34 and Big Spring.

So!  Thursday was my 34th birthday.

Yeah....

And instead of having a nice normal day like I was supposed to I decided you know what?  Screw reason!  Screw logic! Screw naptime!  It's my birthday and it's the perfect spring day out so we're going somewhere fun! So I went straight from the preschool pickup line to my favorite Cleveland Spring Event:

 Big Spring at the Cleveland Botanical Garden.

We had a little time to kill before meeting our friends there so we took a little walk around Wade Oval:

Such a beautiful day!

 The kids were thrilled to be out and about:

And Big Spring is just so much fun:

We mainly just let the kids play in the outdoor garden pretending to plant things and water things and dig in the sand and dirt:

So much fun!

Although the little guy was not happy I wouldn't let him army crawl all over the place:

So he hung out on some logs for awhile:


I'm so glad that I decided to take them.

Even if they were asleep before we were on the shoreway:

3 kids asleep at the same time!  This NEVER happens at home.

I really needed that fun adventure. 34 was a birthday that for some reason really got to me.  The number just seems a lot older than what I feel.  Plus 33 had a whole bunch of really neat numbers associated with.  It's multiple of 11 - my lucky number, I had my 3rd kid at 33, my 9th anniversary was on the 9th, etc.  34 doesn't have any pluses other than that it's a year older.  Blah.

On the other hand, though.  33 was easily the toughest year.  I was either super pregnant with 2 little ones to chase or was home with 3 children under 4.  Neither of which is an experience I have any desire to repeat OMG.  Just making it to 34 is monumental.

Pictured:  Way more small children than I have hands for.

But I think it has more to do with life changes and less about the actual number.... haven't had one bother me since 28.  In retrospect that's hilarious - I thought 28 was old!  But between 28 and 29 I got pregnant, had a baby, and quit the job that I thought was going to be my long-term career.  So yeah... I had a right to feel like things were shifting.  And I feel that way now.  We've been in this cycle of pregnancy / newborn / baby since 2008.  That's as long as it took me to get a masters degree!  I can barely even picture a world without any of that baby insanity.  But this is the year that we become the parents of school aged children.  Pretty seismic shift in priorities/lifestyle.

Probably my last birthday feeding a baby a bottle.  Next year this guy will be almost 2.

I'm excited for it.  We have a whole lot of really fun years ahead with this crew.  34 is just the beginning.  I think it's going to be a good year.

Disclaimer:  Tickets were provided to Big Spring.  All opinions and stress over getting older are my own.

Captain America in Cleveland!

So!  Captain America:  The Winter Soldier releases tonight!  Which is exciting to me because most of it was filmed in Cleveland.  Even more exciting?  I inadvertently got to watch a crazy intense day of filming because of when my son was born.

Wait... what?

See they filmed for a day on the bridge across the metro parks on Lorain road.  It's a pretty neat looking bridge and with the forest underneath I can see why they picked it.  But the bridge is literally RIGHT NEXT TO the birthing wing of Fairview Hospital - where our little guy was born on June 13.  Their big film date?  June 14.  Yup.

The day that we were in the hospital just hanging with our newborn we got to watch this happen:

Pictured:  Captain America, his stunt double in the superhero suit, and his motorcycle.  YES.

While in labor I had quite the chat with my delivery nurse about how neat it was that they were filming in Cleveland.  And how the hospital staff had to use a different entrance tomorrow because of filming.  And how the birth wing would be able to see alot of what was going on.  Clearly this was not my first time at the rodeo.

So After this little guy was born happy and healthy:

I - with an hour old baby in my arms - asked the nurse if she could hook us up with a room with a view.  She was all over it.  Our view was fantastic:

The motorcycle the actual movie star rode on pulled by that crazy truck/camera thing.  We watched it drive back and forth across the bridge several times.  The trailer in the background is where Chris Evans hung out when they weren't filming him.  YUP.

People were stopping by all day just to watch the filming.

I took a ton of photographs.  But since I had a newborn and THREE KIDS OMG once I got home I never got around to posting them.  I figured with the movie releasing tonight it was a good day to finally post them!  So here we go.  A Captain America via Fairview Birthing Center photodump:

Really early in the morning we watched them raise this giant green screen with a crane.  Then the stunt man on the motorcycle in the Captain America suit drove across the bridge in front of it a whole bunch of times.  Sometimes he had the shield, sometimes not.  From the stills of the movie that I've found I'm pretty sure they used the green screen to add in this:

AWESOME.

Here's the crowd gathered to try to get a view:

This is what they were trying to see:

The shield!!!!  It's Captain America!!!!

Here you can see them setting up the shot.  The truck pictured above is on the left with the Captain America motorcycle behind it.  He's partially hidden by the trees but that's Chris Evans:

Here's them filming. The car is driving across the bridge towards us.

 
Here's one of the cars set up for filming... and wait... is that Buckey?!

 It was such a cool thing to see.  I can't wait to see the movie!!!!

Happy Friday, Everyone!

Extra fun bonus picture.

Reentry.

So!  We went on vacation!  And it was fabulous!  We've been home since Sunday morning - after leaving the Spanish moss, 80 degree weather, and vague swamp smell of Savannah to drive overnight through a straight up snowstorm in West Virginia.  I am nowhere near recovered.  Reentry is hard - yo.

Look the lake mostly unfroze while we were gone!  Yay?

But!  While I'm still digging myself out from a pile of laundry and mail I don't want to get caught in the trap I usually get caught in with vacations.  Where I'm overwhelmed and then never post anything (see also:  our trip to North Myrtle Beach, etc.)  So while I still have to finish going through the 1500+ photos that we took I wanted to throw a few up here. Because one thing is standing out to me:  the looks on my kids faces:

So much joy!  So many happy memories!  So much fun!

All three of them grew up so much in the span of the week and a half that we were gone.  A bit of fresh air and sunshine and they are all about an inch taller.  And much healthier looking.  Also covered in freckles:

Heh.

Since we've been back the dude has expanded his imagination by leaps and bounds.  He used to go along with whatever pretend play his sister had concocted without really being aware of what they were doing.  But now?  He's the YES, AND to her improvisations.

I have to think that has something to do with spending time in a place driven by imagination.

Dreams are real here, folks.

And the little guy!  While we were gone he learned to point at things that thrill him and clap hands whenever he's pleased.  Again, not a coincidence:

At the fantasmic show.  He pointed and made happy baby freaking out noises the whole time.  Until the snake.  Then he grimaced and snuggled into Matt's chest.  Amazing how some things are so visceral.  Snakes = BAD NEWS.

And my girl!  One amazing moment from a trip of amazing moments was when she saw this sign:

"IT SAYS STEVENSON!!!!!!  Is it about me?  What does it say?  Why is it talking about Stevenson?"

Travel is so good for kids.  Just getting them out of their comfort zone for a bit expands their horizons so very much.

We improvised,  enjoyed each other's company, spent over 40 hours in the car, told the real Jake that we named our car after his ship, spent time with family and friends, and tried so SO many new things.

Overall it was wonderful.  Hopefully I will post more detailed stuff soon.  But until then:

My pirate crew in the town of St. Augustine where we went to a festival and a reenactment at a real fort, a pirate gave the kids gold doubloons and told them to beware the Spanish, and we found a pirate flag for Buckey.  All of it totally unplanned.