Chicago Children's Museum!!!

While Andrew and his family were visiting last weekend we made a trip over to Chicago. If you are ever in Chicago you HAVE to make a trip to the children's museum. It's great!! We had such a blast and the kids did too! The price may be a little steep at $10 a person (kids too - except for under one year.) BUT - if you check their site they have discount and even FREE days or half days!!! SOOOOOOO worth it even if you pay the full price. Go prepared to spend a LONNNG time the there!

The first things my boys did and LOVED was the boat/tunnel/ ladder that stretches for 3 FLOORS!! It's kind of freaky with them walking so high over your head!

Carter (of course) didn't hesitate and flew right across it!Bailey (my niece on the left) did great tooo. Hayden (he's on the right) was "overly cautious" and didn't want to walk out after climbing up... Wyatt takes after Carter and practically RAN over Hayden to the end of it..Wyatt going again... with NO ONE to slow him down!! That boy is a bulldozer to the core! Bailey again...

They loved it and since it's in the center we kept "coming back to it".... but on to the many other rooms.

The building room was a HUGE HIT with my boys... all FOUR of them
The building was a little over Wyatt's level... but they have fun little bolt puzzles that were perfect for him!
Hayden just liked dressing up like "Superman Builder Hayden"
This was the first "room" we stopped in... and we (the little boys and I) would've stayed longer, but it was SOOOOO HOT with the sun streaming in. So Wyatt (and I) got bored quickly and looked around. We found the Water Room.. and went to get Hayden .. leaving Bryan and Carter to finish their project...(Bryan didn't want to stop building. It was quite funny to see all the dads and a few moms building and the kids wandering around or gone to another room!) They took some pictures of their finished Tree house... it turned out pretty impressive...

The Water Room was a refreshing cool off after the HOT building room

This picture of Carter is blurry because that's how he spent most of the day.....in a blur running here and there!
Andrea LOVE LOVE LOVE the water....

It even tasted good... YUCK!
Hayden had his missions he was doing... Notice the plea for help in his eyes - instead Aunt Rachael took this picture... LOVE IT!

These two are trouble together!Another room was a town... with different things in the town.. grocery store... bus... auto shop...They had a "undercity" build the plumbing area that Carter spent time in... the boy is such a builder!!!Wyatt driving the ambulance..There were soooo many rooms... insect/garden, dino dig, forest, art, games, safety room...we didn't spend as much time in the rest of them... and I didn't get pictures from them either. I know if we went back there would still be so much to do...

Fire"woman" Bailey.. and Wyatt - the dog!

Fire"woman" Bailey and Hayden - the dog... why are my boys the dogs?

It was SOO much fun... we were all wiped out!!! But of course had to get a picture on Navy Pier (for the record... Rachael and I DIDN'T want to be in the picture.. Wyatt just wouldn't let me put him down!) After that we went for some great Chicago pizza at our favorite place Giordano's... GO there and get their stuffed deep dish pizza.... sooo good - one piece FILLS you up!

ONE LAST PICTURE from the day.... I loved it.. from the dino dig room... Wyatt is such a ham!!!

GAME TIME!!

On Wednesday night Carter and Bryan got to go to the University of Kentucky game at Notre Dame. They were excited to see the Wildcats and not have to travel so far!
Carter wanted to get in the game spirit... so I painted his face! He thought he was hot stuff! They took our friends teenage sons with them, plus several friends also set behind them. (The ones that sat behind them were cheering for Notre Dame!)

Even though the guys weren't UK fans on a normal basis they joined Carter in cheering them on in style!
After the game they waited outside the UK locker room and Carter was able to get his picture taken with one of the players, Patrick Patterson! I don't think Carter could stop smiling!

Even though Kentucky lost he still had a great time! (Bryan says Carter only goes for the popcorn! )

Monday Moment - Apple Pickin' Time!

Today - apple pickin' with some friends!!!!

"Nothing New"

This has been our second week of Family Camps... So there is nothing "new" going on. I think next week I'll post from each day so you can see what goes on around here for a week of "nothing new".

We did have some friends come out on Wednesday and spend the day of "nothing new" with us! We had a lot of fun and I think they did too. This is a picture of C and A (our friends) tubing!

On Thursday's we have our "Fun Fair" this is a lot of different activities and one is face painting. Hayden had a "tractor" painted on his face... then touched it... so the tractor is driving REALLY fast... backwards.... Oh well there's always next week.

I wanted to get Hayden to take a look at it and this is what he did!

Welcome to Liz and Jennifer!

I have some great friends who FINALLY broke down and started their own blogs! Check out Liz's blog (She has some crazy stories to tell... trust me! ) and Jennifer's blog (new mommy with a cute son living in the Sunshine state... just to make me jealous in January ).
Leave them a comment and welcome them into "town".

End-of-SCHOOL-year-Party?????????

SO yesterday we were "invited" to an end-of-the-school-year picnic in the park. I say "invited" because when I heard Judith was hosting one.. I said "Are we invited too?" Keep in mind Judith is a gooooooood friend, I don't invite myself to just any party! (My boys aren't in school yet, but they try to help Judith's kids avoid doing their school! How many times to they REALLY knock on your door Judith?) I'm so glad she agreed to have us come... it was so much fun - and no one needed to go to the ER! As you can see from the pictures that was a miracle in itself! Hayden did fall (off the seat of the picnic bench of all things) and got a bloody nose. He's doing better now!

