I was trying to figure out what this week's post should be about (besides the obvious stars of the blog) and I realized I forgot to post about our camping trip on Labor Day weekend!  We went back to the same campground we started the summer with on Memorial weekend, with the same group of friends.  Start summer with a bang and end summer with a bang, right?!

I'm not going to lie, as I sit here freezing in sweatpants, a sweatshirt and a blanket on me, it's tough to look at these pictures when it was still warm and sunny!!  Oh summer….you come too slowly and leave too quickly!

Fish Slayer

Check out those skills and that super confident expression. 

That record breaking fish was tough to get off the hook!

I think Kade was starting to lose his patience with me.

I'd rather be holding this squirmy, little fish instead!

6 dads and 6 moms….

Where are the kids???

Busy forming a bike gang, apparently.

And hanging out in questionably safe water.

After the boys had spent an hour playing in this creek we discovered there were leeches in it.

If anyone has seen the movie, "Stand By Me", you'll remember the leech scene vividly.  Well, that's immediately what went through our minds when we found the leech.  You've never heard moms and dads scream, "GET OUT OF THE WATER!!!!", faster and louder than we yelled it.  We then proceeded to make the boys check their underwear.  Luckily, no one had any on them!

Handsome boys…and Charlotte photo bombing in the bottom right corner :-)

And then there's these 2 cuties!

I seriously cannot get enough of them!  They play so well together...

See what I mean??

Adorable.

Kade's 5 Year Appointment, A Year Late

I should have Erik tell this story but considering the last time Erik did a post Kade couldn't walk yet, I figure I better just handle it.

A couple weeks ago Kade had his 5 year well child appointment.  Yes, a couple weeks ago Kade turned 6.  For whatever reason, we missed his 5 year check up.  I didn't even realize it until I was going over the list for Kindergarten and I realized he was missing a few immunizations.  I called the doctors office and sure enough his appointment got overlooked last year.  

I was able to get him in right away but Erik had to be the one to take him.  We told Kade he was probably going to get 3 shots but there could be more.  So, he knew going in it wasn't going to be a fun visit.

The doctor came in, did his routine exam, gave Erik the all clear that Kade is healthy and has no health concerns.  They just needed to wait for the nurse to come in and give the shots.  45 minutes later she came.  Kade was hungry and nervous to say the least.  She stuck in the 3 needles back-to-back-to-back and said he was good to go!  

Erik said he was very brave, he winced but he held in the tears.  They couldn't wait to get out of the tiny room and into fresh air so they left immediately.  Erik had to stop at the desk quick and Kade said his leg hurt.  A split second later he was passed out on the floor.  He fainted!  4 nurses and a doctor rushed to him, got him into a room, gave him cookies and juice and checked his vitals.  He was fine.  It was just the combination of many factors:  the extremely long wait, the dread of the needles, no food in his stomach, he held his breath during the shots and he left immediately after getting them.  Needless to say all of those tears he was holding in were free flowing after that!!

And now doctor visits have probably been ruined for life.  Great.

The stats:

Height:  4 ft 2 in   >97%

Weight:  60.2 lbs   95%

Yep.  He's still a big boy!

And handsome as ever!

This little guy isn't too hard on the eyes either!

First Day of School….and Football Season

I'm a little behind on this post because I've been trying to play catch up from August!  Kade started Kindergarten (how is this possible already?!?) last Tuesday.  Well, technically Tuesday was only for 2 hours and I was there with him.  So, his actual real first day of school was Wednesday.  All day, every day is wearing the kid (and mom) out!  

He seems to like it!  I don't hear too many complaints about having to go.  He's not a huge fan of riding the bus in the morning but he's one of the last on so he doesn't know how good he really has it!  Speaking of riding the bus…we made it 1 whole week before missing it.  My goal was to never miss the bus.  We were driving down our driveway yesterday as the bus was driving away.  7 days into school.  New goal…never miss the bus again.  

Speaking of school….school lunches.  Kade is now on the hot lunch program with intentions (mine) that I would send him with a cold lunch a couple times a week.  However, Kade told me that he LOVES the food and, quite honestly, it's the BEST food he's ever eaten!  I guess that's a good thing but what does that say about me?  And Grandma?  And anyone else who's ever fed him?  And his taste buds?

Anyway, onto the good stuff...

After the 2 hour orientation on Tuesday, we got the 5 boys together for some playtime.  

It may have been more for the moms though….

