Zoo day

Last week I decided to take the boys to the zoo since the weather was so nice - I knew it was going to get really hot soon.  The boys were pretty excited to be able to go again.

Our normal picture for each trip we make.

Since we come to the zoo often with our annual passes, I give them the choice of what they want to see first and which direction they want to go.

There are about 4 items that you have to pay for at the zoo - train, snow cone, merry go round, butterfly exhibit and even a new Happy Feet ride.  I give them the choice to pick 2 each time we go because we can't just do everything.  It also gives them an opportunity to learn that money doesn't just grow on trees!!  This trip they picked feeding the giraffes and eating a snowcone.

So twice during our visit to the zoo, Trevor was called either sweetie or a "she".  I really can't believe people think Trevor is a girl - is it just because his hair is not cut really short?  Come on people, give me a break.

Since they (Brody) didn't pick the merry go round, they at least sat on the horse beside it for a picture

The zoo has a new Butterfly exhibit, so I thought I would buy us tickets to go into that especially since Trevor wasn't tall enough to ride the Happy Feet simulated ride.  Brody was pretty bummed that he couldn't ride it.  Maybe next time.

They didn't last long in the butterfly exhibit but at least we saw it and supported it.

The one thing they love to do is play in the Splash Park.  This picture looks like Brody isn't very happy but he kept yelling at the top of his lungs for Trevor to come and get sprayed by the water - but Trevor didn't want anything to do with that.

He would rather just do his own thing.

One last thing - check out the penguins (terrible picture with the bar in his face)

We had such a great day and they were both on their best behavior.  Days like this make me glad that I am a stay at home mom.

Happy Father's Day - Vacation style

We woke up Sunday morning and had to pack up to go home.  Of course it was Father's Day and I really did feel bad that we were away from home and couldn't celebrate the right way for Jason as well as my dad.  But I tried to make the most of it.  I brought all of the cards from home that the boys had made and a couple of small gifts.  The boys were pretty excited to give Jason his gifts.

I had Brody fill out an All About Dad form and it was so cute to see his answers.  He had also created one at school, which I didn't know.  They had sent it home sealed with specific notes to not open until Father's Day.

For these 3 pictures, you would think it would take just a few minutes to capture but not my boys or my Trevor.  He was being especially difficult that day and this photo shoot took about 30 minutes with mosquitos trying to bite us - lots of fun but all for dad!!

Jason and my dad also received a bag of Reeses Pieces - something like this.

I was not looking forward to the over 9 hour drive home with 2 boys but off we went.  Since the boys weren't able to see much of the scenic drive on the way up, I really wanted them to see some of it on our way home.

After a few stops - grab n go at Burger King, gas, and pull over to let Trevor use the bathroom (thankful to have boys) we made it home around 7:30.  My parents had bought Jason a cake for his birthday the day before but we didn't have a chance to eat it so we had some when we arrived home (it wasn't very good).

I struggled with what to get Jason for his birthday/father's day.  Why is it so hard to come up with gifts for them?  Anyway, I finally decided on having Best Buy hook up his truck so he can play his iphone/ipod through the speakers.  Jason bought this for me last year for my birthday and I love it, so I thought this was the perfect combo gift.  I really wanted it to be a surprise so I'm thankful for Adam and Stephanie who drove his truck over to Best Buy for me while we were gone and had it installed.  Let me just say it was a little difficult trying to keep it all a secret and get it all coordinated.

Jason had no clue what I had done except that he noticed his truck was parked a little differently when we got home - I just tried to ignore it.  The only way I could think of to tell him was that I put 2 balloons inside his truck - 1 saying Happy Birthday and the other Happy Father's Day.  I just told him that I think I saw something in his truck.  I know pretty lame right?  I could have just let him find it in the morning, but I wanted to see his face when he saw it.

We had a very enjoyable trip but as always it was good to be home.

Happy Birthday

What a great husband I have to be willing to spend his birthday AND Father's Day on my family reunion.

