Road Trip to Mt Rushmore

I am going to break our vacation down into three parts because it was a long jam-packed trip. The first leg of our road-trip took 14 hours; we left at 4 am and drove until 6 in the evening. The kids did way better than we expected. Lochlan was such a little trooper being strapped into his 5 point harness for so long. They watched lots of movies, took naps and we stopped for several short breaks.

We camped in Keystone for two nights, did some hiking, walked around the little town shops and went up to see Mt Rushmore once during the day and once later in the evening for the lighting ceremony. It was really quite a sight! It is so worth the trip and the evening ceremony is a definite must! It is awesome when they light up the monument and everyone sings the national anthem.

Fourth of July

We had a fun holiday weekend filled with good friends, yummy food, fireworks and softball. On the third we went to a BBQ at our friends house where we ate yummy food and visited with all our super fun friends while the kids ran around playing and finding bugs. Later that evening we headed over to watch fireworks in a nearby village. Thanks to our friends for bringing the glow sticks...they were a huge hit. We enjoyed our traditional 4Th of July treats; red vines, oatmeal creme pies and Aquafina. Yummy! It was a pretty good show, but according to Anika it was not long enough. One of these years we might head downtown to see the big show!

On the fourth we spent the day outside playing a little softball. I hit the ball both times I was up :) and Adam hit two home runs. The kids even got in on the action after the adult game was over. During the game the kids played at the park, rode scooters and had a water balloon fight. We had a picnic dinner then headed home for a relaxing evening.

More Summer Fun

We played with our next door neighbors on their slip n slide. Lochlan loved it, but preferred to just run through and drink the water. Anika and Celtin need one that is twice as long because they get some speed and practically fly off the end. Yay for good cheap fun!

Celtin started indoor soccer this summer. He has been having a blast and has improved his skills already. We just did it through the park district so it is kinda ghetto but he loves it and that is all that matters. He get so excited when they score that he runs and jumps around . He takes being the goalie very seriously. He always has a tough guy face when they get close with the ball. If he wants to play again maybe we will put him on a real team.

Berry Picking

We took the kids to pick strawberries and peas. Lochlan had so much fun and loved pulling the strawberries off the plant. Most of the berries he picked ended up in his mouth instead of the basket. Anika and Celtin had fun and were so proud of the two baskets of strawberries we brought home. The peas were more difficult to find and harder to pull off the plant but we were still able to get an entire basket. It was very dusty in the pea fields, add that to Lochlans sticky face and he was quite the happy little mess. They were all gone in a couple days-Yummy!

Six Flags-a dream realized and 1 lost kid

I took the kids to six flags with my sister in law. It cost me zero, zilch, zippo...Carli gave me their guest pass and the kids had passes they earned at school. I was nervous to go without Adam but Carli helped me out and watched Lochlan so I could take the kids on some of the bigger rides.

On the way to the park Celtin said "I hope we can go upside down, it has always been my dream to go upside down on a roller coaster." We found one they could both go on, but they got really nervous, after some coaxing we decided to go on Demon-a really big coaster that goes upside down a couple different times. I couldn't sit by both and they wanted to go at the same time so they sat by each other and I sat behind them. I sat behind Celtin so Anika could see me because she was the most anxious. The entire time I kept saying "It will be okay, keep your head back, your doing good, almost done". After the first loop she was fine and said "That wasn't so bad", but then we went into the corkscrew loop and she bonked her head and started crying. I couldn't see or hear Celtin so I kept asking Anika how he was doing and she would say fine. When it slowed down I yelled to Celtin "Are you okay" and he enthusiastically said "Yes." I asked him "How was it...did you enjoy living your dream?" He said he smiled the whole time and can't wait to ride it again. I kinda wish I could have seen his face through the ride but there is always next time.

After that we spent the rest of the day in the water park. Anika and Celtin went on the kid waterslides while Lochlan and I hung out in the kiddie pool area-the water is only about 6 inches deep with a little slide that he went down about 50 times. After they would go on a slide they would come check in with me but one time Anika came back alone...she didn't know where Celtin was. He didn't want to go on the green slide so he told her he was going to the blue slide. After he left she remembered they were supposed to stay together and went to find him, but she couldn't. I was stressed but tried to remain calm. By this point Carli had left and I didn't know what to do-I had to stay where I was in case Celtin came looking for me. I sent Anika to check the blue slide while I tried to hang onto a slippery 1 year old and pace back and forth trying to find him in the thousands of kids. After 5 minutes I thought "Great, now I lost both my kids." I turned around and walked back towards the center of the kiddie area and then I saw Celtin walking towards the water with a lifeguard. He was crying, I called him as I was walking towards him but they couldn't hear me until I was 5 feet away. I hugged him and he clung to me for the next 30 minutes. I am so glad he knew to find a lifeguard! She asked him what I looked like, but he didn't know how to describe me, so I had a discussion with my kids on how they can describe me and in the future before I send them off to play I will make sure they know what I am wearing. A couple minutes passed and Anika finally came back...she was running around everywhere looking for him...I think she thought it was her fault he was lost. :( We were all happy to be back together, it was almost time to go so we went over to the wave pool but it was closed so we just decided to leave.

Later that week we spent a day at our friends house playing in their kid pool, lounging, eating a totally kid friendly lunch and visiting. It was a super fun time and the kids loved it. I loved that I didn't have to stress about one of them getting lost.

Lets take a trip

back in time so that I can blog about Fathers day. All set? okay...Adam is doing this crazy no sugar thing (30 days with no sugar) so he got boring eggs and hash browns for breakfast. Next up...gifts. What he wanted: a motorcycle, a kayak, and a new iPhone. What he got: exercise shirts, a food scale, diet Mountain Dew and the Lego Batman game for his PS3. I hate seafood, but Adam loves it and since I couldn't make him a yummy dessert, I thought I would give him what he loves for dinner. I bought frozen, precooked crab legs. Simple enough, right...wrong! I cooked them twice as long as the package said but they were still cold inside. :( Adam and the kids ate them anyway-thank goodness they were precooked! That is about it...hopefully he felt extra special for the day. He is a wonderful dad and I know that we are lucky to have him in our lives!