Summer Visitors Part 3

Bored yet?? Sorry but 2 more posts.

We had a family dinner one night at my parents while Dianna's mom was still in town visiting too. It was perfect weather for playing in the backyard.

Relaxing on the porch.My Dad's infamous "toss a kid in the air". Don't worry, he always catches them.

Ty got some air here.

Mallory had her first experience. She wasn't too sure about it.

Ellie kept going down to Grandma's garden and picking her flowers.

Mallory and Ellie having some girl bonding time.

Aiden and Ty checking out the cows that like to walk up to mom and dad's fence.

My friend Erica also had us two, Jennifer, and Johnna and ALL the kiddos over to her parents house to swim one day. The kids had a ball. They swam, ate lunch, had ice cream and cake, played games.....and everyone got along. BONUS. Here are all the kids gathered by the pool. Seriously us 5 girls have busy over recent years!

Last but CERTAINLY NOT the least.....Dianna and I's road trip to a David Cook concert.

Coming up!

Summer Visitors Part 4

Ok, I know you were just dying for me to get to my post of the David Cook concert, right?? Dianna had already seen him twice..once in the American Idol concert (and met him!) and once on Valentine's Day in Biloxi, MS with her hubby. I had seen him once in the spring with my brother, Beth, and Katie (and we met him!!!) We had talked how we'd love to go see him in concert together sometime. Well, the stars aligned just right because he was going to be in concert in Monticello, IA during the time she was here visiting. So we road tripped the 3 hours to Cedar Rapids, checked in our hotel, gussied ourselves up and headed to the Jones County Fair to see Mr. Cook.

This was the view of the highway on the entire drive up there. It was a gorgeous day. Did I mention that our incredible hubbies stayed behind at our house with all 5 kids so that we could make this memorable trip together. We are truly married to some awesome guys!!

I had never heard of Green River Ordinance but they were really good. Then David Cook came on and our nights were made. Dianna got some incredible pictures.......did I mention she scored us some 3rd row seats from Craigslist???

Our Self Portrait---we look a little crazed.

Here he was looking right at us and yelled, "hey you, come on up.". What? It could happen.

By far my favorite picture....look at that smile!

Dianna has a thing for his biceps. Can't say I blame her, look at those bad boys.

Andy Skib....now heres a heartbreaker....he has some of his own music out and he has an incredibly sexy voice. Some of his music is on my blog playlist.

Sigh.....

Ok, these next 2 pictures are taken with my camera with no real zoom on it. Sucks, but what can I do?? Well, I can show you how close we were to him and the stage. No zoom here, we were close!

They finished off the show with incredible fireworks.
We hung around.....umm, for awhile, hoping he'd come out like the last concert but no luck. We did see him come out to take his dog potty. Here's the ole tour bus heading out of the park. Bye David, an incredible show as always!!!

Dianna's view on the way home....another beautiful day. We woke up and hit the road because we knew as soon as we got home, we were packing up with our family to hit the cabin for sun and fun.

This summer was beyond incredible. Yes, it flew by faster than any other summer has but we made some unforgettable memories for ourselves and our children. We were truly blessed to experience everything that we did this summer.

Sea World

Sea World was amazing!! I had always wanted to go there and I'm so glad we had the chance. I knew the boys would love it too with their love of animals and sea life. The Shamu show was spectacular. I could have easily sat through it a couple of more times. Those whales were so graceful and beautiful. I just wanted to give them a hug and jump in the water with them.

There were so many cool aquariums to walk through. This tunnel was really neat. You stood on a moving floor that took you through and you could watch everything swimming around you.

There was a hollow tube inside one of the aquariums that you could stick your head up into. The kids had a blast with that. You should have seen all of their faces when they first poked their heads up.

Seeing the dolphins, sharks, penguins and stingrays were neat too. We got to pet the stingrays and there was a place to pet the dolphins too. I was so excited about that but getting them to swim up to you to pet them is a whole other story. We came close those though. Then we went down below where we could watch them swimming from underneath.

Aiden

The stingrays swimming right over our heads.

A Sea Dragon. Creepy little creatures yet utterly fascinating.

One of my favorites....I love Sea Horses.

Of course Sea World had some great rides too. Drew and Todd rode Kracken and Manta which were the craziest roller coasters I had seen in awhile. They loved them. I know I would have too if I could have ridden them without getting sick. There was a lot for the little kiddos too. This is the little whale roller coaster. Nate didn't end up having a kid to ride with so he sat in front by himself. I was cracking up.

We finished off the night that night with a fireworks display that went right along with their lighted fountain show. It was gorgeous!! Ask Beth and I about our first whale sighting of the day. It's a pretty good story~

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was a lot of fun although it felt like one of the hottest days. Maybe it was because there were very few places in that park that offered a reprieve from the heat. The Kilimanjaro Safaris was definitely one of the best parts of the day. Seeing all of those animals right outside of our vehicle was so exciting and beautiful.

Nala :)

Drew gazing out at the giraffes.

I love this shot of Ellie looking at the giraffe. It gives you a good idea of how close some of the animals were.

Tree of Life

The Lion King show was AMAZING!! I couldn't get any really good shots in there with the lighting but the costumes, music, dancing, acrobatics, etc were just incredible. It was definitely a highlight of the day also! (plus it was air conditioned!)
Now that I'm getting caught up on some other projects that have been taking up my time, I promise to get my blog caught up. I have so much to write about that it overwhelms me and then stresses me but at the same time, it's a good thing, becuase that means we had an amazing memorable summer! More to come.

Aiden's First Day of Preschool

Aiden woke up excited and ready to go this morning. Which was really nice since yesterday he informed me that he was not going to preschool, he didn't like that school, that's where he bumped his head on the playground, and he was staying home with me. Okaaaay.

Mr. Excited

I made the boys pose again with their little brother. You would have thought I was asking Drew to cut his own head off this morning when I said I wanted him to ride to school with us instead of taking the bus. He has such love for his little brother.
Oh, how he loves his new IronMan, Hulk, & Spiderman backpack.

Big bros walking him into school. This made him feel so big and this is why I didn't want Drew and Noah to ride the bus. Drew finally got that!

This other little boy was crying for his mom and Aiden went and played with him. By the time I left, they were happily sharing cars and having cute conversations. Yep, Aiden might just do fine in preschool.

After school, Aiden and I are going out to lunch with Beth and Ty to celebrate the little guys' first day of school. I'm sure I'll have more pictures to add.

I have such a mix of emotions right now. Sad that my youngest is starting school because there's no turning back now. Happy to have 6 whole hours to myself each week. Empty because I already miss him and our little morning routines together. (Stop it Kelly, it's only 2 mornings per week). Free because I have time for me and what I want to do. Worried because I wonder if he's behaving well and not using words like poopy, idiot, and dumdum, 3 of his favorite words lately. I wonder if he's missing me too or if he's having too much fun to care. I can't wait for 11:30 to hear all about his day!

*****finally got Cocoa Beach pictures posted below!!!*****