Kiser Christmas

We had our Kiser Christmas on December 11 this year. It worked out that Matt, Lana, and Grace could be here that weekend, and Mom was off work. I like having it on another day than right at Christmas--it spreads out Christmas, and makes the season a little more relaxing.

Mom did something different. Last year she went to the after-Christmas sales and found some stockings. She bought one for each grandchild. She hung them, and filled them with "treasures."
Adam was digging in his stocking for his surprises.

Austin had his laid out beside him.

It was fun to do the gifts this way.

A week or so prior to our Christmas. Mike and Dad took a trip to Roanoke. They stopped at the Toy's R Us there. Dad found a large Lego set, and decided he would get that for the boys to have something new and fun to do at their house.

After the gifts were opened ALL (including Matt and Mike) the boys went to the back room and worked on the building of the Lego. I love this picture of them all working together!

It was a wonderful Christmas!

Adam's Drawing

A while ago, I babysat for a friend. As a "Thank you" she gave my boys a travel Bible Activity set. We still have it, and pull it out from time to time.

The other night Adam was working on the activity pad. It has pictures to color, cross words, and different games to play.

Adam found a page with dots. He decided to not do the suggested game, but a draw a picture.


He did the bottom first. 3 crosses. He wrote, "Jesus died on the cross."

Above that is the tomb-rolling away the stone.

The top is when hey find the tomb is empty!

I was impressed with his creativity and expression of the story through his pictures!

I Would Have Never Thought Of It!

The boys are on break from school for Christmas. While there is no school, they are able to do fun and different things that I might otherwise say "no" to.

The other night Mike came up with the idea to let the boys sleep on the sledding inter tubes. I figured, "well, sure, there is no reason not to. If they don't sleep well, they can have a nap tomorrow."

We cleared room for the inter tubes in Austin's room.

We got the inter tubes ready. The boys were asking to go to bed at 7:30! (At the time I didn't think about how they would be ready to get up at 5:30)

It was a fun, out of the ordinary thing to do-that I would have never thought of!

Gingerbread House

We got a note home from school, shortly before Christmas break, the first graders were making Gingerbread houses. I love that Adam's teacher is willing to take this on with 20 first graders, I'm not sure I would want to do this at home.

We donated a few supplies, but another teacher donated all the candy and decorations. (the main reason I would not want to do this at home)

They were to make a pattern at place on the house. Every child did this with ease :)

I did find it interesting that some children covered their houses with candy, but Adam chose to leave his a little more sparse.

It was a fun activity. One I'm glad that I didn't have to lead at home. I am so thankful for those brave teachers that are willing to take on such projects.

Christmas Lights

Sunday evening we went to look at Christmas lights. We decided that we would rate the lights on a scale of 1-10. As we drove along we would hear the boys say, "that is a 2, there is an 8..."

Then we saw this house, we all decided it was a 10!


They had lights, blinking lights, then I opened my window to take the picture and found they also had music.

But not only did they had blinking lights and music. The lights blinked to the beat of the music.

Very impressive!

Austin's Tooth Saga...

Austin has had a loose tooth. This is not his first loose tooth. For some reason, he was very uneasy about loosing this tooth. I would suggest, let's try this, or let's try that. He did not care for any of my suggestions. I figured, at some point the tooth will fall out, and that will be that.

Last evening, we were brushing his teeth (I was making suggestions of how we could get this tooth out). As we were brushing something touched his tooth just the right way, and *POOF* it was out! Austin was excited, and I was relieved.

Austin decided to write the "Tooth Fairy" a note and tell her about this adventure. The note is a follows:


As he was writing the note I started to think-"Oh, the The Tooth Fairy should probably respond. What will that note say? I think I have the right amount of money. If I don't will I have to call the neighbors to see if they can break a 5? Should I have them write the note so that Austin won't recognize my handwriting?..." Honestly, I think he knows it is me, but we still have fun with it.

