Happy New Year

We would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

I don't think we'll be doing much but having fun with our kids and trying to stay warm as it should be well below zero tonight.

Next Hockey Star?

After Chay's game yesterday, Jace took Chay's stick and showed us he is ready to play!

Unfortunately for Jace, he still has to wait a few years for youth hockey.

Christmas Lockup

While gifts and good food are often the excitement of the day, we had some extra on Christmas evening. We were at Latana's aunt's house and we getting ready to head back home. We had the twins loaded up in the vehicle and were getting everything else loaded up. It was cold outside so the vehicle was running. As Latana went back into the house, I heard the car doors lock. Uh oh...the only keys are in the vehicle and the twins are in there as well! Lucky for us, Latana's sister went to school with a friend who's father is a sheriff. They lived about 2 blocks away. He was gracious enough to come over and use some tools to get the car door open. The twins were only locked in the vehicle for about 15 minutes.

Christmas Day

The boys loved all of the presents that Santa left for them. We all had a great Christmas and hope you did as well.

Hockey Game

Through Chay's youth hockey, we got cheap tickets to the Fargo Force hockey game the weekend before Christmas. He wore his hockey jersey at the game as did all of the youth hockey kids in attendance. Here are pictures of the boys at the game.

Merry Christmas!!!

We hope that every has a very Merry Christmas and a great holiday season.

Brushing Teeth

The twins love playing in the sink. Here all three boys are brushing their teeth.

Chay Hockey

Here is Chay's official hockey picture.

Twin Trouble

The twins are getting older, more active, and becoming a big handful lately.

We had a pair of step stools but the twins quickly learned to pick them up and carry them around. At this point, things on counters came in easy reach even though we place things on counters to keep them away from the twins busy hands. On more than one occasion, I threatened to turn the step stools into firewood. In the end, I put them away so the twins can't get to them. This solved many issues for a while. Primarily, we were able to keep the twins away from the sink in the bathroom. Until one day where Jace discovered that he could pull out the lower vanity drawer and stand on, or in the drawer and reach the faucet. It didn't take long for Jenner to copy Jace. We now have to keep the bathroom door closed at all times otherwise they would have water all over the bathroom. When the day comes that they can open doors, we'll be in big trouble.

Jace also figured out that he can push around one of the dining room chairs to get something in the kitchen. His favorite thing to do is to raid the candy jar. He can't unwrap the candy but this is no problem for Jace as he will eat the wrapper too. Jenner has copied Jace and will push around the chairs as well. If you ever come to our house and see the dining room chairs on top of the dining room table its so that twins can't get to the chairs and hence can't get to the counters.

We are thankful that the holiday season is here. But this means the twins can now torment the Christmas tree. Last year, they were barely walking and I was able to use chairs as a barrier. But they would get around that easy this year. So we are constantly stopping the twins from messing with the tree and any presents underneath.

Yesterday I went downstairs and noticed that every door on that level was closed, just to keep the twins in check. 

Chay 4-year Checkup

A little late on this one. Chay had his four-year checkup a little more than a week ago. The doctor said everything looks great. He measured at 41.75" tall and 38.5 pounds.

All are Sick

Last weekend, both Latana & I were sick. Latana was much worse off than I was, but we were both hoping that our kids would escape the illness. None of our kids got what we had but unbeknownst to us, we sent them off to get sick when we dropped them off at daycare on Monday. One of the kids there had a cough. Jenner was the first to get the cough followed by Chay. The cough comes with a fever as well. Nothing too serious. But Jenner skipped daycare on Wed and Thur. And Chay stayed home yesterday as well. I took Jenner in to the clinic this morning and the doctor thought he has croup and should be over it soon. While I was at the clinic, Chay threw up at daycare. It was a first for me when I dropped off Jenner and picked up Chay at the same stop at daycare! LOL

Jace has escaped all of this somehow...knock on wood. We're hoping it stays that way. He was the only one sick last time so the rest of us were due I guess.

