Another Summer Adventure

Big daddy took the B boy and totally abandoned me hit the road to good ole Great Bend. They spent 3 fun filled days and nights in GB. I suffered quietly at home all alone....are you kidding it was totally awesome! Quiet. No messes. 100% me time. My own schedule. Oh, it was like Calgon took me away...Sorry, enough about me and more about their trip.

Steve planned quite a bit for the B boys while in his stomping grounds from his youth. They went to Vet's Park and Lucas nearly killed himself on the tank. Huge not on his head from trying to jump to grab onto the barrel of the tank. Not a good idea. They visited Grandpa Ben's farm. There they collect rocks, learned to skip rocks, hiked, toured the the old farm buildings (one of them was covered in decomposed cow poop which per Lucas was the highlight), and Logan shot his first gun...it was a BB gun...which is a total miracle that I said yes to that! They loved the visit to the farm!! They went fishing and totally suckered Grandma into buying them more fishing tackle. They visited the GB zoo. They built bird house's with Grandpa. They ate like kings and played hard.

They loved their visit to GB!

1,2,3, 4 get your woman on the floor...

This song is on Steve's play list and of course the boys sing it all the time. You know, 'cuz it's super appropriate. So after this bath (which is allegedly supposed to clean the boys)
we got to witness this amazing dance session kicked of by K-Diddy. The little nudey was signing as he got his jambos on and then started busting out some sweet dance moves. So Steve backed them up with the song and I pulled out the camera to video. Ahhhh, a normal day in our house...

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Washable

It's amazing how quickly the B boys can cause me problems. This morning after Steve got the boys spit shine for church, my sweet little Lucas walks up to me with a marker and says, "Mom, is this washable? I can't tell 'cuz I can't read yet." I tell him, "Yup, whatcha planning on doing?", I ask. "Nothin'. Just coloring." So I say, "K. Don't make any big messes as we are going to leave in a little bit." "K, Mom", says my innocent little man. About 10 minutes later I holler at them to come down stairs to brush their teeth and walk out the door. The response I get, "K. We're coming but, Kale has red marker on his face (failing to mention that he had blue marker on his face)...but it's washable!" Are you kidding me???? Clean-up was quick but give me a break. These kids are 5 & 3 and are totally aware of the "Don't write on skin" rule I have. Come on!

Fishermen

So fishing is still a current obsession. Saturday we spent the after on our friends docks grillin', eatin', and of course...fishin'. Kale has some fine tuning yet to do with his technique. Logan caught a fish and had lots of bites. Lucas was off searching for a snapping turtle or snake or something equally as dangerous. Of course, we did some tubing and swimming and watching our friend Chris barefoot and slalom ski like a pro.

Naturals Game

Inspired by my friend Amy, we ventured out to Wranglers Naturals game. The weather was beautiful and the boys were very good. Kind of a sweet spot! Doesn't hurt that we got a BOGO on the tickets and a free kids meal for each of the boys. I will tell you, that Arvest ball park dogs are nothing compared to a foot long at the Rockies stadium. The evening was full of

Great ball playing

Steve avoiding the breast feeding mother in front of him

A dancing & singing Lucas

A game watching Logan

A snacking, Strike Fearing Kale

Autographs on new mini bats

A win for the Naturals

Sassy

Sassy is the word I would use to describe this little man.

Geez, a momma can't do anything right for him but yet I can't leave his side. In church this little angel not so quietly whispers to me that he is going to take one of his shoes off 'cuz it hurts

his big toe. I agree to his terms and view the injured toe. Now if I squinted my eyes just right and dangled the toe in direct sunlight, there many have been the tiniest of red marks on that toe. The loving mother that I am, I lean over and gently kiss that big toe and pat his foot. The drama king loudly scream, "Why did you have to do that? You're a meanie!" Then tries to hit me. Really I just can't when with him. The behavior absolutely had nothing to do with needing a nap, because he doesn't need one. Just ask him. This is what we had at 5:30 later that night.

Saint Lucas

Last night we ate dinner at Las Palmos Mexican Restaurant. We were seated in the back of the restaurant right next to a water fountain. While this very water feature was not plugged in and running, it was a point of focus for the B boys. While testing the bottomless chips and salsa offer, the boys asked tons of questions re the water fountain. Most of the questions were the exact same question just worded differently. Why is it here and why does it have water in it? After just nibbling on their dinner (due to a belly full of chips), Lucas quietly gets down from the table, walks right up to the fountain and dips his fingers in the water. He then does the sign of the cross and shouts AMEN! Well, it wasn't holy water and we weren't at mass but at least he did demonstrate that he has picked up on something from going to church!

Quote of the day

"HEY MOM, I'M LISTENING TO AMERICAN BAD ASS"

Logan, on the way to church

Logan lands a big one!

Yesterday we spent the evening on the lake tied up with 3 other boats (our biggest tie up ever!). Logan was especially in heaven as two of the boats were his buddies from school that he hadn't seen in a while. Everyone hit the jackpot as they all had friends there. Logan had Logan & Connor, Lucas had Preston & Greer, Greer had Madeline and Andrea (Connor's step sisters) and Kale had his momma. Dang that boy was needy yesterday (it's probably just because I'm so fabulous and had nothing to do with all my traveling. Yeah, yeah that's the story.) Well since the Rabens were there and they live on the lake (Literally. Their dock is just around the corner from our favorite cove.) they had us uncomfortably close to the shore. No sightings of snakes or brown trout! But what it did allow was the boys to do some fishing. Logan Raben played Grandad and got every one's hooks baited and the fish taken off the hooks. Glad he was there to do it. Not that I couldn't have, 'cuz I could if I wanted to. This girl can fish. Logan caught 2 perch and was pretty freakin' proud of himself. Kale and Lucas just man handled the fish that were caught. Logan Raben took home a perch to put in his fish tank and tried to convince my Logan he needed to do the same. Being the totally mean parent that I am, I squashed that idea out quickly. Are you kidding me?!