After he finally fell asleep I sat down and wrote the following:

Austin found the note at 5:30 this morning. He came to my bedside and said, "listen to this note..." and proceeded to read it to me. At that point I really did wonder why I wrote so m things down, I just wanted to go back to sleep!

Austin has his 2 front teeth, but now he is missing the tooth on both sides.

He has become very fond of a had that Mike got him. It is the kind of hat that Elmer Fudd wears.

Austin and I have jokingly said that his name should be changed to Elmer Bunny (1/2 Elmer Fudd, 1/2 Bugs Bunny)

After Austin lost his tooth, I was tucking the boys in bed. Adam mentions to me that he "is bored and would love to have a tooth to wiggle" I reassured him that he has plenty more teeth to loose and I'm sure one would be wiggly before long.

He Has Patience

Our boys love to snuggle. Austin loves to start the day with a snuggle. Adam will every now and then, but not as often. One rule at our house is: We DO NOT snuggle before 6 am. Mainly due to the fact that I want to sleep until at least 6 am.

Last night, I was asleep. I heard little feet come to the side of my bed. I peeked to see who it was. There stood Adam. I pointedly asked,"What?" Adam said he wanted to snuggle. I looked at the clock and realized it was just after 3 am. I told him, "It is not 6." I closed my eyes. I thought he was going back to bed, but I heard Adam doing something with my alarm clock. I asked what he was doing and he said he was fixing it. I thought he meant he was making sure that the time on my clock was the same time he had on his clock, as to not miss any snuggle time. Then I heard more movement. I peeked again, to find him sitting on the floor by my bedside looking at my clock. I asked, "What on earth are you doing?" Adam very calmly said, "Waiting for 6."

If that is not patience, I don't know what is!

For A Change Of Pace

Today we got snow! School was called off due to the snow we were expected to (and did)get.

We met with the cousins at my parents house and the boys went sledding. While they were out, I decided we would make soft pretzels for a yummy snack and something different to do.

The boys made lots of different shapes. Some tried to make the traditional pretzel shape, but we also had the Virginia Tech logo, a man, and a pizza.

We all enjoyed the snack. And the nice thing was: it was easy, without too much clean up! I think we might have to do this again!

Christmas in Reverse

This is the Christmas season!

In September, Mike and I were contacted to see if we would like to help with activities as the children would practice for the Christmas musical. It sounded like fun, so we agreed.

The musical was called Christmas in Reverse. It was a new way to look at the Christmas story. Rather than just looking at Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and wise men, it showed WHY Jesus came to earth.


That means that we had to go all the way back to Genesis and look at Adam and Eve. It talked about how people were so sinful, then there was...

Noah. (that is Adam peeking out of the Ark window. He played Noah's son, Japheth.)

Then the played talked about the prophets (Austin was Malachi). Austin, also, played one of the wise men who came to the manger.

The play was full of fun songs and a really great message.

The director of the play had a "Thank you" gift for our family. I let the boys open it. They were very excited to see it was a treasure chest pinata. They were super excited to find that it was already filled!

They started to break into the pinata and I heard Adam say, "Look out candy, here we come!" I just had to laugh!

When it was all said and done, things were not as neat and orderly as it had started. The boys had so much fun with the pinata.

We are so glad that we were able to participate in this activity. We are thankful that the boys could have this experience of being in a church play.

What a fun evening. What a meaningful musical!

Jar Gifts

Austin went to Kingdom Kid's yesterday. Kingdom Kid's is the children's group at our church. They meet about once a month and do some sort of fun activity. Yesterday's project was to make jar gifts.

Austin came home and had a jar for cran-raisin cookies, and one for bean soup. I was very excited about both, but particularly about the soup. I thought what a wonderful supper on a cold winter day!
I decided to look at the directions to see if I had all the ingredients that I might need in order to make the soup. That is when I found...

...that I had the directions for sugar cookies.

I had a good laugh, and asked the leaders for the soup directions. I really don't think it would work to use those directions!

