The week in review . . .

Lots of fun things happening this week . . . hence, no time to write about them. Well, it is Thursday afternoon and all the kiddies are sleeping so I'm taking advantage of the time I have to do a little blog catch-up. Where to begin . . . well, I guess I'll start with our first activity of the week - our weekly zoo visit. When we first purchased our zoo pass, I was a little hesitant because I wasn't sure how often we would actually go. Well, no need to worry there. The zoo visits have fit nicely into our weekly outings and I know for a fact that the zoo stopped making money on us long ago. Anyway, this week's visit was dedicated to the new play area that just opened up over the weekend and the splash/water area. But, as usual, we had to make our customary visit to check on the dolphins and sharks first. After a good half hour with all the underwater creatures, we made our way to the play area. I was kind of worried that the place would be packed, but to my surprise (and delight), there weren't nearly as many people there as I had anticipated. Once inside, Ryan took off running, jumping, and touching everything possible. Lauren stayed back with me and checked things out at her own pace. The place is very neat, kind of small, but it is in a zoo after all, and most people probably don't go there to play (except people like us who have nothing better to do). Within ten minutes of being there, Ryan found some boys to play with so Lauren and I made our way to the "toddler area" where she was able to climb, run, and play without being trampled by the big kids. After an hour and a half I finally convinced Ryan that we should leave. It wasn't easy considering he was perched up above me on a suspension bridge with three other little boys who were eager to play. I kept saying, "Ryan, it's time to go." He kept saying, "just five more seconds Mom." If only he had a better sense of time, then he could at least shoot for five more minutes versus five more seconds. After a good ten minutes of trying to get him to stop running and listen, he did finally come down and off we went to find our place by the splash area and have some snacks. There was one, and only one rule I gave Ryan when he was ready to get wet - NO RUNNING! As usual, he nodded and took off before anything could set in. Within minutes, he was walking back to me crying. When I asked what happened, he said he was running and slipped and fell back on his head - wow, what a surprise considering I had seen three or four other kids go down while they were running. After a brief (brief considering it was Ryan) crying fit, he regrouped and went back out with Lauren to cool off again. The kids played and splashed around for a half hour then it was time to pack up and head home. After that it was lunch and naps - what a lovely afternoon it was. Here are some pictures from the day.

So that takes care of Monday. Robbie joined us on Tuesday and I just have to throw in this picture of him and the kids. They can't get close enough to him, or touch him enough - they absolutely love having him around. I don't know that I can say that he always feels the same, but he is a trooper none-the- less.

On Wednesday we met up with some of Ryan's old classmates for a play date in the park. The park adventure was perfect for about two minutes, then Lauren went head first into a metal pole. She did her usual two seconds of crying before she was ready to play again. I did a quick check of her head before I let her go, and was startled to see a huge black and blue goose egg on her forehead. My first thought was, oh that's not too bad, but the thing just kept getting bigger and bigger. Before I know it, I'm kind of scared and don't know what to do. Luckily they had a YMCA camp going on at the school next to the playground so I took Lauren inside and asked if anyone had an ice pack. They did so I took it and went back outside with Lauren and iced her head for a couple of minutes. Immediately the swelling went down and the discoloration wasn't as bad (at least I thought). Pretty soon a bunch of the other moms are standing around me and saying things like, "I might take my kid in to the doctor", or "wow, that looks bad" - you get the idea here, not things that I wanted to hear. After hearing that stuff, I check with the head teacher of Ryan's school (who has been working with young kids for the past twenty or so years) to see what she thought. She was reassuring and said it looked much better and Lauren didn't seem phased so I should be okay. Anyway, after all that, the kids play for another half hour or so and then we headed home. Just to reassure myself that nothing as wrong with Lauren, I called the nurses line and checked with them. They told me to not give her any medicine, but to just watch her over the next 24 hours to make sure she wasn't acting any different than usual. So that is what I did and as things usually go with Lauren, she was just fine - what a tough little girl. Maybe too tough and fearless. Maybe if she was actually scared of something, her never ending injuries would start to go away. I tried to get a picture of her goose egg, but it didn't show up real good on camera. She did however like the idea of getting her picture taken with her baby and Ryan's shoes on - such a dork!

And here is a quick picture of what happens if you leave your empty hot chocolate mug sitting on the table at our house . . .That's right, Lauren will work at that empty mug until she has every last bit gone (or on her face) and then she'll walk around with a drunk and satisfied look on her face - isn't that sweet.