Hayden with his best buddy Joel and Lynndelle (I'll have to watch Hayden and Lynndelle since He HAS to hug her whenever he sees her!)

NO this is NOT how he got the bloody nose...

remember that was from falling off the PICNIC TABLE SEAT!!!

Carter was his normal daring self... and Micah joined him!

Wyatt had the best time... and was daring in his own way... He climbed this "ladder" by himself.




The look (and shirt) say it all!

Since you couldn't be there... you can join in following Wyatt around the park !

Have a great Start to your SUMMER!

THREE THINGS

I know I know! I'm starting to post as often as Peggy :) (She is doing better than me right now!) I COULD use the excuse that my computer broke and I'm had to make due with other ones that I'm not used to... but I won't do that!
Let's see... there's not a whole lot to share... three things come to mind
1. It's "butt cold" as Emily says... we aren't as cold as where she is though! So I guess in perspective we are experiencing "spring" weather! (It's 11 degrees today, but we had -20 windchill over the weekend)
2. Judith and her family are back! It's been 6 weeks since our kids have been able to play together! (we were gone 3 weeks for Christmas - they were gone 3 weeks for a Life Action Summit in North Carolina) The boys are SOOO excited to play with them and I'm glad to have my friend back home!
3. I have to confess something - (no I'm not pregnant for those of you that it was the first thought!) I have once again started to tackle the weight battle! I'm am currently on day 4 of Phase One of South Beach. So far it's been soo hard! Especially since I still have to cook for the boys! Pray that I can be successful in this! I've been working out at home too and hope to gain some energy and just all around feel better about myself!

Resolutions! 2008

I know I know it's been a long time... way too long. I started off good with this blog, but LIFE has happened and suddenly it's a once-a-month-thing-if-I-even-get-to-it-then! It has made it more challenging now that our home computer crashed... pray about that! I've come to realize how much I depend on the internet for life, bills, and sanity!

On to this post New Year's Resolutions... do you have any? How are you doing with them!

I have a few in no particular order...

1 - lose weight - come on isn't that most people's ... well except my husband! His goal is to gain weight.

2- Be more balanced in my work and play... have fun with the kids

3 - Exercise - well you know how that one is going!

4 - Devotions - even if it's only one verse... something to focus my day better!

5- Organize that over-loaded cabinet upstairs that has all my "I'll get to it someday... scrapbooking stuff"



Pray for Wyatt - He's one sick little boy... I think He's getting better! Ever since we got home on Wednesday he's had it coming from both ends on occasion! (I'll spare the details)

Happy New Year... fresh with no mistakes... or at least only a few so far! ;)

I need to add to my earlier post... ALL THREE boys are sick... Carter and Hayden both started throwing up around 7pm... and it goes on and on and on!

1st Edition of Meet the Staff - Jimmy and Lori

Well it's been a LOT longer than I realized since I've blogged! If I'm not careful I'll turn into Kelly (just teasing sis!) I have a good excuse! Seriously it's been a CRAZY week! All three boys were sick and we are in the midst of our 2nd week of Fall Family Camp! One Wyatt picture... he climbs into and on EVERYTHING in sight!

Boys - Last week I took Wyatt to the dr. for an ear infection... which I was right about! (don't you hate it when you take them and the dr. says it's just a virus! I try to wait at least two weeks before we go for cold-like symptoms - unless I can't stand it anymore or they just aren't sleeping.) Anyway, he started to get better until on Sunday I noticed a rash on his stomach. Turns out he's allergic to amoxicillan... so now he's doing MUCH better on the other stuff! On Tuesday I took Carter in to the dr. for what I thought may be a sinus infection....nope he has walking pneumonia! After 24 hrs. on meds he's improving too... although his attitude leaves a lot to be desired! (I let him rent a car PlayStation2 game, since he couldn't be around friends for 24hrs. I think the TV/video time has effected the attitude!

Fall Family Camp - our last week of fall camp is winding down. Tonight was pretzel night... so I thought I'd post some fun pictures. Hayden and Bradley Herdklotz were having fun... so was Bryan and Jimmy (He's our camp director).

Meet the staff -

I realized as I was posting pictures that many of you don't know the staff we work with... so I'll try to introduce you to them. (For those that do know them ... this is an update or a good laugh)

Camp Director -

Jimmy and Lori Herdklotz -Jimmy is our coffee drinking, nature loving, soccer playing fearless leader! And Lori is his balance! They are our neighbors to the left of us. (Or our emergency grocery store/ babysitting service... whatever you want to call them.) They have three boys (yes there is a big age difference between Austin and Bradley - no he wasn't a surprise! I must admit they were smart with the built in babysitters now!) Bradley is one of Hayden's buddies since they are only a few months apart in age! Jonathan and Austin are Carter's buddies because he bugs them until they play with him! (They really are pretty patient with Carter and Hayden. The boys think they are so cool!)

Jimmy and Lori are also in process of adopting a little boy or girl from Ethiopia. (Pray for them as the adoption process is moving forward.) Bryan has been working along with Jimmy on special projects, usually for Lori - she is in charge of the decor' around here. It's been really neat to get to know them over the past 10 years!

One crazy fact - Jonathan was only a year older than Carter is now when Bryan and I first joined Life Action in 1997! That's wild to think about! Makes me feel old! So that's a little about them... tune in next time for another intro to someone else on staff... if I remember :) ( I guess this means I need to corner them for photo opts.)
I'll try to do better posting, but we'll see what happens!