7/25 - Our outings

I visited my first Bass Pro Shops a few weeks ago. We picked the boys up early one day from daycare and headed down the street. Bass Pro Shops is actually in Prattville (rather than Montgomery) so it was just a few minutes away. The boys had a great time. We just stared at all the fish for the first 10 minutes.

We headed upstairs where they had a children's event going on. The boys were not interested in sitting and listening to a lecture but they were up for trying a mini bow and arrow. Both boys got to shoot it with daddy's help and hit the target which means they got a prize too.

The trigger was a little hard for them to pull but otherwise, they enjoyed it.

They also got to play with fishing poles. I was surprised they were able to figure out how to push the button to lower the line. I didn't even attempt to teach them how to cast the line but they had lots of fun reeling in the line after they pushed the button to let it down.

They also had a ton of fun playing in the boats. Here is Aiden pretending like he's catching his daddy.

We participated in Cow Appreciation Day for Chick-fil-a about a week ago. Here is Aiden showing me the iTouch he was playing on.

Eli wasn't so excited to wear his cow costume because he didn't like the shirt. He could feel the giant black cow dots and that really bothered him. I would figure Aiden would complain about that before Eli. Eli wore his long enough to get his free meal. Brad made shirts for him and I and they turned out really cute.

We went to the zoo last week for the first time. It's about 20 minutes away which is half the time it took us to get to the zoo in Jacksonville. Oh yeah. Speaking of Jacksonville, we are headed back there next fall for Brad's Department Head tour. We let the boys play on the playground for a while at the zoo before we started walking around. Here are Aiden and Eli on the climbing ropes.

Aiden and Eli got to feed the giraffes which was pretty fun for them. Eli just dropped his lettuce leaf on the floor the first time but thankfully he got another one and was able to feed the giraffe the next time.

We got a year membership to the zoo along with unlimited train rides. We ended up riding the train two times around this visit. It's a great ending activity since they are so tired by then.

Here is one of the playgrounds across the street from us at the elementary school. The boys enjoyed playing and getting some energy out of their system before the rain came.

It was snack time so they both had snack on the playground. Aiden chose this bouncy platform for his snack area.

Eli just camped out by one of the slides to have his snack.

Since there was no one else there, we let the boys practice climbing up the slides. They always love it when we let the climb up slides!!

Here is little Eli drawing circles on the chalkboard. He's doing such a good job drawing (he's even holding the chalk correctly) and scribbling.

Aiden was being so cute the other day and told us he was going to read to Eli. Eli sat right down beside him and Aiden had a picture book and was telling Eli what each picture was. Too cute.

Here are both the boys in our new sitting chairs playing on the iPad and iTouch. These boys are starting to get really good at some of the games.

Today we went to the pool and tomorrow we will be going to the movie theater to see How to Train Your Dragon. Aiden also has a screening appointment to get the ball rolling to start any therapies he still needs. I have an early appointment to get some blood taken and Aiden will be going with me since he has an appointment at the base too (for his testing). This will be the first time we've taken Eli to a movie theater. Thankfully it's just the $2 movies so we can leave if he can't sit still that long. Things are going fairly well and we are just enjoying Brad's last week off before he starts school.

7/12 - Prattville, AL

So here are some pictures from the last week. Brad finally found my camera!!! He was my hero and I think he even found it the day after my birthday so it was like a great birthday present. Here is Aiden playing with blocks that Mrs. Stephanie gave him for his birthday. He was busy building a castle for his cars.

Here are the boys just playing in the living room. Brad and I have had to crack down and make them play more in the playroom. They are just used to playing where we are because the living room was the play room before. It's taking a little encouraging and reminding about a playroom for them to actually stay in there and play.

Here is a picture of the boys' new bunk beds. They love them!! They are starting to get better at behaving themselves and actually sleeping but some times they have a harder time than others. Aiden sleeps on the top and Eli on the bottom.

Here is a picture of the play room. They love it and I love the rest of my house being clean. It's beautiful.

Below is the YMCA of Prattville Children's Play Area. They have free time here throughout the week. The boys love it!! They even have internet for the parents which is cool.

Below is the Children's Pool at the YMCA. You can see now why we are always checking in on Facebook that we are here. This kids pool is awesome. It's a gradual entry pool and the maximum depth if 3 feet, even with the slides. The boys are allowed to go down the slides and we are allowed to catch them at the bottom. They also have 3 lifeguards just in this pool alone. They have another pool with a diving board and bigger slides that go into deeper water just across the covered pavilion. It's pretty nice. We were going to go there and have a picnic tonight but it's raining so we are going to get the kids and go to Bass Pro Shop for a bit.

Here is Aiden kicking around the water.

Here is Eli being cute and loving the water as usual.

Here is what Eli found to be too much fun. In fact, Aiden had to try it because Eli was having such a good time doing it. Here is a series of pictures of the boys:

They were both laughing when Eli got squirted in the face with water.

