Fair food, Parades, Rodeo, and New Freinds... Oh My!!!

What a busy week/weekend. We did the Fair, Rodeo, Parade thing and just when you thought we couldn't cram anything else into our busy labor day weekend, we made new friends.

We took the kids to the fair Thursday evening and they had so much fun. When we walked in to the fairgrounds we made the mistake of going through the entrance were the kiddie rides were (BIG MISTAKE), our goal was to go get something to eat, walk through the barns, and then end with the rides. We were able to talk the kids into quickly letting us get something to eat, but the barns were out of the question. They tried to wait patiently, but the nice thing about the fair and living in a small town is you get to see EVERYONE, which Jer and I love, but the kids didn't care for it because it was cutting into their precious ride time. After we grabbed something to eat, I love fair it 's okay to eat dessert all day. The kids started the fair ride adventure with the fun house, it's the one with the bridges and long slide, and that about wraps it up!! No I am not forgetting anything, they did this almost the whole time we were there, I would say they went through it at least 40 times (I am not exaggerating).

Than Friday we were going to take a break from the fair and I was going to go with my mom and Audrey to the rodeo. Well, the boys talked their dad into taking them again to ride rides, at least this time we got to see the barns. Audrey was a mess at the rodeo, I am not sure what my mom and I were thinking when we decided to take the most nosey girl (Audrey) to sit in the stands. She made it to the Miss Rodeo Washington crowning and then it was time to go. She then walked through the barns with the boys and LOVED it.

The next day was the Parade, and we made it through the whole thing, which surprised me, but catching candy was a cool thing.

Over the week we made some new friends, some friends of some friends needed somewhere for their kids to go for a few days while they competed in the rodeo, I just happened to have some room. They were good kids and Braiden and Trevor love them. Braiden had a hard time when they first came because the little girls name was Josie, and that is his cousins name, so we had to have a talk about people sometimes having the same name, after he could grasp this concept he loved her and became her little shadow (I don't think she loved it as much as he did). And Trevor found a partner in crime, Gator (Calagator, as Trev called him), they both are second children that have a lot of ideas, lets leave it at that. They were great kids and we had a lot of fun together, we can't wait to see them again.

The last of our labor day was Jer and I going to the Rodeo on Monday and then he helped tear down the BBQ beef booth for the church. That about wraps up our weekend, we had a ton of fun but I am not sad it is over, we (me) am looking forward to some down time. Oh, but wait school starts soon..............

Three....

Trevor's Birthday was last wed. and we had a lot of fun, Braiden went to Aunt Tana's for the day so it was just me, Trev, and Audrey. We spent the day doing what ever Trevor wanted, it was nice to only have to cater to one kids wants and desires, and he was so good. We had a low key party, because the next day we were taking the kids to the fair so we didn't want him to be going going going from Wednesday through Monday. It was fun, loud, and crazy we did cake, ice cream and a pinata. It is so hard to believe he is three.

A Love Letter to Tricky Trev....

*We wrote this on Trevor's Birthday (August 27th) I just hadn't had a chance to post it*

Trevor,
Today you are 3 years old, and we are so blessed to have you. Words can not come close to describe the love your dad and I have for you. You are a precocious little boy that loves life and gets into everything. We lovingly call you our leprechaun because that is what you remind us of with all your practical jokes and the way you can read people in order to do something to irritate them to the fullest. You are demanding and LOUD and yet you smile with those dimples and talk with those beautiful brown eyes and seem to wiggle your way into peoples hearts. We have had a lot of scares the last 3 years with high fevers, near drownings, and lots of Doctor visits and a brief hospital stay for surgery. You live your life challenging your boundaries and although it is frustrating at times we would never want to change you. You amaze us daily, with your protection of your family, your wit, and determination. Thank you for being you and we look forward to seeing the boy, teen, man that you will become.
Love,
Mom & Dad

Once upon a time this was you.

So Cute...

I just took these last week, I thought they were cute so I had to share!

NO Training Wheels.....

Braiden decided that he was going to ride his bike without training wheels and he did just that! When he informed us that he was ready to ride his bike like a big boy (this is kind of my doing, because he was asking me one day for a motorcycle and I told him that he could maybe have one when he learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels, I thought I at least had another year to wiggle out of this), we took his old bike and took the training wheels off. The thought was that if he fell from his big bike he might not want to try again so a shorter distance to fall would be less discouraging and scary, and he did GREAT, he even worked himself into riding Kyles big boy bike. Jeremy was right there to catch him but soon Braiden didn't want him to even be close because he could do it himself. Jeremy and I are so proud of him, he set his mind to something and he did it. We had a mini party afterwords, by going out for ice cream and he called as many people as he could to tell them he was a BIG boy. Because Trevor has now seen his brother ride on two wheels he thinks that maybe he needs to as well, and when we were at the middle school practicing Trev decided flat pavement wouldn't be as much fun as going down the wheelchair access ramps and off stairs, can you say all boy and NO self preservation. The top pics are of his first time on a 2 wheeled bike and the bottom are from the last time we went. He has become quite the professional!

Animals on Parade.....

Feeding the birds.
Poor Aunt Tana's back, she was such a good sport!
Brilee and my kids are a little heavier than Tana's!

Feeding the giraffes

Do the kids still have to obey the signs if they can't read?

We took the kids to the Zoo!! How fun, right? Why yes it was, for the kids, it was a little stressful for the adults. Let me paint you a picture, 7 kids ages 6, 4, 4, almost 3, 2, 1 and 3 months with 4 adults to watch them. We thought that because we were going before school started and on a weekday it wouldn't be vary busy, WRONG. It was vary busy, we didn't take into consideration that every day camp in the Seattle area would decide that this would be the day they will take a field trip to the zoo. All in all the kids had a great time, we only lost a child for a moment, and besides the few grays we now have to get touched up, it was fun. It might be a while before any of us brave this again, and when we do I have decided we are going to get the most fluorescent, obnoxious matching shirts to put on all of our kids.