Spirit Day

Austin came home from school, earlier this week, very excited about spirit day. I remembered as a child we would have spirit week: Hat Day, This Day and That Day-fun days! Austin explained to me that it was a blue and white day. (those are the school colors for the High School) Then it sparked a vague recollection. First I will say that I am not a sports fan! However, I did hear somewhere that the High School was playing in some big game this weekend.

I went on a search for blue and white. Austin did not have anything! Then he told me that he could wear a Blue Streaks shirt. Well, that is fine, however, I did not have a blue streaks shirt for them, and I was not about to buy one.

Then I got creative! I was folding laundry on Wednesday, and saw a plain white t-shirt. The wheels in my mind started moving. White T-shirt, blue sharpie, Mike's art minor! I think I have it!


Mike took the school logo and put it on the front of 2 shirts.

On the back they wrote: GO BLUE STREAKS! Austin wrote his own, Mike did Adam's.

It made me very happy to see my boys so eager to support the Streaks, as I was a Streak in High School.

I'm sure no one else has a shirt just like theirs, I am anxious to hear the comments they had today on their shirts.

Hero's Dinner

The school my boys go to has a wonderful event they do every year. They send invitations to all the children to give to their hero. This invitation invites them to come to school and have dinner with the student that invited them. The school provides the bagel sandwiches from one of the local bagel shops, and people gladly donate a bag of chips, a drink, or a dessert.

My boys wanted to invite their cousins, Eamon and Shannon, as their heros. They, also, invited Mamaw. She was my hero for being there with the boys as I was helping with the dinner.


It is always a fun evening!

Adam's Field Trip

Yesterday Adam's grade level went on a field trip to the Frontier Culture Museum. The parents did not have to pack lunches for the children-it was provided (I love days like this!) When I went to get him from school, I was so eager to hear about this trip. He came out of the school and we had the following conversation.

Me: "How was your trip today?"

Adam: "Oh, it was great! Guess What!?! I was the only kid in my class to drink Mello Yello for lunch!"

Me: "Okay, What else. Tell me about he houses, the people you talked too, the animals..."

Adam: "Oh, yea. We fed the hens cat food and threw grass in for the pigs to eat. But, can you believe I was the only one to drink Mello Yello?

Me :*sigh*

Later, we were driving home from play practice at church. I was explaining to the boys that when we got home it was time to get into pajamas and brush teeth, they were headed straight to bed. Adam informed me, "I had Mello Yello for lunch I have lots of energy, I think I can stay up for a while." To which I replied, "No, that has worn off and you will be going to bed." (I saw him yawning at practice. And I am sure he was asleep within minutes of the light going out!)

After thinking about it, I remembered that when Austin went on this trip he came home only talking about chamber pots. At least that is history related, right?

Another Use For Bedsheets

I had a problem!

We have a huge Maple tree in our back yard. I have raked the leaves, then the boys would play in them. In the end you couldn't tell that I raked them. We do have the service where the city comes and vacuums the leaves into a big truck, but they have to be by the curb (which is in front of the house!), we had talked about mowing over all the leaves (but we just recently put all the bikes in the shed-with the mower-it would be quite the pain to do that). It really was quite the conundrum!

I decided yesterday I was going to rake it, fill trash cans with leaves and walk them to the curb. I started this, and the boys came home from school, so they started to help me. Mike soon came out with a bedsheet! Once I realized what he was doing my thought was --BRILLIANT!

I would help Mike and Austin fill the bedsheet with leaves and they would carry it to the road. While they did this, I pulled the piles back together. It worked great!

It was very cute, the sheet would be filled and and they would be pulling the corners up I would hear one or the other say, "this is a lot" or "this load is big." I think a comment was made almost every time!

I love how Mike can see a use for something that I never would have imagined. It certainly keeps thing interesting!

November 21st

Today is November 21st. At supper, I told Mike that I should do a post on this day. He wondered what happened today that was "blog worthy." It wasn't necessarily today, but things that have happened in the past on this day, that makes it a bit special.

On November 21, 1998 Mike and I had been hanging out some time. Mike had come over to my parents house, I think we watched a movie. My parents had gone to visit my aunt (it was her birthday). Mike was getting ready to leave and he kissed me. It was at that point that we started dating.

