Our First Family Camping Trip

Daddy and Kianna roasting marshmallows

Kaylee and Daddy roasting marshmallows
Mommy and girls eating yummy smores
Playing at the beach with friends, Madison and Belle.

We had a blast this weekend taking our girls to Sugar Bottom Campground. We went with 5 other families and their young kids. It was most of the kids' first time camping, so there was lots of excitement. We had a perfect campsite located right next to a playground and the bathrooms. We also were blessed with excellent weather, despite the extreme humidity, high temperatures, and rain that happened earlier in the week. Thanks God! 

The girls had a blast playing with their friends. We made Smores, went on a hike in the woods, and spent the morning at the beach. What a GREAT time with friends! Kaylee's highlight was playing at the beach and Kianna's highlight was "sleeping" in the tent. Notice the emphasis on "sleep", our little one stayed up until ~11:00 PM last night, despite multiple attempts to quiet her. She made up for it this afternoon with a 4 hour nap! A special thank you to Aunt Sam for taking great care of Trace while we were away. You're the best!

Trace is 5 Months Old!

Trace swimming in our backyard.

Trace eating his rice cereal.

Our little man is growing too fast! Trace has mastered the art of rolling this past month. About a week after he turned 4 months old he began rolling from his back to his tummy and he now rolls all the time. He prefers sleeping on his tummy over his back. I have tried to keep him on his back and once I flip him over he immediately returns to his previous position, so I have given up. Trace officially has begun playing with toys, rattles mostly. He loves chewing on whatever he can get into his mouth, especially his thump, pacifier, burp rag, and even his toes! He also LOVES his jumperoo. It is fun watching him jump around in it. Trace also has begun giggling, which is adorable. He is very ticklish and this brings about lots of giggles.

Trace has started eating rice cereal with a spoon this past week, but it hasn't gone too well. Most of the cereal gets spit right back out of his mouth. We'll keep practicing... This has been an eventful month with Trace's first vacation to Dallas, Texas. He was a fantastic traveler. He also went swimming for the first time, which he seemed to enjoy. We love our little man and all the smiles he brings!

Road Trip to Dallas

We just returned from a family vacation to Dallas, Texas where we had a great time visiting some friends and family along the way. It was a 13 hour drive and our kids did amazingly well. Thank God for DVD players. Our kids literally watched at least 15 movies in the car. The girls wore headphones to listen to their movies, so Trevor and I were able to listen to our ipod along the way, which was a real treat. We had to stop every 4 hours so that I could nurse Trace, so we tried to make those stops fun for the girls. We had a picnic in a park at one stop and found some McDonald's with play areas for a couple of the other stops. The kids appreciated being able to run around for awhile, so it worked out well. We stayed overnight with our friends The Garretts' in Kansas. We hadn't seen them for awhile, so it was great catching up with them and getting to know their kids better. Their kids had motorized jeeps and motorcycles, so our kids were in heaven parading around in them. Watch out for our maniac drivers...

In Dallas, we stayed with our good friends The Hayes'. They have 3 kids, two girls and a boy in the same order as us. Their oldest is a year older than Kaylee and otherwise we have alternated having kids ever since. (FYI: I think we all agree that we are finished having kids now.) We had a wonderful time with them. They are great friends and the best host and hostess! Misty is a great cook and spoiled us with lots of home cooked meals! Thanks Misty! 

Some highlights include: 

• Taking the kids to a waterpark. Kaylee seems to have conquered her fear of waterslides as she went down a large one on her tummy multiple times. Kianna is our fearless child, so no concerns there. We learned not to distract me when putting on sunscreen. I was obsessed about making sure the kids wouldn't burn and then Trevor asked me to put sunscreen on his back. Um yeah, somehow I did his lower back and one streak between his shoulder blades and otherwise failed him completely. Sorry honey, I promise I'll do better next time!
• Taking "The Dart", which is Dallas' subway system to downtown Dallas. The kids had never been on a "real" train before so they thought that was pretty neat. We took the train to visit the Grassy Knoll area, where JFK was assassinated, a place I had always been interested in seeing. I didn't expect the kids to get much out of it, however, Kaylee surprised us all by being fascinated by learning about JFK and the presidents in general. In fact, when leaving the grassy knoll area Kaylee said "Thank you Mommy so much for teaching me about the presidents. I really liked that!". It cracks me up, how unpredictable kids are sometimes. My goal is always for my kids to be appreciative of what we do for them. I didn't get a thank you for taking her to the waterpark, to the park, or to the pool, but I did get a thank you for taking her to the grassy knoll! Crazy kid!!! While downtown we also visited the aquarium. It had a really neat jungle section filled with monkeys and sloths to name a few. The aquarium portion had sharks and penguins, which were highlights for the kids. It was a fun, exhausting day.  
  
• Visiting Keri's Uncle Tom and cousin, Katie. We had a great time spending time with them. Tom lives across the street from a really great outdoor shopping area filled with great restaurants and stores. The kids had fun playing in the park and we all had fun swimming in Tom's pool. Trace got to swim for the first time. I wasn't sure what he would think of it, since he cries occasionally while taking a bath. However, he seemed to enjoy it and most importantly he looked adorable in his swim trunks! We went out to dinner at a great mexican restaurant. It is sad how excited I get about trying new restaurants! 
• Listening to their oldest daughter read. She is only 5 years old and will start Kindergarten this fall and yet she impressed us all with her reading skills. We forgot to bring the girls' bible and reading it is part of our bedtime ritual. So at bedtime the girls would all sit on the couch and listen to her read them their bedtime story. When I say "read" I mean "read", big words and all. She is very advanced! Misty homeschools and has used a book called "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". Kaylee has been wanting to learn how to read for awhile now, but after seeing her little friend read she is even more interested. I bought the book and we have been working on it together, 2 lessons down, 98 to go...
• Hearing the girls' knock-knock jokes. I think all of our favorite one continues to be Kianna's: "Knock Knock", "Who's there?", "Butterfly", "Butterfly who?", "Butterfly Bee!" Followed by an eruption of laughter no matter how many times she says it...

On our way back home, we stopped in Wichita, KS, so Trevor could show us around his old stomping ground. We had fun seeing where he used to work and live. The girls had fun swimming in the hotel pool and sleeping in bunk beds. We also had fun on our family date night going out to eat at "PF Changs" and taking the kids to see "Up", a cute new kids movie. We had a great trip and are blessed to have made lots of great memories together as a family!

Our Weekend in Chicago WITHOUT Kids

Trevor and I had a great time in Chicago this past weekend. We love our kids dearly, but it is always nice to get away just the two of us when we have the chance. We spent Friday evening with Keri's college roommate, Jodi who lives in Chicago. We went out to dinner in Greektown and had a fun time catching up with her. Saturday, we went for a bike ride along Lake Michigan; had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory; went to Wrigley field to watch the Cubs dominate the Dodgers; and then had dinner at an amazing fondue restaurant called the "Melting Pot". What a GREAT day! Sunday, we went for another bike ride along the lake and then headed back home. One could say we biked and ate our way through Chicago...