Evening time on the Beaver is the best time to be on the lake. All other boaters were heading in for dinner as we headed out with our pizzas. When all the boats are off it's so quiet and calm and you feel like you own the lake. Love it! The kids all got to tube. Logan took a major wipe out on Connor's rolling tube. Chris (Logan R's dad) bare footed (so awesome!) and Murray (Connor's step mom) wake surfed (awesome as well). When the lake is super crowded it's tough to do all those things. I did not try anything new and different as I am still recovering from my wake boarding attempts from last week.

Perfect weather, perfect company, perfect night on the lake.

So hot & humid

What else is there to do but dig the baby pool out from underneath the deck and soak in freezing cold water straight from the well.

What's that I see?

Oh it's Logans face. The boy has an aversion to haircuts and he was darn right shaggy. Tried to convince him to shave it or sport a mohawk but he wouldn't bite. In fact he know about how many days until school starts and thought he could get away with not getting it cut until then. Well a little bribe got him in the barber chair. While the hair cut is not drastic, you can once again see a little bit more of the boys beautiful face.

Lucas busts off the training wheels

My man is on the verge of being a bike rider. He's just over 5 and he was more than ready...his parents just kind off dropped the ball on initiating this. Well this weekend we picked that ball right up and got him going. Yesterday was the first attempt...and he was a little too big for his bike. Before we could even try Lucas took care of safety first. He demanded that he have elbow and knee pads in addition to the helmet. For a kid who zips around on his scooter a the speed of light he was very cautious about his speed on his bike. He did really well. Today we got after it again. He is very determined and worked hard at it today. He can now get him self started and ride in several circles on the new driveway. I figure by the end of the week he will be a pro and shed those knee pads for good. He took them off once and scratched a knee up.

WAY TO GO LUCAS!

The eve of Independence Day

HaPpY 4th of JuLy...a DaY eArLy!!!!

We celebrated Independence a day early. 'Cuz that's how we roll. It was a fabulous holiday if I say so myself. To help us celebrate, the Kasey's and the Zach rolled into town on the night of the 2nd. As soon as Kamry showed her sweet self she instantly had 5 faces right in her very own. She took it in stride and very wide eyed! We played a mean game of baggo until everyone quit 'cuz Kasey and I were totally dominating. Finally about midnight we thought it wise to call it a night as we had big plans for the next day. We had orginally planned to head to the lake around nine-ish but due to hungover adults & tired kidsthe rain we had a bit of late start. Which was good as it gave the Simply Elegant crew plenty of time to whip up the best sandwich with deli spread to boot for our day on the lake. So good! Once our weather spotter, Eagle Eye Ryno, gave us the go ahead we headed out into the sprinkles to begin the lake portion of our day. With a new tube in tow that Kasey and I selected (after much debate from Steve on what make the perfect tube) we had our sea legs on. The big boys and I jumped in the McAllister boat and we headed to our normal spot. While we had a cool, cloud covered start I still lost the battle with sun and got a little burn. I can't win this year! We spend the next 8 hours floating in the lake...I would have more pix but you have to actually get out of the water to use my crappy Kodak camera so I just got 2 pictures. I'm worthless, I know. Kamry took to the lake like a champ. Not a complaint from her once. Although I do think a shirtless Don did slightly confuse her! Speaking of confusing, that was the theme for the games Kassy had us playing. Eventually the kids convinced us to drag them around the cove in the tube. Now of the kids skied although I did try to convince Em but no luck. Steve was a master behind the wheel as Don, Ryan & Zach barely survived the new tube. Apparently the B family will be getting Zach a new hip. BTW, Steve did admit the tube we got was pretty good. Hello...we knew that! Zach wake boarded and Ryno and I got an E for Effort on the wake board. More like B for bruises! After about 8 hours on the water, it was time to head in. Logan and I tubed back to the marina through the main channel of the lake which was a big deal for my man. Once back on land and at the home front, Steve manned the grilled and put out about 20 lbs of wings. Drew and Bunnie appeared just in time loaded with pizza. Ambers chocolate chip bundt cake was a hit! We ate like kings! When the Big Man in the sky finally turned out the lights the boys lead the kids through a magnificent fireworks show. We only had to run for our lives twice, thus I call the show a success. The artillery shells and Ryno's 300 missile launcher were the highlights of the show. Of course Baggo was always going on in the background. With a foot faulting Drew as a partner Kasey dominated again. Kassy had a few run ins with the shine due to her repeated losses. In addition, Zach and Kasey went for a Darwin award but racing 2 big wheels down the monster hill. Thankfully no one had to be rushed to the ER, but Bunnie and I were on high alert. Eventually everyone got tire of winning and the short people got tired so we called it night. Zach and Steve closed it down. A good time was had by all. Thanks for coming Kaisers, Johnstons & McAllisters. We missed you Jam-O. Until next year!