Now, we fast forward to November 21st, 2002. I found out that I was pregnant with Adam that day. For supper I fixed meatballs and rice (ironically, the same meal that I fixed when I found out I was pregnant with Austin--I had not made it since). Austin, for some reason, fell asleep right before supper. We let him sleep. I asked Mike if he remembered the last time I made that meal. He didn't. I told him it was when we found out we were going to have Austin. He understood what I was saying. We were both thrilled!

Today, however, nothing that monumental happened.

Although, I was happy to have this very handsome boy help me rake the leaves. (after they were all raked up he couldn't resist--he ran through all the piles and had a great time!)

I, also, had this cute one help me to make a pumpkin log.

November 21st will always be a special day to me. My life changed dramatically on this date in 1998 and 2002. I wouldn't change it for anything!

Just to Prove My Point

In my last post I wrote about how Adam sees treasure in things that I would classify as junk. Just to prove my point I decided I had to take a minute to write about what happened this morning.



Actually, I started yesterday. As we were walking home from school, Austin found a frame from one of the political signs that people put in the yards. He decided that this really was a keeper! I cannot tell you how many things it was on the way home, or how many different noises. :) I thought, well tomorrow is trash day, I will slip it in the trash and no one will miss it.


This morning, Adam started to take the trash down to the road. Austin said he would do the recycling. Austin took the recycling box down as I was putting 2 more cans out to be picked up. Austin came in the house, but Adam did not. I asked Austin if he took the extra cans down that I placed outside the door. He said, "no, Adam is creating something." In just a few minutes, Adam came in and said I had to come see what he created.

It is a bell. I can guarantee you that no one else in the neighborhood has a dinner bell like this one!

He Sees Things Differently...

...than me.

Yesterday while we were walking home from school, Adam found what I would call litter. He saw a treasure in it!

His treasure consisted of an empty 2 liter soda bottle, and a pencil. I thought he would carry it home and we would recycle the bottle (and I was going to trash the pencil), as we have done with other "treasures" he has found. But he had a different plan for this bottle. He explained to me that he thought we should put the pencil in the label of the bottle and fill the bottle with water. That way if the house were to catch on fire the pencil would start to burn, and it would melt the plastic, then the water would come out and everything would be fine!

That is some great thinking, Adam. However, we will not put the insurance of our house on a soda bottle filled with water.

Mom stopped by our house and we were explaining this to her. She said, "he is going to create something big one day!"

Then as I was putting him to bed, he said there was one more thing that he needed to check. I had never noticed it before, I don't know when he created this, but...

...he had taken a slinky and attached it to the pull of the blinds in his room. Then he took a flashlight and placed it in the slinky. He did this to create starlight. We do have glow in the dark stars on his ceiling, I'm not sure if he is wanting to charge the stars with this light, or if he is just wanting a little light, that maybe a star would provide.

I love that Adam's mind works totally different than mine. However, I do find that very fact to be totally exhausting!

A Little Out of the Norm

For the most part, this week has been an average normal week. However, there have been parts of it that were a bit out of the normal--that adds a bit of exciting fun!

Tuesday was election day. The boys were out of school. Monday, after school, Austin was invited to his friends house to play for a few hours. His mom and I talked and decided we would pick him up around dinner time. When Mike went to get him, he called me and said, "they want Austin to spend the night." Well, that sounded like fun!

Mike took Adam out to McDonald's for a special "Adam and Daddy time." When they came home Adam decided that we should play Apples to Apple 7+ (He always adds the 7+ it is a very important part of the title to this 7 year old!) Then he was allowed to fall asleep in our bed. usually this is only a Friday night treat (they fall asleep in our bed and when I am ready to go to bed They go to their beds. For some reason they really love this!), but this was a special night. On Tuesday morning he chose to have waffles. So, I made waffles. Usually, I don't for the simple fact that I can only do 1 waffle at a time where I can do up to 5 pancakes at a time--I go for simplicity! We had a really fun time with Adam and enjoyed his evening and morning choices. (Austin had a great time at Isaac's house)

This weekend was our Sunday School classes retreat weekend. Mike and I decided that we would go for Saturday. We lined my dad up to watch the boys. The closer we got to the weekend, the more decided that maybe it would be a good idea for the boys to spend the night at Mamaw and Papaw's house. We packed everything up and had the boys to their house around 8:30 am. It sounded like they had a fun day. I called last night and mom said they were playing apples to apples (7+ :) Which I know Adam loved!! They even got Dad to play the game (Thanks!)

