Lewalk Canoeing

Eva got to go canoeing too, with her dad and grandpa. She of course canoed in style - check out the posh sunglasses and sun hat! :) 

Hmmm, I think I see Kevin's hand holding her in the boat. :) 

And They All Stayed Dry - Canoeing

They all stayed dry, but I understand there were a few close calls. 

Father's Day Camping Trip

 Last Friday the boys packed up and headed out for a state park in the Cleveland area for a boys camping weekend. They picked up Dzaidzui and the camper on the way and met up with Uncle Kevin, his dad and brother with special guest appearances by Eva and Auntie Dre. Ben was very excited for this trip, but Adam may have been slightly more excited ;) Well, actually, I was pretty excited, too. I got left behind - at home - by myself...But it was good for the boys to have a boys weekend and it was good for mommy to have a mommy weekend.

The truck was packed to the gills in the cab. The boys couldn't see each other. But maybe that was by design...

Apparently they had meat for dinner. I presume Ben ate the middle one - by himself. (which is actually not that funny since he ate 4 slices of a large Marco's pizza for lunch today)

This is Ben's new standard picture pose. I have no idea how Adam got the ones above.

All he ever wants to do right now is play cars

He's actually not grumpy or in trouble, just making a ridiculous face again.

I don't really understand why Nick's shoes were sitting on top of the fire. But I know he only took one pair of shoes, so...

Where Is My Baby?!

Where is my baby?? This little boy is too grown up to be my baby. And I'd also like a trade-in program on the outrageous 2 year old attitude of late. 

Silly Stroller Time

Nick on a solo stroller ride the other day - he was a little acrobat in there. He had his feet in the air, he was laying on his back with his feet all over the place, he was sideways, he was looking out the sides, standing up to look out the back - he was everywhere! He definitely took advantage of all the things he can't do when Ben is in there with him.

Simon Says

Nick loves playing with the toy computer lately. He has really started to get his vocabulary on the past few weeks and loves playing the phonics games on the computer. He is in a parrot stage right now and usually will only parrot what Ben says (which Ben thinks is awesome). But he will also parrot the computer. He is very vocal (loud) when he repeats the computer. Ben never repeated words or sounds or letters, so it is a new thing for us.  

More Dirt Table Fun

I gather all the evidence I can, assuming in the future I can show them that they once did play nicely together. 

A Little Sand/Water Table Action

The water/sand/picnic table has finally reappeared this summer. The boys have been playing with it a lot. They move sand from the sand box into it then fill it with water and play boats and trucks. If it involves being messy and dirty, they love it!

The Definition of D-I-R-T-Y

These pictures were taken the day of our neighborhood garage sale. Adam was gone the entire day playing golf, so it was just me and the boys and the neighbors. Ben was outside from 8am to 4:30pm. During that time he played in the sand box, had a popsicle, a treat from the ice cream truck, rode his bike, dug in the neighbor's yards, and all around played hard. And the result - the dirtiest, tired-est boy you have ever come across. We drove over to Goodwill around 4:30, about a 15 minute round trip, and someone was passed out before we got to the end of our street!

It took 2 showers to get him to a state of semi-clean.

Australia and Alaska

Last Monday the boys and I went to the zoo (in the rain) to see the new Australia Walk About exhibits and of course the baby polar bears! Nick was super excited about the baby wallabies. We went to see them first. It is a 'walk-about' exhibit, so the wallabies are just out in the open with the visitors. They have 2 adults, 10 juvinelles and 1 baby, Willa, who is 7 months old. Willa gets carried in a Moby wrap by the keepers several times a day. Nick loved them! He was all excited when they were jumping and hopping and wresting with each other. (I think he was getting new ideas for how to attack Ben) 

Ben has been waiting for the giant crocodile for months. We call him Tick Tock Croc. He is a saltwater croc from Australia and 17 feet long. He was removed from the wild due to a large number of cattle disappearing...

It's kind of hard to see, but this is a belly print of the croc. You can see in the lower left corner where he dug his claws in to move. 

The baby otters were pretty feisty!

One of the best sights - ducks swimming in the hippo pool! People were way more excited by the mama and baby ducks than the otters or hippos! Those little babies following their mama, were really cute!

I don't know about a dingo eating a baby. They are pretty small and scrawny. They are way smaller than Monster

Awwww, they are soooo cuuutteee (as Ben would say)