Ummm...what was suppose to be a Throwback Neocon Post

Ok, so first of all I wanted to apologize that the last post was just a random picture of me. That was a mistake. It was suppose to be this post, but I only got one pic uploaded and thought I hit the save button when I must have hit the post button? Needless to say when I was up North at my friends house and saw a glimpse of my blog I was a little embarrassed.

Soooo....what the blog was suppose to be about was my Neocon trip to Chicago that happened over a month ago now. (I am soooo behind on blogging it isn't even funny). My Interior Design co-horts and favorite sales reps headed up to Chicago to the infamous Merchandise Mart to see all the latest and greatest that the furniture, carpet, wallcovering, fabric, lighting, and any other misc finish world has to offer. It was definitely less busy than in years past but that just made it easier to get around for us!

Neocon is essentially about seeing the latest and greatest, getting wined and dined by the best reps ever and enjoying a few "kid free nights" where you can get dolled up and hit the town is definitely a bonus!
The Mart itself is filled with fun photo ops- this one was a favorite...I mean how often can you sit inside a wood laminate "cave"?

And the pic you got to stare at for over a week. Sorry!

It is my new favorite self-portrait. And I did earn a new nickname "hotstuff" while we were there...which I guess has come from my "over-confidence" during Neocon. Recently I have been using a reverse psychology of sorts- where if you tell yourself (or other people) something over and over again then maybe it will actually be ingrained into your head as being true vs. what you really think of yourself? Not sure it is working and may come off snobbish at times? But I do feel better about myself lately (which is interesting considering the circumstances).

Yummmmmmmm...Strawberries!

So I took a little time off in the middle of June. I was going to be headed to NeoCon in Chicago for the yearly Interior Design TradeShow (another post) and I thought I might as well extend my fun week since work was slow and the weather for June was already beautiful. I headed up North to the old stomping grounds and caught up with my friend Steph, we stayed up late cranking out some Art which I then took to show to show an owner of a unique gift shop just down the road the next day (another post). Then met up with my girlfriends for Neocon in Chicago for a few days and then headed East to pick up the kids from Gram and Gramp's house. They had had a blast with daddy for a long weekend and then G&G for a day before I got there. And they were super excited to get to play again with cousins Noah and James for the day before we left. Amanda and I decided to head out for a little adventure with the older ones while baby James slept (don't worry, Grams stayed with him). So we headed down the road to a Strawberry patch . I think Amanda was a little unsure about the adventure at first, but it ended up being alot of fun.

The kids were great about finding strawberries, which we had to reiterate as only the bright red ones over and over. And then they wanted to show you each and everyone they found which was cute (at first).

They did a great job and it held their attention for about 20 min before they realized they could eat them, then I spent the next 10 min. convincing Lilly not to eat another one (as she shoved them in her mouth over and over).

We actually filled up the whole box before the kids started running around all crazy.

And now I think it is almost the season for Blueberry picking! Yummo!

And FYI, if you bring a few ziploc bags of strawberries back to show daddy don't step on them in the car (and therefore take them quickly out and set them on the shelf in the garage) and then accidentally leave them in there for two days in the midst of 90degree sauna-like weather because they will turn into two bags of mush. Sorry Tim! And sorry that we didn't get to enjoy the rest of our strawberries! :(

The rest of the story...

So I should probably sum up the rest of my vaca week before I get too far behind here. Let's see, Monday night Lilly started puking and was sick most of the night and next morning. So Tuesday was pretty much a day of sleep and taking care of her. (Thanks to Tiff for helping clean up (I will spare you the details), and pre-occupying Lucas. Wednesday she was feeling a little better and we got to play outside and enjoy the pool and weather again. We also did a photo shoot of the girls, but I will post that later. Wednesday evening we headed over to Tim's parents house to start our "lake" part of the vacation. We could see the lake from the house but that is about as far as we got. Lucas started running a high fever that night which didn't go away until Saturday. Lilly got sick again on Thursday morning so basically I spent Thursday watching like 6 kids movies and vedging out on the couch with two sleepy sick children sipping pedalite. I do have to say though that having nothing to do but take care of sick children instead of trying to accomplish 6 other things is way less stressful.

Anyway, Tim showed up Thursday evening and by Friday everyone was a little more up for some beach adventures. The Hess tradition at the lake is always great...

good food. (my first twinkie cake...yummm!)and great family. (5 of the 7 brothers and kids/grandkids)
Lucas had a good time with cousin Andy steering down the hill.

Uncle Ben and his favorite niece.

And then Friday night Lucas was still awake when it was time to leave for fireworks (you have to boat to the other lake), so we decided to take him along. He lasted about 1/2 way through. It was cute though not hearing oohs and ahhs but "A Green one...A Rainbow one!"

All in all (even with the lazy sick days) we had a great week. I think it took the kids 1/2 of this week just to catch up. Hope everyone else enjoyed their holiday as well as we did.

Wow what a week...

Well, last week was a week of fun, sun, relaxing and a bit of the flu...but I will get to that explination later. We were heading up north for my niece's birthday party on June 28th and then would be heading back up to the same area for the 4th so the kids and I decided to just stay up north all week and save $100 in gasoline. It will probably take me all week to catch up with blogging to share all the great pics, but better to keep you in suspense, right?

The week started with a Big Bash for a Little Lady.

What a cute little birthday girl.
and here she is in the pool...which she shared with her cousins and big sister...and even this sinkerface.

And here is me on my little vacation with an armful of cuties. Who says you can't still pick up two little hotties when you are 30? ha!