Summer Fun - Part I

For the past several summers the boys and I have gone to Iowa as part of our vacation. This year, in an effort to cut costs, we decided to make it a road trip. We also decided to add a few new destinations. The trip went something like this:

Day 1: We leave home with hopes of reaching Tuccumari, NM the first night. There were two things I didn't take into consideration when setting this goal: 1) The crankiness of a 10 year old after a birthday party sleepover the night before and 2) The size of 5 year old bladders. After pulling over twice (before Four Peaks mind you) with threats of turning and around and canceling the above mentioned 10 year old straightened up and we head out. We were about 60 miles shy of our goal when we stopped in Santa Rosa, NM for the night. All in all, not a bad day considering it was me and three boys.

Day 2: Another day and another 630 miles or so and we made it to Louisberg, KS to stay the night with our cousin Stacy. Again, not to bad of a day considering we were in the car for 11 hours or so.

Days 3-5: We finally made it to Iowa. Vanessa and Ryan flew into Des Moines to join us for the middle part of our journey. While we were at Aunt Phyllis's house we took the boys to The Living History Farm and Reiman Gardens, where the butterfly garden is. Kathy invited the boys to sleep over one night so the rest of us decided to go to Jamaica for the pork tenderloin sandwiches (the best ever!). The boys also got to spend a lot of time playing outside and exploring Aunt Phyllis's "very cool" yard. Their cousin Tyler, who is Seth's age, took them on a ride on the tractor (it's small and they have a wagon attached to it so everyone got to go together) and then helped each of the boys drive it. Fun stuff when your a boy!

Days 6-10: This is where my mom joined the journey and we headed off on a whole new adventure for everyone (except me): Chicago. After a fairly uneventful 7 hour drive we made it to Gurnee, IL where my dad is staying. Our days in Chicago were jammed packed with fun and exciting things to do. This is also where Missy, her three boys and Susanne met up with us. We went to the Museum of Science and Industry to see the Harry Potter Exhibition, the Field Museum to see Sue (a dinosaur), the Jelly Belly Factory, swimming and fishing in Lake Michigan, a trip to Navy Pier and another dinosaur museum in WI. My dad and I also took the boys to Green Bay, WI to tour Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers! What an exciting day that was. Even I had a good time and I'm not a Packer Fan.

Days 11-14: Vanessa and Ryan flew home from Chicago and Seth went back to Ohio with Missy so it was just my mom, the boys and I making the trip back to Iowa from Chicago and then home again. We had planned on stopping in Kalona and Washington, IA, on our way back to Aunt Phyllis's house but what we didn't plan on was bad construction and being pulled over (more on that later). When we got to Washington, the Amish country store was closed and the shops were getting ready to close so we decided to stay overnight and spend the next day there. The boys had a blast playing at their favorite park in Washington and my mom and I enjoyed the Amish store and quilting shops and some really great food. We also stopped in Pella for some great Dutch pastries. Aunt Phyllis joined us the next day for a trip to Winterset to shop at Fons & Porter and Ben Franklin (of course). We also went back to Jamaica (my mom missed the first trip) and rested up a little before starting our trek home.

Days 15-17: Our journey home included a trip to Villisca to see Don & Jill (and pick up some duck decoys for Tom) and a stop in Butler, MO. We, of course, arrived in Villisca later that what we thought and stayed longer than we planned but it was great to see family (and play at the park). We then headed to Butler to see our cousin Karen, her kids and their families. I hadn't seen my cousins since I was 9 so it was fun to meet them again and see their kids. We ate dinner with Karen and then stayed and visited with them until almost 10:00pm. We then headed back to Stacy's house for the night. We visited with Stacy, Aaron and Isaac Sunday morning and then drove to Dalhart, TX for our final night on the road. We were on our final stretch and everyone was itching to get back home. We made a couple of unplanned stops but overall the trip home was as uneventful as the trip going. Though we had a great time while we were gone it was nice to be home again, though I could do without the 115º weather that met us when we arrived!

Still Trying to Catch Up

Well, here I go again. I'm making another attempt to catch up on blogging and this time stay caught up. I'm not going to promise anything but my goal is to update once or twice a week starting now!