Monkey Jace

Jace is really stretching his climbing skills these days. He has taken a keen interest in pushing around one of the dining room chairs to get to something he should not have. This weekend, Latana caught him standing on one of the counters. He pushed the chair over to the counter and climb up to get something out of one of the top cupboards. Our house is mostly baby-proof, but not Jace-proof apparently.

On Saturday morning, Latana was sick and was sleeping downstairs so as to not wake the rest of us. That morning, Jace was the first to get up. Instead of saying something and me hearing it on the baby monitor, I was greeted bedside by Jace. He managed to climb out of his crib and came in the bedroom to wake me up!

On Sunday, Jace was being naughty. So I put him in his crib for a timeout. I went back to the kitchen to do some more work while Jace did his time in the slammer. A minute later I hear Latana say to Jace, "Daddy's not going to be happy you are out of your crib when he put you there for timeout". The stinker made a jailbreak, which does not surprise me. But what happened next was a surprise. I knew Jace could get out of his crib on his own but as I rounded the corner to his bedroom, I saw Jace diving back into his crib head first! He wasn't too happy with me that I left him in the crib and shut the bedroom door on him.

Post Thanksgiving

We hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving holiday weekend! We entertained about 40 people at our house for the holiday. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. But about a day later, a large number of us came down with some sort of illness. So somebody was nice enough to bring a highly communicable bug to the festivities. Latana & I were both sick. Thankfully, none of our kids got sick from it (knock on wood).

Bailee took this picture of Chay at a recent hockey game with some cheerleaders.

Chay scored a goal during his second hockey game of his career. After the goal, he raised his stick in the air and gave it a little fist pump like hockey plays sometimes do in celebration. Unfortunately, the goal was in his own net. But what do 4-year-olds care about things like that?

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope that everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving! Our house will be filled with about 40 guests for turkey, stuffing, and all the trimmings.

Holiday Parade 2012

Every year around this time, there is a holiday parade in the downtown area. Latana's business always has an entry in the parade. We missed the last two parades. Two years ago, Latana was pregnant with the twins and last year, the twins were only 9 mos old so we skipped those parades. 

Here is the blog entry from when we went to the parade 3 years ago: http://peaslandfamily.blogspot.com/2009/11/holiday-parade.html

In that blog entry, you can see a 1 yr-old Chay looking at the parade. He's 4 now and is obviously much older now as you can see in this picture:

The twins attended the parade as well this year. 

Everyone seemed to have a good time. There was a 20 minute period in the middle of the parade where the parade just stopped. Apparently, someone needed medical attention. A number of people left before the parade resumed. We were close to leaving as well when things started up again.

Chay's 4-yr Checkup

Chay had his four-year checkup this morning. He is now 3'6" tall (76th percentile) and weighs 38.5 pounds (69th percentile). He got a clean bill of health and did not need to receive any shots this time.

Busy Weekend

It was a super-busy weekend. Friday night, we attended a UND hockey game which ended in a 4-4 tie. We got home about midnight. On Saturday morning, I woke Chay up bright and early for his 8am hockey practice. Once he heard we had to go to hockey practice, he was eager to get out of bed. Late Saturday afternoon, we took the kids to a water park for them to splash and play for about 90 minutes. We would have stayed longer, but we had to get to the UND hockey game that evening, which ended with the good guys winning with 34 seconds remaining in the overtime period. Sunday, Chay had his first hockey game of the season. We had to be at the rink early for pictures. The kids were eager to get the game started:

In case you're wondering which one is Chay, he is the shorter one right on the glass, third from the left. Chay's hockey game ended in a 3-3 tie. After hockey, we went out to his cousin's birthday party. On the way home from the birthday party, we had three tuckered boys who all fell asleep in the car.

I think we all need a day off to recover from the weekend.

Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Chay was going to be a hockey player and we had dragon costumes for the twins. But we found out that the dragon costumes were shipped wrong. We had one 24-month size and one 4T size. Since it was the night before Halloween, I dug out the costume Chay wore when he was 2, which was a puppy. So we dressed Jace in one of the dragon costumes and since Jenner loves puppies, we put the puppy costume on him. When we were getting ready to dress all the boys for trick-or-treating, Chay announced that he no longer wanted to be a hockey player. We asked him if he wanted to be a dragon like Jace and Chay agreed. So we still had two dragons and we made use of the shipping snafu.

This wasn't the first time Chay changed his mind. Originally he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear for the second year in a row. But he changed shortly after that so I returned the costume to the store.

Chay Hockey Camp

Chay is almost done with hockey camp. It ends on Saturday.

Pumpkin Carving

Halloween wouldn't be complete without carving a few pumpkins. The boys helped me carve one last night.

Chay Starts Termite Hockey Camp

Yesterday, Chay started Termite hockey camp for the upcoming hockey season. I think he was the shortest kid on the ice and he doesn't skate very well, but he had a great time!

Snow

This is the second time it has snowed  this month. Unfortunately, it snowed while we were returning home from last nights hockey game so it took us a lot longer to get back home.

Update : According to the weather experts, this storm dumped 2.2" of snow on us.

Jace Sick

Jace stayed home yesterday as he wasn't feeling too well. He had a fever and was a little rundown. Things are looking better today as he returned to daycare.

Chay is 4!

Chay turned 4 yesterday. He took cupcakes to daycare for the kids to enjoy. For supper, we took him to Space Aliens, which is his favorite restaurant. Not for the food, but he really likes the game room. After Space Aliens, he came home and opened presents. We didn't do much that was super-exciting, but he seemed to have a great day anyway!

Chay Plays Hockey

Every time Chay starts a new activity, we go through a period where he is scared and does not want to participate. I expect that lots of kids are very similar. When Chay did a skating class last winter, we had a hard time getting him on the ice. This summer, when Chay took swimming lessons, he wouldn't participate unless I was in the pool with him. This fall, we enrolled Chay in soccer. He wanted me to be on the field with him at all times, which is kind of hard to do when kids want to play soccer. But he eventually warmed up to it and learned to have lots of fun playing soccer.

We enrolled Chay in a two-week Intro to Hockey camp. This camp doesn't even require previous skating experience and runs the days a week for two weeks. The first day, Chay was super excited to go. I was still nervous about how well he would take to it since I knew I would not be allowed on the ice. We got Chay all dressed up in his hockey gear and went to the arena. He seemed pretty excited even though the place was packed with kids, adults, and coaches. Then came the moment they opened the doors to the ice and Chay got super-scared and refused to participate. Poor guy started bawling. So we sat in the stands and watched the other kids.

Last night was the start of the second and final week. I asked Chay if he wanted to go and he said "yes". I asked him if he wanted to play instead of just watching and he said "yes". I was thinking he would change his mind like has been his usual custom. We got to the arena and he still said he wanted to play, so we got his pads and other gear on. They opened the door to the ice and Chay went right out there! Where was this scared little boy?!?!?

I think that while he was on the ice playing, I was happier about this turn of events than he was. But he had a great time. As you can see by these (short) videos:



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Chay wasn't the best skater, but he wasn't the worst either. He seemed to handle the stick pretty well for his age. His coach was surprised to learn it was his first day playing hockey!

When it was over, we took off his pads, put on his coat and were getting ready to leave. Chay then saw the zamboni and we needed to stay and watch that. After the zamboni cleaned the ice, a group of older kids had hockey practice. Chay wanted to stay and watch them too. He refused to leave. On the way home, I asked him if he liked hockey or soccer better. Without hesitation, he said "hockey". When Chay got home, he picked up one of his sticks and started hitting a ball around the house. I think he's hooked on the sport now.

Birthday Party

Well it was a very busy weekend.

On Saturday, we held Chay's birthday party. He has been saying for months that he wanted a bowling party. We had lots of troubles pulling this off. We originally wanted the party for either Sunday the 7th or the weekend after Chay's birthday. But too many people had conflicts the weekend after. I called all around town to book a party for the 7th but Special Olympics had every lane taken on that day. So we booked it for Saturday the 6th instead. Then about a week before his party, I got a call that the bowling alley double-booked and asked us to reschedule. So I did reschedule...to another bowling alley!

