Making Memories

These boys are busy making memories...nothing like experiencing life through the eyes of a child.  Every time I talk to Scott he is crying...joy filled tears.  He LOVES these weekends and LOVES watching the boys light up.  

Go bucks!

Catching up...Fair edition

I am still working on my "Catching Up" posts...this one is about the Iowa State Fair.  Once again, Scott took Drew and Jack to the fair for their alone day/evening.  This year was Max's first year getting an alone day with Dad, he lasted about 4 hours which was great...and Tommy did not get an alone day this year due to his trip to Cedar Point that was coming up...we chose not to spend money on both. :)  I had an alone "date night" at the fair and then we did go one evening as a family as well.  So if you are counting...that makes 5 trips to the fair for Scott.  He LOVES it...and each of us enjoys different parts of the fair so he really doesn't get overloaded ever with the same.

Max's day....

Max went opening day.

On the way down to the fair "It's just you and me Daddy.  Just Daddy and Max"

When they first got their his first words to Scott "My Jackie says we have to get cookies first"...so off to eat warm chocolate chip cookies they went.

On the tractors "Daddy you can watch TV in this tractor" when he saw the GPS system

After going down the BIG SLIDE...he looked right at Scott and held up his little finger and said "One more time Daddy"

When he saw the butter cow "That cow is NOT real Daddy"

When they watched some of the livestock judging "I like these pig races Daddy"...thinking they were racing and not parading around to be judged.

When he got home to me "Mommy if my brothers try to scratch off my Hawkeye tattoo Daddy will tackle them"

Out of the words of babes...

Max wanted to match with Daddy in the Ohio shirts...my two blue eyed loves

taken from the chairlift...BE STILL my heart he took our 3 year old on a chair lift with his feet dangling and looking down.  UGH...I am so glad they have a brave Daddy otherwise I think they would never do anything outside of my sight.  

It was my turn next...

I agree with Max and think the warm chocolate chip cookies should be the very first stop.  So we stopped there.  We wandered around looking at the commercial buildings, the ag stuff Scott enjoys, the flowers I enjoy and just really had fun being together and catching up. It's not very often where we can have an uninterrupted sentence or thought.

Jack was next.  He was so excited to go.  These boys LOVE the fair and LOVE time alone with their Daddy.  Jack loved the Lego display, the BIG slide, OF course the chocolate chip cookies, Pork on a stick, bumper cars and all of the animals.  He is looking SO much older to me these days, he has changed so much this summer.

Drew was next...

He loves the animals, the food, the ag stuff, the photos, the 4H projects...most of all he enjoys time to chat it up with his Dad without anyone around.  (sound familiar)

I cannot seem to find all of the pics from their day, they must be on the little camera on the way to Ohio.  But here was one Scott texted me...this tunnel was once Drew's favorite thing at the fair, think he has outgrown it a bit.

We went as a family last....we spent the evening there. (half price after 5:00)  Scott had a few ride passes so the boys did bumper cars and Max did the merry go round and the cars.  We shared Chocolate Chip Cookies (notice a trend), each ate what we wanted for dinner, tried a new thing homemade peppermint ice cream sandwiches...YUM...the boys all did the BIG slide (I took the pictures, I just might not LIKE the height of the big slide), we visited a few animals, and we had their caricature done which we did in 2006...so it was fun for an updated one.

 This might be my favorite fair picture of ALL time...

 The boys went on the slide twice, once with Dad and once without.  Tommy spun out on the last time and Max thought it WAS SO SO SO funny  

 I LOVE this picture...the boys often fight over who gets to carry Max and hold him...they just adore that little guy.  Love Tommy in this pic.  Shows his joy and love towards Max.

Super excited I am making them do caricatures.

The bus ride home from the fair, Max adores "my Jack-ie"

Another Iowa State Fair in the books.  Until next year.

And they are off....

Scott and the boys JUST drove out of the driveway and are headed to Ohio for a BOYS only weekend.  They will stay part way there tonight and then head to Columbus in the morning after a hotel swim.  They LOVE to browse around Columbus, look at stores, eat at Bob Evans, eat at Cane's, walk campus...oh my they ALL love it so much there.  Even Max is excited and a little nervous about Brutus, we will see if he braves Brutus this year.  The Buckeyes Season Opener is Saturday at noon, high noon in the heat.  After the game the boys are headed to see Grandma and Grandpa Shisler on the farm, hope Grandma has her pot roast, ham loaf, applesauce mashed potatoes, gravy, peach pie, snickerdoodles and M & M cookies ready...they are ready to EAT!

