5/28 - Trip & Camping to TN

Here is a short recap of our weekend and then I'll be bouncing all over the place to address each collage. We drove to TN on Thursday afternoon/evening and got in at 8:00pm. We all slept inside the first night. We woke up Friday morning and it was pretty darn chilly and I didn't bring warm clothes for us so we hit the thrift stores and bought some stuff. The second night, we had a camp fire and then slept in tents (even Papa). It got freezing that night. It was a record 40 degrees that night and the previous record had been around since 1979. Nice timing we had. We all did great and made it through the entire night although we were freezing. Eli slept with me in the smaller tent and Aiden slept with Brad in the larger tent. Papa sawed logs slept just a few feet away in his tent. The sun (and freezing air) woke us up by 6am on Saturday morning. On Saturday night, we were all desperate for some good sleep and we all slept inside. On Sunday night, both boys said they wanted to camp so I was in the little tent with Eli again and Brad was in the big tent with Aiden.

On Friday morning it was pretty cold but they boys wanted to explore some outside. Eli finally found a nice comfy seat in papa's swing and got warmed up with a blanket. In the afternoon, the sun comes into the backyard and Eli wasn't such a fan of that. He really wanted to sit in the swing but didn't like the sun. He sat in the tent that I put up during his naptime and then finally went over to the swing. He said it was too sunny and went back in the tent (along with his sleeping bag and blankets) and waited there until Brad and I built a contraption so the sun wouldn't hit directly on the swing. Once that happened, Eli was happy to join us outside. 

I've given each boy a collage to summarize their Memorial Weekend. Aiden helped papa plant flowers and some vegetables on the first day there. Papa told him he could come water his flowers anytime he wanted and he was sure to relay that message to me. He then took his tools and played in a pile of dirt over the new septic tank my dad has. He was super excited to use the walkie talkies. We made a rule that if someone was out on the 4-wheeler that we needed to use the walkie talkies. Aiden was so very excited to have a camp fire. He tried to patiently await to make smores and actually collected about half the sticks, if not more, that we needed for the camp fire. I was surprised that he ate a couple of smores while we were there. Smores are messy and there is no way around that. That is huge progress for him. He had lots of fun dancing at the festival that we went to in downtown on Sunday evening.

Eli had a great time as well. Sometimes it's hard to get him outside but once he's outside, he's good to go. Eli had fun using his 'map' and telling us where to go exploring on Papa's property. He always enjoys dancing and there are a couple of pictures of him dancing away at the campfire and also at the festival. He has so much personality for such a little guy.

The campfire was something both of the boys were really excited about. Aiden helped collect sticks and they eagerly brought the chairs and crates to the campfire area. I would never have guessed that the smoke a fire makes would be so exciting for these boys. They were running around and trying to run under the smoke and around the smoke and all kinds of crazy games. They were having a great time running around and dancing to the 'camp fire songs' station that I played on my phone from Pandora. Eli didn't like smores but ate a few bites of graham cracker. Aiden loved them and once he got over having to get a little sticky from the marshmallow, he was enjoying himself. Aiden and I even played a few games of Hiss while hanging out by the camp fire.

So here are just some random collages. Dale, my Dad's friend from KY, came by to say hi. He brought his remote control helicopters that he's been working on. Brad was excited to help him look at them and Aiden wanted to play with them so bad. We had to explain those were expensive big boy toys. After camping that first night in the tents, Aiden could barely breathe the next day (he is allergic to almost a dozen trees and grasses) so we gave him some benedryl. That normally doesn't phase him but I think with 2 days of no naps, a late night the night before, restless sleep from sneezing, and getting up early, he totally passed out for over an hr on the couch in the living room. We stopped at the COOLEST McDonalds on the way to my dad's farm for dinner. It was huge treehouse structure built mainly for little guys (ages 2-5). The boys run in and start playing right away. I then realize there is a sign that says "closed for cleaning from 6-9pm) and told Brad, I'm so glad it's only 5:05pm. I then notice tons of very old people sitting in the kids area and people setting up microphones. It turns out we are in the easter time zone and it's 6:05pm. Totally stinks and the kids were so disappointed. What is really frustrating is that we were only in the eastern time zone for about 15 min that day while traveling (my dad's farm is in the central time zone). To get the boys out and stretch their legs, we walked over the the goodwill that was near the McDonalds. The boys enjoyed playing with random toys and Brad got a really good pictures of Aiden rocking out with his guitar. In the bottom left picture, you can see my dad and the boys standing at the window. They were watching a turkey right outside my dad's place.

