Week 24

Happy Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day Nick. You are a super duper wonderful dad to our two crazy kids!  They adore you and can’t wait for you to arrive home each day after work.

Madeline wrote 3 clues for Nick to find his gifts, she never waited for him to figure them out she always shouted out the answer. She even made him a pink necklace at church. Now that is LOVE!

Grandma Linda & GG

Grandma Linda and GG arrived on Monday to spend the week hanging out with the kids.  We did some more touristy things and enjoyed the neighborhood pool, which is finally warming up!

We went to the Botanical gardens again for a picnic. This time it didn’t rain but it sure was HOT!

The kids loved the splash pad! Will got soaked. At least it washed off some of the sand he had thrown on top of his head in the sandbox!  Nick made a lemon icebox cheesecake. It was YUMMY!

 

Nick and I went to a going away for the TACC commander. It was so fun. They had a funny show and a great joke video!

We made it to the zoo. Madeline loved petting the stingrays and the sharks.

We got to see the brand new baby elephant.

Will kept yelling Milk from the family room. I thought he wanted a drink, NOPE… he had just spelled the word with his letter puzzle.

Madeline was focused on her kindle. She was worn out!

Grandma Linda played numbers with Will. That an ice cream are the two fastest ways to get the guys to love ya!

I had a double ear infection and sinus infection all week. It was nice to have some one here to watch the kids while I ran to the doctor. One Z pack and some musinex d and I am good to go.  Not picture were lots of trips to the pool, stories read, dishes washed by GG, and lots of play dough!

Ice Cream Song

William is a fan of ice cream. When you drive past Dairy Queen he grabs the car door handle and starts yelling STUCK!  He then proceeds to tell us he needs ice cream and even includes some pleases. He loves Team Umizoomi’s ice cream song. William’s favorite things continue to be numbers, letters, and ice cream.

The ice cream song

(The first half of the video is the ice cream song and then he moves onto numbers.)

Week 23

Grandpa Ross & Grandma Jenna

The Searl’s came to O’fallon for a quick visit. We packed as much fun in a few days as we could possible fit.  We enjoyed the Botanical Gardens (even in the pouring rain), the Arch, Nick drive and crash a race car (that will be a separate blog post), the O’fallon picnic, Nick’s BBQ, the root beer factory, and football in the backyard. They even hauled away a ton of my garage sale items. Can’t wait for them to come back and get the rest.

You can’t even tell it is pouring down rain. We were sheltered under a big tree.

 

So brave for a 2 year old. He went all the way down and all the way back up.

After taking this picture I finally realized that I was using my fabulous new camera!

What everybody smiling at once and I didn’t have to swap any heads? This is a miracle!!!!

Homemade rolls. YUMMO!

Walking to the Arch. Too bad Will wasn’t this happy in the Arch. I think my parents were reminded and thankful they only had one child.

Waiting in line with not very patient pete.

View from the top of the Arch.

Fitz Root Beer. This is my root beer float after I ate off 1/2 of the ice cream. It was so fun watching the root beer assembly line.

Nick’s yummy ribs.

Madeline got to ride a horse at the O’fallon picnic.

A little family football. Madeline called a huddle and had a secret game plan. It involved everyone going to a separate corner.

A Nick Schindler Photo Bomb!

Bye Mom and Dad. Glad you made it home safe. We look forward to your next visit. (My basement is still full of garage sale items.)

Richard Petty Racing Experience

Grandpa Ross & Grandma Jenna gave Nick gift certificate for the Richard Petty racing experience. It included a driving class, 3 practice laps, and 8 real racing laps. This was in real Nascar race cars and all by yourself.  The day was beautiful!

Hanging around waiting for Nick to get out of his class.

Will hiding in his shirt so he could pick his nose and not get hand slapped.

Waiting to get into the number 99.

Grandpa Ross took some video. They had a nice grandstand area in the middle where we could see lots of the track.

There Nick goes into the turn…

…and then smashed into the wall. His tire went down and he couldn’t turn. They figure he was doing over 100 when he hit the wall. I had walked down to the other end of the track to get some pictures. The grandparents and kids were waiting on the other side for him to come around. They were shocked when I ran and told them what had happened. Off raced the ambulance to check on Nick.

 

But my little racecar driver was fine. He did end up with a huge bruise on his leg from the seatbelt straps. So Nick end up only getting to do 2 of the competitive racing laps. He loved it and is so wanting to do it again. I’m not sure about it.

So thankful that Nick was protected and our day ended with a smiling picture by the crashed car! God is so good!