The  next day Mason and I had our first Wednesday, just the 2 of us.

Someone was REALLY excited to have ALL of the toys to himself!  Even the ones that his brother won't let him touch.  

Don't worry Mase, I won't tell Kade if you don't!

The start of the school year means the start of football season!

We took both boys to the first high school game of the season.  Which means Kade is now into football and football only.  

Mason was mainly there for a different reason…

However something from the game must've rubbed off on him (besides butter).  Look at this little running back in the making!

That little stumble at the very end confirms my beliefs that Mason is probably going to be a lineman :-)

Vacation Part 2

After camping at Yogi we came home for a couple days to regroup and then we repacked the camper for the 2nd leg of our vacation.  Sunday-Friday we camped just the 4 of us.  Not going to lie, Sunday was a little rough!!  The boys were still crazy from camping with a whole bunch of friends just a few days before so it took a bit of an adjustment when they realized they just had us to play with.  This campground was awesome though and had plenty of activities to keep them busy!  3 different playgrounds, a brand new water park, a fishing pond and it was just a short distance to a bike path.  Oh, and it had a big petting zoo with lots of animals to feed (which just happened to be Mason's ABSOLUTE FAVORITE spot in the campground!  I can't tell you how many times we heard Mase ask, "Feed kickens?"  No, that's not a typo--that's just how he says "chickens").

I more than made up for my forgetting my camera in the first half of our vacation.  Prepare yourselves for pictures overload...

Kade loved this fishing pond.  He pretty much had it to himself for the whole week.  The fish were biting so much that at one point he was just dropping the hook in without any bait and they would STILL get hooked!

Mason wasn't as into it but thankfully there was a playground right next to it!

 Mason's "smile" in these pictures does nothing to fully represent just how much he loved the petting zoo.  Our site was right next to it and the donkeys and roosters were sure to wake us up bright and early every.single.morning.  Erik and I basically took turns hanging out by the beasts while Mason talked to and fed them.

Thanks for posing with Mason deer!

Like I said, the boys were used to having someone to play with every minute of every day from our Yogi trip.  So, it took quite awhile for them to realize they just had each other and themselves to play with on this trip.  I can't remember when they finally just sat down and played without us but when they did, Erik and I were sure to document it!  And then take advantage by sitting down ourselves!

Kade lost tooth #2 while on this trip!  It was right before bed when it came out.  He asked if he needed to put a sign outside of the camper so the tooth fairy knew he was in there and not at home.  Luckily the tooth fairy was able to find him, and happened to have a little cash in her wallet!  Whew!

Another fishing excursion but on the lake this time.  They didn't catch anything but they sure did look cute trying!

Mason carried a rock all the way from the camper down to this lake so he could throw it in.  He threw it as hard as he could and then yelled, "YES!  MADE IT!".  Ummm…good shot buddy…and I would've been a little worried if you hadn't made it!  But, I like your enthusiasm little man!!

It was a great week for the water park!!  Sunny and warm almost everyday.  Which was good because the water was a little chillier than what we're used to!  We've been spoiled with warm pool water so the boys don't know what to do with themselves when the water temp is under 90 degrees!  Ok, so maybe it's more "I don't know what to do with myself"--it doesn't seem to bother the boys that much :-)

Hey!  Look at that!  A picture of me and the Tall Guy!  I can't remember the last picture we took of just the 2 of us!  We tried to get the boys in this picture too but they weren't having it.

We spent one day on the bike trail.  It was awesome!!  Not too hot, no hills, oh and there was ice cream waiting for us at the end of our journey!  The only problem was we couldn't stop for too long on the trail because the mosquitos would swarm us immediately!  Dang skeetas.

Mason has a future in personal training.  He yelled "GO MOM!  GO FASTER MOMMY!" for most of the trip.  Then he would help me with my core exercises and balance by leaning side to side as far and as fast as he could.  

See that thing between my eyes?  It's a squished mosquito.  I didn't even know it was there until I looked at this picture.

We biked about 7.5 miles to get to this destination.  Then we turned around and biked back because this town didn't have any ice cream!  We biked close to 15 miles that day!  It was so fun and the boys loved it!  Kade did great on his little bike and Mason took a mini cat nap on the way back.  Can't wait to do it again!!

Unfortunately that's the end of our August Month of Fun.  Back to work, back to reality and…Back to SCHOOL!!!  We have ourselves a Kindergartener!!!!!