Summer Vacation - Part 3 {Hilton Head with the Shaws}

We finally made it to Hilton Head late Saturday afternoon.  Our friends, Kama and Jim, were already there with their kids, Gabe and Addy.  It was late enough when we arrived, that we didn't have time to get on the beach.  We were more focused on getting the car unpacked, the boys fed, and then down for the night.  But first thing Sunday, we all hit the beach!

Four kids under the age of 3, plus 4 adults, in a 2 bedroom condo for a week.  Should make for an interesting (& fun-filled) week!

Hitting the beach!

Boone wasn't happy the first time he got knocked down.

But it didn't take him long to get over it.  Pretty soon he was loving it!

Fenn had fun running, playing with his trucks and sand buckets, and playing with the baseball bat and balls.

Mommy and Boone.

Boone really seemed to like playing in the water.

A cute one of Fenn and Boone.

And a cute one of Fenn, Boone, and Gabe playing together.

'Sand' Pipers on the beach.

Summer Vacation - Part 2 cont'd {Hanging Out}

We had a little more playtime before heading over to Hilton Head.  The boys had a ball playing football keepaway with Uncle Todd.

Boone was fascinated by Sarge and Deuce.  They're a little more playful than Petey.  Of course, they're a good bit younger than Petey, too.

Here's another cute photo of Fenn on the tractor with his Uncle Todd.

And I couldn't leave out these 2 photos:

Here's Sarge.

And here's Deuce.

We had a great time with Uncle Todd, Aunt Angie, Seth, and all the horses and dogs.  We didn't get to see Jesse this time, and he was certainly missed.  It was a short trip and we hated to have to combine it with our beach trip.  But at this point in our lives, while it is such an ordeal to pack for two little ones, you have to make the most of your long trips.  As the boys get older, and the amount of gear required to travel with them gets smaller, then we hope to be able to go for an extended visit to the farm and not have to combine it with another trip.  I'm thinking it would be nice to go in the fall when it cools off a little.  That's good horseback riding weather!  Anyway, thank you Todd and Angie for having us.  Even though it was a short trip, we treasure the time we got to spend with you.  The boys will have such fond memories of visiting you over the years.  Oh, and after our trip was over we asked Fenn what was his favorite thing to do:  play on the beach or ride horses.  And he said, "Ride horses."

Summer Vacation - Part 2 {Horses and Tractors}

It's Saturday at White Horse Ranch and we have a busy day planned before heading over to Hilton Head for the rest of our vacation.  I'm going to keep this short and let the pictures tell most of the story.
{Love Fenn's expression in this photo.  He looks like a true cowpoke.} 

Right after breakfast, Uncle Todd and Seth saddled up the horses for the boys to ride.  This was Boone's very first time on a horse.  {Fenn let him borrow his cowboy hat.}  He loved it from the start and was a natural in the saddle.  He kept himself up there... I just kept my hand on his foot, just in case, as I walked along beside him.

And like Fenn was last year, Boone didn't want to get off... no matter how tired he was getting.

This was Fenn's 2nd time to ride horses.  He got to ride when we visited Todd and Angie last summer, but Boone was only 4 months old and not quite ready to get on a horse yet.  Fenn loved it just as much as he did last year.  And this year, he was ready with his cowboy hat and cowboy boots he got from his Uncle Todd and Aunt Angie.

Fenn wanted mommy and daddy to ride with them for a little while.

Riding horses makes a cowboy hungry and tired.  So the boys ate a quick lunch and then went down for a nap.  After naps, it was time to do some farm work and ride the tractor with Uncle Todd.  They helped him work on the new arena area for the horses.

This post is getting really big, so I think I'll stop here and do another post to finish off the day.  But here's Uncle Todd and Boone riding off into the sunset on the tractor... with Sarge pulling up the rear.

Summer Vacation - Part 1 {arriving at White Horse Ranch}

Our vacation is finally here!  We had originally planned to go in May or June, but it just didn't happen.  And we had planned to go somewhere for an entire week (for the first time as a family), but started thinking it wouldn't be possible this year because things are tight these days.  But things changed when we found out the uncle of my good friend, Kama, was willing to let us use one of his condos in Hilton Head for an entire week for the low, low cost of just the clean-up fee.  The only stipulation is that we had to go after the busy season.  So even though we had to wait until the end of the summer for our beach vacation, it was totally worth it because we got to vacation with our very good friends, Jim and Kama, and their precious little boy, Gabe, and baby girl, Addy.  And vacationing with other people makes it even more fun!

