posted it to show they were in fact here.

We also went to New York. Here we are in Times Square. We ate ate a lot! Katz Deli, the Doughnut Plant, Lombardi's pizza (first pizzeria in America). It was all delicious!

We stopped at "Rice to Riches" too b/c we saw it in Soho and recognized it from the movie "Hitch"

Here we are at the Philly Art Museum on the "Rocky steps" and below with the Rocky statue. We also saw the Liberty Bell, toured Independence Hall, the Betsy Ross House, and saw Ben Franklin's grave.

We all had a great time! A big thank you to all of them for coming and to Tiffany who had to drive up

My kid is a monster!

Easton has been a monster for much of the past year. He has had several problems with his shunt and all the pressure in his head causes him to be very irritable and sometimes intolerable. As one of his doctors put it, "shunt problems make a good boy turn into the devil." He has had a tough year full of surgeries, plenty of CAT scans and way too many doctor appointments. The good news is that that the shunt is now working and is on the right setting for him, so we are hoping for a healthy year!

Easton turned two last week and the theme for his birthday party was "Terrible Twos," so everything was decorated with monsters. We had the party with one of Easton's friends who is just a few days younger then him.

We had several games for the kids at the party to do. Above is "Color in the Monsters"

This one is pin the eye on the monster. The other kids were blindfolded, but Easton didn't like the blindfold.

Monster Bowling

Monster Cupcakes

Here are Easton and Jax. The Birthday boys about to eat their cupcakes.

Monster sandwiches

Apples with a cream cheese & brown sugar filling with slivered almonds as the teeth.

Delicious punch! We also had monster cheese balls (so good)!

Some of our party guests.

Here we are, the hosts after the successful party! By the way Charise, we didn't take pictures of the food, so I copied a few pictures from your blog. Thanks!

We also did a small party at our house when Easton opened presents. Here is the Super Why cake I made him. It didn't turn out great, but he didn't seem to mind. All in all, our little monster had a great 2nd birthday!

Timeline

Many of you know Justin graduates from his program in mid-December and we keep getting asked when we are moving and where we are moving. We don't know the answer to either question yet, but we hope to know by Thanksgiving. Justin is applying to several states (mainly Colorado, Texas, Florida, Washington, and some jobs around here). We will definitely update this when we know something!

Cool and crazy pictures!

We have been having fun lately! We have been to the Smith Playhouse a couple of times lately. Here are Easton and Justin on a rug sliding down the big wooden slide. Easton used to be scared of it, but he ran right up to the top last time.
Here is flooding right by our old apartment. We saw the pictures on the news and couldn't believe it. They closed a bunch of schools and businesses that day b/c so many roads were flooded and b/c of the mudslides! Crazy!

Justin is pretty proud of this picture! There have been some crazy storms lately!

Is Justin a Fun Guy?

Our family went to a Mushroom Festival last weekend. There is a town just outside Philly that produces 60% of the mushrooms in the U.S. It was basically a fair or carnival, but in addition to the regular carnival food there were all kinds of foods with mushrooms in them.

It was very popular! Look closely and all you can see between the tents are heads.

They had a tent showing different mushroom types and how they grow.

Some mushroom art

Read the sign

Here I am eating a mushroom ice cream bar. You have to try everything once, right? It was actually good! It tasted mostly like vanilla! I also had the most delicious mushroom mac & cheese!

For a mushroom lover like me, it was a great day!