Labor Day

We went back to Cascade Labor Day weekend for some family time and lots of fun.  We spent most of Friday night in Grandpa Steve and Grandma Jan's backyard playing with Max and enjoying a lot of four-wheeler and lawn mower rides.

Charlie's obsession continues to be lawn mowers - he constantly looks for them when we are outside and if one of our neighbors is mowing their lawn, Charlie will stand in the yard and watch for an hour.

Copper and I finally decided to join the action and the four of us went for a little ride around the pond. 

Grandma Jan blew bubbles for Charlie and Max to chase for a long time in the backyard and when the boys were finally showing signs of exhaustion, I snapped a couple of pictures.

The problem was that every time that Jan laughed, Charlie would start to laugh and look up at her instead of my camera.

Aunt Jenn even blew a couple of bubbles, much to Charlie's complete joy.  I think by the end of the night we all would have appreciated one of those automatic bubble machines.

Uncle Ben played dump trucks with Charlie for awhile...there was no shortage of playmates, which was great.

On Saturday morning we stopped at Camp Courageous for a train ride through the campgrounds and to visit the animals that live at camp.  Max and "Papa" were pretty excited about the start of the train ride.

Steve took this photo without his glasses and in close range so it turned out better than we expected.

Charlie and I spent some time at my parent's house on Saturday afternoon where the fun continued outside until Charlie put his finger in bird poop.  He very carefully held his pointer finger in the air saying "poo poo" until he saw the look of horror on my face and then he was pretty freaked out.  Thankfully, Grandma Kathy was ready to power-wash that "poo" right off of his finger.

We were back at my parent's house on Sunday for fun with the Gehl cousins.  Charlie was pretty happy to master climbing in and out of the waterless water table.

Claire, Hannah, Charlie and Jacey busy playing with some water.

Emma graciously pushed Charlie around in this car in the backyard for quite awhile.

An action shot of the crew (Dylan is the blur in green running down the hill).

A group shot with Grandma and Grandpa.  The other grandkids were quite the troopers for pictures, but Charlie quickly tired of our paparazzi-like conduct.  The rest of my group pictures are great of the entire group with the back of Charlie as he refused to cooperate.

Charlie slept the entire way home, which is exactly what we hope to have happen.  Charlie has always loved seeing his cousins, but he has really started playing with them like one of the "big" kids lately.  I have so many memories of playing with my cousins at my Grandma Green's house and it makes me happy that Charlie will have great memories as well (minus the poo incident).

Random Pictures and Random Thoughts

I was trying to think of a way to tie in all of the random pictures and activities that have happened over the last few weeks but I've got nothing. So I'm opting for numbered paragraphs instead of transition sentences...it helps my OCDness.

1.  A couple of weekends ago we checked out the State Fair.  I was truly interested in finding the famed Butter Cow, but we somehow missed it.  Charlie loved checking out all of the animals.  Below is a picture of the largest bull at the fair, which weighed in at just over 2,700lbs.  Holy cow.  Or should I say, holy bull!

We walked through all of the livestock buildings and Charlie loved seeing all of the pigs, cows, horses and lambs.  He waved at every animal and would automatically ask for "more".  

2.  Last weekend we left Des Moines on Friday afternoon to stay at my sister's house in Eldridge on Friday night before heading to Illinois for my niece Jacey's birthday party on Saturday.  On our way to Eldridge on Friday night, we stopped in Williamsburg to do a little shopping.  We let Charlie ride a Bob the Builder ride and he really liked it, despite the fact that he didn't show any enthusiasm.

While we were at Molly's house, we were able to wish Hannah an early birthday.  We can't believe that Hannah turned 5!

As always, Charlie had a great time hanging out with Emma (who somehow escaped my camera), Claire and Hannah.

On Saturday morning we woke up and headed to Illinois to celebrate Jacey's 2nd birthday.  Here is a picture of Jacey and Dylan enjoying her new tea set.

Barney decided to take Dylan's bike for a spin around the yard to provide a little entertainment for the rest of us.

Then Barney decided that it was never too early to try to teach Charlie to ride a bike.

The bike riding wasn't thrilling enough for Charlie so BJ decided to test whether Charlie will like roller coaster rides.

Jacey seemed to have fun at her birthday party and enjoyed opening her gifts.

