Road Trip

This last week was Spring Break for Mary and I, so we decided to go see Aunt Kathy Murphy in North Carolina. In fact, we have had this trip planned since around Christmas. We left on Saturday morning to start the first leg of the trip, needing to get to Charleston, WV where we booked our hotel room. We took about 9 hours to get to the hotel because it seemed every time we stopped, whether we had to buy food or pre-packed it, it took us an hour to get back on the road. The kids did really well in the car, good thing we had our DVD player to entertain them when there was a long stretch on the road. On Sunday we drove into Charlotte NC, to Aunt Kathy Murphy's house! All three of the kids wanted to drive straight through the night (Seamus even offered to drive his car the rest of the way), so they were very excited to be there. We got the tour of the place, set up the air mattress and the trio's sleeping bags and pillow pals, then spent some time relaxing on the veranda(balcony). The next morning we woke up to find that Helena ended stealing half of Aunt Kathy's bed. Later that day we all went to a drive through safari called Lazy Five Ranch. Helena acted like she was scared of the animals until we took them out of their car seats so they could climb all over Aunt Kathy.


Seamus, Helena and Katie trying out their sleeping bags


Seamus, Helena and Katie relaxing on the veranda


Emu at the ranch


Water Buffalo at the ranch


Llama Face at the ranch


Giraffe at ranch


Katie and Aunt Kathy at the ranch

Afterward we went to lunch at a fried chicken and biscuit place called Bojangles. We had to keep it authentic southern, before heading back to the house. Aunt Kathy was nice enough to cook us all a delicious dinner for the 2nd night in a row before we gave the kids a bath and put them to bed for the night. The next morning we woke up and found that Seamus raided the Aunt Kathy bed during the night. We then luckily got stuck in traffic after stopping for bagels on the way to Hilton Head Island. We were lucky because it brought us a different direction and we avoided a massive power outage that closed the roads that we were going to take. We then spent 3 days right off the ocean in a sweet suite with 3 balconies all facing the ocean. We walked around the beach when we got there, and the kids had fun finding shells, sand dollars and avoiding beached jellyfish. The next morning Seamus woke up at about 6:30 in the morning, so he, Mary and I checked out the sun rising on the ocean. That day we went to see a Light Housein Harbor Town, and stumbled upon a nice area with shops and restaurants called the Sea Pines Plantation. The last day we were able to spend some time in the actual ocean because the weather warmed up enough. The kids brought their sand toys, and Katie built a princess house from sand, Helena was finding shells , and Seamus made a Sponge Bob house. Really they all were just filling their bucket with sand and water. We then managed to run and play in the waves until they were freezing. They then got a second wind to swim in the kiddie pool before we had to head back to Aunt Kathy's house.


Aunt Kathy, Helena, Seamus, me and Katie putting our feet in the Ocean on day 1 on HHI


The Family on the beach


Seamus, Helena, Aunt Kathy, and Katie looking for sand dollars


Sun rise day 2 at HHI


Morning in the hotel room


Portrait time at the beach


Seamus and Daddy at the light house


Helena and Aunt Kathy at the light house


Katie and Mommy at the light house

When we got back to Charlotte, NC Aunt Kathy had a lot of "help" making desert and then dinner. After we ate, the kids had a bath and watched a bit of a movie before bed time. The last day at Aunt Kathy's house, all three of them ended up in the Aunt Kathy bed. We then started the drive home. The kids watched "Toy Story 2" and "The Little Mermaid" for the fifth time each on the way home. We made one final stop in Dublin, Ohio to sleep. Before we drove the rest of the way home, we went to the Columbus Zoo. We spent a few hours checking out the animals and aquarium before we headed home. It was a lot of time in the car, but we had an amazing trip visiting Aunt Kathy Murphy (they all called her by her whole name the entire week) for Spring Break. Aunt Kathy will be coming to visit in the end of May, so we have a tough act to follow.


Aunt Kathy and the trio starting desert


Apron Time


Finishing desert cookie


Last Morning in NC


At the aquarium in the Columbus Zoo

Bowling and the Moon

This past week we celebrated St. Paddy's Day and Pat's 32nd birthday. Every year his sister Debbie and her husband Pat have a big St. Patrick's Day party at their house. This year was no exception. Lots of Irish food and beverages later, a good time was had by all. The kids especially love getting to spend time with their cousins. Many of the Murphys were missing this year due to a nasty case of the flu going around, but those of us who were there had a great time.

