We are back at home from another day trip to Pittsburgh. We rented a van to transport everyone around town, so we all went to pick up the 3 big boys in Pittsburgh. We went to the museum again so that we could see the upstairs. The kids had fun, except I think the first time around it was more interesting than the second. Aunt Jackie helped the boys make a cake for me. Thanks guys! It smelled very pink! lol

We don’t know what is going to go on this week, but we are sure to find something interesting to do. At some point we will go school supply shopping. Jason needs a backpack and they both need school supplies. Jackie will be coming in this weekend, as will Jones and maybe Grandma. So we will be doing our grocery shopping probably tomorrow.

Tom is back to his office after a little over a week at the rifle range. He shot expert and so thankfully that is over for the next year or so. Later in Sept he goes to the pistol range. This week he is getting some paperwork together for his re-enlistment package.

The house is loud and hectic now and I expect it’ll be that way for a while. The littlest is sleeping on the couch after going outside to play for a bit. Why didn’t he pass out last week after we went outside? There was even a day or two we went out twice and he still didn’t nap! Little bugger. Oh, I must tell this cute little story for today…

I just sat down at the computer at about 11am or something like that and the 3 big boys come running in from the living room going on about something. When I finally grasp what it is that they are saying it’s “Naked Boy” and immediately I knew that Alex had come downstairs and was somehow naked. I went into the living room and there he was standing, no diaper on at all. lmao It was too cute, he had no clue. Let’s just hope that this either means he wants to be potty-trained or it’s a short phase that will pass shortly.

Well, yesterday was interesting to say the least. The drive to Pittsburgh was fairly uneventful, with the mandatory potty stops and children asking “Are we there yet?” more times than we could stand. We found the museum of Natural History fairly easily after spotting the large dinosaur near the building (although the building it sits next to is the music hall), we parked and waited. Once Grandma and Jackie got there we went in and were surprised to find out that the museum has a military and AAA discount. So, instead of costing $52 for us all to get in, it was $26, buy one get one free I think. Either way, that was awesome. The boys liked to museum. It was nice to get out of the car for a while, especially for Alex who was able to run around a bit.

After the museum we walked to get some food. Jackie and I swore that all the restaurants seemed much closer once we started walking. haha We finally decided to eat at Joe Mama’s Italian Deli. The food there was really good. The kids were anxious to go and unfortunately Alex leaked out of his diaper and desperately needed to be changed. We walked back to the parking garage and got directions back to 376 from Grandma’s GPS.

This is where the fun began for us. We followed the directions that the GPS gave us, but we didn’t see one of the roads (the roads curve and split and it’s sudden) but still ended up driving over the expressway so we figured not big deal, we’ll get on here. Well, 3 or 4 of the entrance ramps were closed, they shut down the expressway for a couple of miles. Nice, so we see the detour signs and think we’re following them. Nope, so we turn around, since we were conveniently near the street that the museum was on we followed the GPS directions back to the expressway again. Again we miss the one street and end up where we were before. So, Tom sees a detour sign in a yard and it’s pointing to this road, so he gets on there, it’s the entrance ramp for West (we needed East). So, we get off at the next exit, which, of course, was the same exit we used to get into the city in the first place. So, we turn around try to figure something out, and found a hidden entrance ramp that originally looked like it was closed (not the one from earlier). So, we get on there and sit in traffic to be pushed off the expressway and shuffled onto some side streets. Of course we hit Forbes street near the end (this is the street that the museum is on). We finally get on the PA turnpike after 2 hours. Did I mention that we only needed to be on 376 for 12 miles? And in that two hours, even with our aimless efforts to find the expressway we only went about 9-12 miles?

We have quite a few pictures, hopefully we’ll get a chance later to re-size them and get them uploaded. I know, we say that all the time.

Boys, we love you! Hope that you are having an excellent time hanging out with Jackie, Jason and Grandma!