Who's Keeping Up??

Time just ticks away too fast!!  SO much has happened in the past 3 months since my last entry.  Highlights it is!

The rest of October brought a few trips out into the woods for Ben to deer hunt.  His friend from College, Mike, who now lives near Atlanta came for opening weekend with his step-son Sean.  Mike shot the hog and a deer and Sean got the other deer.  Halloween brought Ben's unlucky, lucky day.  It began with him successfully shooting 2 bucks. However, after stabbing himself in the thigh while gutting the second deer, he spent the rest of the day in the Emergency Room.  Brent stayed as far away from the deer as possible while Brody couldn't get close enough!

Grandma Aunt Irm, GrandpaGrandpa, Uncle Cory, Aunt Christina, Hannah and JP stopped by for a quick visit on their way home to Wisconsin from Destin, FL.  It's always fun to have cousins together.

Halloween Fun!  

We went to a local "Pumpkin Patch" to pick out this years pumpkins.  This time of year always makes Ben & I miss Wisconsin as it's just not the same going to get pumpkins that have been shipped in on a truck! However, the boys know no different and had a great time!  

Aunt Jen sent the boys a very fun Halloween Package that included these neat "Mr. Potato Head" pieces to decorate their pumpkins.  No knives required :o)

Aunt Jen's package also had some fun teeth in it.

The boys were Pirates this year.  It worked out well because Brody's costume was a handmedown from friends in South Carolina that Brent had worn earlier in the year to a Buccaneer dinner.  I happened to come across the same costume for Brent to wear on Craigslist for $5!!   

We Trick-or-Treated the neighborhood with our neighbor Miss Stacy and her daughter, Lia.  Brent knew exactly what to do while Brody hung back a bit.  By a few blocks Brody was an expert just like the older kids.

Ben was a trooper going Trick-or-Treating after getting home from the ER.  Walking (Limping) as far as the boys wanted to go.

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.