And finally, today (or should I say this morning) the kids and I headed out to another park for another play date. This time we met up with an old colleague of mine. She has a five year old daughter named Ryann. The kids played together a few times in the past, but when I mentioned that we would be getting together this week, my Ryan had lots of questions, most of them were centered around how a girl could be named Ryan(n) too? It was, "why is she a girl named Ryann?", or she can't be "Ryann" because I'm Ryan and I'm a boy. After numerous conversations, Ryan (mine) concluded that there could in fact be girls named Ryann too and that he would just call her, "my girl friend Ryann." He was happy with that, I was happy that he stopped asking so many questions, so that is where we left it. Well, at the park today, every time he talked to, or referred to the girl Ryann, he had to say either, "girl friend Ryann come here", or "where is my girl friend Ryann?" As it turns out, the mother of the girl Ryann also had had many talks with her daughter and she referred to my Ryan as "boy Ryan" - needless to say, their conversations about each other were pretty funny.

So there it is. Everything but Friday which looks like it is going to be a relaxing day with nothing planned. The kids might be ready to go again, but mama needs a break for a day!

Time for a wedding

We spent this past weekend staying busy with Aunt Traci's wedding. The festivities started on Friday with the rehearsal and grooms supper. With all of us - Trav, both kids, and myself - in the wedding, we had lots to do. Ryan was super excited that his big day was finally here. He has been wanting to put on his suit and be a ring bearer for about the last two months so when we finally packed the suit up on Friday, he couldn't have been happier. I was a little worried about how the kids would do, but after a couple of practice runs on Friday, I was feeling pretty confident that they wouldn't ruin Traci's big day. Here are a couple of pictures from the rehearsal.After the rehearsal and supper, the kids were pretty tired so off to bed they went. Saturday came bright and early with lots to do. We managed to get both kids down for naps before the actual wedding so they were in good shape for most of the day. They did great with pictures - minus a couple minor meltdowns, and were ready for their big moment. With Trav and I standing up in front, we had a great view of the kids. Ryan did super, he held his pillow, walked at a nice pace, and took his seat next to Grandma Connie. Lauren was close behind him with her fellow flower girl, Amelia. While Amelia did a good job of throwing out her flower petals, Lauren was hard at work right behind her trying to pick them all up - it was pretty cute. She also took some time to look around and smile at everyone - she loved the attention. After the wedding, we headed over to the dance party. This is usually the part Ryan really looks forward to, but with all the running he had been doing the past couple of days, he was almost too tired to move. He did manage to get in a few dances though before he headed home for the night. Lauren was tired too. She actually got in a cat nap between the meal and the beginning of the dance, but still wasn't her normal dancing machine. She took a while to warm-up, but once she got going, she pulled out her two signature moves and made the most of her dance floor time. By 9:30 both kids were packed up and headed home with Grandma and Grandpa Loken - thanks again for picking them up. Trav and I got in a few too many drinks after the kids left and danced the night away. Before I knew it, it was Sunday morning (or early afternoon) and we were on the road to get the kids and head home - another fun weekend in the books. Here are a few pictures from the day/night. I didn't get many with all that was going on so I'm banking on the fact that others did and they'll send them my way . . .hint, hint. A little note about this picture . . . yes, we're super dancers and we were in full swing here, but that isn't what I want you to notice. What you should notice is that the back of my dress is NOT ripped. Well, it was earlier. When we were in church taking pictures, my father-in-law, Doug suddenly says to me, "Ang, something is going on with your dress." I'm not sure what he is talking about until I stand up and pretty much my whole ass is hanging out (okay, not my whole ass, but it felt like it to me). Apparently I had ripped the seam at some point and now here I was with my butt hanging out and the wedding starting in less than an hour - super. We were able to do a quick fix with some safety pins which was fine until I sat down and felt the cold pins up my butt - yeah, that's fun. So, with pictures done, and about 40 minutes until the wedding, I asked my wonderful mother-in-law (also the mother of the bride) if she could take a look at my dress and see what could be done. Well, she did more than that, she actually sewed the thing back together for me. We jumped in the car and drove to her house where she already had black string in her sewing machine. It took her literally five minutes to fix it and I couldn't have been happier. She assured me that my butt would not be hanging out anymore because not only did she sew the seam, she actually double sewed it! With that behind me (no pun intended) we got back to the church with time to spare and the rest of the day went off with no skin exposed - yeah!