Apparently, when Papaw was getting ready for bed, Mamaw helped the boys crawl into their bed so they could scare Papaw. When he crawled in bed, the popped up singing "When you wake up in the morning, it's quarter to 1 and you want to have some fun, you brush your teeth..." It wounded like they went to at least 10 with the song. Papaw said he really did not see them in the bed. I would have loved to have seen this.

Mike and I had a great time at our retreat, but it was good to see the boys again. They said that they may have missed us just a little. That is okay! I think that means they had a good time.

Adam's Newest Numbers

This post will probably bore anyone else out there. But for me, it is a way of recording for my boys.

Adam went to the Dr. this week for his 7 year check-up. I was very pleased when they weighed him he was 45.5 pounds. He has gained about 3 pounds since the last time I checked.

His height was 46.25. At our house we do not go by how much you have grown. We go by how much more do I have to grow to get out of the booster seat! (and sometimes it is the water slide at the pool) At this point I think he has about 10 more inches until he can get out of the booster seat!

At other appointments for his check-ups, the Dr. always said that Adam was in about he 10% for his height and weight. Somehow, I'm not sure how, he has jumped to almost the 25%. He is growing!

2nd Tooth

The boys went to the dentist on Monday. After the appointment the dentist came out to tell me how things were looking. They had no cavities, but Adam had a loose tooth and he said that this tooth needed to come out (preferable by wiggling).

Tuesday was the night for the boys to go out with Mike. When the came home Adam came running to find me. He said, "Guess what?" I replied, "what?" (really with that question it is left wide open! :) Then he said, "I lost my tooth!" He tooth was wiggly, but I didn't think it near ready to come out! I guess that might explain why, when he held the tooth out for me to see, his hands were a bit bloody.

Apparently, Adam had been wiggling his tooth in the car. When they went over some railroad tracks it was just enough to get it out!

I was glad to hear he was taking time to wiggle it when there was nothing else to do. Just like the Dr. wanted.

A Beautiful Kind of Noise

Austin started violin this month. He is still getting the hang of it!

He practices and makes noise (not always music), but he is starting to get more of the musical sounds.

I do love to hear him play--even the screeches and "not so great sounds." I see that as the early part of this violin journey

Managed By Who?

About once a month our school has a pizza night. It is a fund raiser where the school gets money from the pizza sales.

Tonight was one of those nights.

As we were eating dinner, something caught Mike's eye on the box. This is what he saw:

Yes, it says that our pizza experience was managed by Christ.

It was truly a divine meal!

Even While Sleeping

Last night I went to check on Adam. The evenings have gotten cooler, so he had an extra blanket that he could pull up. But he was, also, wearing warmer pajamas (he has been asking for these since summer! He was excited when I got them out, there was no question what he was wearing to bed). I just wanted to make sure that he was comfortable.

When I walked in his room, he sat up. So I knelt by his bed and told him it was still night time and he could go back to sleep. He laid down and said,

"Dear Lord,

Thank you for this day.

Thank you for a wonderful family

and 2 beautiful boys

and a loving Mommy.

Amen"

I said, "Yes, Adam, you are right. Now you can sleep. I got to my bed and giggled a little. I thought. "He really takes this "praying without ceasing" seriously! He even prays in his sleep!

Sure enough, he did not know a thing about it this morning when I mentioned it!

Our Pumpkin Saga For Today

Last fall the boys decided they wanted to plant pumpkins. I thought that would be a great learning experience for them, and for me. I washed some seeds, and stored them for use this spring.

