The Boys Room

Sound asleep in bed ... 1st night a success!

Jackson at first fell asleep on the floor - notice all the books and his hats (actually Luke's hats that Jackson now wants) all by him.

Brendan all asleep in the bottom bunk.

It was time - time to get the boys in one room.  I'm anxious to start getting the nursery all ready for the baby.  Brendan has kindly plastered the wall with his handprints as he gets into things in the changing table so the room needs a new coat of paint.  And part of me was anxious to see what the boys would do once they started sharing a room.  We had planned on the boys sharing a room and eventually the race car bed will make it's way into the room so that if a certain Aunt Sara comes to spend the night she can have a bed (plus two roommates now!).  So, last weekend we put Brendan in the bottom bunk after doing a lot of talking up the idea of them sharing a room.  I was surprised that the adjustment was this easy.  My favorite part was the first couple mornings when they'd both be standing at the top of the stairs together in the morning.  It's almost like they've created this new bond with each other as well - not that they don't fight anymore but they have started playing together more often. 

Binder Park Zoo

Feeding the giraffes - there was hardly anyone there so it was perfect!

Brendan was excited to ride the "train" to Africa.  He thought it was pretty cool to sit by himself without a car seat.

And here's our typical Jackson picture - hat sideways and a goofy grin!

Of course there's no way that they'd both look at the camera but they did both want a picture by this bird statue.

Thank goodness Luke comes along to take them into the petting zoo area!  Jackson was brave enough to brush the animals.

On Saturday we decided to brave the weather and head to Binder Park Zoo.  Thank goodness we did as it didn't rain while we were there at all and it felt like we had the zoo to ourselves at first.  In fact, as we drove in, Luke and I both commented that we felt like we were at Wally World because the parking lot was practically empty and the zoo had already been open for an hour!  Betsy, Lauryn and Evan joined us there and the kids loved seeing all the animals and playing together.  Us adults had a lot of laughs too as we watched the kids enjoying their time together. 

Last Vacation of the Summer

An attempted family picture when we went to Grand Haven ... someday we might all be looking at the camera:)

We spent the week before school started at the Conference Grounds with good friends of ours.  It turned out to be a wonderful week to just get away and have some time to relax before the craziness of the school year began.  The weather was great too - we started the week a bit cool but the kids had a great time playing and it was kind of nice because the cottages there don't have air conditioning.  In fact, at one point we turned on the fireplace!  I can't say enough about how perfect it was staying in the cottages at the Conference Grounds - we had plenty of room, felt like we were camping yet were able to have a few more conveniences than we would've had if we would've been in our trailer.  The kids stayed really busy going to Bible school there, playing at the park, playing with their toys outside, and of course swimming.  Jackson has become so much more confident in the water ever since swimming lessons and by the end of the week he was swimming underwater to retrieve toys.  What great memories we made and now we're back to the routines of the school year (at least for 11 more weeks!). 

There are actually moments when Jackson likes to smile for the camera. 

Luke and the boys before Luke's run at the Conference Grounds. 

A priceless picture - Luke in the kitchen!  Although he's making fried mushrooms... Yuck!

Making the tie-dyed shirts

Playing in the sand on our last day at the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Kitten

Jackson and his buddy Snowflake (named after the guinea pig that died earlier this year).  I love his outfit too - the tie dyed shirt, striped shorts and sideways hat .... I did not pick that out:)  

 

Right before we left for vacation, Luke came across some stray kittens while working.  Of course he thought the boys would love a kitten (and I have to admit he was right in thinking that) but it was the last thing that I wanted at our house as I'm not much of an animal person.  Regardless, we let it stay in the garage and the boys loved playing outside with Snowflake.  Jackson would walk him through the trail in the woods, give him rides in the gator and carry him all around.  After realizing that the kitten was peeing all in the garage and it was starting to really smell, Luke decided to bring it back to where he found it.  Jackson thinks that he wanted to go back to his mommy so he was okay with it.  It kind of helped that we are now dog sitting Bailey (a dog that Jackson absolutely adores) so his mind is off the kitten and now onto Bailey.  It was fun while it lasted and one good thing came out of the kitten - Luke scrubbed the floors in the garage after it left! 

Freezer Meals

Jackson wanted to help label all the meals so he put post-its on the tin foil to let us know who got each meal.

All 12 meals completed!  Each of us took home 6 good sized meals so in actuality we get 12 meals each.

Brendan and Isaac - best buds!

Last week Thursday, my friend Lori and I got together to make some freezer meals for when school starts.  We started cooking around 5pm and had made 12 meals made by 7:30pm.  It was a great feeling to know that we had all that work done!  And of course the conversations we had while making them made it go even quicker.  We've decided this might have to become a ritual now especially since Luke and Scott did such a great job taking care of all the boys while we were working (although we reminded them that they were benefiting from the meals!). 

Camping Again

We spent last week camping at Sandy Pines with my sister (although we didn't get any pictures of her with the boys!).  Luke would come out at night to hang out with us but it was pretty much sister time and kid time.  My mom came out one of the days with Cohen and Easton and it was fun watching the boys all play together (and they were ALL exhausted that night too!).  We had beautiful weather - cool in the morning, warm at the beach and then sweatshirt weather at night.  Unfortunately Brendan decided that 6:30am was a great time to wake up so we were pretty exhausted while we were there.  There's not too much you can do at 6:30 in the morning at a campground - everything was wet with dew.  We didn't have neighbors camping next to us until the last night so the boys had plenty of room for playing baseball and they were able to ride their bikes.  The best part though was just being able to spend time with my sister and catch up.  She's busy working and going to get her masters so any time we get with her is special. 

Camping with VanDerKolks

Lucas and Jackson had fun going down the slide at the water park.  Last year Jackson was more hesitant with the slide but this year he loved it and kept wanting to go down it again and again and again.

I love this little guy!  The pajamas that he's wearing are his favorite outfit and he'll often wear them all day long (a battle that I would rather not fight when we stay home).  He can't get enough of camping and I think if it was possible he would live at the campground all summer.  

Brendan thought he was big stuff sitting by the fire at night.  Notice he's wearing a sweatshirt because it actually cooled down a bit at night - I love nights like that while camping!

Luke loves fires and both his boys are just like him.  They had fun putting the wood in so Luke could start it and then had to side by him with the peanuts so they could throw the shells in the fire when they were done with them.

Last weekend we finally were able to go camping with the VanDerKolks.  We had talked about it all last summer but it just never worked out so we finally got a date on the calendar for this year.  After our last camping trip, we were unsure that we ever wanted to camp again because so many things went wrong with the trailer and Brendan didn't do much sleeping. This time however was completely different.  Things went great with the trailer and Brendan took his nap everyday and slept well each night (not saying he slept long in the morning but it wasn't too bad).  We had a wonderful lot - lots of shade, close to the bathroom, room for the boys to play and in an area where Jackson could easily ride his bike while we watched him.  And we had great friends there as well.  It was interesting because I used to go along on vacation with Jon and Lisa to watch their kids and now this time they were such a bit help to us.  They are certainly a blessing in our lives!  Lots of memories made and lots of laughs!