Trying to catch up

Well it's been forever since I've posted anything so I'll try and catch up here in the next few days. I will spread it out a little to give everyone something new to read every few days. So here goes, the first of many posts...

The big 4 0 - for Chris that is

I can hardly believe that Chris turned 40 this year. We can't be that old can we?

Chris has been planning his big 40th birthday bash for a long time and with the help of some great friends he had what he said was the best birthday ever.

Chris reserved the Family Life Center at church for two reasons: Basketball and the size of his guest list. There were over 100 people on his list and he had such a great variety of activities planned that everyone found something to do. He had basketball, including a free throw contest, volleyball and dodge ball for the adults and movies,board games, things to color and the playground outside for the kids. There was of course a lot of food and socializing but I think the best part of the night was the Dodge Ball game. They let the kids play first and then adults played a few brutal games. I toyed with the idea of playing but thought better of it after watching a couple of games. Being a spectator wasn't necessarily the safer option but it was definitely entertaining.

I am so glad that so many of Chris' friends were able to come and share this special occasion with him. After looking at the pictures it seems like everyone had a great time. To see the pictures click here.

Pay it Forward

The Rules

1. Be one of the first three (3) bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.

2. Winners, you must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift for the first 3 bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your three friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought that count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love! If you are not one of the 1st three commenter's on this post, you can still play along. Post it on your blog; start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same!

p.s. I just wanted to spice the post up a little so I added a splash of color to some of the words.

Swimming on March 1st ?????

After mowing the lawn yesterday Chris decided he wanted to go swimming. I knew nothing of this plan until Seth came out in his swim trunks. Of course after Kyle and Caleb found out they wanted to go too so off they went to change their clothes. This I had to see. The water had to be 68º or less, which is way too cold in my opinion. Really anything under 85º is too cold for me but hey, whatever floats your boat.

Kyle and Caleb were the first ones in. As soon as they put their feet in I knew it was cold but that didn't stop them. They started on the first step and slowly moved their way down until they on the third step down. Chris came out and took a running start and jumped right in. The look on his face was priceless! He looked so cold but he didn't get out. Seth was losing his nerve but Chris finally persuaded him to jump in. He looked terrified and got out right away but he did get back in a couple more times. Bruce didn't want to miss out on the action so he kept bringing his ball and dropping in the pool so someone would throw it for him. At least he wasn't crazy enough to go in.

Is it a little cold?

All in all they probably stayed in the pool for about 20 minutes. You'd never catch me in there this time of the year. I usually only swim in July and August but I guess if most of the family is willing to swim nine months out of the year then it's worth having a pool.

A Very Busy Monday

Last Monday after school the boys and I went to the zoo with my friend Chrissie and her daughter Sadie. Even though the boys have played with Sadie several different times they spent the whole day calling her Stacy, which drove her nuts. I think that she had trouble remembering their names too but they're used to people getting their names wrong so I don't think it bothered them. Despite the name challenges the kids, and moms, had a great time. We saw lions, and tigers but no bears, oh my! We also saw the rhinos, otters, flamingo's, zebras, giraffes. We even had time to stop and play and the new structure by Monkey Village. What a great way to spend the afternoon with friends.

Kyle and Caleb can't resist climbing a good tree!

Sadie, Kyle and Caleb

After Seth got home from school we went to a park in Queen Creek to meet a friend of mine from high school. Amer also has three boys and they are close in age to my boys so we thought they would have fun playing together. They boys hit it off right away and played for almost two hours, giving Amber and I a chance to catch up. Kyle and Caleb were exhausted by the time we headed home so after some dinner and a bath they were more than ready for bed.

Flagstaff Snow Day

The kids have really wanted to go back up to the snow so we planned a day to Flagstaff last Sunday. We picked Flagstaff so we could see Jillian and Claire at NAU and then play in the snow. We also stopped and saw Phil and Laurie in Rimrock on our way home.

We met Jillian and Claire at Claire's dorm and then after dropping Jillian off at her dorm the rest of us headed up to a sledding spot Claire likes to go to. Caleb refused to go sled by himself so he went down with Claire or Chris. Kyle, on the other hand, couldn't wait to go alone so off he went! It's funny how Kyle and Caleb can both be fearless but with totally different things. Kyle actually got to where he was going down the scarier trail with a bump that would send him flying. Unfortunately that all came to an end when his wonderful mom gave him and push and sent him down backwards causing him to face plant himself in the snow. He wasn't hurt, just scared, and he did go again but he didn't want to go over the bump anymore.


