Wordless Wednesday

The weekend

So Friday night we pitched our new tent and played outside in it and the yard for over an hour.  It was a lot of fun.  We were afraid it was going to rain, so we told C he had to wait until the next night to camp (when it did drizzle, of course). 

C kept running around in the yard yelling "AHHHHHH" pretending he was scared of ghosts.  We were cracking up.  He also fell going in and out of the tent 100 times (that's hardly an exaggeration).

Saturday we drove an hour to an apple orchard to pick apples and enjoy the activities they had there.  It was a lot of fun. They had mini-golf, play structures, pony rides, an inflatable obstacle course, and a huge inflatable slide.  They also had some goats and ducks and such.  We wanted to eat at the cafe, but it was just too crowded.  We had a nice time going with another family.  I was terrible about taking pics.  I only snapped 2.  Fail.

 this smile cracks me up

resting on the giant chair

Saturday night they camped out.  It was a major fail.  C got scared of the wind and wanted to come inside to sleep in his own bed. 

Sunday Scott and C stayed home since C had a bit of a cough while I went to church.  We didn't do anything else except I ran 10 miles.  It was sooo hard.  My knees are still sore.

Then we found this fun pj set, and he is in love.

Field Trip

C went on his first preschool field trip last week.  It was an excursion to the pumpkin farm where I took him last year.  It was a huge hit.  It was a super easy field trip as there was an adult for each student since so many parents came. They watched a short movie as a class w/o the parents. Then we were with them the rest of the time.  We rode out into the field for the kids to pick a small pumpkin and then we visited the farm animals.  Then we had free play time for about 30 minutes until we came back together for snack time, and then the trip was over.  We live so close to the farm (like 5 min), I told C we could stay until lunch time.  He had a blast!

lining up with his class

looking for the perfect pumpkin

got it!

now that's a big pumpkin

the jumping pillow

jump!

the hay area

he jumped off of this thing about 20 times

always a hit to "drive" the caterpillar

A little pit stop

About 2 weeks ago C and I made a trip to checkout the new Sonic. My girlfriend Joy had posted about how she'd let her little girl sit in the front while they were at the stall, so I decided to do the same for C.  He thought he was hot stuff.

eating his cheeseburger, which he demolished.  he wasn't as much of a fan of the tots.

he also got to try a slush, which he drank maybe a tenth of. he just wanted water.

who's that?  he was fascinated by the commotion of all the car hops moving around and the cars pulling in and out.  it was a fun way to spend a gray lunchtime.

So much to post...so little time

Sorry about the absence--again.  I have a lot of stuff to post, but the idea of sifting through photos is not so appealing.  Eventually I'll get some up of the boys' campout over the weeked--that lasted a record-breaking 25 minutes (it took longer to haul everything outside); a crazy motorcycle ride at the arcade of Walmart (built to torment mothers in a hurry everywhere); and just little glimpses of life.  I promise to work on this before the end of the week, but tomorrow is very busy.  Both C and I have dentist appointments--me in the morning during his school and C's after lunch--which is always dangerous.  Oh, and it's picture day at preschool.

We had to sit out music today b/c we were both feeling yucky.  I hate feeling yucky.  I'm already behind a day in my running this week, and I have to figure out how to catch up--which is almost impossible. 

Sorry about the complete lack of flow in this post.  Wow.  I'm a literal genius--you're welcome.

A new game and a boring weekend

Scott and C invented a new "game" today.  It's called checking your belly-ocity and your back-ocity. Here's how it works.  One person lies down.  The other person is the measurer.  First you look at the belly (or the back); then you touch it; and then you measure (tickle) it. Then you say what value of 1-10 ocity that person has.  This has drawn lots of laughs from the 3 of us all day long.  I think C might think it's a real thing--he takes his touching and measuring very seriously. The belly-ocity check is to see if your superhero training is working.