A relaxing 4th of July

Does relaxing and 4th of July even go together? Usually it is run, run, run on the 4th, but this year, we changed things up a bit. The thing about not really doing anything is that it works great for me (the less to do, the better), but not so great for Trav (he needs constant action and late nights). So, we decided to each go our separate ways in search of peace and quiet (me) and craziness (Trav). We also decided to split up the kids as well - Lauren with me, Ryan with Trav. So the boys took off to the lake and the girls headed south to St. Pete each to have our own version of fun. The girls' fun first . . . nothing too exciting on Thursday, just a quick dinner and to bed. Friday was was spent shopping and relaxing - I got an hour long full body massage (loved it!). After I was good and relaxed, I met up with some old high school friends and spent the night catching up. Saturday (the 4th) started with rain and pretty much stayed that way the entire day (at least the part I was awake for - I'll get to that later). Grandma and Grandpa Loken and Lauren and I watched the parade (in the rain), went home, ordered pizza and rented some movies all while Lauren slept. At some point during the first movie, I drifted off to sleep and by the time I woke up (a good five hours later), mom had already put Lauren to bed for the night - talk about an easy day for me. Being well-rested, I was ready to try the other movie we had rented - this one I actually stayed awake for. And then there was Sunday - it started with run and a walk (had to burn off all of those calories we took in) and then a lazy day spent by the pool. Lauren managed to trip and take a pretty good fall, but other than that, nothing too exciting. So that was our weekend. Now onto the boys' weekend. I can only tell what Trav told me, which is not very much other than Ryan got stung by a wasp and cried forever, then he tripped on some wood and cried forever again - glad I took Lauren this weekend! All in all, everyone had fun and now we are all ready for Aunt Traci's wedding this weekend. Ryan can hardly wait to put on his suit and dancing shoes - should be good times. By the way, I did not take a single picture this 4th of July - that has got to be a first (and hopefully last) time that will ever happen.

The elusive tiger

We spent the morning at the zoo today and we finally, finally got to see the elusive tiger. During our past three visits, we never even saw a glimpse of the tiger, but today was our lucky day! During this visit, I also think I found out a few tricks to visiting the zoo . . . go early, have a plan, and go the opposite direction that most people go. So we got there right at 9:00am (the time the zoo opens), got in the short "members only" line, and picked out a few things we wanted to do and see. The plan . . . farm, giraffes, and sharks. So off we headed to the farm, and on our way, we passed the tiger lair. I figured we could stop and check really quick to see if the tiger was around. To my surprise, he was, and there was no one else there. So the kids and I stroll right up to the glass and watch. And before we know it, the tiger is walking right towards us roaring the whole time. Both of them were freaking out - Ryan kept saying, "Mom, the tiger, look, the tiger" while Lauren just kept pointing and screaming. While all of this is going on, the tiger just keeps walking closer and closer and before we know it, it is standing literally right in front of us - I thought it was pretty cool and I'm 30, you can imagine how excited the kids were. Well, at least Ryan. Check out Lauren in the first picture - once the tiger got too close, she got scared and ran away crying. After the tiger was done putting on a show for us, we got back to the plan and headed to the farm. There are usually really long lines waiting for the wagon rides out to the farm that we never go, but today, like I said before, was our lucky day, and there was no wait to get on, so off we went.The kids enjoyed the wagon ride out and back, but as you can see in the picture, we hit a little bump and Lauren was done sitting like a big girl and was ready to get back in my lap. Below, they are feeding some really hungry goats. The good thing about being one of the first people out there is that the goats are all over you because they haven't been feed all day. So each of the kids got a couple of handfuls of food to help curb the goats' appetites - not sure it helped all that much, but we tried.After the farm, we headed over to see the giraffes. This is another animal that draws big crowds so it is hard to get up close and get a good look. Well, today (being our lucky day and all), the crowd was pretty small, and the animals were hungry which meant we could have a chance to feed them if we wanted. Of course this is something Ryan wanted to do so we paid our $5, got our biscuits, and waited our turn. I decided it was best just to let Ryan do the feeding so Lauren and I stood back and watched as he went to work - another truly amazing thing to see so up close and personal and Ryan was so happy he had a real live giraffe eating out of his hand. With the giraffes behind us, I packed the kids into the stroller and gave them a snack on our way to our final destination . . . the shark tank.They were scheduled to feed the sharks at 11:30am so it was a good last stop on our visit, and it was something that we had never done before. The feeding drew a pretty good crowd, but Ryan managed to get himself a front row seat while Lauren and I stayed towards the back. I didn't get any pictures because it was so dark in there, but it was pretty neat to see. They would drop in different foods for all the different fish at different times. For instance, some of the fish were vegetarians, and when their food came, they gobbled it up while everyone else in the tank just kept swimming around. Well, the best was when they feed the sharks. They would take a long spear with a dead fish on the end and put it right in front of a shark as it was swimming (apparently sharks don't have very good vision) and then it would open it's jaws and swallow it up in one gulp. Well, there was one time a shark must not have seen "his fish" and it started floating right past him - out of no where, a sting ray swoops in, grabs the fish, and devours it before the shark even knew what was going on - what a brave little sting ray. Anyway, you get the idea, the feeding was fun to watch. With the visit finally at an end, we packed up and headed home. The kids could barely stay awake long enough to eat lunch before they were in bed for naps. Apparently the zoo trip took a lot out of them as they both slept for well over 3 hours - yeah, another successful (very successful) trip to the zoo - lessons learned, lots of fun!

