Sneak Peek Into Our Week

Sorry I have been missing in action lately. I just realized I still haven't posted the rest of our pictures from Six Flags either. I have a good excuse for not blogging though!! My best friend Dianna and her girls are visiting for almost two weeks!! We met them in St Louis on Sunday and took the kiddos to the zoo. We then ate out at an amazing bbq place and then said goodbye to Preston for the week. He has to work in St Louis all week and can't join us until the weekend. The zoo was a blast but soooo crowded. We managed to crowd all 5 kiddos on the big gorilla.


This picture just screams cuteness. They love and adore each other and I have just loved watching them play. They're like little lovebirds. They walked around the zoo quite a bit holding hands.

Monday was Delaney's 9th birthday. Mallory and Aiden helped Todd make her birthday cake and we finished it off in one sittine! These 5 kiddos have had so much fun together this week, I've enjoyed seeing them play together and hang out.

Delaney played basketball for the first time tonight. Drew enjoyed having someone to play with. Delaney must be wearing her Air Jordans.

Many many more pictures to come. These were all taken by Dianna so as we were sitting here looking at them I uploaded a few to share.

Scooby Dooby Doo!

We're back from our mini-vacation at Six Flags with Todd's family. We really got lucky with the weather and we had an awesome time. I'll post my pictures when we get them uploaded but I had to post these from Todd's Dad really quick. This just made my day and I know it made Aiden's. He got to meet the real Scooby! He was just in awe. He kept telling us over and over. "I can't believe Scooby is really real!" He got to meet Shaggy too but I'm not sure if we got any pictures with him. The Scooby ride is really fun too but I think meeting the "real" Scooby was the highlight for Aiden.

Aiden hugging Scooby. He was in heaven.

Aiden and Scrappy Doo.Noah and Scrappy Doo.

Noah and Drew are official Roller Coaster Junkies. They rode every roller coaster they could at Six Flags and are ready to tackle the coasters at Disney World and Sea World next month. I knew Drew would love them but we were all surprised by how much Noah enjoyed them too. Even the ones that scared him, he still loved. The kids were all so cute there. I can't wait to see all of my pictures.

Our River Adventures

Yesterday we went out on the river with Todd's parents for the first time in years. The boys had an absolute blast. They got to try tubing, skiing, and we parked up at Hogback so they could get out of the boat for a bit and play in the sand. It was perfect weather and so relaxing. We finished off the day with a late pizza dinner at Talayna's. They have the most awesome pizza! As usual I took a ton of pictures. I had to capture all of these "firsts" plus I'm seeing all too well how quickly my boys are growing lately. I wish I could slow time down a bit.

Drew got to drive the boat for awhile by himself. I think he felt really big and he did a great job of following the rules of the river.

I just love this picture because I like how Noah and Aiden's hair is blowing. So cute.
Drew took the first turn on the tube. He must have awesome arm muscles because he rode a lot yesterday and said his arms weren't sore at all today.

The boys learned the hand signals quickly. Thumb up---faster. Thumb down----slower. Cut at the neck (how else do I describe it?)----stop. And if you fall off, you wave your arm to let us know you are ok. The boys were so good with it. As you can see here, Drew is giving the thumb up. He did that all day. He was going pretty fast and Grandpa was giving him some good waves and bumps but my adrenaline junky wanted more. We told him we had to stay safe.

Noah and Daddy getting ready to tube. Noah was scared to try it and wanted Dad to ride with him. He's a little timid like me so I was proud of him for trying it anyway. He ended up LOVING it. A couple of times Todd said when they rode over a wave Noah shouted "Alleluiah". That cracked me up.

Riding outside the wake.

Aiden getting ready to take a turn. He really wasn't too sure about it.

Aiden giving the thumbs up to go faster, he's slowly getting into it. Afterwards he said it was fun but scary. He didn't take any more turns after that. LOL He's never scared of anything so it kind of surprised me.

The money shot of the day. How cute is Noah???

Dad talking Drew through what he needs to do to ski. He's getting ready to give it a go.

1st Try!!! Almost made it!

3rd Try!! So close again! Drew is very determined and will do something over and over again until he succeeds. He didn't make it up and stay up but he tried about 5 times. I think he was a bit discouraged but we told him how great he did for his age and for his first time. I was so proud of him!

Todd took a turn. It had been years since he skiied and I think he was enjoying it. He put on a little show for the boys. I'm just glad his back was feeling good enough to do it.

Noah is still a bit too small to ski but Todd put him on his skis and took him for a ride. Noah wasn't too sure about that either but as you can see by his face, he loved it!

Not the best picture of me but this was a sweet moment. I had been holding Noah in my lap trying to warm him up. He got up and went to ride in the front of the boat. Aiden says to me "Don't worry, I'll hug you my sweet princess" and then climbed up in my lap and cuddled me. I was laughing because I don't know where the sweet princess came from but was also so touched. That kid knows how to melt me, that's for sure.

Noah's Home Run Ball

Wednesday night when Todd and Drew were camping, Grandpa Ken took Noah to a Gem's baseball game. There was only one home run that night and the woman that caught the ball gave it to Noah. That made his night! He has excitedly shown everyone who has come over.

Do you think this is his way of protecting his ball??

