Labor Day Vacay

To get the month of September started off right, we went to the beach!  Just like we've done the last couple of times, we left late Thursday evening after dinner and baths and drove halfway.  This works out really well for us because the kids sleep and when we get to the hotel we just have to put them straight into bed.  The next morning, we fuel up on a continental breakfast, hit the road in our jammies, and make it to our beach house before lunch! 

Matt and Katie Wynn went to pick up lunch while Thomas and I hung out at the house.

After lunch we headed straight to the beach!  Both kids enjoyed it again this time, though Thomas was actually a little hesitant at first.  After a beach nap, though, he was ready to play in the sand!  

Napping boys...

We love to dig holes for the big waves to fill up.

One of my favorite things to do is sit on the shore and watch these little white shell-crabby-things wash up and then dig their way back into the sand.  I showed them to Katie Wynn on this trip and she had fun collecting some of them.

Matt caught us a crab!  

I am in love with these wispy curls.  Or was in love, I guess.  Thomas got his first trim during this trip.  It took me three days to complete it because I didn't want to cut too much.  So the wispy hair is still back there but it doesn't curl up quite as much now that it's shorter.

Guess who wasn't afraid to stand in the waves?  Who cares if there was tons of seaweed?

Jumping for joy for being on the beach!

Can you even handle this cute smile??

This was the first time we'd ever carried a tent down to the beach.  We took it all three days because I wanted to use it since I'd already purchased it, but we really didn't even need it.  Katie Wynn rarely sat still enough to be in it and Thomas napped in someone's lap under the umbrella each day.

Strollin' into the water like a boss.

Katie Wynn kept us all busy with "helping" her build sand castles.  

What that really meant was that she wanted us to build some so she could squash them all!

My little Godzilla at work destroying our sand town.

Our last day at the beach we finally had less seaweed, but in its place were flies.  LOTS of flies!  Biting flies!  They were worse than the mosquitoes we have here at home.  They made Katie Wynn cry a lot so we cut this trip short.  Next time we'll know to bring bug spray.

I can see one of those pesky flies on Thomas's foot in this picture!  I had to fan the kids the whole time we sat on the towel to try to keep the flies off.

Thomas fell asleep and KW was eating her snack so I was actually able to get a tiny sand castle built and take a picture before it was destroyed!

Thomas ate his first whole peach on this trip.  I had gotten the peach for myself but he stole it and pretty much ate it in one continuous bite.  I think he loved it!

And he got filthy while eating it and was made when it was gone!

Mom and I took the kids to Target with us while the guys golfed.  They rode in one of those enormous double seat carts that can be hard to steer.  Add that huge cart to the five noodles we purchased and I should probably write an apology note to the Target employees for all the merchandise we knocked off the shelves.  

Both kids slept really good at night, thanks to getting worn out in the sun each day!  I have significantly less sleeping pictures of Thomas than Katie Wynn because I am generally way too scared to do anything that might wake him up!  He passed out at the beach house though so I was able to get a picture of that booty in the air.  Katie Wynn fell asleep hugging the Nicholas Sparks book that she was "reading" before bed.

Poppy brought home donuts for breakfast!

Katie Wynn grew a goatee on our trip.  No, wait, maybe she just ate a chocolate covered donut...

Group selfie!  (Groupie?)

We decided to forgo the beach one day and opted for the community pool instead.  Thomas's favorite thing to do at any pool is step in, climb out, step in, climb out, over and over.

And sometimes cry if you won't hold him! :)

Katie Wynn is pretty independent in the water if she is wearing her puddle jumper.  Thank Heavens to whoever invented those - I can't wait for Thomas to fit in one next year!

Matt and my dad took the kids to a playground one afternoon.  This shot of Katie Wynn that he took is one of my favorites - something about it makes her look so grown to me!