We left a day early (on Friday) so we could stop in Rincon, GA and visit my brother before continuing on to Hilton Head on Saturday afternoon.  We got on the road about an hour or so later than we had planned, but we've come to expect that whenever we go on a trip.  Heading east on I-75, we soon hit the curvy trip through the mountains.  And because we can't seem to go on a trip without someone throwing up, Boone decided to throw up immediately AFTER we passed the entrance to a rest area.  So we pulled over at the end of the exit ramp coming out of the rest area and got him cleaned up.  And in a not-so-smart move on my part, I had packed back-up clothes for Fenn (in case he had a potty accident), but had neglected to pack back-up clothes for Boone.  All of our other clothes were in the rooftop carrier and not so easy to get to.  So I put one of Fenn's t-shirts and shorts on Boone.  Luckily, Boone is starting to catch up to Fenn in size.

The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful.  We had packed peanut butter and honey sandwiches and lots of snacks with plans to stop at a rest area for lunch.  That way, the boys would have plenty of grassy areas to run around and stretch their legs.  Fenn got to pet a cat on a leash, and we discovered Boone loves trucks and that he can actually say "truck".  It actually comes out more like "dwuck!".

While at the rest area, I told Fenn he needed to go potty.  He said he wanted to do it on the grass.  I tried to tell him he really needed to go inside and use the big boy potty, but he was insistent on doing it outside.  So then we started looking for a bush or something he could get behind for a little privacy.  Nope... that wasn't working for him.  He walked out into the middle of a grassy area and said, "I wanna pee pee on da gwass right here."  So that's what he did.... for everyone to see.  Pants down around his ankles, white butt shining, and stream of pee shooting straight out.  Oh, and a big smile on his face.  I looked over at the nice older couple (who had the cat) eating lunch and said, "I'm sorry."  They said, "You've gotta do what you've gotta do."  A few minutes later, Fenn said he needed to poopy.  And once again, he didn't want to go inside to the bathroom.  So we got the potty seat out of the car.  I asked him if he wanted me to put it beside the car, but once again, he had other ideas.  He wanted it underneath one of the covered picnic table areas.  So he sat there, looking all around him at the people walking by, and poopied.  Needless to say, we got lots of smiles and giggles from people walking by.  But everyone seemed to have a look on their faces that said, "Don't worry... I totally understand."

We finally arrived at Todd and Angie's White Horse Ranch shortly after 6:00 p.m.  Fenn was so excited to finally see them... we've been singing 'Uncle Todd had a farm' (as opposed to Old McDonald had a farm) ever since our visit last summer.  And Boone did his usual "I'm shy" thing, hiding his face on my shoulder at first.  But he quickly warmed up and was ready to play.  Within a few minutes, the boys were riding on the trailer and going to help their cousin, Seth, feed the horses.  They both looked so cute carrying around the buckets of feed... like natural-born ranch hands.

After a yummy dinner of spaghetti, it was time to get the boys down for the night.  Tomorrow is going to be a busy day of riding horses and tractors and playing with Sarge and Deuce.  Stay tuned for more about our vacation!    

How do I love Fenn?... Let me Count the Ways.

I'm still running behind on doing blog posts.  This is yet another post I've been working on for a while now.  I'll jot down little things about Fenn on the chalkboard in the kitchen and then start a draft blog post that I work on a little at a time.  The writing part is not what's hard, it's going through pictures and figuring out which ones to include in the post.  I currently have thousands of photos of the boys.  For special occasions, like a trip to the zoo or a trip to see a relative, I may take hundreds of photos.  Then I have to go through all of them and try to delete the really bad ones or the ones that are basically duplicates of another.  Then I have to narrow the good ones down to my absolute favorites.  And if you look at my blog very often, you know I have a hard time narrowing my photos down because I typically have anywhere from 6 or more photos in a post.  I hate to see how long it's going to take me when I actually learn to edit my photos in Photoshop.

So anyway, I'm finally getting around to doing this post that is all about my precious Fenn.  He is so much fun right now and he surprises us every single day with something new he has learned, something funny he says, or something sweet that he does.  Yes, he's not perfect and is a typical 'almost' 3-year old.  But he truly is a special little boy and so, so smart.  Here are some of the reasons we love our Fenn...

