Beautiful August Weather!

This week was VERY busy! Mostly because the weather was absolutely perfect. With the humidity way down and the temperatures 70's to 80's with sunshine pretty much every day, we felt like we could finally spend a bit more time outside. It was especially nice because the nice weather fell on my stretch of ten days off! Our time outside was spent either looking for bugs, playing with the puppies across the street, yelling for Emily across the street (Ethan's babysitter), kicking or throwing balls, playing in the pool, or playing blocks. When we weren't doing those things, here's what we were up to...

We started off by meeting up with Courtney and Kileigh at Toys R Us . The kids rode around in the cart playing and roaring with play dinosaurs. After we finished up our shopping Kileigh wanted to take Ethan on a ride. I think they could have played on that thing all day! (Notice Ethan's bling around his neck that he just had to wear)
After we finished up shopping we met Casey and Emelia out at Italian House for lunch then headed off to Palmer Park for some outside fun. Although we all thought the swings and play equipment sounded like a good option since it was only 75 degrees, the kids only enjoyed it for a little while.Their eyes were on the water next door! So we dressed them in their swim suits and off we went. Problem was, the water was FREEZING! Just like hose water. It was so cold that after about a minute in the water they had to get out and warm up on the concrete!Brave little man...brrrLater that night we headed out to the cabin and met up some family friends Jan, Max, Attalissa, and Jax. We started off with some dinner, then headed out for a boat ride. Although it started off pretty warm, with the fast moving boat and the cooling off temps, it got a little chilly. The kids all huddled together to keep nice and warm.After we got off the boat, Mike started a nice and warm campfire and we made some s'mores. Kelly even found a cute little tree frog for the little ones to look at. Although the adults enjoyed the fire, the kids had more fun running around and playing on the slide. After all, it was way past their bedtimes, which made it that much more fun!

Just in case you were wondering, yes, Ethan's love of bugs continues. In fact, any time we see a bug now he runs around looking for a stick to hold him with (you can tell he has spent lots of time with mom who refuses to touch a bug). Here he is with one of his many cicada friends :). On another one of our warm days, we headed out to my dad's house. Unfortunately, the visit started off with me getting pulled over in my dad's driveway. I apparently didn't quite stop at the stop sign by his house, come on! Anyway, we were all outside hanging out and Ethan really wanted the pink motorized car that my dad has in his garage. My dad said not to worry, he can't reach the pedal. Well, next thing we knew, Ethan was off and driving in the thing, and guess who got to chase him around :) Notice his hands are clinging onto the sides of the car, nowhere near the steering wheel!
Another visit we had this week was with Mike's uncle Brian and aunt Kim. They drove in from Florida to visit for the week! We spent a couple of nights with them at the cabin catching up. Even more fun was that they had never met Ethan before!
On Tuesday, my sister and I had yet another fun day. We drove up to Madison and took the kids to the zoo for the morning. They had lots of fun looking at all of the animals. They even pretended to be a couple of polar bears. Ethan's favorite animals of the day were the rhino (strange, i know), lion (because he was roaring while were watching him), and of course the polar bear. I'm sure the monkeys would have also been a favorite but the exhibit was closed that day.Although they liked the animals, they liked the carousel even better! Kileigh tried her hardest each time to get the gorilla. Ethan just liked the ride, although he did point out all of the kitties around us.
To finish up the week off, I whipped up a batch of lasagna and had my mom, Courtney, and Kileigh over for dinner. While we were busy cleaning up after dinner, the kids took the opportunity to snuggle up in the rocking chair all by themselves to read a book...just a reminder that really do love each other!P.S. We are also very excited because we just learned that my brother, Aaron, is moving back to good old Wisconsin after living in Texas for way too long! He plans to be back here by early September!