Brayden's 4 month appt.

Brayden had his 4 month check-up today. He is healthy and growing fast. He is 27" tall, in the 99th percentile, amazing, we don't have tall kids. He grew almost 4 inches in the last 2 months. He weighs 16# 5 oz, in the 78th percentile, now that is not amazing, our boys have always been a little heavier. The poor little guy had to have four shots again. When they were all done, I held him for awhile but he cried all through getting him dressed, making his next appt and down the elevator, he didn't stop until we were outside. Then he started again when I put him in his car seat, but I gave him his nuk and blanket and he cuddled into his blanket and not long after that fell asleep. He's been doing pretty good the rest of the day, he was a little difficult to get to take his nap this afternoon but I just held him for a little while and he eventually fell asleep in my arms and I was able to put him in his crib where he then took a 2 1/2 hour nap. So things are good, hopefully they continue that way tonight.

Spontaneous trip

We took a spontaneous trip to the Minnesota zoo on Saturday. We woke up that morning and were like, "what should we do today?" We gave ourselves a few options... Science Museum, State Fair, MN Zoo, or a long bike ride. We figured the Science museum we can do anytime of year, I wasn't in the mood for the huge crowds that go to the fair, the bike ride was still an option, but it felt like it would be a fun trip to the zoo. And it was. James and I haven't been there for like 9 years, so the kids have never been there, we always take them to Como (it's free). We had a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful and the zoo is so nicely designed, so you don't miss anything, you just travel in a circle. It was awesome, maybe a little spendy $ wise but we were able to spend 4 hours there and it could have been a little while longer, probably a half hour to a full hour but we decided to skip a few things. It was so fun to see the zoo through Evan's little 2 1/2 year old eyes. He loved it! We went to como last year and at 1 1/2 years, he didn't really get it. So it was fun to see him "get it". Then we have our almost 7 year old wanting to read all the signs we come to. Now Phillip, he would zoom ahead of us before we knew it, we ended up loosing track of him briefly at the Grizzly Bear exhibit, only to find him right up to the glass watching the bears but he was blocked by a huge crowd of people, so we were unable to see him. All ended well. The sad thing is that the pictures that I posted with this are the only ones I took that day. They are of the prairie dogs, and i just think they are so cute but I was so distracted with looking at the animals and keeping track of kids that I didn't pull the camera out. Ah well.

Sprinkler fun

We had a beautiful but hot day, so we decided the sprinkler would be a nice way to cool off. The boys had a good time. It took Evan a while to really get comfortable with it though. In the video I am trying to get Evan to come back to the sprinkler.

When 2 year olds get bored

This is a closet in Evan's room that we keep a lot of stuff in, blankets and pictures included. This is the handy work of Evan, needing to fill in some time when he was suppose to be napping. We had pictures and much other stuff strewn around his room. He even moved his bed around. (it's a toddler bed). Needless to say we have since gotten a better lock for the closet that he cannot open. It took a bit to clean up this mess, we didn't want a repeat.

Family vacation/camping trip

We just got back on Monday around noon from our annual vacation/camping trip. We went about 2 hours South of home. We left Saturday morning and came back Monday, so two nights. The first night is always an adjustment. But the kids did quite well. We got to the campground, set up camp, went to check out the campground (it had a game room and other stuff), got back to camp and started the fire so we could make supper. We roasted hotdogs over the fire, had s'mores, then went swimming to help clean up from the day (our boys like to play in dirt). Got back to camp and got ready for bed. Got up Sunday morning, had breakfast then biked to a town about 4 miles away (half of the way was a dirt/rocky road...not fun) but we made it there and went to a place called "End-O-Line Railroad museum" where we got a tour of old trains and stuff associated with them plus an old church, schoolroom, courtroom, grain mill and the first general store. And then biked back. We made it but it was a very tiring ride up and down hills on the dirt road. We were all pretty exhausted after that trip. When we got back to camp, we started the fire for supper, where I made hobos. They tasted good if I do say so myself. Got some things packed up to be ready for the next morning. Went swimming again, went to bed. We got up Monday morning, broke camp in about an hour, had breakfast and off for home we went. Got home around noon. Then James had to be to work by 2 p.m. One of the funny things about this trip is that before we went, I was like "it should be okay, Brayden isn't rolling over yet, he should sleep good just on a blanket in the tent." And wouldn't you know it, the little sweetheart learned how to roll over during the trip. He still slept good though.

Douglas and Phillip
Our tent, with Brayden and Evan

Douglas and Phillip's tent

Dad and 3 boys

Evan

James relaxin' after our long ride

Phillip after our long ride (he rode in the bike trailer though)

Mommy and her boys

Cookstove in the caboose @ the railroad museum

Sink in caboose

3 boys

An old train Engine, w/ Douglas stainding next to it

Phillip

James, Douglas and Phillip

Brayden while the boys were swimming

Evan, this is the 2nd time we went swimming, the first one, he was so excited that he ran into the water and fell over and injested a lot of water, needless to say he didn't want to go in any further by himself anymore.

Phillip blowing bubbles

A beautiful view

Evan waiting for the other two to get done swimmingAnother beautiful view

Daddy and all four boys

Safety fair, cookouts and carnivals

Last Tuesday we had a busy evening. We biked out to a safety fair & cookout at our local park. We figure it is almost a 4 mile one way trip. After that ended at 7 p.m. we biked over to a church that was having a free kids carnival where the kids got to play some games, go on blow-up toys and ride a little train of wooden horses. We got home around 9 p.m. It was a fun time but a little exhausting.

The target (@ the safety fair)

Douglas shooting with a firehose @ the target
Phillip shooting @ the target

Evan shooting @ the target

All 3 boys on the wooden horse train (@ the carnival)

Evan

Brayden hangin' out while the brothers play

Douglas

Phillip

Evan coming down the titanic

Douglas and Evan

Phillip