I saved their firecracker shirts for Labor Day when we had plans to go hear live music and watch fireworks.  But then that night came and we realized we had the date wrong and the live music and fireworks had been the night before.  Bummer!  Katie Wynn wanted her new monkey to have it's picture taken with Thomas.  :)

This is definitely one of my favorite pictures from the trip!  It's currently the screensaver on my phone and it makes me smile every time I see it.  

But this one cracks me up too.  Don't they look like they're up to no good?  My caption on Instagram said, "Ok, I'm seriously not asking again - which one of you has on the stinky diaper?"

When there are no fireworks to watch, you just set 'em loose and let 'em run wild for a little while. :)

And then you fill them up with ice cream!

What little girl doesn't love a walk home hand-in-hand with grandparents?  

On our last afternoon, Matt and I took the kids to Seaside to walk around and window shop.  I took this picture of them but realize now that I should've zoomed out to see what kind of bodies their heads are one!

More running around.  We're big fans of getting rid of extra energy, ha!

My parents kept the kids that night so we could enjoy a dinner out.  While they were at home, Thomas got himself into a bit of a sticky situation.  He couldn't figure out how to get out from under the barstools and it made him MAD!

For the ride home, we wore our new Seaside puppy dog shirts!

I love that I can now tell her to put her arm around his shoulder and she'll do it without totally knocking him over. (Or strangling him.)

One of my faves!  That boy is just silly!

At Mom's recommendation, we stopped at Durbin Farms Market for lunch and it did not disappoint!  We couldn't leave without having some of their homemade peach ice cream.  Yum!

The trip was so fun and it was so good to get away for a few days.  Unfortunately, by the time we made it home Thomas had a fever that he kept for a solid three days.  I took him to the doctor and as soon as we made it home from there, I got knocked out by a full-blown stomach bug.  It was not exactly the warm welcome home we were hoping for!  

Now we've been home for a month and we don't have our next trip to the beach scheduled yet!  I hate that...I like knowing when we'll be back and having something to count down to!  Maybe we can go around Thanksgiving...

August Phone Pics

Let's just pretend that it's not already October 6th while I'm doing these August phone pics, mkay? To say that I'm behind on posts is an understatement.  I'm not even going to waste my time apologizing about it.  When I finally get all these backlog posts done, you'll see why I haven't had time to sit down and type...we've been busy!

Just like every other month, we did some swinging in August.  :)

Just in case you think it's always rainbows and unicorns around our house, here are some real life pictures of Thomas.  Sometimes he leaks a little.

But sometimes he's silly and does things like walk around with "gobbles" on his head.  The little stinker has also learned to wake up every single morning in the 5 o'clock hour so that he can get in bed with us.  And somehow he always ends up with the bed all to himself while he enjoys his bottle.  Kid has the life!

His sister keeps us laughing everyday.  She put her shirt on like that by herself.  And that picture on the right?  I walked into the bedroom to see her watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with those glasses on.  First it scared me, then I couldn't stop laughing, then naturally I had to take a picture.  I'm not even sure she was aware I was in the room.

In August I finally got to road trip to see my bestie, Emily, that moved away from me.  I picked up my other bestie, Sarah, on the way and we got to spend the weekend scoping out Em's new home and neighborhood.  We also hit up the farmer's market, did some window shopping, had a cajun lunch, and looked at antiques.  It was a super fun weekend and the only picture I have to show for it is the one below.  Anyone know whose house that is?!?  

If you guessed the Duggars, you are correct!  We saw a couple of people outside but couldn't tell who they were.  Did you know they have a security guard that sits outside their house?!  I guess it's to keep crazy stalkers like us from just pulling into the driveway.  :)  Wouldn't you love to be invited over to their house after a fresh snow so you could sled down that hill in their front yard?!

Moving on...one night we had friends over for dinner and some fun in the sprinklers!

I love this one of Katie Wynn and her best buddy, Addi Clare.  They take turns pulling each other around in the Cozy Coupe car.  

And then there's this one of Thomas.  Gah!  Can't you just imagine him as a teenager trying to pick up chicks in his truck?!  (Hopefully he'll have lost the paci by then...)  (On second thought, if it keeps the girls away, maybe this Mama will let him keep it! Ha!)