I am home alone...silence for the next 4 days.  I do have 5 photo sessions lined up and LOTS of editing of pictures to do so I won't get to clean as much as I would LIKE to but I assure you there will be some fall cleaning included in the weekend.  Have I mentioned lately that it is 99 degrees outside with a heat index that is NASTY...this lady is staying in AC as much as possible.

I want to give the "What a GUY Award" to my Love for doing this...not only for the boys, but for me.  Max kept saying ALL day..."Momma, it is just for the boys, no grills on this trip (aka girls)..no Mommy, just the boys.  Daddy is in charge."  It won't be a relaxing weekend for Scott but they are making memories and we are busy raising boys.

 O-H-I-O

Catching Up....Tommy's belated birthday gift

Tommy has been wanting and asking to go to Cedar Point Amusement Park ever since he learned it existed.  He is a RIDE guy, much like his Dad.  So...for his 16th birthday Scott decided it would be fun to celebrate by taking him to Cedar Point, in Sandusky, OH.  It happened to be that his fraternity from his Ohio State days had a benefit tournament the 3rd weekend of August...in Columbus.  So they left for a road trip.

They headed to Columbus on Friday night, played golf on Saturday..they stayed with our great friends the Townsleys.  Mike and Scott were best friends in college.  Their oldest 2 kids were in our wedding and their youngest came in his Mama's tummy.  They have grown up, it was fun that they were all home from college and school.

Stuart...one of the funniest kids we know and sweetest guys around.  He is a senior in HS this year. 

Jackie...one of our sweet flower girls and now a Jr in college.  She was the youngest and was SO SO cute. Not even 2 years old at the time.  

Jane was 7 months pregnant at our wedding and was NOT pleased with us...we had her 1.5 year old daughter and her 4 year old son in our wedding as well as her husband.  She asked "do you hate me to put me through this?" the night before our wedding.  Then she realized how laid back we were about the kids...they couldn't have been cuter.

John...was our Ringbearer....sigh he just graduated from college.

Rabbit trail....had to post this from our wedding so you could see how cute they were...Jackie is the littlest one.  So so SO cute. 

And another random thought..why or why did I wear heals on our wedding day.  I don't like how extremely tall I looked in ALL of the pics.  Don't get me wrong, I am tall and I don't mind but I don't like looking 6'2" next to my 6'4" hubby.  So my wedding shoes had cute white bows on them, it's really why I loved them.  AND I thought there were not other options besides dye to match flats which I had overdone for proms.  So...since no one saw my shoes and it just makes me look like an Amazon.  Oh well...at least I don't have big bangs, puffy sleeves or a big bow on the backside of me.  The joys of the 90's.

After golfing in the fundraiser they headed to the farm to see Grandma and Grandpa Shisler.  It was a quick visit filled with driving Grandpa's Kubota and eating good food.

Sunday morning they headed to Cedar Point...

They were there from open to close...10 am-10 pm.  They were able to ride on 20 rides...and they only went on the scary, fast ones.  It always makes you feel good as a Mom when you hear these words..."We had to wait a little extra in line for maintenance to finish up...then we went on"...um this Momma, who doesn't like rides to start with...would NOT get on a ride that had just been "fixed".  And if I would have been there I would NOT have wanted THEM to get on it.  Oh well that's why boys have Dad's.  They don't worry about that stuff.

Oh and another favorite...."After you get through the initial PAIN of going 0-120 mph, the ride is really fun.  Especially when you are up 430 feet in the air"...umm thanks but I didn't need to know there was PAIN involved nor did I need to know it was THAT high up.  Oh and that maintenance had just been there.


BUT they had fun and that's why it was a FATHER/SON trip...bonding and being dangerous together.

Here are some pics that they took...most of them were from Tommy's phone...

I think Scott deserves the "What a Guy Award" for this weekend...they had a terrific time.

This is the one that goes from 0-120 in 9 seconds and then up 430 feet and you sit at the top before you corkscrew to your death...to the bottom.  Sound fun?