Happy Birthday Britt!

On Memorial Day we headed over to the Johansen's to have a belated birthday celebration for Brittany.  Andy and I both had the day off and we were looking forward to spending the day together with close friends.  Our plans were quickly derailed when Ben decided to get worse instead of better.  Being the good parents that we are, we decided not to take the kid with a fever to mingle with other children.  Andy was nice enough to stay home with him so that Luke and I could enjoy some fun.  The day ended up being a bit more overcast than I was hoping and the water was super cold, but that didn't ruin our fun!!  When Luke went underwater for the first time he said, "that was a little chilly."  -- too cute!

Happy belated birthday, Britt!  You are one of my best friends and I don't know what I would do without you in my life.  Thank you for all these years of friendship!  (I remember a time when we used to take pictures of us on our birthdays, but I just realized all I got were a few shots of the boys)

 Wyatt is getting so big!

 All that is missing is our Benji!  I hope these boys grow up being the best of friends.

May Cell Phone Dump

May seemed to have flown by, especially these last 2 weeks with birthday celebrations, graduations, illnesses, and an unexpected dryer fire.  I kind of enjoy looking back at the month and reminiscing over brief moments in time.

I love pictures of my boys hugging -- especially when it was their idea :)

 I feel like we spend so much time in the car

"Mommy, I want to make a silly face."

 These boys LOVE fountains!  I suspect I will have to fish Benji out of one of these at least once during his childhood.

 What? You don't eat your toast with a fork?

 Showing off our cool new shades (Luke picked them out himself)

 Enjoying his very first cherry limeade -- super special occasion, promise :)

 "Da-tur, Da-tur, Cheese!"  This boy LOVES tractors.

Watching the workers paint Gigi's new patio cover



 Poor Ben had a full body rash and on this particular evening his bottom was bothering him.  I decided to pull his diaper down a bit to let it air.  Turns out that plumber's crack doesn't seem to bother him one bit.

 My kids love to "ride" this elephant outside of the pediatrician's office.  I try not to think about how many other sick kids did the exact same thing before we got there.

 Luke's nose met pavement at school yesterday.  He is pretty cute with his red nose.

 Is he really old enough to be doing this already?  I blame big brother.

 Sweet shot of my sick boy.  I am so happy he is finally perking up!

Camping Day #2

Surprisingly, the boys slept well in the tent (this was one of my biggest concerns).  Ben started out on a little palette between our air mattress and Luke's twin size air mattress.  He eventually moved onto Luke's bed and fell asleep.  After an unknown amount of time he woke up because he fell in between the tent and the bed, which I imagine was quite scary.  After that he was in our bed with us and didn't make a peep til morning.  Luke tossed a bit, but pretty much slept well the entire night, despite his mattress losing almost all of its air (guess we need a new mattress). 

After breakfast and a long play at the park, we decided to go on a hike.  The boys were pretty much exhausted by this point so Andy I mostly carried them the entire way.  After our hike we ate some lunch and headed home.  The boys were both asleep within minutes of putting them into the car.  I don't think we are quite ready for 2 nights yet :)

Enjoying a little pre-breakfast snack :)

 Enjoying a snack before we went hiking

 All little boys need hiking sticks.  You can tell that this is pretty much the point where Luke checked out and was DONE with just about everything :)

I love this picture of Ben in his hat :)

 Showing us his muscles on a tree trunk

 And what brother does, Benji does

 They quickly went from this......

 ...to this!

Thanks Kelly and Steven for inviting us.  It wasn't nearly as bad as I was thinking and I might just go back someday :)

Camping Day #1

Some friends of ours invited us to go camping with them recently.  Andy has been wanting to go camping for quite some time now so I reluctantly agreed.  Thankfully our friends are camping pros and took care of most everything.  I was instructed to bring a tent, sleeping stuff, chairs and drinks for our family.  I was really looking for an excuse to not go, but they made it virtually impossible!!

While I would not say that I have been transformed, I will say that I had a favorable experience!  It was pretty warm, but we had a shady campsite and watching my boys enjoy the outdoors was worth its weight in gold.  It was also a good introduction into camping with only staying one night!

Luke really enjoyed playing with Caleb and Benjamin did all he could do to keep up with the big boys.  One of my favorite memories is Luke learning to pee on the tree.  He was so cute standing there with this undies close to his knees (we will work on less exposure next time).  Benji wanted to be just like his big brother and kept pulling at this diaper so that he could pee on the tree too - maybe when you are older, Ben :)

When we got there we met up with the Reals at the "Go Fish" event they had for kids.  The boys went from station to station learning about fishing. 

 Showing off their catches

 Back at the campsite

 This is a picture of Ben in a tree.  He did not like it one bit.

Checking out Mr. Steven's hammock 

So stinking cute!

We spent a lot of time at the park behind our campsite.  The boys really enjoyed playing, but it was a little too tall for this mommy's taste.

 S'more time!

 Ben really liked these head lamps Kelly brought