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!

What a week!!

Ben is on "Block Leave" for two weeks and we are soaking up the time as best we can.  It's been a very busy week so the time has gone so fast.  Here's hoping that this next week slows down a bit!!

I decided to purchase a pool from a friend who's 2 boys have outgrown it's use.  It's harder to store than an inflatable but it's SO much tougher and seems to be a lot of fun for the boys.  I love that it came with a slide and is easy to drain, no lifting it full of water!  The boys squealed with delight when Ben unloaded it from the truck and washed it up. Lea, the neighbor girl, came over to see what the excitement was all about. They had asked to swim in it every day last week.

It seemed we had a lot of doctors appointments for every one last week that took up a lot of precious time but Ben and I were able to fit in a Tuesday night date where we enjoyed a nice dinner without the boys and a trip to Home Depot.  Ben spent Wednesday building us a small deck off the back of the house (I am sure it's against the "rules" but oh well, we love it!).  I'll post pictures next time I post.

After all that, we met some friends near Helen, GA for a weekend of camping in the Georgia Mountains.

We went tubing down the Chattahoochee River on Saturday.  It was a little longer than a 2 hour trip and we all had a great time.  Brent especially enjoyed the little bit of rapids we encountered.

Ben picked out a great campground where we spent a lot of time at the playground and even got in 9 holes of minigolf.  Ben was the coolest dad at the campground when he pushed the Merry Go Round faster than any big kid there.  All the kids kept asking him to PLEASE do it again.  Brent loved it.  Brody tolerated it.

Sunday we spent some time in Helen.  Helen is an old town that was recreated in the 60's to resemble an Alpine Village with many German influences.  We spent some time at a Model Railroad shop where the boys were so happy.  They talked about it all afternoon and begged to go back.

Per the recommendation of the Model Train owner, we ate lunch at Hofer's German Bakery & Cafe.  Ben & Mike took part in a German beer before we headed out on the town for the afternoon.

It was nearly 100 degrees this afternoon so when the rain began to fall, the boys were ecstatic to get wet.  They had so much fun that they slept nearly the entire ride home!

We enjoyed our weekend so much that we are already planning our camping escape for next weekend!