County Fair

Last Friday we went to the county fair. The fairgrounds are practically in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard. They rode with us and we met up with Uncle Alvin, Aunt Shannon and Ray. Dinner was an assortment of traditional fair food. Gotta love the fair! After dinner, we checked out the animal barns. Jess wasn't too thrilled. These things make noise and move unexpectedly. She was practically in tears just trying to get a picture of her with the animal that another Jessica Jones showed. So we have a picture of her name and a picture of the animal. Brandon was more receptive to petting, but would draw the line at petting bunnies with red eyes. And they really like the just hatched/hatching chicks. None of this compared though to getting to go ride the rides. Jess, surprisingly, likes the more adventurous rides. But she was willing to go on the "medium" rides as they were less tickets. Stretching a buck, right? The crazy wild boy prefers to keep his feet on stable ground. With the last of their tickets, Brandon rode the ferris wheel with daddy (I nixed the idea of J & B going by themselves) and Jess went with Uncle Alvin on the Gravitron (??... same as the Revolution at Holiday World). Daddy was able to get some really cool shots from up in the ferris wheel. And ALMOST got a shot of Jess and Uncle Alvin on their ride. Wouldn't that have been cool? The end of our tickets, it was late, so it was time to go. And then Brandon fell in the mud. Completely muddy all down one side. Other than his obvious embarrassment, he was concerned about whether his new Holiday World shirt was ruined. "Daddy can you drive to Holiday World tomorrow and get me a new one?" ...ummm that is what the washing machine is for son. And yes, it came clean. But his shoes are another story.

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More Ray days

Last week we had 2 more days with Ray visiting us. Grandma had a couple of appointments, so why not have him spend the day with us? I had plenty of chances to get lots of up close (sometimes too close) pictures of Ray. He would go to where the camera was, wanting to touch it, and say "cheese!" over and over. I get it, I get it! Take your picture!! :) How could I not?

So here are a few pics from both days. I thought I would try the Colormatic again. I like to see the backgrounds change. :)

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next up- the county fair

Look what Brandon did...

He is really good at cutting any paper into confetti sized pieces. He has even cut a pair of his jammies (ages ago). But he has never done this before.
I know that he was due for a cut, but I didn't expect him to take measures into his own hands! I took him on Wednesday to get him straightened out. We had to go the next guard smaller, hoping that his cuts wouldn't show. There is one still visible. But I think that is just because I know it's there.
before...



after...



The sylist told him "no more cutting hair. You have to have one of these (pointing to her license)." So he asks me at dinner, "how am I supposed to learn to cut hair if I can't read yet?" (sigh....)

Two days of fun in the sun

We took the kiddos to Holiday World(as mentioned in previous post) Thursday and Friday. I think that a good time was had by all. We split it up into two days with one day being at the amusement park side and the next day at the water park. We had "teams." Jess and Daddy being the venturesome twosome; Brandon and I... not so venturesome. On the second day, we started out at the new ride, The Pilgrim Plunge. It is on the park side with pathway to the water park. Jess did not really like this new ride too much the first time. But to her credit (or craziness), when Daddy asked her if she wanted to go again (as soon as she was done the first time), she said yes. Loved it the second time! Declared it the "coolest ride ever!" Most of the day at the water park was spent in the wave pools. We played in the Monsoon Lagoon while Daddy and Jess went on various other slides. The water slides there were more to Brandon's liking. After lunch was pretty much a wave pool day. They loved playing in the waves. Big smiles, blue skies, and no sunburns. It was fun.

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I heart faces...and feet!

This is actually a picture that Daddy took while we at Holiday World. I'm not sure if this actuall "fits" the feet challenge, but since it is pretty much the only thing you see of Jess in the wave pool, I thought I would give it a try!



They had so much fun! More pictures to come soon in another post...

Ray day

On Monday, Ray spent the day with us. The kiddos are always excited to have him over. Here are a few pictures from the morning.

