Monster Trucks and Nachos

A while ago (I think it was January but I'm not exactly sure), Cody and Owen went to see Monster Trucks with our good friends, Andy and Ben.  This is the second year they've gone and all the boys seem to enjoy going.  Owen loves it, though I'm pretty sure his favorite part is the concessions.  He takes after his mama in that respect.  My mom still talks about the times Dad would ask me if I wanted to go to different games with him and my brother.  I would quickly ask, "Is there going to be a concession stand?"  If Dad said no, I replied with, "I think I'll just stay home with Mom."  What can I say?  I like a good concession stand.

I'm getting off-topic here so I'll just get on with the photos.

The sound of the trucks is so loud that the boys have to wear noise-reducing headphones.  I'm slightly shocked that Owen has no problem leaving them on the entire time.

Nacho Heaven

Have you ever seen a cuter nacho face?

Thanks to Andy and Ben for a great afternoon!

Halloween in the Middle of November

My apologies to Grandma Lynn, to whom I told these would be up yesterday.  I think she knows me pretty well by now, though. ;)

Just like last year, we headed over to Pella to trick-or-treat with our good friends, The Knoxes.  I was pretty worried about how Cameron would do since he typically goes to bed around 7 or 7:30pm.  A late night is 8pm for him!  Thankfully, I got him to take a nap late in the afternoon and he was a perfect little angel all through trick-or-treating!  It really couldn't have gone better if I'd written the scenario out myself!

Cameron, Owen, Jason, and Brandon--this was the best I could get with all 4 of them.  As you can see, Cameron wasn't a fan of his hood.  Thankfully he left it on just long enough to get a few pictures. 

Is he the cutest little dog or what?  Notice Mickey had to join us for the evening!

The Fire Fighter and his Dalmation Dog

The first house.  Brandon was so cute running with the big boys!  He would say, "Wait for me!" when they got too far ahead of him.

Our little doggie just sat in his stroller cuddling with his blankie and enjoy some Cheerios.  Our little dog even stayed true to his costume at one of the houses when there was a big dog tied up outside barking at him.  He giggled endlessly everytime the dog would bark and then he started barking back at him to get the dog barking even more!  Then he would giggle more!  It was the cutest thing and I wish I'd gotten it on video!

These were on the porch of one of the houses we went to.  I thought the Mr. Potato Head pumpkins were so cute!  And much less messy and easier for little ones than traditional carving.

After the boys collected their loot, we made our way back to Chuck and Dawn's house to enjoy a little dessert that Owen and I had made:

This was Owen's idea and we had so much fun making it together!

Cameron not being much of a cake fan (I'm officially starting to question if he's actually my child), had a ball playing with all the Knox boys' toys.  I couldn't resist how cute he looked in his costume so I had to take a few photos.

I'm pretty sure your house would burn down if this fire fighter was on the job, but isn't he too cute?

I believe this concludes our Halloween festivities.  Who knows, maybe I'll even get Thanksgiving photos up before December starts!  A big thank you to the Knoxes for letting us crash their neighborhood again!

Wrigley and Soldier Field in the same weekend?!?!

Yes, my husband was, indeed, in sports fan heaven. Not only did he and Owen get to watch the Bears practice at Soldier Field, it just so happened that the Iowa Cubs were playing a game at Wrigley Field that weekend, too. I, of course, thought this was too much to pack into one weekend but what do I know? Cody really wanted to take advantage of this because, like the Bears game, it was a cheap way to take Owen to Wrigley Field.

Ginna got to join in on the fun this time around.

Are they cute or what?

The next couple of pictures are a prime example of what we are going through these days in trying to get a good picture of Owen. Kid will not look at the freaking camera to save his life. Drives me nuts!

Oh well, at least that's a good one of Matt and Gianna! The real reason Cody wanted to go to this game was because after the game was over, all the kids in attendance got to run the bases. Yeah, Owen was excited about it but Cody was over the moon.

"I got to touch the ivy," was all he kept telling me. I'm surprised he was able to concentrate long enough to get pictures of the kids running the bases. I'm also surprised he didn't just take off and run with them!

The kids were allowed to run from first to home and then they were done. Come on, do you think that stopped our Owen? Of course not! He kept right on running, rounding home and making his way back to first! Here he is being instructed to go back to his father, that man over there who is drooling over the ivy and trying to think of a way to take some of it home, too busy to collect his son once he got to home base.

Once again, a good time was had by all. I'm just not sure who had more fun--the die-hard-Cubs-fans Daddies or the kids!

Fun Times with Good Friends

Imagine our surprise when, a few months ago, our good friends, Matt and Susie, called and said they wanted to spend their family vacation in Iowa this summer. We don't exactly have people knocking down our door coming to visit us so we were in complete shock when, not only did they want to come visit, they wanted to use precious summer vacation time to do it. We were so excited about having visitors other than our parents and couldn't wait to have Matt, Susie, and their great kids, Dominic (6), Gianna (4), and Philip (2) at our house for an extra-long weekend. Owen was beside himself with excitement!

For those of you who don't know (or who have mom-nesia like me and can't remember anything), Cody grew up with Susie and her brothers and sister. Although the O'Brien household was already packed to the brim with 5 children, the O'Briens treated Cody like he was one of their own. There was even one year that Mama O'Brien insisted Cody be in their family picture! When all the kids met Matt in high school, Susie started dating him and he become one of Cody's best friends. The best part about this is that now our children have another set of grandparents, and a host of aunts, uncles, and cousins, who are all very special to us. They are the kind of friends who are more like family than friends and those are just the best kind of friends to have!