So the day of the party came. We hogged up 3 lanes and everyone had a real good time. Here is Chay blowing out the candles on his cake:

Chay was supposed to have his last day of soccer that day, but it was 39 degrees so too cold to play. After the party, we all piled into the car and headed up for some Sioux UND hockey. The hockey season started with an exhibition game.

Sunday, Latana had some people over for a combination 31/Scentsy party. It seems like everyone had a good time there as well.

All in all, a busy weekend. But everyone had fun.

Snow

Almost every year, I say that it will snow no later than Halloween. I remember one year when I lived here that it didn't snow until Halloween day, but my statement was upheld albeit at the last minute. Last year was the exception to the rule. The first snow didn't fall here until mid-November. So I think this year is trying to make up for last year. Here it is early October and we woke up this morning to snow on the ground.

Jace Sick

Jace was sick over the weekend. He stayed home with me on Friday. So far, the no one else in the house has gotten whatever bug bit him. Jace did go to daycare today so I'm anxious to see how he fared.

Jace has also gotten his bottom two 2-year molars. 

Chay Goes To Dentist

Chay made his first visit to the dentist yesterday afternoon. He sat very well in the chair while he got his teeth cleaned. He surprised me by how good he was.

Then they told us that the two lower front teeth are loose. A sign he might lose his baby teeth soon. He would be about a year early for that but he had all of his teeth, including his 2-year molars by the time he was 18 months old.

Hockey Equipment

Chay starts a 2-week Intro To Hockey camp next week. Last night we had to get his hockey gear. Here is he with his new jersey. He had a choice of white, black or blue and he chose black.

 

(I'm not sure why that picture is rotated and I couldn't rotate it back. )

After getting his pads, Chay then got his helmet adjusted.

After that, it was on to get his skates and stick.

Chay seems pretty excited to play hockey. He even let his brothers try on the helmet and the gloves.

Firestation Visit

The boys love watching All About Big Red Fire Engines on Netflix streamed through our Tivo. Well last night on the way home from supper, we pulled up next to a fire truck driving down the street. The boys got a kick out of seeing the fire truck up close. I figured the fire truck was heading back towards the station near our house so we took a detour to watch it pull into the station. The firemen saw us watching and waved to us. I was thinking this was a good thrill for the boys, but then things got even better. One of the firemen got out of the truck and invited the boys inside. Chay got scared and didn't want to go. Latana took Jenner in for a look. After a short while, I was able to coax Chay into getting out of our vehicle and going inside the fire station. The firemen were so nice. They gave us a tour of the station and let the boys look at the firetruck. They offered to let Chay climb up into the truck and turn on the flashing lights, but Chay declined. It was awesome to have the firemen take the time to give us an impromptu tour and let the boys get a good, close-up look at the fire engine. We just wanted to drive by and watch the fire engine pull into the station and we got so much more!

Soccer

Chay started soccer this week. At first, he was scared to interact with all of the kids, but once I finally got him on the field, he took off! He had a great time at today's game. Here are some pictures I took of Chay.

Twins Say Hi

Chay Says Hi

Twins 18 Month Checkup

The twins had their 18 month checkup yesterday. We think it is crazy how nearly identical the twins are for height and weight.

Jenner - 31 7/8" tall  24.4 pounds
Jace  - 31 7/8" tall 24.3 pounds

The twins are nothing alike, completely fraternal in pretty much every way. Jace likes to get dirty in the sandbox and Jenner will stand outside the sandbox and play. Jenner can speak a ton of words now including 3-word sentences (his favorite seems to be "here you go", but it sounds like one word when he says it. LOL) and Jace is just starting to talk more. Jace climbed a 6 foot wall at the playground without any fear whereas Jenner needs assistance on the playground equipment sometimes. So I suppose if the twins are going to be similar, it will be in their height and weight. They have the same hair color and eye color. And of course they share the same birthday. Otherwise they are night and day.

