Jack-in-the-Box

We're back in Iowa this week for a MEGA garage sale this weekend. I'll post pictures later. It's insane (Cara, you won't believe it...well, maybe you will!). Anyway, the kids were never happier to get out of the car--as always. They found a Jack-in-the-Box toy and this is what they thought about it. Keep the volume down...Jacob gets a little shrill! :)

My Montage 8/18/09

Running, running...I think he's CRAZY!

Every year, I think Aaron and my uncle Bill are cah-razy for running 13.3 miles in a half marathon. Seriously? What possesses (that's a lot of s's!) people to go out and just run and run??? Maybe the same thing that possesses people to go out and take picture after picture? ;)

We got to the race and found a great spot to watch for them. Anna was in a mood. Yikes.

Waiting for Daddy and Uncle Bill. Jacob is just trying to figure a way OUT of the stroller!

Mile 13. They're only smiling because they see us. Before they saw us, they looked like someone was slowly and mercilessly causing great bodily harm to them.

But look at him...even after running 13.3 miles, he can still hold his precious kids! What a man :)

Uncle Bill taught Jacob "busted knuckles". He loves it!

So precious.

Here Daddy...let me help you stretch!

He'll even let Aunt Sandy play! :)

Hmmm...I wonder how far I can run before Mama will catch me?

Shoot! Not very far!

Goin' for a walk with Aunt Sandy and Uncle Bill.

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After taking long naps (except me and Anna! :P), we headed down to Great Grandma J's house. The kids had all kinds of fun playing and Grandma J had all kinds of fun being entertained by their antics!!

He would open the puppets mouth and say "Aaaahhhhhh!"

He really wasn't forlorn...I guess I just caught an "in between" expression. He was pretending to be a puppy and was playing fetch with the little pillow. It was pretty funny.

Oh my goodness. Saturday night, it HAILED like crazy and stormed. It was so loud. I couldn't believe it when we got up in the morning...it looked like it had snowed, there was so much hail! All that white above the sidewalk...is hail! I meant to take a picture at Grandma's house before we left, but I forgot. It was crazy.

Evidently we had crazy weather at home, too. A GIANT tree limb had fallen onto our carport and garden while we were gone. Lovely site to come home to, isn't it??

It destroyed one of my tomato plants :( There had to be at least 60 tomatoes on there. But I might be able to save. We'll see! Finally got all the limbs hauled off today. It took 2 pickup loads! We also had a big one down in the front yard.

Okay, I think I'm all caught up now! :)

The Coolest County Fair

We again made our trek to Colorado for the annual half-marathon Aaron runs with my uncle. And on our way, we again stopped by our adopted parents' house (they're actually my dad's cousins) for some fun at the fair! They have the coolest county fair! The town (or maybe it's the county?) owns & runs all the rides so there's no creepy carnies! AND it's so incredibly cheap...25 cents a ticket and no ride is more than 2 tickets! Also? You don't have to pay a dime to get in. Or a penny. It's free! My kids love it and they love Bruce and Shirley, so it's a win-win all the way around! :)

Anna asked as soon as she woke up if we were going to Bruce & Shirley's for the fair. She was ecstatic when I said yes, but wasn't very happy when I told her we had to wait for Daddy & Jacob to wake up before we left! Once we got there, we still had a few hours before the fair opened. To kill the time, she serenaded us with a lovely song or two:)

I love this girl and her blue eyes :)

I was right about needing running shoes. Jacob was so excited!! The first thing he saw was the carousel. He could hardly contain the excitement!

And then he couldn't contain the excitement and he just started dancing and jumping around!

Of course, he dove head first off the horse once we got on there and decided he'd rather ride on ME! And besides being cheap...these rides are L...O...N...G!

I think Anna's favorite was the airplane ride. She had a lot of fun and it was just her speed.

Laughing at Shirley.

The gentleman running the ride kept telling Anna she better hurry up and catch the girl in the airplane ahead of her. Anna thought that was just hilarious and she would hunch over the steering wheel and "chase" her.

Oh no. Jacob found cars...just his size. And they move! I had to stop him from climbing between the bars to get in there while the ride was still going!!!

He's in heaven!

I'm too cool Mama!

Wait a minute...why is it stopping? Why is Mama coming towards me? She realizes I'm not getting out of this car...EVER, right? Right?! RIGHT?!?!

Oh, whew! I just got to pick another car and go again! This is the best place ever!!!

The first night he rode at least 6 times in a row. There wasn't a line, so he could always get right back into another car. The second night was a lot busier, so we tried to avoid the cars...and the meltdowns that insued when he realized he couldn't get right back on. He just doesn't get that concept of "wait your turn"! :)

Anna had fun on the cars, too. She had fun on everything. Including the BIG swings that went really high and really fast and even made Mommy a bit nauseous!

