Minnesota - August 2011

Four years ago we visited my brother and his wife, Rachelle, in Minnesota and were lucky enough to take a trip to the Minnesota State Fair. The experience was amazing and we've talked about that fair ever since. This week we got a chance to go back. Trevor was no longer a toddler, but we had two that took his place, Tyson and Mason! The rides were really fun and the weather was beautiful.

There were few things we set out to experience again, those included, turkey sandwiches, cheese curds, buckets of chocolate chip cookies and all you can drink milk (white or chocolate). Not everything was as great as we remembered, but we made our own memories this year. Mason loved riding the car rides, Trevor was a dare devil on the roller coasters and Tyson wanted to go on the obstacle course over and over again. Cody and mom tried some Bayou Alligator and we all had Minnesota Corn on the Cob. This treat is the biggest, butteriest and sweetest I've ever had. Sorry Nebraska farmers:) They grill it in the shuck and dip it in melted butter.

After a VERY long day we all made our way home and took some much needed naps. That evening Trevor, Cody and I got to experience a first. We all went to our first professional baseball game. The Minnesota Twins played the Detroit Tigers. As we were walking to the stadium we were approached about buying some tickets from someone on the street. We took him up on his offer and made our way to the gate. Unfortunately, we didn't make it very far. Apparently this scalper had sold the tickets on stubhub.com and then sold them to us. We bought new tickets at the window, then the boys (my brother and Cody) decided to head back and see if the scalper was still there. I still can't believe it, but he was. The guys asked for their money back and he gave it to them. He told them he had bought the tickets from someone else who must have sold them on stub hub (who knows). So, we really lucked out and were able to enjoy the game without thinking about the $70 he scammed us out of. The stadium was amazing. Trevor and I loved dancing to the music in between batters. The Twins lost by 5, but the game was still a lot of fun and we had a great story to tell when we got home. Trevor is a big fan of baseball and had a lot of questions about the rules. I made him move closer to Uncle Dan so he could answer them for him. I still don't understand the scoreboard and the rules!

Today we hung around outside. Again, the weather is amazing here. Not much humidity or wind. It gets a little hot in the afternoon though. Cody and I took the boys to the Mall of America. We even drove there ourselves. A little scary:) Cody had requested to go, which is amazing because it's a "shopping" center, but I think he wanted to see it just once so he said he did. We spent most of the time just walking around and looking at the stores. Of course the boys wanted to go on the rides in the amusement park, but we'd had enough the day before at the fair. We safely made our way home and now is nap time:) We might do a little more shopping tonight and then we'll head home tomorrow morning. I'll be posting pics as soon as I have time when we're home. Hope your weekend was a fun-filled as ours!

Quote of the Day

We had a birthday party for Cody's mom a couple weeks ago. Tyson was sitting at the bar talking to Cody's dad, Dave, because Dave is really the only person who will listen to Tyson ramble. Hilary overheard their conversation and through some giggling attempted to tell me. It apparently went as so,
Dave, "so, what have you been up to?"
Tyson, "well, we have a basement in our downstairs."

It may not sound that funny, but earlier in the day we were all cleaning and I told the boys to take something to the basement. They looked at each other puzzled and I heard Tyson say, "Tweva, where is our basement?" Trevor asked me, "Do we have a basement?" It occurred to me that we apparently don't call the "basement" a basement, we refer to it as "downstairs". Usually we refer to it by saying, "GO DOWNSTAIRS!!" Which is then followed by a few minutes of peace and quiet:)

A couple days later Trevor went to his Grandma Connie's and asked her, "Grandma, do you have a basement or attic?" Grandma said, "no." Trevor responded, "Then where do you keep all your old junk?" You now know what's in our basement (downstairs).

Another Great Trip to the Fair

The beginning of August is always a time our family looks forward to. Being the farm enthusiasts they are, the boys like going to see the animals as much as going on the rides. Trevor has been talking about being in 4-H since he could talk. His favorite exhibit used to be the dairy cows, but he's moved on to the bulls. He also likes the pigs. Cody and his family used to show pigs, so I think they hold a special place for all of them. Me, I'm a fan of the sheep. Sweet, soft little sheep. People tell me sheep are a lot of work though. This is bothersome because I have a feeling the parents end up taking care of these parents more than the kids. I guess we'll find out in two years when Trevor is old enough to participate. Here are a few pics from our trip!