Anyway, the doctor said they are all very healthy boys which is what we hope for the most.

Chay went to the twins appointment. When he heard that the twins were getting shots, he said "I want shots". So I figured once he saw what the twins were going through, he would change his mind. Chay sat on the examining table while each of his brothers got three shots, two in one leg and one in the other. After it was over, the nurse left the room. Chay started crying because he didn't get his shots. So here we are, leaving the doctors office with all three boys crying, two from shots and one because he didn't get any.

Daycare Changes

We're getting closer to the start of the school year and the summer is winding down. I'm not sure where the summer went.

Next week, Chay will be the oldest kid at daycare. Two of the kids that are older than him will be going off to school of one sort or another. And daycare will be getting a newcomer as well to break in. This also means the twins will not be the youngest at daycare any more.

It seems hard to believe that Chay will be the eldest one there. We are tentatively planning on enrolling him in preschool a year from now. Chay wants to go to school now, but he is still only 3.

NICU Reunion

Sunday afternoon, the twins were invited to a NICU reunion.The hospital reserved a park and invited kids who had spent time in the NICU. As you can see from the above, the twins had a great time playing on the playground equipment and they are as healthy as can be (knock on wood). Chay got hockey sticks painted on his face which we had to quickly clean off this morning before heading out to daycare.

Sioux Hats

Jenner like wearing this Sioux hat backwards.He completes attire with a pair of Chay's slippers.

Chay wanted to be in the picture too. Jace declined to pose for us.

Jenner's Five Words

Jenner has added five new words to his vocabulary this week. Since turning seventeen months old this week, he has added....Outside, Ashley, Hockey, Dolly, and Blankie

Its July And Its Hot!

We aren't as hot as other parts of the country, but its been hot here lately. But it could be, and has been hotter. And it's not -20F outside, so we probably shouldn't complain.

As is usual for the week of July 4th, the boy's daycare is taking a week-long vacation. Since Ashely & Michelle watched the twins all summer last year, we asked if they could watch the three boys this week and they agreed. Now that the fence is up, I'm hoping that it makes life easier for them especially with the twins being very mobile. Last weekend, in addition to cleaning the garage, I tried to get some stuff set up in the backyard to make their week at home more enjoyable for them.

 It seems like the kids today need a playhouse in their yard. Our kids enjoy this one which has a gas station on one side, a bank on the other, a firehouse in red brick and the fourth side has a basketball hoop and soccer net. You can see more pictures here.

We added a toybox in the backyard. Jenner is trying to figure out which toy to pull out and play with below. 

And we set up a sandbox in the backyard as well. It was really hot on Sunday so I set up an umbrella to screen them from the sun while they played.

I bought the sand at a local nursery where you buy it by the cubic foot. I was able to get one-half cubic foot for a decent price. They do not have a very accurate way of measuring the sand. I got a big scoop full using a Bobcat skid steer loader and the sand was dumped in my pickup bed. I think the bed is 6'x5' roughly and it was at least 1' deep with sand.  According to my calculations, I had well over 1 cubic foot of sand in the pickup bed, which was much, much more than we needed. Latana's parents have a sandbox which could use some topping off so last night we drove out there and dumped the rest of the sand into their sandbox. Afterward, Chay was a big help in cleaning off the sand out of the pickup with Grandpa's help as well.

We wish everyone a safe and happy Fourth of July!

Growing Up

At this stage in their life, you don't have to look very hard to know that your kids are growing up fast. The signs are obvious.

Chay is potty trained. He still needs a bit of help getting dressed after using the toilet, but its odd to see him jump up...announce his intentions...and run off to the bathroom.

The gates guarding our stairs are gone. The twins are able to navigate the stairs by themselves. I think it was the first or second day after we took down the gates that Jenner took a stumble down the stairs, but since then both Jenner & Jace have been pretty good about slowing down and taking their time getting down those steps. I could probably take the gate mounts off the wall, but I figured I should leave them up for a while just in case.

