Road Trip

This past Saturday I had a great idea (or momentarily lost my mind) that the duo and I would go on a little road trip to see my friend Victoria. I haven't seen her and her hubby's house, they're expecting their first baby this fall and I wanted to see the babies room she's putting together. And it would be a good excuse to get a chance to just hang out. This is their first time out of town. I have to admit, I've been a little nervous about taking them very far from where I know their doctors and the ER at Children's are...but I have to get over it eventually. (I'm trying!) :)

 Saturday after lunch I threw the duo in the car and headed to Merrill, IA. It's only a couple hour drive to get there. They did really well for all the driving, I was so impressed. I think we wore Victoria out but we all had a great time!

There are 3 playgrounds within just a couple blocks of Dan & Victoria's house. And you better believe that once they found out there were places with slides and swings, they were ready to hit them all.

 First time on a trapeze bar!

 Yes the giant tractor tires are partially buried, and yes they are still bigger than him.

 A lot of encouragement, practice and hand holding but we made it across the bridge a few times.

 

 After the parks, we went into LeMars to find dinner. After dinner was a trip to the Blue Bunny ice cream parlor. Payton had to have her standard "pink" ice cream.

 Parker, who doesn't eat ice cream, opted for the Blue Bunny cookie.

 They both thought the giant ice cream sundae in front was great. And the little ice cream cones across the street were pretty cool too.

Do you know how fun it is when your visiting someone and they have the keys to the fire house? You get to run around, climb on trucks, try on the gear, and do it all barefoot when no one else is there. It took a little convincing that the trucks weren't going to make any noise but they finally believed us.

We drove home Sunday morning. By the time we were home, it was sunny, getting sticky and we had a little "I've been stuck in the car for 2 hours" energy to burn. Some of our best energy burn comes from the park and the splash pad. 

Thanks Victoria (and Dan & Scout) for letting us crash your Saturday. We'll be back! :)

Farmer's Market

Yesterday evening after we took our baths (not so smart on my part, but they smelled good for everyone else) we went downtown to the Farmer's Market. I knew that they started doing one on Thursday evenings too, but had never checked it out yet. It was very nice. We took snacks, they goofed around and got some glances from people who don't know how squirrley they are really.

A family friend was singing down there so the babies got to see Bob playing guitar - "Mom, Bob Bob come to my house and sing?"

And Aunt Bunny was down there and they got to see her for a little while...which they LOVED. They have seriously not stopped talking about Aunt Bunny since (apparently I need to arrange some play time soon).

If you have some spare happy thoughts next week, we'd gladly take them...it's gonna be a long week. Parker has a physical on Monday, we have an afternoon of developmental and behavioral appointments Tuesday, and next Friday is Parker's latest upper scope and biopsies (#3 if anyone is counting).

Glow Run

We had another major first this weekend...the twins' first 5k.

Before they came along, I used to race alot. It's been pretty few and far between since then. A group of my coworkers had a team and we decided to gove it a whirl. MaMaw came, and we met a few coworkers at dusk by the river for the start. The jogger and twins were wrapped in glow sticks. We got lots of grins from various people walking by (and a few passing comments I overheard about how I was crazy for doing it with them).

They did amazing. Not one peep. they were quite fascinated by the crowd, the costumes, the music, all the glow sticks. It made for a late night for them, but we had a great time!

Wands, wrapped every inch in glow sticks, hoodies and jackets since it was a little chilly by the water...all ready to roll.

Not the best picture...but somewhere in the mess are a couple of little people that finally gave it up and went to bed after the race.

Nothing says "good race" like topping it off the next morning with a special treat...chocolate donuts.

 

Car Wash!

The twins have a new job - car washing! We've washed mom, dad, and MaMaw's cars in the past week or so. And not just wash, but waxed, windows, interior, the whole works. Of course, once the water is turned off they do seem to loose a little interest. But they do love to be reminded they can pick out rags and help rub in the stuff I'm spraying in the cars.

As a reward for all their help with these car washes, we've been spending some major time at the splash pad.

 Since the heat wave finally broke, we've been  making our treks down to the park and splash pad by having them ride in the jogger and me pushing them. They love it and are so well behaved when they ride in it, and it gets me up and moving. And sometimes I get lucky and by the time we get home in the evenings it  looks like this...

Olympic Fever

A few weeks ago when the Olympic swim trials were in Omaha, the twins watched it every night on t.v. After about 2 days, they started asking to watch 'the swimming'. Now that the Olympics are on, we're all totally hooked. And they still have a special liking for the swimming. We're a little bummed that the swimming is over now. We watched it every night. But they have found an easy replacement.

They already loved the song "Call Me Maybe". L-O-V-E-D. Now they will sit for half hour at a time watching the Olympic Swim Team's version of the song. We found it on YouTube and they can't get enough. They copy some of the moves, yell "wwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeee" when they go down the water slide and love to inform me that "they be funny mommy".  
                                                                               

If you haven't seen it, you should definitely check it out - Call Me Maybe Olympic Swim Team 2012.

It never hurt...

at the end of a week that ended up feeling and being so much longer than I had originally thought it would be, to make a pit stop on the way home to see Aunt Bo and Aunt Toni for a special treat - cheeseburger, french fries, ice cream and a little root beer. Happy weekend!