We took our yearly Cloud 9 trip about 2 weeks ago. As always, we had a blast. The kids can be kids, get dirty, and play in the creek and I don’t care!

Thursday morning – going to check out the creek! Sam had his bandage on his fingers from his little burn incident. I tried to keep the dressing dry, by putting a latex glove around his hand. It didn’t work…I finally took it off. Literally 3 minutes after we were at the creek for the first time, and the glove was off, Sam got tripped up in the water and put his hands down to brace himself. Of course his dressing got wet! So we just changed his dressing after each trip to the creek, pool, bathtime, and before bedtime. It got reallllllllllly old changing it so often!

Later that day, we hopped on the Ranger with Darla and Gary and went to check out one of the caves. Brad and I have been to it before, but it was Carter & Sam’s first time. The boys enjoyed Uncle Gary turning over the rocks and watching the salamanders scatter away. Brad even found a bat sleeping when he walked further back into the cave.

Some of the pool time fun:

The kids LOVE the 4-wheelers and the Ranger. Going for rides around the ranch is a big hit with them and there were many arguments about which kid was going to drive (Carter, Owen, Sam).

Owen spent 2 nights with us while we were there so Karen and Karl could get some painting done in the their house. We had fun with him, and for the most part he and Carter got along

More fun at the creek…we spent most days hanging out there. The adults would put their chairs in the water and the kids would throw rocks and play in the water. We would take coolers and snacks and spend hours at a time down there! Good times!

Brad caught a small crawdad one morning the 4 of us went to the creek. Carter would touch it, but wanted nothing to do with holding it. Of course Sam thought it was cool, and held it no problem!

Little group shot:

Last, but not least, is sweet little baby Noah. He was born 5 weeks early and is absolutely adorable (and healthy!).  He was almost 4 weeks old here, and still smaller than both of my kids when they were born!

Yesterday, Sam and I went to Glen Carbon to visit with Sarah and her kids (Alayna, Logan & Luke). When we got there, we decided we’d take the kids to an orchard nearby and pick some peaches. It seemed like a great idea…by the time we were done, everyone was sweaty, and the three 1-year olds wanted to be held. We had a fun time though and it was my first time picking peaches! I made a delicious peach cobbler last night with our peaches!

Miss Alayna helping to pull the wagon:

Logan and Luke riding on the wagon. This was going great until Luke did a slow motion fall off the wagon. He landed head first into the box we had for our peaches!

Sam and Logan running for the peach trees:

Sam ready to get some peaches:

Luke and Sam trying to reach the peaches:

I had 2 other pictures on the camera…

Vader sleeping with Nora:

Sam laying on the couch with Vader:

We decided to get Chloe a playmate and adopted an 8-week kitten that we named Vader. He’s black with white feet, a little white on his face, and white whiskers. He’s super adorable! The kids LOVE him. They carry him around everywhere and he just hangs on!

Carter finally got to play with his birthday toys, after spending a week at Cloud 9 with his Great-Aunt Darla and Great-Grandma.

Samboni Macaroni is getting over roseola. It sort of came out of nowhere…he ran a temp of 101 Sunday afternoon and by late Monday morning I noticed the rash starting – it started on his face and then progressed to his abdomen, back, and legs. He still has the rash, but it’s barely noticeable on his face now. It’s mostly still on his thighs. I tried to take a picture of it, but it didn’t turn out too good:

Today we went to Chuck E Cheese with Sheri and Brea. It’s getting to keep these kids entertained and not driving each other nuts with this hot weather this summer. We had a great time hanging out with them and playing games today!

Carter Wayne turned 4 on Saturday. I’m pretty sure it was the hottest day of the year to have his party. I just keep reminding myself that at least it didn’t rain!

I told him Happy Birthday that morning when he woke up. About a half hour later when we were getting ready to eat breakfast, he asked if his birthday was tomorrow. I told him, No – it’s today! He told me he wouldn’t be 4 until he had his cake. And then later that morning he asked me how much longer until he turned 5…

We sang Happy Birthday to him and let him blow out candles on his donut for breakfast that morning. In case you’re wondering, he’s taken a liking to sleeping in his undies…

The kids playing in the yard and pool:

Time for presents!

Singing Happy Birthday and blowing out his candles:

After most of everyone left, we moved inside and he got to play with some of his new stuff with Dinah and Paul:

Then we moved outside and Carter gave rides on his Hummer. Dinah also broke in Carter’s bike and showed him how to pedal it:

Happy Birthday Carter – I love you!!!

2 from the Zoo and 2 from the Shipman Picnic