The toddler food on the shelves has all but disappeared. We used to get a few toddler things from Gerber as the twins were learning to eat solid foods. But now the twins are eating whatever we eat so no need to buy Gerber toddler foods any more.

The three boys can now sit in any car seat they choose. The car seat in the middle was hardest to adjust the height for the shoulder straps. So Chay used to sit in the middle. The seats on the ends were for the twins. But now that the twins are taller, all three seats are set to the same height. This means Chay is no longer forced to sit in the middle which he loves. Chay thinks one of the funnest things to do in the world is to drive around town with the window rolled down.

Now that the fence is up, I have put the patio furniture out on the deck. Last year, we just skipped it. The twins were about 5 months old mid-summer and we didn't want to have to worry about them on the deck so we were barely out in the backyard last year. This year is a different story, especially with the fence to corral the kids.

So as I look around the house, there seems to be big changes every once in a while that are there to remind me, as if I didn't already know, that the kids are growing up very fast. 

Long Time

It's been quite a while since I last posted. We have been super busy. The week flies by. Normally by the time we all get home from work/daycare, its cook supper, do the dishes, play with the kids for a while, and then its bath time and put the kids to sleep...repeat the next day.

Our weekends have been real busy lately too. There was Mother's Day. The next weekend, we had Lakken's graduation party and Hannah's Confirmation/First Communion. Then it was Memorial Day which had another graduation to attend and a short camping trip with the Espeliens.

During that trip, here is Chay & Carter feeding the goats at the zoo:

And Jenner & Jace being silly in the stroller:

And then just when you think things would start to calm down, we decided to put up a fence. Big thanks to Todd for giving up his entire weekend to help me out.

There is still lots to do with the fence, but it is up and does a nice job of keeping all 3 boys in the back yard.

So the week has been busy with life as usual and the weekends even busier. Somewhere in there, we even crammed in a pool party for the boy's cousin Taylen's second birthday.

Chay starts swimming lessons today. Last winter during skating lessons, Chay wanted to do his own thing instead of what the class was doing, so we'll see how he does with swimming lessons.

Chay has started doing really well in potty training. He only wears diapers when sleeping now, but he still has an occasional accident.

Jace has still been eating everything in sight. But now he's become quite the climber as well. He can climb up on the toilet seat without any assistance. He is starting the master the art of dragging something to use as a step stool. Sometimes, that "thing" has wheels on it and he falls down. And I think that Jace has started the "terrible twos" way ahead of schedule.

Jenner has been quite the talker lately. He's started to say "uh-oh" quite a lot. This word joins "ouch" as ones of his favorites. And he has been known to say "hi" once in a while, but not that often.

We normally dress the twins in the same shirts. If one is dirty and the other is clean, you know that the clean one is Jenner's. At Lakken's graduation party, the kids were playing in the sandbox with Jace making the biggest mess of himself. Jenner showed us that there is a different way of playing with the sand. Instead of actually crawling into the sandbox, apparently you can stand on the edge of it and play. I never knew that.

Jenner is also teaching Jace to share. This morning was pretty typical in that Jenner found two toys to push around and he walked over and gave one to Jace. I will now see Jace start to share things with Jenner. Once in a while, the "sharing mentality" will rub off on Chay, but it seems that with 3-year olds, the effect is temporary and very short lived. Our dining room table is covered with trucks and cars that Chay put there so that his brothers can't reach them.

While Chay doesn't want his brothers to play with his toys, Chay is getting a kick out of be "like brothers" as he says. We got the twins some sandals and Chay had to have a pair just "like brothers". And Chay now has a pair of tennis shoes just "like brothers". We have a backpack with Chay's name on it and Chay liked that we got each of the twins a similar backpack with their name on it so all 3 boys have the same thing.

Well I think that about covers it for now. I'm sure that we'll have a busy summer ahead of us. If nothing else, the boys will keep us busy!

