boys and summer

Tonight we went to watch Chris play his first league kickball game - it wasn't the first game of the season, just the first for him.  The game was supposed to go until 8:15, so I planned ahead.  I fed the boy, bathed the boy and outfitted him in fresh pajamas.  That way he could go right to bed when we got home.

Well, that didn't go so well.  Here's why ...

About two seconds after we arrived he looked like this.  So much for those clean pj's huh?  And of course he had to taste it too ....

So much for that bath.  (sigh)  Oh well.  I should have known better.  It's not like this is the first time he's done this. 

Boys are drawn to dirt like bugs are to the light.  It's just a force of nature I guess.  But that's what's great about boys in the summer!!  And like any mama with boys, I just brushed him off, wiped him down and put him to bed ... dirty pj's and all. 

Just Brooks

We've been teaching Brooks where his nose is. I think he found it :)

He's climbing onto and into everything these days.  And he always wants to be a part of what we're doing.  What a good little helper.

We visited the zoo on Thursday last week and this particular goat kept trying to eat Brooks' toes.  See his nose sticking through the fence??  That was after he actually nibbled on his fingers.

Saturday night was the first Viking preseason game and Chris was giddy with excitement.  Footbal is a BIG deal in our house!  Brooks and Daddy were ready to cheer on the purple and gold!

Montana

Whew, we've done a lot of traveling this summer!  First to the twin cities for our anniversary/4th of July weekend, then Brooks and I went to Green Bay for a week (oops, still need to post pictures from that).  Now we just came back from a weekend in Montana.  And in a few weeks we'll be headed back to the cities for a friend's wedding.  Since we were rarely able to get away on the weekends while working at the church, we didn't travel much - so I am LOVING this!

We were able to fly to Montana thanks to Chris' incredibly generous boss who gave us his airline miles ... we flew for practically FREE.  Can't beat that.  We decided to make a trip out to see Chris' parents since they're moving at the end of the month and childhood treasures needed to be claimed.  That and I've never seen Montana in the summer.  And oh, is it beautiful out there.  There is absolutely no humidity which is amazing!!  And at night time the temps drop down to 50 degrees - perfect!!  And the mountains ... well, they're mountains ... which we definitely don't have in South Dakota.  I'm sure folks who live there get used to the view, but they were gorgeous!  On our flight back home we saw the sun rise over the mountains.  Simply breathtaking!  I know my in-laws are moving to eastern Montana (the land with no mountains) but I do hope we get back to Belgrade some day.

This was also Brooks' first time flying and he did GREAT!  Since our flight left Sioux Falls at 8pm, he slept the whole way there, on both flights!  And we boarded the plane at 6am coming home, so he slept most of those flights too.  What a good baby.

Our first day there (Friday), we hiked up to this beautiful waterfall.  The windy, bendy mountain roads we had to take almost made me lose my lunch, but it was worth it once we arrived.  After we parked it was about a 1 mile hike to get to here.

Pretty amazing isn't it?  The water was so clear and so COLD.

On Saturday we pretty much just hung around the house.  After living in their home for almost 30 years, Les and Lue had collected a few things.  Ok, a LOT of things.  All three boys rummaged through boxes in the garage to find treasures they wanted to keep.

That evening we enjoyed a delicious roast beef dinner that Grandma Katy made for us.  She lives right in Belgrade too, so we loved seeing her every day too.  After supper we headed over to Tim's house (Chris' youngest brother) for a bonfire.  Brooks went to bed, so Grandma & Grandpa stayed behind with him while the rest of us went to Tim's.  What I really enjoyed about the weekend was getting to know Chris' brothers better.  His middle brother JD and his wife Pamela were there from Minneapolis.  They've only been married a few months so I was able to get to know Pamela better.  And Tim lives in Belgrade along with his girlfriend Katie.  We had a great time just sitting and talking around the HUGE fire that Tim built.

Sunday was church then the six of us floated down the Missouri river.  (Grandma & Grandpa stayed behind with Brooks again - I loved all the "child-free" times we had)  What a beautiful day.  I would love show you pictures, but our camera wouldn't have fared well on the water.  And the timing was perfect!  Just as we got out on shore (three hours later) storm clouds rolled in and it began to rain!  So glad we weren't the folks still on the river because it was COLD without the sun shining. 

That evening we went to dinner at a local pizza place in town and enjoyed each other's company before we had leave early the next morning.  I'm so glad we had the chance to visit Les & Lue and Brooks had a chance to spend time with his grandparents.

Here's some other pictures from the weekend.

Brooks went swimming in the "hot" tub.  It wasn't actually hot since they cooled it down to about 75 degrees for the summer - it was perfect for him and he loved it!

Grandma and Granpa had fun new toys to play with.

Brooks loved playing with Uncle Tim's puppies!

Playing with Grandpa Les. Notice the lovely drool?  Brooks cut a new tooth while we were there.  Fortunately he didn't fuss at all about it.

And this just made me laugh :)  At the Minneapolis airport there is a kids play area and daddy insisted upon this picture.

My Declaration!

I hereby declare that from this day forward, no one in this house shall, under any circumstance, clothe the child in any white shirts ..... ever again!!

Thank goodness for bleach!