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this slide show is new. It will randomly choose colors from pictures for the background each time it is viewed.

landscapers in the making

We decided to add another flower bed in our backyard. I really like all the flowers that we have back there. BUT unless you are actually outside, they really can't be enjoyed. (except when you are in the laundry room, but do i really want to hang out in the laundry room even more?) So this new bed is along the back of the house right outside our living room windows.
The kiddos had a hand in picking out a few of the plants and also in planting them as well. Until they started digging up worms. Then they decided they would rather go play; and took their new wormy friends with them.

Dino pics

He are a few from our walk with the dinosaurs...

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Walking with Dinosaurs

This was oh so cool! We went on Saturday afternoon (which is why we came home from Nashville right after breakfast.) with grandma and grandpa, Uncle Alvin, Aunt Shannon and Ray. The kids LOVED it! Jess and Brandon covered their ears a few times, but stayed glued to what was happening. Jess sat inbetween grandma and grandpa while Brandon sat between daddy and Aunt Shannon. Apparently both of the kiddos asked all sorts of questions about what happened, how come this, why is that... It was really a great time had by all, grown ups included. We finished off with dinner at Red Robin. Brandon managed to pop the balloon he got at Red Robin on the way home. Major trauma ensued. Crisis averted by daddy when we got home; the blow-up dinosaur saved the day.
Daddy manned the camera for the show. (good thing too! i am terrible at dark/low light pictures) We have 300 pictures. I will work on getting a slideshow together. Surprise!
Here are a few of us going in.




Oh, and the clerk (or whatever) at the Will Call window seemed to think he was a comedian. Scans my credit card to retreive my tickets and says "there seems to be a problem. Your tickets were given to someone else." I don't think so!!!.... dude, don't quit your day job, ok?

Going on a date

My sweet hubby asked me on a date. He had made all these "secret" arrangements- plans for the kids, the dog and a night out for us. How could a girl say no? He had been working out of town and was able to take Friday off. Friday morning after the kiddos had breakfast, they packed a bag to go to grandma and grandpa's house. (and grandma and grandpa were nice enough to come by to take care of the dog.) We headed down to Nashville, Indiana. Lunch at the Nashville House and dinner at Holy Cow Steakhouse; we checked out all the shops in between. We stayed at the Abbey Inn. So charming!
Saturday morning, we headed home after breakfast. What a great getaway. Just the two of us.

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*i did not fill in all the pages in this photo book, just so ya know...

Look-a-like

I had to post these. It has just been driving me crazy to try and find a really good close up picture of Brandon to try and "match" the pictures of Maxx. But I think that these will just have to do. They even have the same little curl over their ear. Or is it just me?

Brandon 1yr-

15mos


Maxx

Family Reunion

We had a family reunion in Kentucky to go to on Saturday. While I know that everyone was looking forward to it, we got a bit of a head start on Friday. All four of my brothers and I met at our mom's house. (insert chaos now)This is the first time in 10 and 1/2 years that I've seen one of my brothers, I think over a year for another, and even though the other two were "just" at my house in May; it has been too far in between visits.
I didn't take as many pictures as I probably should have. Instead busy with visiting... Guess that I can say this for both Friday and Saturday. Ok, that's not entirely true. I did not want to go chasing after kids in the rain to take pictures AND busy with long overdue catching up.
But here are some pictures from both days.
I especially like the one with my mom, my great aunt, Jess and me. And the picture of sweet little Maxx (I was ready to just pack him up and bring him home with us!), tell me how much he looks like Brandon when he was a little guy!

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Cookies...

I made the Simple Kindness Cookies again. This time using strawberry flavored cake mix.



Pretty yummy this way as well. Wonder what the next ones will be?

Zoo Pictures

We love going to the zoo! We started going when Jess had just turned one. (That just happened right?)And while we go throughout the year, we make special effort to get there at birthday time. It has become something of a tradition to get a picture of the kiddos in front of the "measuring hands" in the petting zoo area.
about 8 hands high


Brandon slightly taller than Jess at one year.


Jess and Gabe (one yr and 1 1/2yrs)- since this pic, I call this "our rock"


pictures of Jess and Brandon on our rock are in the slide show.

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