New Beds and Sleepy Heads

Everett has a new bed!! This past week I purchased a bed off of Craigslist and today Everett and I put it together. First we had to take down the crib, and move it into the nursery, then we went to work to set up his new bed. He was very excited and very happy to help. When we were all done he couldn't wait to show Derrick and Ethan, they were at Ethan's t-ball game, so we had to wait for them to come home. As soon as they walked in the door Everett rushed into his bedroom to show them.

At bedtime tonight I couldn't resist taking his picture. He was so excited I didn't know if we would ever get him to sleep, but he sweetly snuggled into his new bed and before long he was out.


Derrick went in to check on him after he had been asleep a while, and this is what we found...

  

Two tired boys! :)  I thought I was going to wake them up I was laughing so hard at the way Ethan was sleeping... I mean... who sleeps like that? 


Before I headed to bed I went in to check on Everett once more, and he was sleeping so sweetly in his little bed I took one last picture.

Camping at Backbone State Park

This past weekend we went camping with my extended family at Backbone State Park near Strawberry Point, Iowa.  It was a great weekend and thankfully wasn't too hot outside.  We had a lot of fun hanging out with extended family and the boys had fun playing outside all weekend, cooking on the fire, and of course, roasting marshmallows! 

We left Des Moines on Friday afternoon and drove the 3 hours to get to Backbone.  The kids were very excited and when we arrived, couldn't wait to run around and play with their favorite doggie family member, Abe. 

Derrick and I decided, since I am 8 months pregnant, that we would go the easy route and stay at a small Bed & Breakfast near the park.  As it turned out, it was less than 5 minutes up the road from where the rest of the family was camping, so it worked out great.  It was called, Aunt B's Inn, and was more of a converted roadside motel than your typical bed & breakfast, but it was quaint, clean, and fit the 4 of us nicely.  We stayed in the Iris room.  It was decorated with flower wallpaper, flower bedspread and had a lace canopy bed with another queen bed for the boys.  I spoke with the owner over the phone before we arrived and told her our situation and asked about her facility.  When I arrived she knew me by name (I guess she didn't have any other 8 month pregnant women staying there that weekend) and was very friendly.  I really would stay there again, and I am not a fan of motels.

Gary and Cheri had their camper, as did Craig and Kevin.  The first night we hung out and cooked brats over the fire, and just enjoyed visiting with each other.  It was a beautiful evening for sitting by the fire under the stars.

The next morning, all the guys went out fishing and Ethan went along.  Everett and I slept in and then joined Cheri and Toni at the campground.  Later on, Alan arrived, and after lunch we all spent time fishing, hiking, geocaching, enjoyed a big dinner together, and stayed up late to roast marshmallows and visit by the fire. 

Uncle Kevin gave the kids some cool flashlight/glow stick/whistle things and the kids went crazy running around with them in the dark.  They were the coolest things I had ever seen and a must have for camping!  Thanks Uncle Kevin! :)

Everett, sitting in his new camping chair!

Everett and Uncle Alan

Ethan and Uncle Gary, inspecting the morning catch.

Hello Mr. Fish!

Everett couldn't figure out how the string was in the mouth of the fish.

Fish face.

Another fish face.

Uncle Gary went to gather supplies to clean the fish.  Everett made sure they didn't hop away!

Silly face!

Happy camper!

Derrick and Ethan played Frisbee and Everett joined in the fun.

Daddy helped some.

Doesn't look like any fun at all, huh?

Everett needed a nap so we decided to drive and do some geocaching.

Do you see the geocache?  It was a micro cache and hard to find.

Excuse the dirty fingernails, but this shows how small it actually was.
That is the log all rolled up inside the tiny cache.

Ethan and Derrick finding the second cache.  This one wasn't as small.

We even found a friend along the way.

Before fishing, we decided to take a hike to see a waterfall. 
We had to go through a Boyscout Campground to get there.

This was along the back side of the camp. 
It reads: On my honor, I will do my best, to do my duty to God and my country and
to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake and morally straight.

The water fall was a nice treat.  It was so peaceful there.

Fishermen

Ethan and Derrick had a few bites, but didn't catch any trout this time.

Uncle Gary and Abe, fishing.  Abe is a great fisherdog.

"Let me help you little brother."

For as far along as I am in my pregnancy, it was a pretty enjoyable short vacation. I am glad we had the opportunity to go. 

Hidden Treasure

Today was a beautiful day!  This afternoon I decided to introduce Ethan to Geocaching, a treasure hunt game played by people all over the world by searching for hidden 'caches' with a GPS device or GPS enabled phone.  I have GPS possibilities on my cell phone, so I downloaded an app that made it easy to type in coordinates and lead us to the cache.  You have to know basic directions, north, south, east and west... so you can make sure the compass is pointed in the correct direction, but other than that, it is as simple as hide-and-seek!

Before we went, we drew a paper map to show where the caches were hidden, from viewing it from our online membership at geocaching.com, plugged the coordinates into my phone, and went on the hunt.  With Ethan on his bike, Everett in the stroller and my prego body pushing from behind... we went out to see if we could find some of the hidden treasures at our local Copper Creek Lake. 

The lake was busy with walkers, joggers, strollers, dogs, bikes, which made it hard for us to focus a lot on our hunt, but after smiling back at a lot of strange looks, Ethan found his first cache!  It was called "Happy Trails" and in addition to the log that you are supposed to sign when you find the cache, it had a golf tee, golf ball, pencil, and some sort of necklace/charm thing that I had never seen before.

We had gathered a few items in a bucket, so that we could exchange our item for one that was in the cache if there happened to be something there, so as soon as Ethan realized there was a golf ball in the cache, he decided to swap it out with the golf ball he brought along.  So we left a golf ball and took a golf ball.  :)

I snapped a few pictures and Ethan replaced the cache back where he found it.  You can only imagine how proud he was that he found it all by himself, and instantly, he became a geocaching addict!

There were 4 or 5 others hidden around the lake, but we were unsuccessful in finding the next two that we looked for, so, since we were by the playground, and dinner time was approaching, we decided to play and then eat, and will return to search at a later time. 

Ethan was so into searching for the treasures, that when I told him we were going to go play, he said "No Mom... we need to find all the treasures... I don't want to play on the playground!".  Yep... I would say he's hooked!

Searching for the treasure

Ev tagging along

Ooops... not over here!

FOUND IT!!

Treasure contents

Replacing the cache exactly the way we found it.

Can you see it?

Searching for cache #2... "Did You Know" - we didn't find this one

Having fun swinging!

We will be back!

Finding Fun in a Fort

This morning, after my shower, the dining room had been transformed into a fort.  Notice the faces of the guilty... Ethan is a little unsure about my reaction... Everett, on the other hand... well... he's just Everett! 

Guilty faces.





Ev is working on his math facts!

Fun is over... time to clean up!