After sledding we stopped at Shane's to see Jillian again before we left. We then dropped Claire back off at her dorm and then headed to Laurie's. We didn't have a long time to spend at Laurie's but we did get to eat and visit awhile before we heading home. Laurie and Phil were heading to Colorado the next morning so we brought Bruce (their dog) home with us for a week. The kids were very excited about this and obviously Bruce was too because he hopped right in the van and got all settled for the ride.

We were all really tired by the time we got home but it was such a great day spent with family and friends.

Valentine's Day Road Rally

Chrissie and John invited us to go to a couples Valentine's Day Road Rally with some of their friends from church. The road rally was basically a scavenger hunt where each team had to find the things on their list and take a picture with their team with the things they find.

We started at Chrissie's church, Trinity Baptist, where we learned what we would be doing and who was on our team. Each team consisted of three couples. Our team happened to all be new to the road rally but we we weren't going to let that stop us!

We were on Team Mango's, which meant that we would be eating dinner at Mango's in downtown Mesa. Someone at the restaurant had our list and we had to find that person with the clue we were given. Once we had that we had until 6:45 to look over the list and start planning our strategy. We had until 8:30 to find as many things as we could. The first team back to Chrissie's got bonus points and if your team was late you would lose points. Creativity counted.

Here is the list each team was given. The things in red are what we did.

• Your team handcuffed together (extra 100 if behind bars)
• With a person whose birthday is today, with ID
• Everyone in group in (some sort of ) Cardinals apparel
• With bride & groom in wedding attire
• With someone (not a team member) holding a trophy
• With a banjo player
• Team inside a police car
• A team member pumping a strangers gas
• Young lovers kissing
• With a pizza delivery person
• Your team sharing a soda, must each have a straw
• Spell something with your bodies
• Carrying a strangers groceries
• With a clown
• In front of a live band
• Heavily tattooed person
• Picture of a sign with a team members name on it
• Walking a strangers dog
• picture of a "neon diving girl"
• With a nurse (in uniform)
• In an elevator backwards with forward facing strangers
• On a piece of farm or construction equipment
• Posing with a mannequin doing the same pose
• At a swimming pool all on the diving board
• From the inside of an automatic carwash
• At a dinner table with a group of strangers
• Doing a Chinese fire drill
• Each member of team on separate motorcycle
• In front of illuminated Christmas decorations or lights
• All of you in or on some form of public transportation (bus, taxi, light rail, etc)
• In front of a tombstone dated before 1900
• In the sleeping quarters of a hotel with hotel logo visible
• With a farm animal or animals
• With a hot dog vendor
• Delivering a pizza with the pizza delivery guy
• Pierced tongue
• Doing leap frog down a grocery store isle
• Getting advice from a pharmacist at the counter
• On a golf green with one of you putting
• At a fast food restaurant with team wearing employee hats
• Dancing in a club or lounge
• Team playing bingo

There were also three bonus items that were texted to us. There were:

• Capturing the phrase "That's gotta hurt"
• "Wow, I can't believe we all fit in there"
• "Can this be legal?"

While John downloaded everyone's photos we had dessert then we watched the slideshow of each team's adventure. It was a lot of fun to watch what everyone did and how creative they were. Chrissie and her friend were the judges and awarded points based on the pictures. Even though our team found more items (only by 1) we got back to Chrissie's house second so we didn't get the bonus points putting us in second place. Chris and I won a prize for the best use of household items. We were able to accomplish a ton of things at our house or because of our neighbors so that was cool.

I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard and had such a good time. We can't wait for next year's road rally!

Happy Birthday Kyle & Caleb

I can't believe that Kyle and Caleb are 5 years old already! It doesn't seem that long ago that they were the tiny babies I was afraid to hold. They are certainly growing up fast!!!

To celebrate their birthday we took the boys to Disneyland. In 2009 Disney is running a deal where if you go to one of their parks on your birthday you get in free. Well score one for us - we got two kids in free at once. Since their birthday was on a Wednesday and we had to pull Seth from school we spent just one day at Disneyland.