Jace Eats...

...Everything!

As long as Jace has been crawling and getting around, he has been eating everything he can get his hands on. A foam ball is not safe when Jace gets his hands on it. I've had to throw away more than one of those because they have big chunks taken out of them. Many times, you'll look at him and realize that he is eating something but you are unsure what. You say "Jace...what are you eating?" Jace will know that he is busted. He will take off running...giggling...

The other night we went out to eat. Before our food came, Jace was eating crayons and napkins. Finally the food came and Jace at his meal. When he was done and Latana was trying to eat, he reached over to her plate and grabbed a chunk of broccoli. He started chowing down on the broccoli. I said to Latana, "the odd thing is we just don't know if he actually likes broccoli or if he is just eating it to eat it." :)

Waterpark

Taylen, a cousin of our three boys, celebrated her 2nd birthday last Saturday. The birthday part was at a waterpark in a hotel. Chay had never really warmed up to waterparks prior to this date, but he seemed to shrug off any previous ill effects as he had a blast going up and down a water slide and playing basketball in the water. Jace was happy right away but got scared when he fell in the 1foot deep end of the pool. After about 30 or 40 minutes, I was able to gently coax Jace back into the water and once he got over his initial fright, he had fun playing in the water as well. Jenner never really learned to like the place. He was a bit scared from the time we walked in. The place was very busy with 3 concurrent birthday parties and Jenner didn't care for the noise. So he never enjoyed the water. I'm sure he will turn out like Chay and eventually warm up to the idea.

Nice Day

Yesterday was a real nice day as far as the weather is concerned. About 75 degrees, little wind, and very sunny. We took the boys out for a spin on their new toys after supper.

Marker Fun

Last night before bed, Chay was playing with a coloring book and some new markers.

Don't worry though...the markers were washable and came off his face and hands quite easily.

Go To The Cities

Ever since Chay heard that Todd/Laurie/Bailee/Carter were in The Cities one weekend, he said he wanted to go to The Cities. He's never been there. He has no idea what is there. But he was a bit fixated on going there.

On Saturday, Bailee was competing in regionals for gymnastics. So we decided to make a short trip to the Cities for Chay and to root on Bailee. This was our first overnight trip since the twins were born so we were unsure how it was going to go.

All three boys were well behaved that weekend. The twins slept half the way there and we stopped halfway to get some lunch. Upon arrival, we checked into our hotel. As we were standing in the hotel parking lot, Chay said "we going to the Cities?". Ummm...Chay...we're here. This is it.

When we got to the hotel room, the boys just loved it. We had a suite and they were busy running around checking out the place. Our stop in the hotel room was short lived because we had to get back into the car to drive to downtown Minneapolis. I think Chay liked seeing the skyscrapers as we got close to downtown. We then watch B compete before we had to call it a night.

The next day, we checked out and drove to the Mall of America. Before the mall opened, we found a strategic place to park so that Chay could watch planes land and take off from MSP.

As soon as the mall opened, we entered and headed straight for the Rainforest Cafe. At first, Chay didn't know what to think. Our table was in the gorilla section. All three boys got a kick out of the gorillas talking every 15 minutes. Chay was a little scared when the thunder/lightning storm started. I knew Chay was overwhelmed when I had to ask him 15 times what he wanted for lunch and he wouldn't answer me. By the end of lunch, the boys were loving the atmosphere and having a good time.

After lunch, we went to the undersea aquarium. The poor-quality pictures below were taken with sharks and other fish swimming over our heads.

After the aquarium, it was time to check out Nickelodeon Universe. Chay loved to watch the log flume ride. Then it was time to head home.

Jenner slept about 3 hours on the way home. Jace slept for most of that as well. So it made the drive go much faster.

Overall, it was a nice fun, short trip. All 3 boys behaved very well and seemed to like the short weekend getaway.

Social Jenner

We were on our way to Minneapolis when Jenner was playing with an old cell phone. He was just jabbering away talking on the phone. He must get this trait from his mom! LOL