Just Call Him Bear Grylls

For quite awhile now Drew has been wanting to go out in the woods and "rough it".....like make a tent out of sticks, eat only what you catch kind of roughing it. Since he was such a big help when Todd was out of town, he told Drew he would take him out to Grandpa's cabin and do just that last night. Drew pored over a couple different books, got his ideas, spent days packing his gear and was ready to go yesterday. He was convinced he could do it all without Todd's help. Well, this kid blew me away with all that he did. I have a million pictures and I tried to narrow it down to tell the story, but I apologize, there are still a lot of pictures. I'm just so proud of him.

They found a spot in the woods to set up camp. Drew started building his tent with string and a skinny log.

He pulled out the black plastic bags for the floor and part of the roof.

He added the branches.

He then topped it off with leaves.....and voila, one tent just for Drew.

Look how proud he is, I just love that smile.

Then it was time to search for food. First stop, blackberry picking.

Mmmm, right off of the vine.

Drew enjoying a big juicy one.

Todd took this beautiful picture of some beetles. After he told me the other night that him and Drew might try a few bugs, I felt the dry heaves coming on when I saw this picture. Luckily Todd told me not to worry, he was just taking a picture of them

Next, some fishing on the lake.

Time to cool off by taking a Gator ride. They called it "Gator Air"

Drew got to do all of the driving which I'm sure made him feel like a stud.

Drew cut down some of the long grasses to put under his plastic floor to make cushioning to sleep on. Pretty ingenius I thought!

Digging out his own fire ring.

Whittling his own stick to roast a hot dog. (they decided not to eat the two fish they caught)

The beginnings of the fire that he started with his flint and steel and some dryer lint.

Drew the fire master!

Time For Bed!

Drew wanted to stay in the woods all night by himself and have Todd go back to the cabin. Todd was smart enough to know that I would have killed him had he done that. He walked back to the cabin until Drew fell asleep and then came back and put his sleeping bag next to his tent and then woke up early enough to walk back to the cabin before Drew woke. Drew felt so big waking up and walking back to the cabin himself.

Todd had forgotton to close the shed doors during the night so when he went to park the gator in there the next morning.....THREE of these furry friends were hanging out. They had a time trying to get them out of there! He is pretty darn cute though isn't he???

They celebrated with breakfast at The Coach House before coming home. Drew was just all aglow over his time at the cabin and has thanked Todd numerous times for taking him to do this. I think Drew learned a lot about himself and what he is capable of if he puts his mind to it and I loved to see the pride in himself and his appreciation to his dad. A night well spent!!

I'm Not THAT Old

Over the weekend I was cleaning off a bookshelf and started looking through my high school yearbook. I was showing Drew all of the people in my yearbook that are parents of kids in his class. He asked to see my picture and I said sure. When I pointed it out to him he started laughing. Feeling a little offended I said, "My picture isn't THAT bad, is it??" Drew said, "No, it's just that they are all in black and white." I informed him that we DID have color film in 1988 and that the yearbooks were just done in black and white. Sheesh!

Pics From Todd's Tri

I'm finally getting around to posting some of Todd's pictures from the HyVee Triathlon. He took a buttload of pictures so I tried to grab a few that told the story. Of course with him taking them, he wasn't in many, but luckily I had a few from other people too.

This is one of my favorite pictures. Why?? Because this is what happens when you let a bunch of men read the map and directions. Todd made sure to get the highway number in the picture because he said they should never have been on that highway at all. LOL Men, gotta love them.


This is a few of the guys and a couple of the girls after a practice swim. There were a number of kids in the club that raced too. Drew really wants to do it next year.

Todd and a couple of the guys had to get their pictures taken in the Wheaties box.

The Quincy Multisport Club in their HyVee racing shirts the night before the big event. There were a couple others there also that didn't make the picture. The club was well represented up in Des Moines!!
The freaks, I mean racers, ( I say that lovingly babe) got up at 3:30 to get to the race. They were there even before most of the volunteers! Todd managed to get some pictures....you can even see the one lone star up there. I'm glad I guess that my husband isn't the only one that can't sleep the night before a big race and gets up in the middle of the night.

Todd starting off on the run portion of the race.

I'm so glad Todd got to go and ended up getting race all the way through. He had a great time and hopefully it will be in the budget and timing for us all to go next year to root for him and the club and for the boys to get a chance to race also.

www.hy-veetriathlon.com

Happy 4th!!!

We started our celebrating early with a cookout at my Aunt Janet and Uncle Tim's house last night on the 3rd. It's become a family tradition now to go over there to eat and shoot fireworks and we look forward to it every year. The darn rain came through a couple of times but we didn't let it spoil our fun. We caught a few pictures of the evening.

Noah, Drew and Aiden posing in their firecracker t-shirts we made at the library on Thursday.

A family get together isn't complete without some Red Rover and Lemonade.

A bunch of the cousins gathered on the blanket to watch Great Aunt Janet shoot off her famous "fire balloons".

Here's one all folded up and lit. She's waving goodbye b/c there is a picture of my Aunt Jane on that newspaper and she's saying she's sending her into space.See the black fire ball rising up?? I love the look on my aunt's face....I think she enjoys it as much as the kids!!

Aiden and his sparklers. He was making a me a tad nervous with those!

Drew had to double his fun.

Noah looks like he was hypnotized by his.

My cousin Cody had a little too much fun with his Roman Candles. Him and my Dad did a great job of shooting off the fireworks.

It was a fun evening and we have more fun to be had today. Let's hope the rain stays away....

Happy 4th of July!!!