Midwest Tour

The kids and I decided to take advantage of our summer by spending the week visiting family and friends around the midwest. THough traveling with kids is never easy I was truly impressed with what a great job Jack and Alex did. THey were troopers and I think they have their mom's love of keeping busy, busy, busy! We started our trip by going to Bloomington to visit our friends. We miss them SOOOOO much and it was wonderful to visit and play at the splash park. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to hang out with us, we miss you already and are looking forward to our next visit:) Here's Jack splashing around with Emma and Emily.

Alex and Kate resting after playing at the splash park. It hard to have so much fun

After the park we got brave and went out for lunch. 6 moms and 9 kids, whoa! But it went great:)

After seeing our friends in Bloomington we drove to Crystal Lake to visit my friend Beth and her two little ones, Kelan and Tricia. Jack and Alex had so much fun exploring thier "playland". Kelan and Jack both share a love of trains and had fun playing together, and I got my baby fix by holding little Tricia (2 months). I think that should satisfy me for a while!

Next we drove up to New Berlin WI to visit my friend Nichole and her two little girls, Payton and Allie. They just moved into a beautiful old farm house on a great piece of land. We had so much fun hanging out in the playroom, running around outside, and playing lots of hide-and-go-seek! They definitely tired us out and we were excited to put them to bed and hang out like old times.

Payton and Jack playing playdoh. They loved making Nichole and I cakes and cookies. They did a great job playing together, minus the occasional troubles with sharing. It's so fun to see them beginning to play together instead of just in the same room, at times they were actually conversing and working together! Yeah! Thanks so much to the Kutmas family for letting us visit:)
We ended our trip back at my parents house in Cary. We visited with my grandma who was in from Florida and lots of other family and friends. Dad even spoiled me by opening bottles of White Hall and Overture! Delicious!! Jack got spoiled when we visited a park in town that was huge. It was seriously like a castle and he and Alex had fun climbing all over and playing in the sandbox. When I asked him his favorite part of the trip this park was exactly what he said (NOT to my surprise)!
Can you find Jack? It's hard to see him in this giant playground. What a great week:)

It's Official

The sign has gone up so it must be official! Jeremy has been working in the office since we moved to Shelbyville, but Saturday is his official start date. He has been working hard to get everything in order, we are so proud of all the work he is doing. I know it he is going to be great!

Here's the office. It's a really nice space and we spent the weekend repainting the inside from the yucky sterile white to a nice blue grey. It looks great:) Good luck on your first official day honey! I love you:)

Aunt Taylor Visits

My sister, Taylor, came to visit this week. She is moving away to Arizona soon so we cherished our time playing with the kids and talking. Everyone had a lot of fun. What are aunts for if not to teach their niece and nephew how to drink water out of a hose! Jack and Alex thought this was quite a lot of fun:)

So much fun with the garden hose!

All wet after Aunt Taylor's hose lesson:)

We went to the zoo with Aunt Taylor and lots of other moms and kids from Shelbyville. It was so much fun. Jack loved seeing the animals, spending time with his aunt, and playing with his new friends.

Jack wanted to feed the goats. He had fun, but it was funny to watch him sprinkle the food the around to all the goats.

Alex enjoyed looking at the goats, however she was not too interested in them coming very close!

Jack loved riding the train around the zoo. I definitely think it was his favorite part.

Awww! What a great aunt:)

We Can Finally Play!

Yeah! It's finally done. We spent ALL day Saturday finishing up the swingset. It was totally worth it to see how excited Jack was when he saw it all finished, and Alex has really been loving it too. We ended up leaving off the monkey bars /climbing wall for now to save my arm strength, and next summer when we put it on it'll be like a whole new swingset! Here's some pics form the day.

The boys and thier power tools. Okay so 3 drills and 5 batteries, but there was still a point where we didn't have a working drill!!!!!!!! Jack being "helpful" Watching the boys building the swingset Having lots of fun playing together:) Swinging like a big girl!

Popsicles and Playsets

Jack and Alex are loving their new backyard! It is flat and doesn't have a jungle growing all around it. We spend lots of time playing and eating popsicles outside. Alex has even decided she likes them now:)

This is the playset that we are in the process of building. We got it at Menards last week, it was a kit that we bought, but I didn't like the natural color so I spent all last weekend staining the wood. Now every night after dinner we all go outside and work on it. Seriously this is like 4 nights of work, it is quite slow going! Tonight Jack asked me about his playset as I was putting him to bed and I said "Mommy and Daddy will work on it more tonight." So 45 min. after I kissed him goodnight he came wandering out to the backyard, shoes on, to see if we were working! I couldn't believe it:)

We love all the sweet corn that is sold on the side of the road here. Alex looks like such a big girl :)

We're Settling In

So we are finally done unpacking. I think anyway, it does seems that boxes have a way of appearing out of nowhere so we'll see. The first couple days were crazy. I don't at all mind the packing or the moving, but the unpacking is awful for me. I can't stand not having everything right in it's place or seeing boxes stacked up all over, so it took me a couple days to calm down, but now I'm beginning to enjoy summertime with my family.Here's the house. It's an old victorian and I absolutely love it! It really charming and very homey with lots of space for the kids to roam around:) I think my favorite thing about it is the front porch. The kids and I sit out there after naptime and have thier afternoon snack. I feels so small town like, and though I didn't grow up in a small town, it feels very me. We decided to go to the town 4th of July celebration. They had lots of stuff for the kids to do, they had a great time. Jack finally sat to have his face painted while we were there. Yeah! I have tried to get him to do this several times but he always refused. Today he sat so nicely and picked balloons for his face:) Jack playing at the dunk tank Jack loved feeding the ducks. Alex on the other hand did not, she was mad that they were getting all the bread. She kept trying to eat it herself! Papa found a little frog and Jack wanted to hold it. Jack never tires of these bouncy slides!

San Diego Cruise

Last week Jeremy and I went on a much needed vacation. After all the chaos of moving and stress of unpacking it was nice to just get away. Although I have to say that as Jack gets older and I know he understands that were not there I feel much guiltier:( But we did have a great time and came back ready finish the odds and ends around the house that need to be taken care of.Our first stop was Catalina Island, which I loved. It was a quaint little island town (similar to Key West we thought). We had fun walking the streets and shopping. We had lunch in a cantina where I tried my first buffalo burger, it was yummy! Relaxing One of the stops on our cruise was Ensenada Mexico. We went out to this open air market where they hasseled you like crazy. That kind of pressure seems to have the opposite effect on me, I feel so pressured I can't decide what I want! I was also not in the shopping mood because I was soooooo burnt. Jeremy and I had a few too many buckets of beer poolside the day before and I turned bright red. It is the worst I've ever been burnt. View from the open air market in Ensenada