In May I planted the seeds. I have watched, watered, learned about, and asked questions about pumpkins. The pumpkins are getting ripe now. I have baked 4 and have about 15 cups of pumpkin in the freezer.

One thing I still need to learn is: how to tell if they are truly ripe!

Today I was out looking at my pumpkins and found one that was orange and when I moved it, it came off the vine very easily. My thought was, "Oh! I have a ripe pumpkin!"

Side note: I do not have a good record with knives. 2 years ago I used a large knife at my sisters house and had to go to the ER to have my finger glued.

Lana has, luckily, been here to cut the other pumpkins open for me. But, she was not here today. I decided to give it a whirl. The knife I chose did nothing! So, I got a BIGGER knife! It did nothing. I called Lana and asked how she did this. She replied, "determination!" Okay, Mike will have the determination.

When Mike came home I asked him to cut it open. He saw the pumpkin and said, "let the boys make a face in it first." Mike just recently bought some "Mr. Potato Head" type of facial features that you put in pumpkins. The boys enjoy them!

He tried to start a hole for the face, but couldn't. Then he said, "I'll just cut it open" He tried my bread knife. That didn't do anything. He said, "maybe a saw..." (huh???), but then decided to bust it on the carport. However, when he got outside he said, "maybe I'll crack it with the car!" When I heard this I grabbed the camera!

He place the pumpkin under the wheel. At first it rolled away so he propped it with a piece of wood.

And.....CRACK!

It worked! But, now I know the reason it was so hard. It wasn't ripe!!

I still have some learning to do about pumpkins, even so, Mike and the boys keep things interesting!

I do wonder, though, how would they do the Christmas turkey?

He Loves Doing This...

Our church is collecting coins for Penny Power. This is part of the Relief Sale that will be coming in October.

Someone at our church is a GENIUS! They decided to let the children get coffee mugs and carry the mugs around to collect coins from people as the ushers are collecting the offering. Who can resist giving these cute children a few coins for a good cause? I know I can't resist, and Adam LOVES this!!

Today the worship leader said, "we will have the children come up to collect Penny Power" I think Adam was out of our row before she was done talking! They prayed and the children got their mugs. I can never keep track of Adam because he tends to go all over the church.

It was almost over when he finally got to our section. His mug was 3/4 full of coins, PLUS he had a plastic grocery bag that had quite a number of coins as well. I made my donation to his mug, and he proceeded to try to go the front of the church again. I had to go out and tell him that he was done and he needed to turn in his money.

As I was getting back to my seat I passed a friend from Sunday School, who had seen what Adam was doing. I said, "He was going to go around for seconds!" She smiled and said, "Hit everyone until they don't have anymore!"

After Adam came back to his seat, he had to excitedly report how much he got!

I'm glad he enjoys this, and I'm glad that it is going to good cause!

It Makes Sense To Me

We have been having cool mornings. This afternoon I asked Austin if he wanted to wear shorts or long pants to school. His rely was, "I want to wear longs."

Well, if you can wear shorts why can't you wear longs? It makes sense to me.

Off To A Good Start!

The school year has started and we are 2 weeks into it. It is off to a good start. The boys like their teachers. They have friends in their classes. They are learning and having fun at the same time!

I started back to work about 1 1/2 weeks ago. The boys have said a few things since then that I thought I would blog about, but never got around to it.

~One night before bed, Adam seemed a bothered by something. I started to talk to him about it and discovered that he was upset because...he was not a twin! I told him that I really did not have any say in that! However, it thought--God knew I couldn't handle it!!

~A few nights later Austin was asking very deep questions before bed. He was wondering :

If you don't believe in God do you still get to go to heaven?

I replied, "no, you need to be a follower of God in order to get to heaven"

What if you don't believe in God, then go with the devil and then change your mind?

I replied, "you have to make that choice while you are living here on earth. Once you have died, it is too late."

Then I asked him what he thought of that. He told me, "I'm going to heaven!"