She especially liked the cotton candy! She said her favorite thing of all was watching the horses (there was a rodeo as well, so we got to see a bit of barrel racing and some roping). A girl after my own heart!!

Too cute pink shades!

Driving mini-cars is evidently hard work!

And thus deserves a funnel cake and some Sprite!

She really liked the "merry-go-round", too.

There wasn't anything about our visit to Bruce & Shirley's that she didn't like! Plus, we got to go to the pool! Now she asks every day if we can go to the fair. Good thing the state fair is coming up in a few weeks!

Dirt, Storms, and Flying High

I mentioned that my kids love to play in the garden. So the other evening I just let them play. And then I hosed them down (not really, but they were filthy!).

He wouldn't hold still enough but the dirtiest part of Jacob was his bottom and his hands! Of course, they'd been playing in the sprinkler before getting in the garden, so they were wet and the garden was wet from rain.

See his diaper? That's mud.

Happy, messy girl.

We were at my grandparents' one weekend and a big ol' storm rolled in. It was awesome to see the storm clouds coming in over the "regular" clouds that had been around all day.

Look at the colors of the sunset, barely peeking through the storm clouds.

Jacob LOVES to be thrown in the air. As high as you can throw his 30-pound body! Papa obliged this time :)

The smile never leaves his face during this game!

Coloring, coloring!

Jacob really likes to color. He can occupy himself for quite some time with it. And he's only drawn on something other than paper twice (not including his own body...that doesn't count!). Luckily, he only has access to washable markers, which quickly and easily wipe off the wood floor. BUT, the other morning when I was half-unconscious from a migraine, he decided to take a PEN to my BRAND NEW khaki jacket. When I found it later, I yelled "JACOB SCOTT!!!" He came to my bedroom door, opened it and peeked in (I still don't know why he would come when he got the full name. He knows that means trouble!). I said "You do NOT write on Mommy's clothes!!!" You know what that stinker did?? He said "Uh-oh" and turned around and shut the door! Good grief.

Anna: Otay Jacob, you write on this side and I'll write on this side. Is that a deal?

Jacob: *looks at her for a few seconds, then sagely nods his head*

I think he might be left handed. Which is weird because there aren't any lefties in either of our families that I know of (at least not immediate). He found Daddy's Broncos hat this day and decided it was needed for his art session! :)

Oh those Baby Blues!

I've Got a Lot of Catching Up to Do!

Here's your grandkid fix Binga! :)

We're back. It's good to be home! We had a lot of fun, but I've got a lot of catching up to do (hence the title. duh)! When we got back from Iowa the end of July, I could NOT believe how huge everything in the garden was. Tomato plants? CRAZY huge with well over 100 tomatoes between the two! The zucchini plant? Leaves much bigger than Jacob's big noggin'! Peppers, green beans, cilantro, zucchini...out the ears! The kids love playing in the garden. After a few times, Jacob quit pulling on the green onions and just dug in the dirt. Who knows what all games Anna was making up for them to play!

Jacob, hidden by a huge tomato plant. (We had to get the 4' step ladder in there to put up our own "stakes" to hold the plants up...they are so big and tall!)

Look at those zucchini leaves!!! Practically bigger than all of Jacob!

Oh. My. Stars. The cilantro was INSANE. There was so much. And stupid me picked ALL OF IT. I thought "hey, I've heard you can freeze this...I should just pick it all and freeze it. Shouldn't take too much time." What was I thinkin'?!?! And this bucket? Only 1/3 of what I picked!

Here's another 1/3 getting washed.

And another 1/3 that's already been washed and pulled from the stems. Then I had to chop it and stuff it in ice cube trays and cover with water. Ugh!!! It took forever. I like the smell of cilantro. But I was starting to get nauseous!

The green beans. They are SO YUMMY. And they're really easy to wash and prepare. I cleaned these up and blanched them, then stuck them in a freezer bag. They were still yummy a week later when we had them for supper!

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And it's not just all this traveling that's got me so tired. (NO I'm not pregnant!).

It's THIS boy!

He can get into trouble faster than you can say Rip Van Winkle!!! I have to admit, even though he's managed to really mess up my desktop and shuts it down on a regular basis...it's pretty cute to see him sit there and "pretend" to type! Then he sends emails and deletes files and makes programs disappear and it's not so funny anymore! just kidding...he hasn't done any of those things. I don't think?!

Go away Mommy! I'm talkin' to Binga!!

And he knows when my phone is locked. He doesn't want it then! Lucky for me, he hasn't figured out how to unlock it (you have to enter a password). But he did figure out how to not only unlock Papa's blackberry, but also change the country code! HA!

Oh but then he gives me his sweet smile and those big blue eyes just melt my heart. And I almost forget about all the gray-hair-growing stunts he's pulled all day long!

He now likes to put on any shoes he finds. The bigger, the better!

You don't want to know what was pulling that swim diaper down! It was not pleasant! (sorry)