Leaves!

We have a zillion trees. The leaves have really not started falling yet, but we decided to have a little fun with what we had. We piled up leaves and did the classic run, jump, hide leaf pile party. The boys loved it. I loved it too. The pile was really quite comfortable. I went to park the mower and came back to find Adam buried laying in the leaves with only his head poking out. He was listening to the rustle of the leaves and watching the trees blow in the breeze above him. I loved watching him have one of those little boy moments... when all the world exists in one scene, when everything holds still for you to enjoy a single moment in life, a filling of the senses that will linger into his adult life. My mother heart smiled.

Jonathan's Birthday in St. Louis

Jonathan reached the whopping 30 in August and we decided to celebrate in St. Louis. We had never been there and have never really taken a family vacation that wasn't to see Gramps and Grans so we picked a semi-close spot, made some reservations and had the time of our lives. Getting going was a little rocky... I decided to bath myself in poison ivy the week before we left so I was still oozing and puffy and itchy and scratchy. My face, ears, neck, arms, legs and chest were covered in blisters and a rash. By our last day there I ventured to wear mascara for the first time in weeks and I only got an occasional poor girl has leprosy look from strangers.

Six Flags... First on our stop was a visit to Six Flags in St. Louis. Being the plump, cute girl that I am I was restricted to the tamer of the tame children's rides and was the official 'wave every time I go around in a circle' Mom and designated picture taker. There were very few people at the park the day we decided to go so Jonathan was able to go on all the manly rides time after time. Jonathan was feeling guilty that he was having all the fun and I was watching him, but I really didn't mind. He said that was the problem. If he doesn't keep me going I'm going to turn into one of those old lady party poopers that doesn't have a thriller bone in her body. Need pregnant women have thrills?

St. Louis Zoo... I definitely recommend this one, it's free and my kids loved it. Other than being exhausted from constant fun we loved seeing all of the animals. They loved seeing the baby tigers roll around with their mom. The giraffes were close enough to feed leaves to and the fish and hippos were awesome under water.

The Magic House (Children's Museum)... Another winner for sure. If it wasn't so awesome I would say showing up on family free day was the best part, but the exhibits were tops. The boys fished, built fire houses, made sand castles, sent messages through vacuums, rode slides 2 stories down the building and explored their little hearts out. We we definitely hit this one again if we go back.

Grant's Farm... Another freebie that was a ball. The best part was by far feeding the goats. It was $1 a bottle to feed the goats and Jonathan decided this was a little steep, so we bought 2 bottles and kept filling them with water. The goats didn't seem to mind. Adam thought this was great. He had to keep butting some goats out so he could feed just the one he wanted. Matthew felt a little smothered by the critters and I just tried to keep them from eating my shirt.

The Arch... tight quarters! The little shuttle car to the top of the arch was TINY. We rode with two men on the way back down and one poor guy was beading sweat and tapping his feet trying not to vomit, but we made it. The view was quite impressive but the viewing space was small. It was a great place to celebrate the big #30.

Happy Birthday!! We made our way back to the motel and went for a swim. Late that night we ordered pizza and did a microwave cake with candles. Jonathan got an iPod and Matthew got his first bite of wax.

St. Louis Temple... beautiful. I only wish we could have attended. The grounds were perfect as was to be expected.

We had an awesome time. I was glad to have one more jont with the two boys before two turns to three.

Okay, Jess... you got me

It was Jess's last comment... "Where are you?" that made me realize it was finally time to do a little updating. I have no wonderful excuse, no life threatening illness nor natural disaster that has kept me away... simply the cognisant choice to procrastinate blogging. So here's a little catch up on life.

On your marks, get set, stack!!! We couldn't miss the annual Davis county cookie stacking competition. Every year at the fair kids stack them high in hopes theirs will take top honors. Adam and Matthew were in the same heat and did great. Poor little Adam had the tallest tower, but when time was called his champion tower didn't last. It has to stand alone for 15 seconds and his tumbled and crumbled. A puny little girl at the other end of the table took their age group. That's okay... we'll be back next year.


After our heated competition the boys went for a little pony ride. They thought that was pretty fun. Hot, humid, smelly Davis County Fair fun.

The boys first fishing trip...

For family home evening we decided to go fishing. Jonathan bought a Lightening McQueen fishing pole at Wal-mart for the boys to share and we were off. Mom was supposed to dig worms with Adam in the garden, but never got the job done so we decided to just buy some on our way to the ponds. Serious Iowa worm shortage. We went to 4 different stores and non of them had worms. We decided to try corn and marshmallows. We fished for awhile but weren't having much luck. Jonathan managed to catch a monarch butterfly and we threw that on the line. Adam caught a 12 in bass! Hooray! However they have to be over 15 inches to keep so we threw it back. The saddest part is I didn't get a picture of the fish. We had hiked back in a ways to the back of the pond and the camera was in the truck. Bad Mommy. Nonetheless we had fun. Adam has a canning jar filled with dirt in the garden he keeps adding worms too whenever he finds them. He's determined to have worms next time. I haven't had the heart to tell him they probably won't make it to our next fishing trip, but he's gathering in the bait until then.

So Guilty...

Someone made a mess but I can't quite put my finger on who it could be...

Jonathan was in one of his sleep deprived modes during Sunday School. He was nodding in and out and asked who the Sunday School teacher was, I informed him it was Brother Scoonmaker. A few nods later he woke up again and said, "You know what sounds good... scones." I thought that was a little random, but he said Scoonmaker sounded like Scone-maker and he wanted some after church. So we invited our inspiration for scones, the Scoonmaker family, out after church and we made scones. We were just saying bye to them when I went to get Matthew to have him say bye and found him making a second batch of scones... all by himself. So helpful. The amazing thing... mess made is less than 4 minutes.

Home

As requested here are a few pictures of our home... The view from our front porch... a hay field.
The very back part of our yard where the garden is.
Matthew at the garden by the bluebird house. We have LOVED watching all the little blue eggs hatch. Momma bird doesn't like us snooping around much. She has been notorious for dive bombing our heads.
Part of the deck and our lower walkout area.
The fenced part of the backyard... once a dog run this will become our kid run with swings eventually.

The path through the trees and ravine to our shed.

Our shed... which we rent out because we don't have much to put in it.

Grass and trees behind the shed... more of the reason it takes HOURS to mow the lawn.

So there it is... or at least parts of it. We have a really beautiful flower garden as well, but it is in progress. So once it looks a little better we'll post. Come visit us any time. We love company and we're sure we can find a spot for ya to pitch your tent.