We went to a festival on Sunday night in downtown. They had live music (bluegrass) and the boys really enjoyed it. They were dancing up a storm and then playing tag for a bit. I had to include the picture below of the toothbrushes. These are the toothbrushes of just Aiden and Eli. Seriously. They weren't brushing their teeth long enough a few months ago so I bought the kind that had light-up timers on them. For some reason, the boys refuse to actually use them to brush their teeth; they just use them for the timer. The print to the right of the toothbrushes is a deer footprint that I thought was neat. That was on my dad's property. The two print under the toothbrushes are ... can you guess?  Bear prints. We went hiking through an area park on Sunday afternoon and we saw bear tracks a couple of times which made me slightly nervous. Once we came upon a spot that had some baby tracks, I was very nervous. Nothing is going to stop a momma bear from protecting her baby bear if she even thinks the baby bear is in danger. I educated the boys on what to do if they saw a bear which made me feel slightly better. Aiden has been obsessed with taking pictures and being in pictures lately. It's too funny. In the picture to the right of the bear tracks, he says, "take my picture mommy" and then poses for me. He's actually even taken a few pictures too and they have turned out pretty well.

While we were in TN, Aiden developed a rash. It got pretty bad but thankfully with lots of benedryl, it has subsided. We have no idea what caused it but thankfully it's getting much better. The bottom picture of Pouncer cracks me up. He got in to our bag while I was packing and was pleading to come with us. The final picture is an egg carton game I did for the boys. Each boy had their own egg carton and colors were painted in each spot. Their goal was to find a matching color of something outside to put in each space. Eli didn't really care but Aiden did a great job with it. It was a fun way to give them something to do and more of a purpose while exploring.

One last thing. Aiden was so cute while hiking on Sunday afternoon. Papa taught him how to follow markers in the woods by looking for tagged trees and staying with the same color. Aiden kept wanting to lead and saying he was an expert hiker.

Here are two beautiful pictures we took on our hiking excursion.

And this picture of the boys cracks me up. Aiden just thinks it is ridiculous to stop and take pictures. He doesn't not enjoy it at all. He just wanted to keep on hiking. Eli enjoyed the break but Aiden was so bored (we stopped for about 5 min) and kept saying, "come on. What is taking so long? Let's go."

I had to include these handful of pictures from Eli because he's just too cute and his personality really stands out. What a carefree and loving little boy.

Aiden doesn't like to take pictures that much because he can't be bothered with actually stopping something so I have to get my fix of pictures with Eli.

4/15 - The past week

I left last weekend on Friday and drove down to Florida to attend the Alumni Gymnastics Reunion and also watch the Regional Meet which Florida hosted. It was a fast trip but fun trip. Here is a group shot of most of us. The picture is a little blurry. I'm in the bottom row, third in from the left. Quite a few of my teammates showed up which was great. It was fun visiting with them.

 I left a package at home for the boys and it was the giant floor dinosaur puzzle. Brad sent me a picture of it once Aiden put it all together.

Here is a picture that Brad sent me on Saturday night. The boys went to McDonalds for dinner and Aiden was a little distracted and was cleaning the slide!!! 

While in Florida, I stopped at Jacksonville on Friday night and stayed with my friend Sue. It's always great to see her. She sent back a few goodies for the boys. I drove back to Alabama on Sunday morning and made it home right after the boys went down for naps. When they woke up I got some massive hugs and then showed them what Mrs. Sue gave them. These are small tennis racquets (kid size I guess). The boys had a blast. Eli is actually pretty darn good. Aiden does a great job making contact as well but he gets discouraged quite easy. Eli was a champ and kept practicing and made a few pretty good hits. 