So selfless, which is why I wanted him to take his golf clubs and try to play a round of golf.  Unfortunately, he and Jeremy couldn't find a tee time that worked so what better way to spend your birthday then a second day to Dollywood.  We arrived at the park around 10 and our goal was to ride things we haven't yet and make sure we saw as much of the park as we could.

Our first stop were the little race cars.  Here's my driver

The boys wanted a picture of this car because they said it looked like Finn Mcmissle from Cars 2

My 2 hot rods.  Their Uncle Randy would be so proud.

Jason and the boys planned to get wet on this trip to Dollywood so they dressed accordingly.  Hard to believe that Trevor was big enough to ride this.

The boys loved it.  All smiles.

 While the big "kids" rode bigger rides, Trevor and I went to the merry go round.  It is going to be a sad day when Trevor doesn't want to ride it anymore.

 Here's the big boy ride that Jason and Brody rode.  Jason wasn't too keen on riding since he doesn't like heights but he said it wasn't too bad and it felt really good up there with the breeze.

You can barely see Trevor in the Scrambler.  They all loved it.

Look at my brave child with his hands up.

The Dollywood Express - a real coal run train just like in the old days

Here's what Trevor thought of the train.

After a 20 min nap on the train he was ready to play while Brody and Jason rode the log flume.  Hard to believe that Trevor couldn't ride it.

So here is the River Battle ride that the boys loved so much.  Brody really wanted his daddy to ride it this time so off they went.  I did my share of squirting water at them from the side as did they to me.

As you can see soaking wet.

We left the park around 3:30.  Dolly was actually in a parade that day at 3, but I didn't feel like fighting all the people to see her.  Jeremy and the girls got to see her as they were walking out - of course they were pretty excited.

When we arrived back to the condos our families had gotten together to have hot dogs.  This gave us all a time to get together and get an update on how everyone is doing.  Here's my Grandmother's side of the family.

Here's all of our family represented at this year's reunion.  There were 6 of the 11 siblings represented.

The kids had their own fun rolling down the mountain since we don't know what that is here in the flat area.

After much begging, the kids were so excited to get back in the pool.

Here's how Trevor has his fun - sitting on Jeff's head and jumping to Jason.

Cute Chaly who learned to swim by herself since her mom took too long to bring down her swimmies. She thought she was a big girl.

 Since it was our last night, we decided to go ride go carts one more time.  We went to the big Nascar track.  I thought Jason would have a lot of fun (and I would too) since it was his birthday and all.  The one drawback with this place is that everyone who comes in (even spectators) have to pay admission of $18, but this let you have unlimited riding.  It may have been better if it wasn't so crowded and we didn't have to wait 20-30 min to ride a go cart.  Oh well, live and learn.

Here's the first go cart Brody has driven by himself.  He thought he was big time.

There were about 15 of us at this go cart track, so talk about fun when all of us got on one of the tracks together - total chaos!!  We had a few whistles blown and shaking the finger at us and a few blow outs but it was great fun.  In order for us all to ride, I had to ride in a double car even though I was by myself (Jason and Brody were riding together).  Well, the worker gave me the fast double car but then when he found out Brody wasn't riding with me he said Jason and Brody had to have that one.  I said that's fine the birthday boy can have it.  Well, the worker thought I was talking about Brody, so when we were all finished riding he called us all to the side - I thought we were in trouble.  However, he called Brody to the front of everyone including the 40 people in line and told everyone it was his birthday and we all sang.  I hung my head and thought oh no Brody is going to freak out because he HATES all the attention from people he doesn't know.  Sure enough about half way through the song he had this look of fright so Jason rushed out to grab him and the worker knew then that something was wrong.  A couple of scratches later on Jason's face (we are working on how Brody handles these situations) and riding the kiddie rides for the rest of the night all was ok.

We left the race track at 12:00 and the boys passed out in the car, but of course they HAD to have a bath that night but were quickly asleep after that.