Matt, Susie, and the kids arrived on a Thursday night and stayed until Sunday. We packed the weekend with lots of activites and both the kids and the adults had a great time! Our first stop was the Science Center of Iowa, located in Des Moines, where the kids had an entire afternoon of hands-on, scientific fun!

Owen tries to operate a crane



Philip tried his hand at it, too.

They even had a train table there and you know my children gravitated to it like they were being pulled by some sort of magnetic force toward it. They can spot a train table from a mile away!

Gianna enjoyed a little lego-building time with her daddy, Matt.

The oldest of the bunch, Dominic, showed us just how big he is really getting!

What a face! And this little guy has a personality to match it! He is so cute and funny!

This was, without a doubt, Cameron's favorite activity of the day. It was a spiral thing with golf balls. You put the golf balls in the top and watch them spin around to the bottom. He could have stayed there all day!

Owen and Gianna behind the curtain getting ready to put on a puppet show. These two are only a few days apart and are just so darn cute together!

Gianna hanging out in a tube. She might be the only girl in the bunch, but she can hold her own with those boys!

Dominic does his best to reel in a big one!

Uncle Matt helping Owen and Gianna measure their fish that they "caught."

Cameron plays with Lego blocks bigger than he is!

A great time was had by all! I have so many good photos of our weekend together that I decided to split them up into a few different posts. Stay tuned for more!

"The" Adventureland

Pella Corp. sponsored another Adventureland Day this year, something they do every other year for all their employees. We told Owen we were going and he kept saying, "We're going to "the" Adventureland," or "an" adventureland, as though we live in some mystical land. I guess that's what too much "Dora the Explorer" will do to a kid. But I digress. We got there around 11am and met up with our good friends, Chuck and Dawn, and their two boys, Jason (5) and Brandon (18mos.). Here are a few shots I got amidst the madness of a theme park with 4 kids:

The big boys taking Brandon on his first ride.

Dawn and Brandon on the Chuck Wagon ferris wheel.

Jason and Owen on the Frog Hopper. Owen LOVED this ride! He giggled the whole time!


The Dads taking the big boys on Raging River.

Trapped in his stroller most of the day, but he didn't care!

So here are a few pictures of Owen when we went 2 years ago. You just don't realize how grown-up they are until you look at an older picture of them doing the same thing! Look at my little baby!

We thought we would last til about 3 or 4pm but we ended up leaving the park at 7pm! We couldn't believe everyone lasted that long! We were just having such a good time. It was the best weather we've ever had while there and all the kids stayed in fairly good moods. Thanks to Pella and Chuck, Dawn, Jason, and Brandon for a great day!

Another Fun Vacation with the Elricks & the Calverts

This year marked our second trip to the Ozarks with my two best friends and their families. I think it was even better than last year! We had a weekend jam-packed with fun stuff including shopping for ladies, fishing for the guys, a water park, and Miner Mike's. The kids had a great time together and kept us on our toes all weekend. I had a hard time choosing a few pictures so get ready for a picture overload!

Just a boy fishing with his daddy.

Good buds, Logan and Owie

Dusty, Logan, Jack, and Ted

Owen and his beloved "Cars" fishing pole. He keeps telling people that he caught a worm. ;)

Molly, Chelle, and Logan being silly with his underwear on his head

Rub-a-Dub-Dub! Owen, Logan, and Madeline splish splashin'!

We managed to get a few more pictures of the adults this year as all we had last year were pics of the kids! Of course, Logan was in this one because he likes to stay up late with the grown-ups!

Molly and Ted relaxing.

The beautiful sunrise on the lake. The boys rented a pontoon boat to fish and headed out around 6am on Sunday morning.

Teddy and his fish. Or is that his bait? hee hee!

Dusty's fish next to the cooler to show you exactly how big it was. :)

The city boy with his first fish! That's right, my hubby had never been fishing before so he was determined to go this time around. I think Dusty got a kick out of "teaching" Cody how to fish.

When the guys got back, the older boys and Maddy got to go on the boat with the Mommies. Thanks to Uncle Ted for sticking behind with the younger napping boys.

Logan driving the boat.

Owen's turn!

And don't forget Jack-Jack!

A rare pic of Owen and Mommy.

Cameron hanging out in his stroller at the water park. He HATED the water. It also didn't help that he started cutting his first tooth while we were gone so he was a little crabby! But he did pretty well overall.

The happy boy in his stroller at Miner Mike's. Contrary to what the pictures seem to show, we did take him out of the stroller a few times over the weekend. :)

Cody, Owen, and Logan riding the bumper cars. As you can see, Owen couldn't drive so Cody had to hitch a ride and help him.

Maddy loved this car. Notice her pigtails--every morning her mommy would do them for her and then she'd come to us and say, "Look!" and just stand there until you told her how cute they were. Definitely a woman in training! :)

Jack claiming his loot.
Owen making Mason smile. He is such a little cutie!

Owen shows off all his tickets!

"Choo-choo!!!!"

We were sad to see the weekend come to end but I think maybe all the parents needed a vacation from our vacation! Can't wait for next year!