Hawaiian Vacation 2011

My Mom and step dad, Tom, go to Hawaii every year in October. This year they were kind enough to ask us to tag along for the trip. Our family (Kurt, Mason, and myself) and my brother Andrew went along for the first week in Maui. The trip there was a long one. We left Charlotte, NC at 9:30am and got to Hawaii at 9:30pm (3:30am eastern time). That was Saturday and of course the men had to be up at the butt crack of dawn (730am) to watch football due to the time difference. We all went out to breakfast to watch the Panthers game! It was crazy watching football that early in the morning. Once the game was over we felt like we still had the whole day ahead of us.

The rest of the week we spent a lot of time at the pool and took walks on the beach. It was too windy to hang out at the beach! Mason loved being in the water! My mom bought him a really cute Cars float to keep him occupied. This worked for the first day and a few minutes each day after that. Towards the middle of the vacation when he started figuring the pool out he was having more fun standing on the stairs or the side of the pool playing with his water toys. Here are some pics of Mason in the pool.

Sand would blow up against you and it hurt like heck!!! The whole gang went snorkeling to Molokini one morning.  Mason even tagged along for the trip!  We made two stops on the trip - 1) Molokini and 2) Turtle Town. We all saw lots of cool fish and coral and a couple sea turtles. Here are some pics of Mason on the boat.

Here we are getting ready to board the boat!!

Titanic Pose!!!

That's Molokini in the background.....

When is it my turn to go out there?

Dang, what a long day out in the ocean! 

The rest of the week Kurt and I did a lot of morning activities while the others hung out at the pool with Mason. We rode speed bikes down the volcano which had awesome views. It was crazy how high we were in the air!!!

Another day we went ziplining. To be honest I was scared once we got to the top. I wasn't sure I was going to go through with it. After the first practice line I was fine and actually had a really good time.

We all had a nice relaxing time on vacation - well as relaxing as it can be with a 6 month old! HaHa. Mason was surprisingly very good on all the flights. The way home he did not want to sleep so Kurt and I were exhausted trying to keep him entertained! The time change didn't really effect him. The first morning he was up at 430am and then it was pretty consistently 530am the rest of the week.  The morning we were leaving we had to actually wake him up to go to breakfast on the way to the airport. Figures he would wait till the last day of vacation to sleep in!

Mason's First Pumpkin

This weekend I went Target and they had these cookie monster attachments - not really sure what they are called -for pumpkins. Mason loves cookie monster so I had to get him one.  When we got home I put them on a pumpkin and sat it next to him to see if he paid any attention to it.  Of course he started grabbing at it to try and chew on the pieces.  Here are some cute pictures of his interaction with the pumpkin!  

Masons look cracks me up.  Looks like he is telling Cookie...."tough crap, I will eat your cookie"

Now he is going for the jugular!  He is gonna end up getting that darn cookie. 

 There goes his head.....

HA!  He got the cookie!!!! LOL

October Baseball

The Yankees make the playoffs yet again!!!! To be fair I dressed Mason in his Atlanta Braves outfit to try and give them some good karma. Too bad for Kurt it didn't work.

 When I was taking these pictures he started "talking" and it made it look like he was saying Boooo!  LOL

 So now Mason only has to be "loyal" to one team this post season!  Even though game 1 got rained out we took some pictures with all his Yankee stuff before the game started Friday night.

Good thing he has enough outfits in his wardrobe to cheer them on each night. Go Yankees!!!!

Mason Visits the Yankees

Last weekend Kurt, Mason and I met my Dad, Jean, and dad's cousin David in NYC for the Yankee Red Sox game. I had been working in Chicago for the week so Kurt had to fly with Mason by himself Friday morning. Thursday night I got a phone call from him to go through item by item all the things he needed to bring. LOL.  Believe it or not he made it to NYC without forgetting anything.

The trip started off not so great considering it was raining in NY as usual.  We weren't sure of the taxi cab rules in the city and since we didn't bring a car seat with us we thought it would be best to just take the train into Manhattan.  The ride was not bad at all but running around trying to find an elevator at the subway stations was a pain in the butt!!!! Then when we got to the street level at our destination it was pouring down rain and of course we had a 4 or more block walk to the hotel.  By the time we got there all three of us were soaking wet!!!!! That night we were supposed to go to the Mets / Phillies game but it ended up getting rained out and was rescheduled for the following night and we already had Yankee tickets.  Over my dead body were we giving those up for the damn Mets!  The only reason we were going to the game to begin with was Kurt wants to go to all the baseball stadiums before he dies and he had not been to Citifield.  Friday was low key cause of the weather!!!!

Saturday was Masons big trip to the greatest place on earth!!!!  Yankee Stadium.  We went early and had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was my first time eating there and it was very good.  Mason took a nap while we all enjoyed our burgers! After lunch we went into the stadium to take some pictures.  Mason was not in the greatest mood so we didn't get a lot of them!!!!

Napping at Hard Rock Cafe! 

Snack Time! 

 Why are these damn Red Sox fans in my section?

 Subway back to the hotel

To back up a bit....While in NYC we stayed at a Kimpton hotel on Park Ave.  It was a nice hotel but the crib situation was a little too sketchy for me!!!! It looked super old but I figured what the heck we might was well give it a try.  This is what happened when we put Mason in there when we first checked in.

Needless to say Mason did not sleep in that crib. Kurt claimed it was too hot in the bed so he slept on the floor so Mason and I had plenty of room in bed.

We had a great time while in NYC.  Hopefully (for Kurts sake) we will make it to Citi FIeld eventually.

So tired after a busy weekend, needed to get myself some coffee.

First Trip to the Park

Mason LOVES being outside so I have been dying to bring him to the park.  Last weekend I finally had the chance to take him.  Since he is so young here wasn't a lot he could do but I put him in the swing and he had a great time! He was laughing and having a grand ole' time.  Here are some pictures of our day at the park!

I'm going to the park!!!!!

Cereal

So Mason has been sucking down bottles like he is starving!  Over 30 ounces a day! I decided last night to try and give him some cereal! It was so funny.  He wasn't a big fan! This morning I gave him some more and he started getting the hang of it!  Here are some pictures of him!

Mason has also started rolling over!  Whenever we lay him down the first thing he does is roll over! Cant leave him anywhere anymore! He is trying so hard to sit up but he is just not strong enough yet! Should be soon!

I have been back to work for about 3 weeks now.  So far so good. The first week was hard - I made Kurt bring him to his moms house for a week.  After that it felt good to be back in the swing of things. I know he is being spoiled and having fun all day long!

Here are some other recent pictures of Mason....

 Big weekend series!  He will be in pinstripes every day this weekend!!!!

3 month Pictures

A couple weeks ago we had Mason's 3 month pictures taken.  It was sooooo hot that weekend.  We went to the photographers parents house and had them taken in her sunroom.  They came out awesome!  Cant wait to do 6 months at Duke Gardens in October!  Here are a few of the favorites!