Sue also gave us a small basketball hoop. It's actually a pretty big one but it can adjust to be short. The boys enjoyed playing with that too. She even gave us a basketball which is smaller than normal. We have lots of outside stuff to keep us active outside now. :)

Sue

One of the other goodies Sue gave us was the Hallaballo game. I've been wanting to get it and she said she had it and didn't use it anymore so she passed it down to me. Aiden was having a blast doing it. You put all these discs with pictures down on the floor and turn on this machine and it tells you what to do. "Twirl to a red pad" or "hop to triangle."We played it as a family quite a few times.
 
The boys took pictures at daycare a few weeks ago. It was an old-time theme and I finally got to see the pictures that were taken. They turned out so cute. Here are just 3 of them. Eli looked so stinkin' cute in all of his pictures. I just love his fishing one below and how his little toes are curled up. Aiden liked the one of him with the gun (rather than fishing pole) and it also had a slightly-less-forced-smile than the other one too so that's the one I got of him.

The boys are doing such a good job at becoming more independent. They have toothbrush timers and know that they have to keep brushing until the go off. Here is little Eli getting ready for bed. It cracks me up that he doesn't actually like to us his light-up timer toothbrush to brush; he just wants to use the timer function on it and use another brush to clean his teeth. Aiden is NOT a fan of timer although I'm not sure why because he likes concrete rules and such.

We got 2 new games this week. I've been researching games to get and finally figured out what I wanted. One of them is called 'Hiss' and Aiden is playing it to the left. It's a fun game where you get to make snakes using colors. He is in love with this game and Brad and I have both played it at least a half dozen times in just a few days.

The other game that I got is called Sneaky Snacky Squirrel. It's a game that Eli can play and works on color matching, motor control, sharing, and taking turns. He is at a tough age because he's just starting to realize that he has to follow the rules for the games. He would rather just take the pieces of the game and mess around with them and use his other toys to store them in. He eventually defaults back to Mr. Potato Head. He LOVES that toy and has decided that he will have a Mr. Potato Head birthday party. I think that could be lots of fun. Aiden has chosen a dinosaur theme this year for his birthday. Back to Eli, here is a picture of one of his latest creation. He said this was an a "sad crazy" Mr. Potato Head." 

I've recently realized that I don't really have any short/short-sleeve PJ's for Eli. I guess Aiden just skipped a size. I recently had to get Aiden new PJ's because he outgrew (for his comfort level) his 4T jammies that are supposed to fit snuggly. Here are a pair of his new pj's which I just LOVE. 

We went to IHOP on Friday night for dinner. The boys love this place and they especially love the music that plays out by the front door. We got there and they just started dancing for a while and all the people inside were laughing. It was too funny. Once we were done eating, we let the boys dance for a while. Here is a video of their dancing skills. They crack me up. The each had their own bench which they called their stages. I have no idea where Aiden has gotten some of his dance skills. They are very unique. 

On Saturday, we went to Pratt Park (castle park) in the afternoon. The boys wanted to show daddy a new path we discovered the last time I took them there. Eli headed straight for the water of course and started throwing rocks. After we explored for a while, Eli and I headed back up towards the playground and Aiden and Brad stayed down in the new area and continued to explore. Little Aiden could walk all day exploring and be perfectly happy. One day he and Papa are gonna have a great time walking around on dad's property and Aiden will ask Papa a million questions (and Papa will have the answer to all of them probably).

Eli had fun back on the playground. We played race cars for a bit. Here is Eli working on the track (it's a finger maze) and while he did that, I ran around to the other area of the playground and then ran back. This is a great method to get the boys some exercise :) Aiden and Brad finally wandered over to the entrance but then saw some other kids playing in the canal. Aiden said he wanted to go down in the water and Brad told him that was fine but he had to take his shoes and socks off. Well, that didn't go so well. Aiden said he wanted to wear his shoes and socks in the water. It was pretty gross water so I'm glad Aiden didn't really get in.

