A Work Trip, a Camping Trip and a Trip to the Petting Zoo...

Sorry it has been a while since my last update. Life has been crazy the past couple of weeks. It seems like we have been running from one trip, to one meeting, to one appointment, to one thing after another after another after another. So here it goes...

A week and a half ago I had to leave town for three days to attend a conference in Kansas City. Three days was the longest I've ever left both of the boys. I had anxiety about it. On Thursday morning I had to be at the Waterloo Airport at 5:30 in the morning... didn't get to Kansas City until 11:30... had to go straight to the exhibit site and set up our booth... got a break late afternoon for lunch... and then had to work our booth until 9:00 at night. We weren't able to eat supper Thursday night due to work so I ordered room service that didn't arrive at my room until 10:00. I was exhausted. Friday we had to work the exhibit until 6:00 in the evening... and then everyone insisted we had to have barbeque. Go anywhere in Kansas City on a Friday night without reservations? Good luck. We also didn't have our own transportation, and there was an hour long wait for a cab... so we walked to the restaurant. Let me not forget to mention it was a sunny 93 degrees. We got to the restaurant and had to wait two hours to even be seated. I got my food shortly before 9:00. I was exhausted again. Saturday morning we had to work the booth until noon... then take the booth down and pack up and ship everything. My flight didn't leave Kansas City until 5:00 in the afternoon, but my ride to the airport got me there at 1:00. So I got to sit and wait four hours in the airport... and finally arrived home (after a slight layover in Minneapolis) -- at about 8:30 Saturday night. I was missing my boys terribly. Thank goodness they were waiting for me at the airport to greet me - in their pajamas - up past their bedtimes - but very happy to see their mommy.

Jaden was such a big helper and asked to wheel Mommy's luggage out to the car for me. What a big boy!

 

The week after I got home we were able to enjoy some time outside... one of their new favorite activities is to drive the tractor. Jaden gets to drive... Brandon gets to ride... and they're both happy!

How handsome is our boy??

This past Saturday (after what turned out to be a pretty stressful week) -- we were invited to go camping at Prairie Bridges in Ackley with two other couples - Logan and Kimberly - and Wade and Shannon. Cody, Logan and Wade all work together and get along great. It's so fun to have those three together. Cody's grandparent's have a pretty good sized camper equipped with a bathroom, a bed, a couch and a table. We decided to go for it (I had NEVER been camping) -- and left the boys over night with Tim and Deanne. I'm glad we did it because we had a lot of fun. We ate some food, played some bags and sat around a good old fashioned campfire making s'mores. Cody said to me the next day that he even felt closer to me since I agreed to go camping with him. (He is a huge outdoorsy person -- so this was a huge deal to him that I not only went along on the trip -- but actually enjoyed "roughing" it). ;) When we woke up Sunday morning, we grabbed the boys from Aplington and brought them back out to the camp site for just a little bit so that they could explore, too.

The third little boy in this picture is Wade's son Zach. He and Jaden hit it off pretty well right away. I wish I would have gotten a picture of Cody and Wade together. It is seriously crazy how much they act alike, dress alike and look alike!

After we got home from the camping trip we decided to make our annual trek to the petting zoo in Waterloo. It was perfect weather for it. The first thing we saw when we got there was this turkey!

Brandon checking out the kitties...

Every time Brandon saw the bunnies, he giggled.

The boys both got to feed the animals. They were in heaven!

Eating out of Brandon's little hand... so sweet!

This llama was quite a character. I wish I would have gotten a picture of him and my dad. My dad had the guts to get right in his face to talk to him, and the llama responded by spitting at him! MOST of the spit went right over top of my dad's face... but he did get a few crumbs on his cheek. If that llama would have been just a little bit shorter, my dad would have gotten quite the present!

Jaden absolutely loved sitting by the kitties. He probably would have been pretty happy if we could have taken one home with us.

We are loving summer!

Jaden Riding His Tractor!

New Video of Brandon

Picture Recap

Here's some of what we've been up to lately...

Ella celebrated her fifth birthday with a party at the new "bouncy park" in Cedar Falls. If you have kids and haven't visited, you should. It's a great rainy day activity, and it so very inexpensive!! Jaden and Brandon both had a blast. There were some really big "bouncy" slides and jumpers -- and also some smaller stuff just perfect for Brandon. Plus, they had toys there for Brandon to run around with. We WILL be going back!

Brandon loved riding around in this car and spent lots of time sitting back while Cody leisurely pushed him around...

The birthday girl checking in on her youngest cousin...

This was the main attraction...

I realize this picture is blurry, but I just love how you can see Jaden's mouth wide open. Not only was this slide big, but it was FAST. Those kids just flew down that thing, and Jaden couldn't stop smiling and laughing once he worked up the nerve to try it out. ;)

One of Brandon's new favorite activities is to try on other people's shoes and then walk around in them. Here he is attempting Jaden's shoes. He can spend 20 minutes just trying on shoes and taking them off over and over again.

He also LOVES talking on the phone. If he finds one of our phones lying around, he brings it over to us and we immediately have to call somebody so he can "talk" to them.

How handsome is this little boy??

We celebrated Deanne's birthday with a night of family bowling. I didn't get to stay for very long because Brandon didn't like that he was not allowed to run up and down the bowling lanes. ;) But Cody and Jaden stayed the whole time, and Jaden loved it. He could have bowled all night long if we had let him.

Poor little guy doesn't understand that these balls are a little too heavy to throw around...

Look at how big his eyes are here!

I just love this picture...!

Giving it a little push...

Brandon has been able to climb up the steps for months... since before he could walk. But he has been refusing to learn the proper way of going back down the steps. He's finally understanding that he either has to crawl down backwards... or scoot down on his butt. Now that he has figured it out, he loves to "practice" over and over again. And he loves to do it after his bath when he's half naked. ;) This happens almost nightly.

For Memorial Day we grilled out at Tim and Deanne's. It was hot and windy, but they have a lot of shade in their backyard so the boys got to spend some time outside.

We capped off the holiday by spending some time outside with our water table at home. Brandon likes to drink the water out of it. It can be an issue... we're working on it. ;)

Brandon still gets a small bottle before bed every night. This particular evening I was cleaning up in the kitchen, and Cody told me to hurry into the living room. Jaden had grabbed his own cup of milk and was lying down next to Brandon. The two hung out together watching a movie before going "night-night."

I love the ages of these two little boys, and I can't wait for what the summer has in store for us... fireworks, swimming pools, petting zoos, parks and picnics and cookouts... a little two-day getaway with a trip to the zoo... etc. etc. etc.

Happy Summer!!