Rodeo

I love the rodeo, it's a classic all-american summer activity. The boys really love it too and they love playing the part as well, they put on their cowboy shirts and hats and feel like they are cowboys themselves! We went this year to celebrate Grandpa's birthday, Doug, Barb and Stan were there and Jenny brought her boyfriend Tyler. We all had such a great time spending a warm summer night at the rodeo!

I was really worried about how Jack would do....I wasn't so sure about the bleachers. He loves climbing up and down stairs right now and I knew he probably was going to try doing it all night. Sure enough, I was right and from the very beginning he wouldn't sit still. Tom took him down closer to the rodeo grounds to watch from down there but all he seemed interested in was climbing those stairs, which really are scary since he could easily fall through. Tom tried distracting him from the stairs to the cool horses and Jack would watch for a second and then quickly go back to climbing the stairs. After about 30 minutes Tom gave up and decided to take Jack home and put him to bed. It made it so much more enjoyable for me and the boys. We each got a cup of strawberries with cream.... can't go to the strawberry days rodeo without enjoying some of those! We all had such a fun time and the boys loved it! I didn't even hear an "I'm tired" or a "let's go home" the entire night!

Will I ever get a picture of all the boys looking?

The next morning I found Max in his cowboy shirt, that he pulled out of the laundry, pretending to be a cowboy. It was so cute because he pulled Jack's shirt out of the laundry also and wanted me to put it on him so he could be a cowboy too. Such a good brother:)

School is Cool

Max loved going to pre-school and most mornings he would wake up and ask if it was a school day. He loved pre-school and then sometime in October he started complaining about not wanting to go and I would have to talk him into going. When I finally got him in the car, I would have to talk him into getting out of the car, walking up to the door and finally going inside. He did this for a few weeks and then one day Ms. Geanna told me that he didn't like to go outside because the kids would play in a little fort, open the door and scream really loud and pretend like they were witches. There was one day when he absolutely refused to go outside and Ms. Geanna was finally able to get him to tell her why. She talked to the kids about it and he has been fine ever since.

He did such a good job at his pre-school program and sang along and did all the actions with everyone else. Since Tom was out of town and all of our other family was as well, my friend Heather was so nice to bring her daughter Kendall and support Max on his big day. I can't believe that he is done with his first year of pre-school!

No matter how hard I tried I could not get Max to smile! When he gets nervous he just starts making confused faces, it seems that most pictures we have of Max he just seems to be staring straight ahead.

Aboard the Disney Wonder

In February we did something that we had always dreamed of..... we took the kids on a Disney Cruise! Being on a Disney Cruise was truly a dream come true and we loved every minute of it. It was so much fun because we got to go with all of Tom's family and the kids got to be with their cousins. It was a perfect family vacation that we have so many neat memories from and we will cherish them forever. We love to reminisce about all the fun things that we did on the cruise and the kids can't stop talking about all the fun things we got to do. We still hear "remember when".... all the time, and we always are asked when we get to go again.

Day 1 - arriving at port

The kids were so thrilled to see the ship for the first time, they couldn't believe how huge it was! We got to board around 12:00 and we got to go eat immediately. After lunch we got to explore the ship and our staterooms. The rooms were very small....uncomfortably small so we didn't spend much time in them. The ship was amazing and the kids couldn't believe all that was for them to do. The kids loved waving goodbye to people on shore as the ship embarked. We got to celebrate Carson's birthday with all of his cousins and Disney brought him his own little cake and they sang to him. It was such a fun day to see the excitement in our kids as they discovered how magical this vacation was going to be.

Day 2 At sea

Favorite memories

-Dining with the adults for brunch at Palo

-Watching the kids swim for 3 hours straight

-Being able to relax by the pool

-Finally realizing that my kids weren't going to accidentally fall off the ship

-At dinner having an adults table and a kids table. We didn't have to worry about the kids at all, our amazing servers Ralph and Carla asked them what they wanted and would even cut up their food for them. The kids loved it too, by the end we figured Max had ordered pizza every single night and always ordered a mickey ice cream bar to finish it off!

-Seeing what fun towel animal they had left for us on our bed.

Day 3 - At Sea

Favorite Memories:

-Going for a run outside on the track and watching the sun rise over the bright blue water.

-Watching Max go down the water slide over and over and over again.

-Drinking Pina Coladas by the pool without the kids nearby to keep stealing sips.

-Having our servers be so attentive, they knew what we liked to drink and didn't even have to ask. If I was holding Jack they would come and cut my food up for me. If the kids wanted ketchup they would carefully pour it into a Mickey Mouse shape for them. I thought that was so cute!

- Going to late night movies

Day 4 - Puerto Vallarta

Favorite memories:

-Riding the zipline in Puerto Vallarta

-Watching the boys play basketball with Minnie Mouse

-Seeing captain hook wandering in the hall, we could hardly believe our luck! Thank goodness I had my camera with me.....and we didn't even have to wait in line!

-Dressing up as pirates for Pirate night and watching the kids parade around the restaurant with our servers

- Attending the Pirates in the Caribbean party. The only problem was it was so cold, we had to wrap all the kids in blankets, but the fireworks were amazing! If only it wasn't so late we could have stayed for the midnight pirate buffet. I heard I missed out on some amazing crepes.

Day 5 - At sea

Favorite Memories:

-Watching Carson and Austin going up to the snack bars and ordering their own food, filling their own ice cream and going to get a drink whenever they wanted one. They loved being so independent.

-Watching Max fall asleep at the dinner table almost every night. It was so sweet our servers would go grab 2 chairs and laid him down so he could rest. They didn't want us to do anything!

Going to the beach in Cabo, the kids could have stayed there for hours!

-Seeing Toy Story the musical, since Jack was so obsessed with Buzz Lightyear I couldn't wait to see his reaction. He just kept saying Buzz Buzz! whoah...

-Finding myself watching my kids instead of the show......seeing their reaction was priceless!

Day 6 and 7 - Cabo San Lucas

Favorite Memories:

-Seeing the characters was a highlight for Max and Jack. Every time we would be waiting in line they would just be in awe of these cute little critters. I loved watching them get excited about it.

-Never seeing my kids laugh so hard when we went to the ventriloquist show.

-Ordering milk and cookies at night for the boys from room service. (we did have an evening where we ordered it a little too late, we all fell asleep, except for Max, and he ended up letting them in the door and told them to just set it on the table. At least that's what he said the next morning)

-Going to see a movie anytime we wanted

-Putting jack in the nursery while he took his nap so we were able to have about 3 hours of relaxation every day we were at sea.

But I think what I will remember most of all is the fun times that we had together visiting and all the fun memories we created together. Tom's family is amazing and we have so much fun when we get together. It was pure joy as we watched our kids as they played with cousins and had the time of their lives! I can't imagine a better family vacation, we had such a great time and we can't wait to do it all again!