Benning Oktoberfest 2011

After Ben returned home from Savannah for the week, we decided to squeeze a little family time in at the Ft. Benning Oktoberfest.  As usual, there were plenty of "bouncy houses" and the "bungee jumpee."  The boys are becoming such pros at these things.  Brent even started doing flips on the bungee jumpee.  The boys love going as high as they can.

We then ate a little festival food and rode the hayride, twice.  It was a nice evening.

Go Packers!!

Ben & I had gotten tickets to the Packers vs. Falcons game.  So, we had one of ChelChel's high school friends come over to watch the boys while we headed for Atlanta.  They were invited to the neighbor girl's Costume Birthday Party so we dropped them off there before we left.  I didn't want them to wear their Halloween Costume's just yet so we opted for Brent's costume from 2 years ago and a Wonder Pets costume we happened to have. 

We met up with Ben's friend Mike from College, his wife (Cheryl), his stepson (Shawn) and Shawn's girlfriend (Michele) for some tailgating before the game.

 It was so fun to see the game in person.

 The Packers were off to a rocky start but began to dominate in the second half.  It was really sad how the Falcons fans bailed on the game with every 1st down the Packers achieved.  By the end of the game, there were only a handful of Falcons fans left in the stadium.

Fall Activities

Last weekend we took a trip to Athens, GA to tailgate with the Walkers for the UGA game.  The boys were very excited to see where ChelChel goes to school.  The boys & I went for a 2.5 hour walk around campus Saturday morning.  The campus is straight out of a movie.  So much history.  So many neat things to see.  And of course, so much Red & Black!!

 Chelsea has brought us cupcakes from this bakery a couple of weeks ago so when we came across it, the boys and I shared a "Birthday Surprise" cupcake.  So yummy!

 These were some other kids that were also in the tailgating lot with us.  Brent played so hard with them into the dark of night.  He had so much fun with them.



Ben was off of work yesterday as part of the "Columbus" holiday weekend.  He's been wanting to take the boys fishing for many, many weeks now and they finally found time to do it.  There is a great pond with a nice a playground nearby on post.  All three of them had a good time.

The boys are going to be Pirates for Halloween this year.  In the spirit of this, we picked up these masks at the craft store and spent some time coloring them this afternoon after lunch.  They thought they were so funny!!

Celebrate!!

I am officially 36 years old.  While on a regular basis I don't feel old, saying I am now 36 years old seems to feel old in itself.  I had a great birthday!  Tia came to visit for the night and was able to attend the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closer) celebration on post during the day with us and the evening fireworks were enjoyed by the boys, Ben & I.  It was incredible, the amount of "freebies" that were given away, the number of bouncy houses there were and the fireworks really did rival the best we've seen in DC!  It was a great day.

Tia was a great sport and climbed the slides with the boys whenever they asked.  They love her.

 I was amazed at how many bouncy things they had.  This was just some of them!

 Brent & Brody were big boys and waited in line for their turn to bungee jump.  They were both so happy!

 We returned at night with Ben to watch the fireworks.  Babyface happened to be on stage and we really enjoyed his show.  Surprisingly he played a lot of Eric Clapton which was nice to relax to.

 During the fireworks show they honored each branch of the military and asked those who are serving or have served to stand during their branches portion. 

 What a show to see, especially when it wasn't the 4th of July.  Ft. Benning's Fireworks never disappoint.

Enjoying Cooler Days...

We were able to finally visit the Delgado's near Tampa, FL for Labor Day weekend.

We enjoyed our visit and long weekend so much that it was really hard to leave.

Delgado's now live in a house with an in ground pool.  The boys loved being able to go outside and go swimming whenever they wanted while we enjoyed being able to just sit and visit while we watched them.

We did make a trip to the beach on Saturday and had great weather for it.  The boys loved the waves.  They ran until they wiped themselves out.  Brody took a nap on the beach and Brent was sleeping within minutes of us leaving.  It was a great way to spend an afternoon!!

 Tia (Tery) and Tio (Augusto) took us to a dive they found near Treasure Island.  It was a place right on the water with great live music and an atmosphere where the boys fit right in.  We enjoyed dinner while the sun set and then headed to the boardwalk for some ice cream.  We even witnessed dolphins swimming.  It was great.

Yesterday, thanks to Six Flags over Georgia in supporting our Troops, we were able to spend the day at the park for FREE!!!  It was the perfect way and day to experience the park.  The boys were so excited when we pulled into the parking lot.  We had perfect, sunny, weather for the day.  We did almost all the rides the boys could.  They had their favorites and we made sure we went back to do those again.  We stayed until 7pm, which was nearly all day as we got there at 10am when they opened!!  We all really enjoyed our day.



August

Where did the month of August go??

We managed to make it back "home" to Wisconsin for almost 2 weeks.  We enjoyed lots of "cousin time" and enjoyed the cooler weather.

The boys had their 1st sleepover with Logan.  They all slept through the night and even slept in!

Ben & I got to catch a Brewers game with Nick, Jen & Baby Gabe.  We really enjoyed our break from the boys and seeing the Brewers win. 

The boys were busy on a train ride with MaJ & PaJ.  They took the train from Fox Lake to Union Station downtown Chicago.  I need to get some of those pictures to add here.  They still talk about that train ride!!

The Kenosha County Fair came and went while we were visiting.  The boys loved the routine of walking the fairgrounds to see what was getting set up.  When the fair finally began, they were very eager to check out the rides.  The Grandparents were great sports and did so many of the rides with them.



The boys loved seeing the animals and especially liked going to the petting area where they were able to hold baby chicks and pet the goats, a baby cow and a baby horse.  We went back almost every day!

We were able to attend the Hess' (Emmy & Zac) Annual August get together and on the way home, we saw a great rainbow in the sky.  It was even a double although very faint.  It was the boys first time seeing a rainbow.  They were very excited and named the colors over and over again.



It was a great visit!

However, the boys & I were very happy to get home to "Daddy." 

We spent a little time Sunday afternoon at the Bowling Alley on post.  The boys were so excited when we pulled up.  They only played one game while Ben and I watched but it was a lot entertainment!