Recess Go Bananas!

A friend of mine and I took our boys to Ankeny, to a place called Recess Go Bananas! It was super fun and had rides that they could ride on at any time they wanted, bouncy things, and of course plenty of token games, too! There was even a room to just dance in. The boys had a ball. The only thing they didn't like was this gynormous caterpillar that you have to climb in two entrances from the rear or the front and it was too scary to get in! We are definitely going to try to go back sometime this fall. It was only $7/kid for all day! Of course we were only there from 11-1 or so with tired boys ready to crash on the way home.

Tate is in the lead with S.Jessen and JT coming in behind
Chugging along on the train
The airplanes were cool, too!

These were fun hoops!

Here is the play by play of S.Jessen on the huge slide. We couldn't get Tate or JT on it, but I think you'll be able to see that S.Jessen loved it!

July 4th Weekend

Well I'm late as usual. Here are our pics from visiting my parents over July 4th. We had a super fun time. Lake Rathbun was low enough we could go for a boat ride. The boys still did not enjoy tubing, but one day they will. In fact later on in the month S.Jessen finally enjoyed rididng with his cousin Luke!

Uncle Adam and Tater pretending to sleep!

S.Jessen is playing with the race track on the couch. He really liked it!

Pops giving S.Jessen and Tate a ride on his golf cart. It worked out perfect because he was bringing it home to sell. They got to ride it the whole weekend, and now it's gone.
Tate requested to be Super Tater so here's Granny giving him a flying lesson! I don't know who's enjoying it more :) Slowing down for a moment to pose. I just love those faces!

Pops and Tate

Granny and Tater with his successful thumbs up
It really looks like Tate's driving and stressed, but they're just good actors Look out fishies! S.Jessen's gotta pee!

Mommy, Tate, and Granny while S.Jessen is sleeping on Daddy!

Daddy still has skills! He can still get up :)

The day after the 4th, Bridget came to visit with baby Evan, who is not much of a baby anymore! Look at him using a fork. He is 18 months old here! I'm impressed.

Omaha Zoo

We went on our first mini vacation with my brother Aron's family and we did pretty awesome! We headed to Omaha on Sunday night, June 29th. We swam at the hotel and then woke up in time to get to the zoo just a little after it opened. We closed the place down and still didn't see it all! It was the best zoo I've ever been to. I was so surprised at how little we were outside though. There were so many indoor exhibits. It was great and pretty inexpensive. We did see the expert families though with coolers. I didn't even think they would let you bring stuff in, but you could bring it all. I will remember that for next time.

Scary albino alligator or crocodile...

At the end of the day my little family split from theirs and headed to the I-Max. We'd never been to one before and my legs were tired. Plus the boys were pooped and they both fell asleep in it, and so did Roger. It was really good, we were just tired. We saw Wild Ocean Life and it followed a salmon family's journey. Maybe it's the teacher in me, but I thought it was cool.

Cheetah

After we closed the place down, we headed home and we were all ready to be in bed that night! It is official that the Kolosiks and the Brechts can go on trips together now. I felt so grown up planning a trip with my brother and our families. They are moving to Ohio sometime later this year, so it's nice to know that no matter where they are, we can still plan trips together :)

The flamingos are my favorite!

I will have to share our Tate sleeping story though as it couldn't be much worse than his poopin story on our way home from the cruise! Tate has been in a toddler bed since March and does very well, but he has yet to ever sleep with another person since he was a little baby, and that was just when he woke up at 5 in the morning and I wasn't ready to get up yet.... So anyway, I didn't pack the pack-in-play because I thought sleeping in a toddler bed would be the same as sleeping with us in a hotel bed. We swam in the hotel until past 10, and let the boys play with Aron's boys until around 11. So Tate cried until past 12:30, finally got settled and crashed by 1. I being pregnant, had to pee, and quietly went to the bathroom. While I was gone, he woke, noticed I was gone, and screamed bloody murder! I got back as soon as I could finish, and calmed him down. He got back to sleep and then proceeded to fall out of the bed at 1:30. So I gave up my pillow to block him in. I slept with his feet in my face and no pillow until a little past 8. It was very hard to get out of bed. My poor body was stiff and we were all sleep deprived. I couldn't believe how magnificent of a day we actually had with the props we had the night before! Thank God! I just had to share out little dittie about Tate though. There really never is a dull moment with these fellers!

L-R Isaac, S.Jessen, Luke, and Tater checking out the fish

Isaac, Aron, Luke, and Ayla walking. They looked so cute!

Happy Fanily waiting for the train

The four boys cooling off with the gynormous ball covered in water

Roger and Tate, S.Jessen and me on the carousel

The jelly men looked cool!

Happy Fanily update

We are going to have an addition to our Happy Fanily. We are having a baby in February. I am 7 weeks along. I didn't mention it earlier as we were having some complications, but we had an ultrasound today and I got to hear the baby's heart beat. I had to go in by myself and I know that I was holding hands with Jesus the whole time. I asked him to be with me whether there was good news or bad and my was it amazing and refreshing and real! Now we feel safe sharing with everyone our newest blessing.