The next day, I found goggles for the boys at Wal-Mart. We'll see if that encourages them to stick their head in the water.

There is a bird house in our backyard and we decided to add a bird feeder. Here are the boys putting it up and filling it up with bird seed.

The boys had fun the other day knocking down all the boxes and trying to build things. Can you find Eli stuck int he box in this picture?

We've been exploring a number of playgrounds lately and now that I have my camera, I can take pictures of them. This is especially helpful for the boys and I so they can tell me which playground they want to go to.

We went to Chick-fil-a the other night and it was Kid's Night. With the purchase of a kids meal, you got to make a shirt (so you can wear it on Friday which is Cow Appreciation Day) and then you get another free meal. Pretty cool idea. The boys had fun making their shirts. Eli wanted to do his own shirt and didn't want me to help really.

The boys started daycare yesterday. It was great for everyone. The boys had fun and Brad and I actually got some stuff done (including a workout). Here are the boys this morning before leaving for daycare. They are excited to wear their cow stuff tomorrow.

We've been having a good time getting to know Prattville. We are picking the boys up early again today to go to Bass Pro Shop for the first time. Pictures will follow. Hope you are doing well.

7/4 - Finally an update

We are moved!!! Let's backtrack a little though. Last week we left our house and went to Sue's guest house to stay there for a few days since our house was completely empty and spic and span. Here are the boys swinging at Sue's house. They love this swing thing. After staying there for a few days, we drove to AL on Friday and checked in at a hotel.

The drive was relatively uneventful except for my van loosing air mid-way through and it was HOT in the van. The kids' faces were all red and they were complaining so we had to fix that. We got in to our hotel about 5pm. We spent the next few days there and at the house. Our goods were delivered on Saturday but it was just tons of boxes everywhere. We took the boys to the new house on Saturday morning for a bit but then Brad took them back to the hotel to nap and I unpacked. Here are the boys in the exercise room (you can see the pool in the background). Here is Eli on the elliptical.

Aiden loves the treadmill so we let him walk on that for a while. Over the weekend and on Monday, we spent the mornings at the new house unpacking, Brad or I would take the boys back to the hotel for nap time, and then we would play around the hotel until bed time. It worked out really well.

We got free breakfast at the hotel and the boys got stuff to eat for dinner there every night too. It was a great spot for us to stay at. Here is Eli being silly one night with his hotdog bun.

One night we even went to a local park that I had heard about. It really was great. It was like 4 or 5 playgrounds in one. The boys had a blast even though it was about 100 degrees (no I'm not exaggerating) at about 6pm. It was crazy hot. Here is Aiden sitting on some apparatus at the playground.

Daddy and Eli climbed up on this old car and Eli had a great time.

The boys have enjoyed a couple of trips to Lowe's to get various things. They like the tractors in particular. By the way, all these pictures have been taken with phones because I haven't unpacked the good camera yet.

This picture below cracks me up because Eli was throwing a fit on the floor because he said he didn't have any packing paper. It was quite funny. It's also funny how kids in an empty room can find plenty to do with a box or two and some paper.

The boys LOVE having bunk beds but they are still learning how to SLEEP in them. We let them play in the beds during the day but they were way too excited to sleep the first day we had them. In fact, they didn't take naps and went to bed late. On the second day, they skipped naps again (yes we were in the room numerous times but .... they didn't nap) but it caught up with Eli. We went around and tried to find a new playground on Monday but struck out a few times. Eli fell asleep as you can see. We finally found one although it wasn't that great. Aiden played for a bit while Eli slept in the car and then we went to the local Chick-fil-a, which was very awesome. Eli had no idea he missed out on playground time. It also worked out at night because Aiden was so tired from not napping that he fell asleep right away and Eli stayed up for a while since he took a short late nap.

Yesterday, Brad took the kids out back and played with boxes while I continued to unpack. He built many forts/hotels/race tracks and the boys really enjoyed it. They also enjoyed knocking down all the boxes when they were done playing with them. I think I'll put an announcement on Freecycle.com that we have all these boxes and packing paper. Someone has got to be moving. Our garbage is their prize!

We are loving the Prattville area and found a very cool castle playground yesterday. I think we are going to the local downtown Fireworks tonight which should be fun. We told both boys they had to nap if they were going to do fireworks tonight. They both took great naps!!! First time in 3 days with the bunk beds!

We are almost done getting the inside of the house unpacked (just a few boxes in the Master bedroom and a few in the office/guest room). We LOVE LOVE LOVE having a house this big and hopefully will not have to go back to a 3 bedroom anytime soon. We love the playroom. We love having enough space that when in our bedroom, you can't hear this kids. It's pretty amazing. In case you were wondering, this is a 4 bedroom house with a split floor plan and it's about 1800 square feet (our other house was 1300).

Happy 4th of July to all of you. We unpacked boxes for Brad's birthday and got a giant cookie cake to eat to celebrate. It was pretty boring for him but we didn't have many options. At least we were all together as a family. What more can you ask for? Not much in my world.