The first thing we did when we got to the park was head to the Jedi Training Academy. Seth and Kyle were hoping to get picked for training but it wasn't meant to be. Even so they enjoyed watching. After a battle with Darth Vader and a couple of Clone Troopers it was off to Space Mountain. Seth didn't want to ride so he sat with the stroller while the rest of us headed off to my very favorite ride :) Since it was the middle of the week in January the lines were non-existent and we only had to wait about 5 minutes! Kyle and Caleb were a little apprehensive at first because it's dark inside but once the ride started they were hooked!!!

After Space Mountain we did Star Tours then Astro Blasters and then a rocket ride. We spent a lot of time in Tomorrow Land before heading off to Toon Town. On our way to Toon Town we rode the Matterhorn. It took a lot of convincing to get Seth to go on it and at first he wasn't liking it but about half way through he was hooked. Yeah! Another roller coaster rider!!!! I am so exceited about that. He even wanted to go on Space Mountain and of course I had no objections there. Since we headed to Toon Town we told him we'd do it after we saw Mickey.

Once in Toon Town we had our picture taken with Mickey Mouse, rode a small roller coaster, met Goofy and went to Minnie's house. As promised we went back to Space Mountain for Seth. He is defineately hooked on roller coasters now! After another try at being picked for Jedi Training Academy, which none of my cute boys were picked for :( we headed over to the Indiana Jones ride. Unfortunately, Kyle and Caleb are still too short to ride that one so Chris took Seth while the little boys played at the treehouse then I went with Seth while Chris waited. It worked out okay and the boys had a good time playing at the treehouse but I know they would have loved the ride. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to go again when they're taller. Darn.

After a long, but very fun day at Disneyland it was time to head back to the hotel. We stopped at Denny's for dinner and had planned on taking the boys for ice cream but Caleb fell asleep at dinner so we put that off for another day. After some much needed sleep it was time to head for home. It was a short trip but we all had so much fun. I am glad that we were able to go, even if it was just one day. I think this is a birthday the boys will never forget.

Tracking Santa

We had been tracking Santa's progress on the NORAD Santa tracker. It was fun to watch all the videos and learn about his journey around the world. Before heading to bed we checked one last time to see where he was. He had just arrived in Tucson and was heading our way so it was off to bed for everyone before he got here.

Christmas Eve Hike

Chris took the boys hiking at Usery Mountain on Christmas Eve. They went to the wind caves and had a great time!

A view from the top


Look closely and you'll see the fountain in Fountain Hills in the distance.

What a Cheese Head

This one's for you Aunt Missy!
Seth LOVES the Green Bay stuff, can you tell?!?

Ice Skating

I had some coupons for free skate sessions at Polar Ice so I thought it would be fun to take Kyle & Caleb ice skating. Claire and Emily like to ice skate so I invited them to go with me. Plus two 4 year old boys who have never been ice skating and one uncoordinated mom sounds like a recipe for disaster so the extra hands would be nice.

We got everyone's skates on and the boys were feeling pretty confident but they were still on the carpet. That changed after we got on the ice. The first go around took us probably 10 minutes and the boys were ready to go home. I took the boys back to the benches to rest while the girls went out for a little while. After a few minutes they were ready to go and try it again. It got better but we would have to take a break after each lap. At one point the boys were able to hang out for awhile with a class that was going on. This lady was teaching some kids how to keep their balance on the ice and the tips really helped Kyle & Caleb out a lot. It made a huge difference in how they skated. They were actually able to go around on their own a couple of times after that. I think one of the hardest parts for me was trying to take the pictures. I'm not very good at ice skating to begin with but I had to skate backwards while trying to take pictures. I'm amazed I didn't fall and break something!


We stayed about 1 1/2 hours before the boys were ready to call it a day. They were tired and hungry and Kyle just flat out refused to go around again. It wasn't worth fighting so we turned in our skates and went to lunch.

It was a lot of fun and the boys have asked several times since we went if we could go again. They said they would like to take Seth and Chris with us but I wish them luck with that. Neither of them have a real desire to ice skate so we'll have to see if Kyle and Caleb can actually persuade them to go with us.