We had a day where it was slightly cooler than the typical 100+ degrees outside so I had my Dad drive me (and our wagon) up to daycare to pick up the kiddos and walk them back to his house (they live about a mile from daycare).  They were so excited to ride in the wagon!  But shortly into our walk I realized it was a lot hotter when walking and pulling a wagon than it was just standing still outside.  And the kids finished their snacks and drinks before we'd ever even turned off the first street!  So it was a bit of a longer adventure than I had planned but we survived!

August means birthdays for the "twin cousins!"  Bren and Parker were born just 8 days apart and this year they both turned 7!  Can you believe how big they're getting?!  We celebrated at Mimi's and Poppy's with dinner and cupcakes.

I already wrote about our visit to Indiana, but here are just a couple more pictures I had on my phone.  Katie Wynn "drove" the boys in the tractor trailer.  

We had an after-dinner dessert of chocolate ice cream.  It's amazing to me how messy they can make one tiny scoop of chocolate goodness!  Just like their Mama and Daddy, the LOVE the "brown kind!"

I took the kids to a neighborhood park one day after school to run off some energy.  Katie Wynn usually gets caught up in the people-watching when there are other kids running around, so after running down the sidewalk, she didn't even climb up on the playground equipment!  She just watched everyone else.  Thomas, on the other hand, got into going down the little slide on his belly and did it over and over and over again.

This picture of Thomas cracks me up!  I found these hand-me-down polo khaki shorts in his drawer during August and, seeing that they were size 12m, thought I had missed my window for him to wear them.  I put them on him for school thinking we could at least get one wear in only to realize they looked huge on him!  Matt and I laughed about it but I said I wasn't bothering with changing him.  Direct quote from Katie Wynn she saw him: "Hey Mama, why him wearing them big pants?"

Katie Wynn did some Mint Tulip modeling for me.  These were just too cute not to share.

And finally, I'll leave you with these solemn faces.  These are the looks I get when I ask to take a picture of them in their Sunday clothes!

I plan on posting September's phone pics before this month ends.  Fingers crossed!  :)

Indiana Playground

I know I've done plenty of posts before of my kids playing on the playground, but here comes another one.  I dunno why I love taking pictures there - I guess because it's so easy to get good smiles when they're having a blast playing!  These are the last of the pictures from our Indiana trip and were taken Saturday evening before dinner.  We took the kids to a nearby neighborhood park and it had the biggest playground equipment I've ever seen!  The sign said it was designed for kids ages 5 to 12 (or something like that) so most of it was too tall/advanced for our kids, but that didn't keep them from loving every minute of being there.

I'm so glad they had a couple of smaller slides that we could enjoy.  Katie Wynn is always a little hesitant at first but once she gets going, she wants to do it over and over and over again!

Watching Sis...

...and thinking he might like that too!

This is one of my favorites.  I love that they're grinning at each other.  They are best little buddies!

Thomas and Daddy climbed up to the top part.  It was so high up!  We quickly learned that our little girl may have a fear of heights...you could see through to the ground and she had a little bit of a come-apart up there!

Braving the big, tall, twisty slide with Daddy.  I had already done it and got a few burns on my elbows from taking the turns too fast.  Ouch!

Can't go wrong with swings!

Matt did a little monkey-ing around of his own.  I think he liked the big kid playground.  :)

He channeled his inner ninja warrior to travel across these spinning monkey-bar wheels. 

Katie Wynn's favorite part?  The long ramp up to the playground!  She ran up and down, up and down...

She even convinced her Daddy to do it with her.

Thomas is my no-fear child.  He's all about flying down the slide at top speed...he even attempted to climb up a huge ladder after me.

The playground was also the perfect spot to get a good picture with Lala and Poppa!  (But why can't the kids smile at the same time?)

I'll wrap this playground post up with my favorite pictures from the day.  Matt took these at the playground while I was throwing the kids up in the air.  Love them!