So we had a nice boring weekend. Friday C and I went to a Constitution Playdate.  Then we ran a couple of errands and hit the new Sonic in town (pictures to follow later). Then we ran Scott was feeling kind of yucky--he just can't seem to kick his cold.  C was tired, so he didn't leave the house Sat or Sun except to go to church (which he was about at the end of his tolerance of home by tonight).  Scott was the same way.  Thankfully I had a hair appt., ran, church, and went to a Tastefully Simple party. I go seriously stir crazy to stay at home so much. I had really wanted to go to the pumpkin festival, but no one felt up to it yesterday, and today it rained.  Hopefully we can have some more fun next weekend. 

Race Time

I haven't really talked about my race training on my blog--not sure why--but if you don't know, I've been training for a half marathon on Oct. 23.  The training has reached the point where it's HARD. Tomorow I have a 9 mile run, and it will continue to climb until the race.  I've never run beyond 9 miles, so next week begins new territory.  I'm so ready for it to be over!  The time commitment is a bit opressive, but I'll be glad to have accomplished it since I've been toying with the idea for nearly 8 years. We have had a shock of cold and gloomy weather here, which makes my desire to run nosedive.  I only have 5 weeks left, so hopefully it won't get to cold. 

She's Having a Girl

C is happy to announce he will have a little girl cousin finally.  Boys seem to overrun both sides of the family, so this is pretty novel.  C thinks her name should be Olivia.  He is not super-creative as he knows a good friend named Livia and knows the cartoon pig Olivia.  Oh well, at least he didn't say Jack-Jack, which is what he's been insisting the new cousin be called whether boy or girl.  He seems to have let that slide since it is in fact a girl. 

Exciting Day

Today is an exciting day. Tonight we find out if my SIL/BIL new baby will be a boy or a girl.  They are having a reveal party tonight after their ultrasound.  The plan is to have a cake baked and then fill it with icing in the appropriate color-pink for girl/blue for boy.  Then the future grandparents will see an assembled cake, cut into said cake, and then everyone else discovers the sex of the baby.  Cute idea.  Can't wait. 

I'm also excited to not have to go anywhere for at least 6.5 hrs b/c I'm rocking my sweats right now--which I never do--especially in September.  I'm thinking a nap and some reading this afternoon sounds good on this chilly day.  Then a night out with the girls for some Tapas.  Ow-ow!  I'm needing some distraction from some crappiness that's been going on (not with me directly), but that has just been bringing me down.  Ready to put it behind and have some fun with friends. Last night we got to hang out with friends, too, so that helped also.  Now that I think about it, I've been away from home every night and every day this week--no wonder I'm so freakin' tired.  Preschool is dominating me, but C LOVES it.  Hooray!

Vacation Part 5: Athens and Atlanta

Then we hit the road for leg 3: Athens, GA to the Lauers.  The Lauers are super fun and love to stay busy.  Even when we lived in the same town as them quality time was hard.  Josh is an Assistant Coach for girls Volleyball at UGA, which means he is always on the go with games and recruiting.  So we just decided to campout for a couple of days in casa Lauer to get as much time with them as possible.  They have a cute, spunky little 21 month old who seems so much older.  He and C liked each other a lot.  It was definitely harder for C at the last stop b/c there was a bigger age gap and we were further into our journey...and it showed in C's behavior.  He had a great time, but was running out of patience. 

Athens is a very cool college town.  We checked out the campus and saw the most unfortunately named building there (maybe anywhere)--The Butts-Mere building.  Gross name.  We ate at a local taco joint, visited the local free zoo/park, played a game after the boys went to bed.  Friday we bought some GA Dawgs merchandise for me and C.  I'm no Dawgs die-hard fan, but we root for whoever Coach Lauer is with, which is currently UGA.  Friday afternoon we headed to Atlanta w/Deb and E also to see some volleyball: UGA vs. GATech at Tech (hence Atlanta).  We originally had visions of taking the boys to the aquarium or some other fun place, but honestly C was pretty much done with vacation at this point, and we would have all been miserable.  After a little quiet time in the hotel for C we headed to grab some dinner--ate it in Centennial Park (wether was gorgeous) and then watched some volleyball.  C pretty much fell apart in the first game.  He demanded to leave (thankfully it was crazy loud in there).  We had to have a little "talk," and then he was fine, but mad at me.  The Tech fans were crazy supportive of their volleyball team: large pep band, huge student section, and tons of alum/parents.  It was a great atmosphere, but really loud and tight--which was stressful for C I think. 