A picture of the cake that Maria made - it tasted as good as it looked! 

A quick picture with the birthday girl and my brothers Barney, Marty and nephew Tyler.

Charlie had a great time and conked out for part of the trip back to Norwalk.

3.  Charlie's love for pudding continues.  I think that it will be a long-term relationship...

as will his relationship with ice cream.  On our way home on Friday night, I decided that we would go through the McDonald's drive-thru and get some ice cream.  Charlie started clapping when I was handed the ice cream and ended up eating 90% of it and was very reluctant to share with BJ.  Charlie would scoop a spoonful for himself but would give BJ a teeny tiny amount. 

It looks like we'll have to become a multi-McFlurry house before too long. 

4.  Charlie started a Kindermusik music class yesterday morning and we think that he will love it.  The class is for 18months-3 years so Charlie is on the younger side, but he participated in almost all of the activities and when he decided to go off on his own he was still shaking it to the beat. 

5.  We had Charlie's six month review at daycare earlier this week and it seems like he's right on target.  It was good to hear that his hair pulling days seem behind him and that he realizes "how strong he is compared to the other kids."  The teachers also indicated that when it is time to take a nap Charlie will bounce for a couple of minutes straight before finally crashing on his cot.  The teachers summarize what progress Charlie has made in the last few months and target what they want him to work on in the next couple of months.  I had to laugh that one of the items to work on in the coming months is for Charlie to learn to put his shoes on.  I guess we need to raise the bar around the house and quit treating him like a one-year-old :).

First Haircut

It was time, but I'm still a little sad. 

I was hopeful that my excitement would be contagioius...

 One last look at the back...it was starting to become business in the front and party in the back.

A little pep talk because he was starting to get nervous.

 Again...I was hoping that my excitement would be contagious.  Charlie was very skeptical at first so I had the bribe/sucker ready to go.

Charlie was very concerned about the hair that was falling all over his shirt.

 I tried to get a good post-haircut picture but it wasn't happening after dinner.

Playing in the backyard while BJ mowed the lawn.

BJ had the audacity to suggest again that I sweep while he finishing mowing the backyard.  So I promptly handed the broom to Charlie who attempted the one-handed technique.

But like his mother, he quickly tired of the sweeping and needed a little rest.

It was a big day and I promised Charlie that I wouldn't take dozens of pictures or sweep up his cut hair during any future hair cuts.

Old Friends

After making some new friends in Kansas City, we spent this past weekend in Guttenberg for our annual "Wartburg" weekend with our old friends. 

The guys of the group (plus Zinn..the only Wartburg alumna in the group) have been together since 1996 with the rest of us wives joining shortly thereafter.  We've been together through dating, engagements, weddings, becoming parents, vacations and so let's just say that there aren't many secrets in the group  We can pick up right where we left off and more importantly, we can be brutally honest with each other.  It is both hilarious and frustrating at the same time.

We had a great time boating, golfing, driving a golf cart around Abel Island and just catching up. 

This was Saturday morning when we played a Divorce Open, which basically meant that you took turns hitting a shot with your spouse.  The only rule of the game was that in order to play you had to be willing to divorce your spouse if the game didn't go well.  We all participated...we're a little competitive like that.

 Sarah and Jenn O on the course. 

The entire crew at dinner after a day of boating.  I think that the bartender's name was Ted and I told him that I would take his picture but I forgot.  I hope that he isn't mad.

Kevin (Arch) and Jenn A.

Birdie (Mike) and Zinn (Sarah)

Troy and Jenn O.

Laura and Me (photo bomb by Troy and Jenn O).

The girls (photo bomb by Troy).  I'm not sure why I was making the Price Is Right model hand gesture.  I think it means that I'm fond of this group of girls.

Laura and Dave - I have many good photos of Dave from the weekend but because he has a "career", I will refrain from posting those here.  You're welcome.

BJ was busy picking out tunes for all of us to enjoy  - BJ the DJ...some  things will never change.

After all of that fun, some of us were sleepy.

It was a great weekend and fun to catch up with these friends.  We may not see each other as often as we would like, but they are a group of people that you could call if anything came up and they would show up at your door ready to help...with plenty of cold beer. 

Thanks to both sets of grandparents for watching Charlie over the weekend - we know that he had plenty of TLC and we appreciated the opportunity to act young and foolish again.