Celebrating Pat's birthday at home


The next day, which was Friday Seamus had another CT scan down at Children's Hospital. Both Pat and I took off work to take him. Every time we think we're about done with that place we get a phone call from his doctor saying she wants to check something else. Thank God Seamus was super good! He stayed so still that they were able to do the scan without having to knock him out. That saved us hours this time around! He was starving since he couldn't eat the morning of, so we stopped to get him some breakfast. It was weird with just the three of us at the restaurant but I think he enjoyed all of the special attention. He even got a coloring book and a toy school bus from the nurse before we left the hospital.
Friday evening we took the kids to go watch Pat play in his indoor soccer game. It's not something they normally get to do since the games are normally really late. This one was an 8pm start so we figured we'd risk it. They had a good time hanging out with Aunt Kathy D and Mrs. Trakul. By the time we got home though, we had 3 super cranky kids.
On Saturday the kids bowled for the first time in the GCU Junior bowling tournament. We knew most of the kids who were there including the Hycki boys, the Swanneys and Dorothy. It was a lot of fun and they all got trophies. Drew actually won the "big" trophy for the 2-3 year old boy category and Margie, George, Fred, and Dorothy won for their age categories as well.

Acting silly at the bowling alley


Getting the trophies


The "Big" winners


Katie, Helena, Seamus, Clay, Drew, and Chris

As of today we have 11 days until we leave on our big trip to see Aunt Kathy Murphy in NC. All of us our getting super excited! Pat and I can't wait to just get away for a few days. We haven't gone anywhere on Spring Break in years and since it's not actually at Easter time, this was the perfect opportunity. The only other exciting this that's happened around here is that we had a really cool looking moon the other night... Here's a picture!

Home Improvement

On Friday we decided to take the kids out for a fun day since it was the last day of Winter Break. So I took the day off work and we went to the Flint Children's' Museum to play around. We almost decided to turn around because the traffic report pretty much said every car on the freeway was in danger of being in an accident. But we braved the wintry conditions because we promised the trio a "surprise" and made it to Flint in one piece. When we walked in the place was overrun with second graders, and we were quickly told that it was a field trip that was leaving in a half an hour. So we went to the areas without a lot of traffic, like the music room and the toddler room, but they had their eyes on the bigger exhibits. After the field trip was loaded onto their bus we more or less had the place to ourselves. Then they could deliver mail, ride in the helicopter and drive the fire truck. Then the three of them shopped in the pretend grocery store and stocked up the play house. After shopping the kids served Mary and I pizza in the play restaurant and we finished up by going into the Space Station. They had a blast running around and pretending to be a lot of different things. The next day we went to Lowe's with Grandpa and Grandma Huddas to build race cars in the Children's Workshop. They even all got a Lowe's apron and safety goggles to go with their Home Depot apron. On Sunday we went to Grandpa and Grandma Murphy's house for dinner and we got to play with Uncle ed, Uncle Tim, Aunt Robin and Conner. After time off its really hard to get back working, I guess we'll have to start counting the days until we're off in April.


Katie making some music at the museum


Helena making some music at the museum


Seamus Checking out the ball whirlpool


Where's the fire?


Seamus in helicopter


Helicopter Katie


Helicopter Helena


Seamus building his car


Helena bulding her car


Katie and her car


Helena in her Lowe's gear


Katie in her Lowe's gear


Seamus in his Lowe's gear

Frosty, Elmo, and Hockey Pucks

We've had a fun couple of weeks around here since our last post. It started with us doing a Valentine's project with Aunt Kathy D. The kids loved being able to use a hammer and glue, not to mention the fact that there were stickers involved! We went out to lunch afterwards and the kids got to spend some time with their Aunt Kathy. On Valentine's Day Pat and I came home to some cute cards from the kids and some cookies they made with Grandma and Grandpa H while we were at work. They were so excited to show us what they made.
It warmed up for a few days last weekend and we finally got the kids outside to make a snowman. They've been bugging us for a while now to make one but it's been so cold that we couldn't pack the snow to make it work. They were upset when he started to melt so Pat took them out the next day to try and fix him. Of course by that point it was cold again so they had to make due with a snowman that was half old Frosty and half new Frosty but it turned out pretty well.