Sunday was picture day at church. We all went to sunday school and then church. Once we got home, we had lunch and played for a bit before rest time. The boys had on cute matching outfits on sunday. They are so precious.

Eli takes a while to wake-up sometimes and he decided he would curl up and cuddle with me while he was trying to wake up. I know this won't last forever and soak up every minute of the cuddle time. Eli is turning in to such a caring little boy. If ever I ask him to pray for me, he will and it's so cute. Brad's back has been bothering him and I've prayed for it with the boys before and then Eli will just randomly asked Brad "how is your back daddy?" He has started to melt my heart with a new saying he has picked up somewhere. He'll ask for help with something and I'll help him and then he responds with "it's good to have a friend like you." It makes me smile every time. 

2/20 - Vacation in Myrtle Beach, SC

We spent the past week in Myrtle Beach, SC as a family. It was the longest vacation we have ever taken but it was a ton of fun. I forget how easy it is for our kids to have fun. After a long day in the car (it took about 7 hrs to get there), Brad took the boys down to the playground at our timeshare while I unpacked everything. I took a picture of them from our balcony. It was a great way for them to burn some energy after sitting for so long. 

We went to the Ripley's Aquarium one morning. We were going to go back in the afternoon too, but once we got there and realized the size of it, we found that there was no need to go back because we would already have seen everything. They had huge fish tanks there that were pretty awesome. The boys were amazed by all the fish and were mesmerized watching them.

Here is Aiden getting an up-close view of the fish. He looked at the placard and was trying to find all the fish on the sign. He did a pretty good job and we compared some of them to the characters in Finding Nemo. 

We just walked around the kids area for a bit but Aiden saw a sign to see Mermaids and he was hooked. Unfortunately, when a three year has OCD, he gets stuck on things. He got stuck on seeing the Mermaids. We finally realized though that the mermaids only come on the weekends and we were there on a weekday so that shattered his world for a while (hence the covering of his eyes in the picture). He mumbled about it for a while but eventually got over it.

There was this really cool shark exhibit. You got to stand on a people mover and it slowly moved you under the tank where dozens of huge sharks, fish, and a sea turtle were swimming around. It was amazing. Both of the boys were quite scared the first time through and just wanted to hang on daddy. Aiden eventually stood on the people mover (which completely freaked him out at first) but still didn't like all the sharks around him. 

As we were coming to the end of the exhibit (the first time), Aiden said he wanted to leave. I explained to him that he was getting to see something really cool and many people never get to see this. The sharks and fish could not get him and he should enjoy the view and relax some. It worked. He calmed down and wanted to go do it again ... and again .... and again. I was getting dizzy from the number of times we went through the shark exhibit until Brad and I finally told them we were stopping. It was an awesome view though to see all those sharks so close up. 

After we done going through the shark exhibit, there was a tank that had some sharks and some huge sting rays in them. Aiden went up to it and I thought this was a cool picture to add because the shark was so big compared to Aiden. He was scared to go up to the class at first but then we reminded him the sharks and sting rays couldn't get him. 

We had a great time at the aquarium and then went back to the hotel for some naps. After naps, we played in the room for a bit.I forgot how much our boys love phones. We unplugged two of them and they played with them all weekend. 

We got the boys a new erector set thing and Aiden had fun learning to how to use the screw driver and wrench to put stuff together. Actually, he's much better at taking stuff apart right now.

We went to IHOP for dinner and Aiden ordered a smiley face pancake. He was so excited when they brought it and decided to like the whip cream right off his plate!

We got back to the hotel and let the boys play for a bit on the playground. Here is Eli on the slide and Eli swinging on the monkey bars. Brad does such a good job of playing with them. He was playing chase and freeze tag with them. I tried to jump in but Aiden tells me, "no mom, we are playing with daddy." I just let them play since they don't get daddy that much. 

It amazing how the pillows in the hotel room are so much fun to the boys. Brad took the curtains and made them into a fort and the boys absolutely loved it.