What Goes Bump in the Night

I'm a little boggled about what happened last night - actually it was this morning.

Around 4:00 am our fire alarms went off. The alarms are electric and apparently when one is triggered they are all triggered. Side note - in an event of a fire Trevor, Tyson and I will wake up, flee the home and survive a terrible death. Cody will sleep through the entire thing. Wow.

Anyway, I get up and run into the living room and see nothing. No smoke, not fire, nothing. Except, Trevor was hitting his alarm saying, "how do I turn this off, it won't go off!" He just got the alarm the day before from his grandma. He had requested it.

After explaining to Trevor that it wasn't his alarm it was the fire alarms I began to hear a distance siren. I go to the window and I can hear the sirens going off in Amherst and I can see the faint resemblence of smoke in the air. But, I also have a nose like a bloodhound and I smell nothing. The alarms finally stop and I go back to bed. Not even five minutes later they're going off again. This time the "log" wakes up in a panic. He's tall enough to turn the alarms off, thank goodness. I fill him in on the last ten minutes and after doing a sweep of the house we go back to bed. Weird...just boggles my mind.

Incident number two: last night a perfectly delicious lemon cookie was left on the counter for me to enjoy at my choosing and this morning it had disappeared. After asking both children and gauging their responses I decided to dig a little deeper with Tyson because he had on his "guilty face". He finally cracked and admitted to eating the cookie during one of his late night benders. The confession was followed with a series of, "I'm sorry mommy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry mommy!" Tyson is a late night roamer and a late night snacker! I can only imagine the pounds of sugar that were caked on his teeth all night from that cookie. It wasn't a regular cookie, but a double lemon, frosted cookie from Eileen's. Sugar attack!

Breathe it All In

This morning was a "just breathe" moment. Most mornings I'm in a rush - getting myself out of bed and ready (spending about 30 minutes hitting snooze), nuking something that resembles a homeade breakfast and herding the boys (a lot like herding cats) to the car.

So, this morning I wanted to step back and just breathe. I wanted to take in the moments and enjoy the morning with Trevor before he left for his first day of 2nd grade. Trevor had laid out his clothes the night before and went to bed an hour early, but I was still weary about how much of a struggle it would be to awaken him. Luckily, after a few seconds of pretending like he was asleep he jumped right out of bed and asked for a waffle. Ty was a little harder to get around, but he's a night roamer, so know knows what time he crashed!!

The boys and I spent time talking about the morning, having seconds of juice and even chatted with grandpa before he took Trev to school. This morning was a great milestone and with both of my boys becoming more independent and mature I'm realizing I'm able to step back, breathe and enjoy the moments!

Summer 2011 - In Pictures

This summer has gone fast, they always do, but it's been so much fun! Here are some pictures to recap the summer.

Cody and I went to the Gary Allan concert and stumbled into some great friends/family.

Hilary and I saw Eric Church open for Miranda Lambert last year and he was amazing. We decided to make the trip to Hastings to see him again. It was a fun night! OH CAROLINA!

A lot of the summer was spent swimming. The boys love swimming in Cody's parent's pool. Tyson was terrified at the beginning of the summer, but he soon graduated to swimming with this nemo floaty and he'll now swim with just his life jacket.

This is Bob. We found him under our picnic table. He lives at Grandma Ginny's house.

The boys went to the high school rodeo finals with their grandparents. They make the most handsome cowboys, but I'm a little bias.

Another great summer in the bag! School starts tomorrow. I'll be sure to make a new post.

Why Are We Never Happy?

Summer is coming to an end and I can feel fall in the air. There's a crispness that is so refreshing. I love having our windows open and feeling the chill in the air at night. Fall is my favorite season and here in Nebraska it doesn't last long. The changing of the seasons reminded me of these videos. I'm sure we wanted summer to come so badly during this time of year, we're never happy! These videos are pretty cute.