Katie and Frosty


Helena and Frosty


Seamus and Frosty

On Monday of this week we took the kids to see Sesame Street Live down at the Fox Theatre. Of course the night before we had a really bad snow storm so it took us almost 2 hours to get there. Luckily we planned ahead and left early so we made it with plenty of time. One of the perks of the storm was that there were LOTS of empty seats. We had a great view of the stage and the kids loved it! They were dancing to the music and did really well until the very end. Seamus decided that he'd had "too much Elmo" as he put it and wanted to go. It was lunch time by the time the show was over so we took them next door to the Hockeytown Cafe for lunch. Or the "hockey puck" as the kids call it since they have a giant spinning puck on the roof of the building. We had lunch with a ton of other families who were at the same show so it was pretty busy. Our food came really quickly though and since they were hungry the kids pounded down some hot dog, chicken, fries, and chocolate milk. Big mistake... at least for Helena. She was still so excited and got to use a straw with her milk which they don't normally get to do. Poor thing ended up puking at the table and then twice more while I tried to get her to the bathroom. Needless to say, that ended our lunch pretty quickly. Of course at this point Helena had puke all over her, our extra clothes were in the diaper bag in the car, Pat's at the table with the other two, and Seamus is yelling that he wants Mommy... I got Helena back to the table to grab our coats to go and Seamus decides he has to go potty. Now, we've been really working with him on potty training and didn't want to stop the progress so Pat takes him to the bathroom while I take the girls to the car. Helena is still so distraught about the puke on her shirt that I have to strip her down in the car to change her. Remember we had a huge storm so it's freezing cold outside and snow is everywhere. I go to change her shirt and it falls into a puddle of slush. So now Helena is standing half naked in the car freezing her skinny little butt off while I'm tearing the diaper bag apart looking for another shirt. She finally was redressed just as Pat and Seamus get to the car. Seamus then tells me he peed on the hockey puck. At this point, Pat and I just laughed. Sometimes having triplets just makes you have to laugh or else you'd cry!

On our way to see Elmo!


Our new spinning Elmo light-up toys

Boyne 2011

This past weekend we took our annual trip to Boyne Mountain with the family. The last two years we’ve rented out a condo that all of us stay in together. We left on Friday morning and on Friday afternoon after a quick stop for lunch and a stop at the outlet mall in Westbranch, we got there and set up. The kids were going to be sleeping in their new sleeping bags they got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa H. on the floor. They were also going to use their new pillow pals as bedtime pillows. Needless to say, they were super excited about being there. We took them out sledding to tire them out and all 3 of them loved it this year. On Saturday we spent some time at the water park and then went sledding again in the evening. We didn’t bring the camera into Avalanche Bay but all 3 actually went down the water slide at least once this year. They played in the fountains, went down the kiddie slide, and even hung out in the hot tub. I think the highlight for everyone was when we went down the lazy river in tubes. Katie tends to freak out on things like that but she did surprisingly well. Aunt Becca, Uncle John, and the boys were there so I think that helped out. We went around so many times that Helena actually started to fall asleep. The water was kind of cold so we decided to call it a day at the water park and head back to the condo. After lunch the kids were in desperate need of a nap so we took a drive into Petoskey so they would sleep. Good thing too because they all crashed and were ready for the GCU dinner when we got back. Sledding that evening was even more fun than the night before because Pat tried to go snowboarding. Very comical stuff! Sunday we packed up and headed home. The kids were so over tired that they actually came down with some fevers and flu-like symptoms for a few days. Probably a coincidence but I doubt it. It was way better than last year though when everyone came down with the stomach flu. Yesterday we decided to take the kids out to Rain Forest Café at Great Lakes Crossing. They had been cooped up all week so a dinner out and a walk around the mall sounded like a good idea. To say that the kids loved it would be an understatement. Their little heads were on swivels from the time we walked in, until we walked out. We even got them a fancy souvenir cup with an Icee inside. The moving animals, lights and sounds, fish tanks, and good food made their days. We actually ran into some friends of ours as well while we were there. Tomorrow we will be making some heart shaped shelves at the Home Depot with Aunt Kathy D. Should be fun!