We got to squeeze one more quick visit in with Deb and E at breakfast the next morning before we headed for the Birmingham Airport.  Lots of fun. 
As a side note: I did a terrible job taking pictures on this leg.  We were all just tired by this time.

Random: all three boys had cute little voices.  M has a very deep voice and says Daddy like Daw-dee (think British),  E says Ma-Maw (think French), and C has a southern accent though he doesn't live in the south...just a weird observation.

posing at the zoo

walking, well E doesn't walk anywhere.  He has the cutest happy feet you've ever seen.

checking out the bears

C taught E...1,2,3 go!

decked out to root for the dawgs

a little action shot...sadly they lost in 3 games, but they were all close.



and taking a page out of Becca Bryan's mothering advice we let C go crazy jumping on the hotel bed before we left for another long travel day to St. Louis. He thought it was so cool

Vacation Part 3: Blue Angels

I really had to cut down on the B.A. pics.  We took so many b/c it was truly awesome to see.

currently this is C's favority plane--Fat Albert.  It's driven by Marines and carries equipment and techs to service the planes at shows.  It hadn't flown in Pensacola in over a month, so we were lucky. We got to go into the first one (that's retired). It's pretty big.

he was actually in the cockpit of a real Blue Angel here

us with the Boss of the B.A.s

inside the museum.  it was really cool.  they had tons of chopped off cockpits for kids to crawl in and lots of whole planes to read about (for older kids), a space and aeronautics section, lots of vintage planes, and some simulators (all of which C loved).  He could have stayed there for hours, but we were in a hurry to get on the road w/our 7 hr drive ahead of us.

Vacation Part 2: Pensacola/Perdido Key

I lived in Pensacola for about 5.5 years as a child, so when we were planning our southern expedition we decided we were too close to the beach to miss out. Not to mention being within reach of the Blue Angels.  Oh Yeah!  We got a great deal on a beach front condo in Perdido Key (the tiniest little beach town ever).  It was pretty deserted after Labor Day which was great.

We spent some time on the beach, checking out Palafox Place in downtown Pensacola, driving by my old house, eating seafood, and then the Blue Angels and the Aviation Museum.  Pensacola is a pain to get to, and an even bigger pain to get around.  We spent so much time driving--which isn't ideal for a 3 year old.

We enjoyed it a lot--very relaxing.

the evening we got there it was crazy rough from the tropical storm.

eating some pizza

firing the cannon in P'cola

hello from Perdido Key

running on the beach

sandcastles for the monster aka C to destory

silly boys

Vacation: Montgomery, Alabama

The primary purpose of our recent family vacation was to catch up with some dear friends of ours we hadn't seen in over a year and in another couples' case--2 years.  We needed a little reconnection/refilling of our souls with these couples.  We had a very special group of friends in St. Louis that will never be recreated.  We were friends before we had kids, got to love on the first baby from our group, and then the group started to move away.  One couple one year, then 1 the next year, and 1 the next, now there's only 1 couple that even lives in St. Louis left.  Crazy!  2 of the husbands from the group are currently employed by Universities in the south, so we took this opportunity to head down and visit. 
Look out Snyders and Lockes--we're coming for you in 2012!

First stop Montgomery to the sweet Cobbs.  Aaron and Alisha have the cutest 4 year old boy.  He has the best imagination EVER.  C was happy to play along.  C taught M about superheroes, and M taught C about Star Wars.  M also introduced C to the concept of big brother/little brother--a game they played since Micah is going to be a big brother soon.  They were 2 peas in a pod.  They got along amazingly.  They pretty much watched themselves.  The Cobbs have an open ranch home, so we could see the boys playing in M's room the whole time w/o them playing right by us...Awesome! 

the dads fell asleep on the job (though it seems like C single-handedly killed them with the light saber)

did i do that?

2 obi wans

sweetest improptu hand holding as M led C to Sunday School

watching a little Mater's Tall Tales