Family reunion June 2009

Over Father's Day weekend we took a trip to Iowa for a family reunion.

On Saturday morning we met up with some of the cousins and aunts and uncles for breakfast. The train track runs right by there and the kids saw a train. (ok-two engines and no cars) Well, six faces were pressed to the window as the engines stopped at Hardees! I guess engineers need to eat too! He came in got his food and asked if they wanted to see the train! Of course, so he took the kids out to get in the train! That man absolutley made their day!

The Long Family Reunion

Here we all are! My dad and his brother and three sisters and all the spouses! The cousins-I think only 3 of us were missing. And notice, Cale is the only male among us! And a cute stairstep of all the 2nd cousins. (I remember when we were little our own stairstep cousin pictures growing up) The only one missing in this pic is Indy-she was hiding in the back! And we even got a picture of all the "outlaw" cousins.

We had fun visiting and watching the little kids have fun together. They played on the playground took turns with fiching poles and some of them even caught fish! They played ball and played with bubbles and moon sand! Most of them didn't even remember ever meeting before but they all became fast friends. Ahhh-the joys of childhood!

Luke and Emily became cute little friends-even if he did try to give her everything out of her diaper bag! SO CUTE! Noah fell in love with Shanna. i think the kicher was when she took him to the deeper end of the swimming pool Saturday afternoon. The morning after we got home he asked if he could ride a plane to see his "friend" Shanna.

I really hope we can do this more often. I always loved my summer vacations in Iowa and I know the boys will love it too! I love that even though we are so far away we can still be close with the family. Even Rick said he wanted to stay longer next time so the boys could do more. Can't wait til next time!

Chicago

Let me begin this blog by saying I know 35 of the greatest women ever! I "met" most of them five years ago. We belong to a message group and met while we were trying to concieve. Lots of us have kids that are all the same age. Lots of us had trouble concieving. We have all become very close! This year was our 2nd annual get together. Last year we did Memphis, this year we did Chicago. It was great seeing everyone again. There were only 9 of this year but we had fun. One of the girls surprised us saying she couldn't make it, but flew in for the weekend. One of the girls even flew in from London for the weekend (with her 14 week old baby) just to see us! Oh and his name is Noah! He is the second most adorable Noah I have ever met. ;)

We didn't do much sightseeing but ate and drank and visited lots. Which of course was the point of our get together! We did walk down Michigan avenue and we ate Bennihanas. For those who know me that is quite an amazing task for me. I tried new food. And I do not care for zucchini! Or whatever it is that I tried that the chef called jumping worms. he said it was some sort of potato and I love them so I tried....ewwww is all I can say! Jenni, Kristin, and Mandy (above) Jacki, Alicia, and Jenni (below)

Sioban and I

We also shopped at Ikea and The legoland store! I HAD to go and buy the boys special presents.

10 years!

Rick and I celebrated 10 years of marriage on may 29th. Sometimes it feels like yesterday that we got married and other times it feels like we have been together forever. Just some random things I remeber from our wedding day. We almost ran into each other outside the sanctaury. It was a perfect memorial day weekend with no rain in sight! I didn't cry at all during the cermony! (I cry at everything but didn't that day) It is by far the happiest day of my life. Followed closely by the birth of our beautiful children, because we wouldn't have the kids if we didn't have the wedding.

We had a big BBQ with some of our family and friends. It was great to have some of my best friends all at my house at one time! I never get to see them all at once! (man I need a girls weekend with them) Nikki made an awesome cake for us! She even made the top tier all white just for me! She made all these cute little figurines to put on our cake that represent the last 10 years of our life. Lighthouses, computers, and a scraapbook just to name a few! It was delicious!