It was a tad cold in SC (we were long sleeve and jackets the whole time) but thankfully they had a heated indoor pool. We visited the pool a few times. The deal was the boys would go with us to exercise in the morning and then we would reward them for playing quietly in the corner for 35 min with a trip to the pool so they could "get their exercise" as we told them. Aiden was tentative to go in the water at first. Eli .... was not.  

The boys did a good job kicking and letting us carry them around in the pool. Both boys do a good job with blowing bubbles and kicking their feet so hopefully we can get them into swim lessons soon. 

Brad sat at the side of the pool with boys and they all practiced kicking their legs in the water. 

Brad also had the boys practicing paddling in the water and splashing (the latter one is a big deal for Aiden).

Eli is gonna be a little fish like his daddy. Aiden is doing a good trying too. He is so safe which is really assuring when I have to keep an eye on Eli.

We went the Boardwalk which is where the aquarium was at. They have a ton of shops there and a bunch of fish to feed. Thankfully, we were told to buy a box of cat food to take with us to feed to the fish. There were some dinosaur statues that the boys (all three of them) played on for a bit. Here is Eli roaring in the first picture.

 

I have never been to Build-a-Bear before. Wow. That's what I have to say. I was wondering if the boys would be interested in getting a bear and having Brad's voice recorded in it. To summarize, we found one camouflage bear that we decided the boys (and maybe I), will share. The boys got to push the pedal to help fill it with air.

 

They then got to eat put a heart inside the bear before the man closed him up. Once he was sewn up, Eli gave him a hug.

 We then took him over to the brushing station to brush off any extra hair from him.

It was quite an experience. I was shocked by all the clothes and accessories they have for these bears. Aiden decided to name the bear Veggie. Brad recorded a really sweet message in it and the boys already listen to it every night before they go to bed. 

I saw there was a Children's Museum in Myrtle Beach and knew we had to go. Eli had been struggling with a fever for the past 3 days and it was getting worse. Thankfully, his ENT called him in some Augmentin and that has helped. Eli is schedule for surgery on Mar 21 to put another tube in his one ear and take out his adenoid. So, back to the museum. The boys loved it even though Eli was feeling pretty yucky. 

Here is Eli blowing some really big bubbles.  

The boys got to sit in the magic school bus. They had fun putting their tickets into the box so they could "get on."

Aiden had fun playing hockey. He got the hang of hitting the balls/pucks and played with Brad for a while.

Eli found a pizza making area and was hooked there for a while. He loved it!! He played in there so long that eventually Aiden missed him and went to go play with him. He was making pizza, taking phone calls, and serving pizza (yes it was all pretend food). 

We found an area that the boys pretended to paint in. Aiden did good and was even re-applying [pretend] paint without us telling him he would eventually have to re-dip his roller.

Aiden just had fun setting cones up and wearing a hard hat. Eli so bad wanted to open the lunch box that was sitting out but it was just for display and didn't open or come off. That boy does love food.

We even got a chance to dig for fossils. I found a miniature dinosaur fossil which freaked the boys out a bit. They had fun digging in the sand with paint brushes trying to find things. 

The also had a big section of super-size building stuff like nails, screws, hammers, and wrench. Eli had fun banging on those.

Aiden found a cart and put tons of different wood on there and eventually built himself a house. He was so deliberate and didn't want any help or guidance from us. 

They had a crane that the boys loved to figure out how to operate and a conveyer belt that moved the blocks. It was actually quite the little hands-on museum. 

Eli found this little house and played in it for probably 30-45 min. He loved it. We took pictures of it so we could figure out how to make one at home. Both the boys enjoyed playing it.

I pretended like I was the weather girl but the boys were not impressed. 

Overall, we had a great time, not only at the museum, but on vacation as a family. We did some outlet shopping and Aiden has some 4T winter stuff for next year now.

We had a great time. One of Aiden's most favorite things if you ask him was running up and down the ramps in the hotel parking garage. The boys had lots of fun playing on the elevator, taking the steps from one floor to another, and just wondering around. Brad has the rest of the week off to get things done that he wants/needs and then he goes back to work next week. It was a great vacation with lots of good memories. These boys are growing up so fast!