Boy updates

The boys are really enjoying their summer at home. I keep telling myself that a year from now I will always be home with them, but it just can't get here fast enough!

We've been having weekly play dates at the various parks in town and are enjoying Monday night swim lessons. We've been walking quiet a bit and just enjoying summer. My big brave mommy accomplishment is pushing Tate on the trike and guiding S.Jessen on his bike to the park that is only a block and a half away. The big accomplishment though is that we have to do it on the road as we have no sidewalks! S.Jessen is getting really good at riding, but Tate enjoys being pushed :) It now takes us less than 10 minutes to get there :) They love playing in the sprinkler/pool (for a while) and the sandbox and all that fun backyard stuff, too!

S.Jessen and I have been having great times working on school stuff when he wakes earlier from his naps than Tate. He's really writing all the letters in his name now and I can't believe he can do it! He was just born yesterday! My big education goal for the summer is to get him writing more and to do some beginning reading activities. S.Jessen has already had Bible school and enjoys going to story time at the library! Last year I couldn't get him in the room!Tate still doesn't give a hoot about colors, but does know a lot of his shapes. He has a few colors down, but prefers to guess and drive me bonkers! :) His big summer success is figuring out how to make his thumb go up for a thumb's up. It's too cute! I figured out he knows all the words to nearly all the songs on his nighttime cd. He amazes me in so many different ways than S.Jessen amazes me. I love how different they are and how much I love them so! There is never a day that I am not in awe of them.

Here is Tate. S.Jessen fell asleep and I took his picture so Tate asked me to take his... and he closed his eyes to pretend sleep. What a goof!

The first night of swim lessons was very cold! Tate and Claire get to be together and S.Jessen and Brett's class is after ours, but they don't need us :)

Vegas

Well, Roger and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary in May. We decided it was time to hit the road and go to VEGAS! Rog had never been and I went when I was 21, and that was a little while ago :) We went with our great friends Dan and KayCee that we do not get to see often enough.

The first night we flew in at 11:00 at night. We got freshened up in our room at the MGM Grand, and walked around until 3.

The next day we laid out most of the day at the pool. It felt so nice not worrying about reapplying anyone's sunscreen or whether someone should eat or not. I love our boys so much, but sometimes a mommy needs a break! We sat around and had many a bucket of the Bud Light limies! I highly recommend them! We also watched this guy who looked like a sasquatch (sp?) dancing his heart out. He was covered in gray hair and I am sure he is either the abominable snowman or that damn sasquatch (sp?) those people always see. Look at him, am I wrong?That night we ventured out and ate at a Sushi restaurant. It was pretty great, but their portions need to be much larger for us corn fed. After that, Roger and Dan surprised us with a 3 hour hummersoine (sp?) ride to various hotels. We gambled and drank and had a fantastic time! I was in bed by 10 though, whoops! I partied like a rock star. I couldn't help it....

The next day we walked the Vegas strip for a long time. It was fun to shop and see the hotels in the day light. We went out for a less wild evening that night, but still had a great time! We even checked out the Coyote Ugly bar, but left when they were inviting all the girls to come dance on the bar. Maybe when I was 21, but not now... I'm feeling old!

On our last day Dan and KayCee had to fly out in the AM so we walked around more. Roger wanted to play his last $20 on a Star Wars slot machine we saw. The good news was he won $350! It was a penny slot machine, too! We ended up being up about $200 when we left. I had better luck with black jack and Roger had way better luck with the slots.

It was an awesome trip and we really enjoyed ourselves. We are going to try to make it a tradition every other year! We owe it to ourselves to take some time to have some adult fun without worries.

Twin Lakes

Roger and I finally found out what Twin Lakes is and that it's only 45 minutes from where we live. We've only been living in Fort Dodge for 5 years (Roger 6) and we had no clue what(or where) people were talking about when they said they had a house at the lake. A lot of my students have second homes there and it was nice to see what the place was all about. Basically it's a lake surrounded by homes of all shapes and sizes.

Roger, S.Jessen, and his best buddy Brett (S.Jessen has found a great friend in Brett! They are so much alike, it's nuts!)

This is a nice face S.Jessen was giving, as the water was so cold, he cried the whole time!

Tate just touched his toes and burst into tears! That's him with me after Rog handed him over.

Cool dudes!

Some friends of ours were going to spend the weekend there at a house lent to them. They knew we were actually home for the weekend and called and asked us to come up for the day! It was a super fun time, and we even got out in the boat for a while. The boys tried to tube, but the water was waaay too cold. This was the last weekend of May. We got some good pics though, and it was nice to have a relaxing day even though we knew there was probably 10,000 things we should be doing at home. It's summer, we should be relax and enjoy. We did, too!

Tate and Me, Amy and Claire

Roger and Dan did a nice job playing with the kids at the park while Amy and I snapped pics.

I really could eat Miss Claire. S.Jessen loves her! AND I'm totally ok with it :)