Children In The Corn

Isn't there a movie called Children of the Corn or something?  But it's scary, right?  I dunno because I don't watch scary movies.  Anyway, this post is about cute children IN the corn and there's nothing scary about it!

Why children in corn?  Well, 'cause they grow it BIG in Indiana and Matt's parents have it growing all around their house!  Seemed like a good place to take some pictures.  I had told Katie Wynn we were going to see the corn but she was a bit confused when we walked up to it.  I opened (shucked?) and ear so she could see the corn inside.  She loved it!

It took a little convincing to get her to walk inside the rows of corn but she finally made it in.

And there was no way she was going to put down her corn.

Thomas got his own ear of corn too but he was a little too uncooperative for any good pictures.

I let Katie Wynn pick out one ear of corn for me just so I could snap a few more pictures.  (I hate corn!)  In total, we stole three ears of corn from this farmer.  I would've happily paid him if I knew who he was! 

Right next to the field of corn was a big open field of grass that had a really good hill, so we visited it to do some good running around.

I thought it would be fun to teach them how to roll down a hill.  Don't you remember doing that as a kid?  So I laid down and gave it a go and luckily was able to stop myself before I got too dizzy.  Would they try it?  Of course not.  I couldn't even get them to lay down.  And guess who had to immediately go home and shower and coat her legs in benadryl cream?  D'oh.

One last post from Indiana coming up next!

Weekend in Indiana

A few weeks ago we decided to make a quick trip up to Indiana for an extended weekend visit with Matt's parents.  For the last few years, I have only gotten to go to their house around Christmas when it's cold outside, and I was really wanting to go during a time when we could spend time out on their awesome back deck.  And that's exactly what we did!  The weather was glorious and we spent nearly all day everyday outside.  In typical fashion, I took WAY too many pictures.  Like, over 400 pictures for just 3 days.  What is wrong with me?!  I may have to break this weekend vacation up into multiple posts.

With that said...here are all the pictures of us just hanging out at Bill and Pat's house in the country.  They start with  an early morning drive down the road in pajamas to visit the neighbor's cows!

Isn't the color of this horse so pretty?

The rest of Friday, our first full day there as we drove after work on Thursday, was spent just hanging around the house, eating peaches and ice cream!  And Bill and Pat were kind enough to let Matt and I go out for dinner that evening which is always so nice and very appreciated.

Lala and Poppa have a wagon attached to their lawn mower (the "tractor") which has been a hit with every one of their grandchildren!  There are always lots of tractor rides with Poppa.

Sometimes Poppa gets crazy and lets his grandchildren drive!

This one below and the one a few pics back of Katie Wynn "driving" with Poppa in the wagon are two of my favorite pics from the weekend.

K-dub also got to help Lala fill all the bird feeders to feed the birds.

On Saturday, some more family members came over to join us for lunch.  We love getting to see as many people as we can when we're in town since we don't get up there often enough!  I had brought some water balloons with me to entertain the kids, so we had a good ol' balloon toss contest.  Each child had to have a grown up as a partner.  I don't mean to brag, but I'm pretty sure Mia and I won every time!  (We may have also had a water balloon that was too small to pop...)

By far one of the highlights of the weekend for Katie Wynn was that Granddaddy came over.  She was SO excited to get to see him!  And I am totally kicking myself that I didn't get a picture of them together.  She just walked up to him where he was sitting and told him to hold her.  (If you know her at all, you know she is way too shy to do this to just anyone!)

Like I said, all the kids love the tractor...

Thomas got his first taste of chocolate milk when he stole his sister's carton.

Not so happy when she took it away...

When all of our guests were gone for the day, most of us (well, me and the kids...) crashed for an afternoon nap.  Thomas found himself a comfy spot to sleep...

Ok, I have two more "groups" of pictures from this trip that I think I'll let be posts of their own.  So that's all for now.  We had such a wonderful time in Indiana and wish we could go back again soon!