Memorial Day

Well, we had big plans to go to the zoo on Memorial Day, unfortunately the weather was not very cooperative! The chance of rain was too great so we opted for the science center instead. On the way there Noah asked where we were...I wasn't sure what he meant and told him St. Louis. He responded, "then where's the arch?" He is so smart and funny! I had to snap a picture of the arch just for him! It actually turned into a very long day with some nice weather in between bouts of rain. We ended up at the Science Center, turtle park, and a stop at the zoo! The boys had fun outside at the science center and we saw the big statue dinosaurs. We posed for a few pictures before Ethan heard the thunder and we were told it wasn't safe to be outside. So back inside we went to leave...it looked rather nice out despite the thunder....so we decided to go to turtle park!Turtle park is right across the interstate from the zoo. It consists of three large turtle sculptures and a few little ones. You can climb all over them and we have visited before. This was Emily's first time and as we were walking I started remembering that the small statues were named after the creator's children and I was sure there was an Emily. sure enough there it was the little turtle named Emily! I made the decision right then that hse need to have her picture taken on her statue every year! (now I hope I can do it)

The weather was holding out on us. We decided since we (read I) had promised Noah we could go pet the sting rays that we would go to the zoo! We got there and walked through the river's edge and saw lots of animals. Noah was very impatient though and kept asking about the sting rays. He was so happy when we finally saw the pavillion! Both boys did such a good job! I was so surprised that Ethan put his hand in to touch the rays, with Noah there was no surprise. noah would have got in the tank if they would let him! We wee lucky to be there during feeding time so we bought little bits of fish and shrimp....Noah tried so hard to feed them but you have to be under them and he just couldn't get his arm in deep enough! So, YAY mommy got to feed them! It was really neat though. This would be the time that Rick noticed it was pouring down rain and the stroller was getting wet. He and Em left to go retrieve it. The boys and I soon followed and we ran to lakeside cafe. Emily loved running and seemed to love getting wet in the rain. We decided to leave and of course the rain had stopped by the time we got to the zoo enterance!

All in all it was a wonderful day!

Holiday World

There are a few high points in the last few months!

Over mother's day weekend we went to Santa Claus Indiana. Wendy and Bryan and the girls went with us and we had a wonderful time at Holiday World.

It is such a great family park! We had free soda and sunscreen all day! The tickets were so reasonably prices. We spent the day there for right about $100! We had no need to buy many souveniers (I have introduced the boys to squished pennies!) The kids loved everything!!! It was nice for the boys to have friends to do things with! Noah and Olivia fell in love with the canoe ride! I think they rode it 20 times, the lines were short and a few times they even got to pick what color canoe they wanted! Ethan and Amber and I rode the scrambler....Ethan did not like it! he said he felt so sick. He did recover quickly though. His favorite ride was Gobbler Getaway...a turkey shooting ride! And all the kids loved the bumper boats! They rode those at the warmest part of the day...and that wasn't very warm.
Emily had a big weekend! She was an angel at the park! She slept most of the day and was happy when she was awake! She had her first taste of ice cream, and boy did she love it! You know the saying I scream....well she screamed her happy little high pitch scream until we gave her more. Here is what she looked like when she was done!

We had a great time camping in our little cabin and Wendy was nice enough to give us the bedroom so we could set up Em's playpen. The kids all slept upstairs in a loft with 3 twin mattresses all pushed together. They were in heaven!

We can't wait to go back again next year!

Catch Up!!!

Ok so the story goes, I broke my laptop. I think I fried it, we sent it in and got it fixed under warranty. Thank goodness! But my computer was wiped clean...Rick got most stuff off but I lost all that had to do with the blog, and I just couldn't figure it out! I'm so illeterate when it comes to the computer.

So I figured I would just say the highlights of the last couple of months.

Emily has learned so much! She is mastering walking right now. just tonight she was pulling her walker behind her.

Ethan finished 1st grade with flying colors. His teacher made a slide show of the year for each of her students....she is such a great teacher! Ethan learned so much!!! He is such a good reader, i am amazed...but also hate that he can read the menu on the digital TV and set reminders for when his fave shows are on!

Noah-well he's just been Noah! cute and rotten as ever!! He loves his little sister and his big brother!

We have had a wonderful year thus far and I will keep this up from now on!!!!