Somehow these deep questions or discussions always come up right before bed. I wonder if they plan that in order to stay up later??

A town near us was celebrating 175 years. They had carnival type activities out this weekend. We went to check it out!

Saturday they had a rock climbing wall. Austin was able to do this, but sadly Adam did not weigh enough. He was about 8 pound shy. The attendant jokingly said, "go make some round and eat some chicken" Little did he know that Adam is my self proclaimed vegetarian!

However, Adam was able to do the fun house. Austin was too tall!

We rode the Ferris Wheel. Mike had some fun with the camera. He actually got me on the other side of it!

Fun family picture.

Sunday we went back. Austin's friend Isaac came along with us. Here are all 3 boys coming down the Super Slide.



Isaac and Austin on the Merry-go-Round.

And Adam on the Merry-go -Round.

The 3 boys on the swings.

It started to get really busy. We had rode most of the rides, had funnel cake and pink lemonade. We decided to head out. It was still early, so we went to my parents and...

did some sparklers.

Adam started taking piano lessons this week. He is really enjoying them. He loves that he now has real songs to play.

Austin is starting violin next month. I would love to see if there would be a song they could play together. Maybe we can come up with something by the time the school has their talent show in February.

1st Day of School

Yesterday the boys started back to school.

I think everyone was ready!

I left the house the same time they did so I could go to the store. I stopped at school and got a quick picture of them as they were about to enter the school.


I found it interesting, Adam had all summer to sleep in, yet most days he was up by 6:15. The 1st day of school however, I have to wake him at 7:10!

All of my boys came home yesterday, and seemed to have had a great day. Adam had stories about his teacher. Austin didn't say much (never really does), but from what I could get from him, it sounded like a good day.

We are all very excited about this year!

Quick Weekend Trip

We had one last trip for the summer this weekend, before school starts.

Friday we headed to PA and stayed with Mike's friend from High School. They have boys that are about our boys ages, they love to go there and play. This is the first time they got to have a sleep over. The boys laughed and giggled and talked way past their bed time!

After the boys were in bed, but not asleep, we were able to play game with Troy and Delise. Usually we visit, the boys play and we leave. It was nice to have time with just the adults to play a game and be a bit goofy!

Saturday morning we went out to see the zip line that Troy installed.

Austin had a turn.....

Adam had a turn.....

Mike took a turn.....

and even I had a turn. I'm not usually on this side of the camera!

Then the boys thought it might be fun to go on it together!

We had a great time! (Adam's sad face is due to the fact that he wanted to Mike to push him on the zip line, but it was pushed a little too fast, and he got scared!) Thank you Dylan and Micah for letting us play!

Then we headed out to Grandma and Grandpa's for lunch and more play time.

As soon as Austin got out of the car he saw this mushroom, he thought it was pretty neat. I'm always glad when they find an interest in science.

Adam rode the Gator...

Austin rode the bike...

Then they would switch. So much fun!

After lunch we went for a ride in the golf cart around the block.

We had gotten to the first turn when Austin saw...

this beautiful deer.

Their block is about a 2 mile ride. It was a nice relaxing time.

One of the boys favorite things to do at Grandma and Grandpa's is to get a hammer and....


hit dead tree stumps. They do this about every time we are up there!


Then the boys got the walkie-talkies. They were going to play walkie-talkie hide and seek. But found it to be just as fun to talk on them. We had to laugh because the were within talking distance, but would use the walkie talkies. Then to top it off, they were both riding in the Gator, and talking to each other over the walkie talkies. At least they were having fun!

They rode the see-saw!

On the way home we often stop in Carlisle, PA at a military place. They have tanks, helicopters, and trenches are built. They even have buildings like the mess hall, chapel, and offices, but they were locked up this time.

This is the first time that we have seen the simulated people in the trenches.

Austin enjoyed acting out what they were suppose to be doing.

This is the helicopter that we saw from the road, how we knew this was there and decided to visit the first time.

This one is a newer display.

In the trenches.

This was a quick trip, but lots of fun!