Drew

I'm so thankful for my Drew...

He brings so much joy to our home.  I wish that I could bottle up his laughter and give a little to every person on the planet.  The world would be a much happier place!

Central Inteligence Agency

A couple of weeks ago, Wade and I were in the kitchen working on dinner.  Clayton had asked to play on the PBS Kids website, so he was happily clicking away at all of the Arthur activities.

A few minutes later he said, "Mom, mom, come look!  Check out this website that I hacked into!"

I came in to see this...

That would be the CIA website.

Apparently, he heard a commercial for the CIA on the radio and remembered the site address.  I'm still not sure where he heard the concept of "hacking" into a website...

Oh, this boy.  He makes me laugh...

7/11/12

Another check mark on our summer bucket list...

Free Slurpees are pretty awesome.  :)

Fun at the Lake

On July 7th, Kim & Joe were sweet to invite us to their lake house to spend the day with tons of family and friends.  We knew that we would be tired from our whirlwind Chicago trip the two days prior.  But... Ylda parties are always tons of fun, so we knew we couldn't pass up the opportunity.  :)

We had so much fun!  Clayton loved the jet skiis and Drew loved swimming by the dock.  Poor Owen was completely out of sorts, though.  He was not himself at all - refused to nap and he was super cranky.  I hated that everyone had to see him at his worst.  I still don't know quite what his problem was. :(  I am sure that he was just overtired from 2 days of playing hard with our sweet sitter.  We probably shouldn't have tried to push him...  Live and learn, I guess.

Owen was happiest sitting inside in the air conditioning with the puppies.  Ha!

There is a second story deck on top of the dock and boat slip.  It didn't take long before Clay-boy was jumping off of the top.  Mercy.  This boy is a daredevil with a capital D!

Drew was content jumping off of the lower deck, thank goodness.  I'm sure that he will be jumping from the top in a couple of years.  ;)

Love this sweet boy!

Little Miss Audrey was so sweet and tiny...  I can't believe that Owen was this little last July?!?!  She took a good nap swinging out on the dock.  Man, she is sweet!

Cannonball!!!

Wade took me out on the jet ski and it was super fun!  I was a bit nervous, but I actually really enjoyed the speed of living on the edge.  Ha!  Wade did scare me half to death doing some tight donuts in the water.  I just knew that I was about to meet my Maker!  I screamed my head off right in Wade's ear!  He thought it was great fun.  Stinker.

My Drew went out in the boat once but was too scared to go out on the jet skiis.  Bless his little cautious heart...  He had a ton of fun swimming by the dock.

This was as close as he got to riding on the jet ski.  ;)

I am fearful that I am destined for a lifetime of pictures with someone making a silly face...  Crazy boys.  ;)

After refusing to nap in the pack n play (so unlike him!), Owen finally conked out in my lap.  I was sad that he was a crab all day and didn't get a good nap, but I sure did enjoy snuggling with him.  :)

Although, he sure fills a lot more of my lap than he did last July at the lake...  Sniff, sniff.  He was so itty bitty, and I look so tired!  Ha!

Thanks, Kim & Joe, for letting us spend the day at your place!  We so enjoyed our time!

Chicago

My sweet Hubs planned a really fun trip for the two of us to celebrate our 12th anniversary.  He hired a sweet single gal from our church to watch the boys (mid-20s, from a large family, loves kids, volunteers in the preschool department every Sunday - she is a precious, precious girl!), booked our flights and hotel, and planned all of the activities that we did.  We hadn't been on a trip, just the two of us, since we went to Europe when I was 4 months pregnant with Owen.  We love traveling together, so we were both thrilled about a little getaway.

We stayed at the Drake Hotel and it was gorgeous! 

We landed, checked in at the hotel, and then headed straight to U.S. Cellular Field to watch the Rangers play the White Sox.  Wade decided years ago that he was going to try to visit all of the major league baseball stadiums in the United States.  He buys a baseball from each stadium as a memento of his visit.  His baseball display is almost complete.  He hadn't been to U.S. Cellular Field yet, though, so this was the perfect opportunity.  :)

We had awesome seats - two rows behind the Rangers dugout.  Unfortunately, it was blazing hot (105 degrees!) and the Rangers lost.  Boo!  We still had a great time and managed to hop back on the subway just before it started raining.  Wade's strategy to beat the crowds paid off big time!

 We got cleaned up and went to a super yummy dinner.  Then we went to see the Blue Man Group at Briar Street Theater.  We really didn't know what to expect, as we had never seen them before.  It was a fun show!  There was a little bit of tacky humor, which was disappointing because I kept thinking about how much Clayton would have enjoyed it if it weren't for that.  :(

Of course, Wade got called out of the audience to stand up and wave to the crowd.  (What is it with my family getting picked for the audience participation portion of shows???)  He was a good sport, and we had a great time together.

 After a wonderful night's sleep, we woke up and strolled down Michigan Avenue.  We ate and shopped our way through the Magnificent Mile.  Ha!  We had popcorn from Garrett's for breakfast, shopped at the mall area (including the Lego store, of course), shared a hot dog at Portello's, split a small stuffed pizza at Giordano's, and saw a few sights along the way.  It was a really fun way to spend our day.  :)

There was so much that we didn't have time to do - the architecture boat tour, the Bean and Millennium Park, the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium...  We have lots of reasons to go back!  It was a really neat city, and I look forward to visiting there again.  It was a fun, whirlwind anniversary trip, and I am so grateful that Wade took the initiative to plan it.  Thanks, Babe!

July 4th

My, oh my...  I am way behind on the ole blog.  My goal is to do some retro-blogging this week and get caught up.  I really do enjoy blogging and love that my boys will have a permanent record of their childhood memories.  But... we have been really enjoying our summer.  It pains my heart to think about Clayton going back to school in a little over a month.  My Drew will start preschool just a few weeks after that.  I have loved having all of my kids home - sleeping late, playing hard, swim days, seeing friends, not worrying about school work.  It has been heavenly!  I just haven't been able to squeeze blogging into the mix...  :)

Wade planned a super fun belated anniversary trip for July 5th & 6th.  We knew that we would be packing and such on the 4th, so we celebrated on the 3rd.

My Yankee Doodle Boys  :)

We went to the Fort Worth Cats game on July 3rd and stayed for the fireworks afterwards.  The Hunts joined us and Brent & Luke were at the game, too.  It was fun celebrating with our buds.  :)  The Cats won and there were some great fireworks after the game.  It was a great night!

One of the players gave Drew a high 5.  He was a pretty star struck little 3 year old.  ;)

Happy Birthday, America!  We are so blessed to live in the land of the FREE and the home of the BRAVE!