A week's worth of updates

Where to begin? Well, for starters, I have rejoined the working force yet again. This time around though, I'm not leaving the house, the work (not that I really consider it work) is coming to my house and his name is Robbie. Robbie just happens to be a cute little baby and we love having him visit us a couple of days a week. See how happy the kids are - they would literally hold him all day if I let them, but then that would leave no time for me to have my turn. And all I can say to Molly is that your kid can literally sleep threw anything. Lauren probably kissed him four thousand times when she was holding him and he didn't even move - what a little trooper.Having a new baby around the house has given me some insight into what life with three kids would be like . . . Ryan would absolutely love it - he loves having a baby around to watch over and help "teach", but Lauren might be an issue. Don't get me wrong, she loves the baby and always wants to help, but I have seen a little bit of jealousy from time to time when I'm holding him. She'll walk right over to me, and with a pathetic little look, she'll reach her arms up high above her head and cry, "mama, mama, mama" until she finally gets bored, or if her timing is good, I'll be finished up with a feeding and she'll get her wish of having me hold her. Such a little drama queen. Adjusting to the new schedule has kept us busy this past week (hence the lack of posts), but it has definitely been fun.

Onto other news . . . on Thursday night Grandpa and Grandma Loken and Auntie joined Trav, the kids and myself to watch some horse racing at "Buck Night" at Canterbury - talk about a cheap night of fun! We usually make it to the races a couple of times each summer, but this was a first for Grandma and Grandpa (at least the first in a long time). After inhaling some cheap food (like I said, everything is a buck), we headed out to start the races. I myself did not bet, but Grandma, Grandpa, and Trav did, and when the night was over, we all came out pretty good. Grandma had the best, and first bet of the night. She bid randomly on some jockey (not even the horse) because his last name was the same as her maiden name and wouldn't you know it, she won big (okay, it was only $7, but on a $2 bet, that's not bad). Trav came close to winning $50, but was one horse shy (he bid on three to finish 1st, 2nd, and 3rd), but like I said, it was still a cheap night of fun, no one spent more than $20 and we were there for three hours and had our fair share of food and drinks.

And here is a special one of Auntie . . . she is either bloated from the all the hot dogs, nachos, mini-doughnuts, and beer, or I just caught her off guard - either way, I'm sure she'll appreciate the fact that I took the time to put it on the blog.As far as the weekend is concerned, we aren't doing a whole lot. With the 4th coming up next weekend and Aunt Traci's wedding the following weekend, we decided it was best just to stay put and relax. The kids are catching up on sleep (that means Trav and I are too), and we're just having some nice lazy days - can't beat that.

Father's Day weekend

Yes, this past Sunday was Father's Day, but having already given Trav his gift (light saber), the kids and I packed up and headed south to Grandma and Grandpa Loken's house for a couple of days while Trav got to relax and hang out with an old college friend who was in town (I considered this another gift for Father's Day). It turned out to be a great weekend for the pool with lots of sun, warm weather, and visits from both Auntie, and Aaron and Ann. Everyone had fun relaxing in the pool - Ryan finally seemed to enjoy being in the water and didn't cry every time he got splashed, and Lauren, after getting used to the whole thing, got right in there. She used arm floaters, the baby float - whatever we gave her, she liked. After three days of fun, we finally packed up and headed home on Monday night. It was hard to leave knowing another 90 degrees plus day was coming, but we figured we better get back before Trav got too lonesome all by himself. Here are some fun pictures from the weekend.

Trying to convince Kelty to get in her kennel.The next two pictures are the kids having fun with Uncle Aaron - what kid wouldn't love walking on the ceiling?!

Happy Father's Day

So Father's Day was Sunday, and what would every father want? Well, a light saber of course! Ryan had just purchased himself a light saber last Thursday with some money he got for his birthday. So on Friday, when the two of us went shopping to pick out Trav's Father's Day gift, Ryan had the perfect idea . . . another light saber so he and Trav could play together - how could I argue with that logic. So another light saber was purchased. Trav's was blue, Ryan's was red (red=good guys, blue=bad guys in our house). Here they are showing off their goods. Trav loved his gift and now the two of them can be found playing in the backyard - just don't get too close or you might get slashed.