.: He says, "Let's go on a 'pic-pik' at the pahk'."  {That's a 'picnic at the park'.}
.: He and his daddy have green bean races at dinnertime.  He really does like green beans, but he's going through a phase right now where he won't eat certain things, even things he says he likes.  So he and his daddy race to see who can finish a green bean first.  Fenn usually wins.
.: We also have this thing we do where we hold our hands together (with thumbs facing up) to form a 'shark' and do the Jaws thing {you know... "duhhhh DA, duhhhh DA, duhhh DA, duhhhh DA, duhn duhn duhn duhn duhn duhn duhn duhn..."}.  While we're doing that, we're moving our hands toward the boys and then tickling them.  They both laugh hysterically and love it.  And Fenn does it back to us, except his version comes out more like "daaa NO, daaaa NO, daaaa NO...".
.: His version of the blessing is "God is gwate, we are fed, tank da Lord, our day-yee bwed. Amen!"
* He says "gog" for 'dog'.  We have no idea why he does this because he can clearly say other words that start with a 'd'.
.: One day recently, we were playing baseball in the family room (with one of those plastic Little Tikes bat and ball sets) and I was pitching the ball to him.  When he missed, he said, "That's okay mommy, you can try again."  It's like he thinks it's up to me (and my pitching) to make sure the ball hits the bat.
.: He's going through a phase right now where he gives me silly faces when I tell him to smile for a photo.  Oh, and sometimes he tells me to put down my camera because he doesn't want me to take a picture of him.

.: When he sings his ABCs, he finishes up with "now I A-B-Cing wid me, next time won't you sing wid me".  Also, when he gets to 'L M N O P', he says "Elma Emmo P".  So cute!
.: He loves to sing.  He will sing along with the Little Einsteins intro song now and the other songs within the show.  Sometimes, he'll just start singing the songs even when he's not watching the show.
.: Speaking of his beloved Little Einsteins... he has started losing interest in them a little here lately.  Some new favorites are Timmy Time, Curious George, The Cat in the Hat Knows a lot About That, and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  He's starting to sing some of those theme songs, too.
.: And speaking of those new songs, he really likes the theme song for Timmy Time.  The show is all about this little lamb named Timmy and his adventures at school with his animal friends.  There are no words to the whole show, except for the theme song.  The animals all communicate with their various sounds... "Baaaa" for the lamb, "Meow" for the kitten, "Quack" for the duck, etc.  So, the theme song goes something like, "Timmy (baaaa), It's Timmy (baaaa), He's a little lamb with a lot to learn..."  Dan will start singing the old M.C. Hammer song, but instead of singing "it's Hammer time", he'll sing "it's Timmy time!".  And Fenn will say, "No daddy, that's not right."
.: He has started calling us 'Mom' and 'Dad' sometimes instead of mommy and daddy.
.: He refers to the kitchen as the 'kitchen room'... makes sense because other rooms are the bedROOM, the bathROOM, the family ROOM, and the dining ROOM.
.: Sometimes he likes to pick out his daddy's clothes.  And he has also started picking out his own clothes more often.  He definitely has more of an opinion about what he wears.  So if you see him in something that totally doesn't match, just know it's because I'm trying my best to let him be Fenn.
.: He is completely potty trained except for nighttime.  He has even had several nights where he hasn't peed in his diaper at all and waits until he wakes up to pee.
.: His first chore was to set the table.  He has actually sort of lost interest in it now.  But he does sometimes still want to help out in the kitchen.
.: One of his favorite things to say is, "Look at all the animals!" in reference to all of his stuffed animal friends.
.: He has stopped this now.  But for the longest, when he counted to 10, he would skip the numbers 4 and 6.
.: Right now, he is really into being polite and says "thank you", "you're welcome" and "please" on a regular basis.
.: He really loves Petey.  And Petey loves him, too.

.: He still loves to read and sometimes 'reads' the book himself.
.: One night in mid-September, he pulled out his "book of prayers", told us to close our eyes, flipped through the book until he found the one he wanted (which is his favorite at the moment), and 'read' it out loud.... "I see the moon and the moon sees me.  God less the moon and God less me."  {that's supposed to be God bless the moon and God bless me, but he leaves off the 'b'}
.: He has started memorizing a lot of sentences, phrases, and prayers from his books.
.: He recognizes a lot of his letters and can even associate them with people's names and/or objects.  B for Boone, M for Marley or Micah, W for Wes, T for Tyler, etc.  {Those are some of the kids in his class.}  He also recognizes all the letters for his name and can spell his name.  He says, "F E N N Fenn" as he points to the letters.

Another fun trip to the Zoo!

Dan had to work on Labor Day because this time of year is really busy for him.  The boys were going to be home with me all day and I didn't have anything special planned.  On Sunday night, my friend, Kathryn, texted me and invited us to join them at the zoo on Monday.  So that's what we did.  We met Kathryn and Ella Kate there, and also Amanda and her daughter, Claire.  Claire was also in Fenn's class at his old school.

Checking out a really big snake... and not at all scared.

Fenn, Ella Kate, and Claire.  I really love this picture!

Snack time!

Boone feeding a camel for the first time.

He thought it was funny to tease the poor camel!

Getting up-close and personal with a gorilla.  At first, he was sitting down the hill.  But when a small crowd started gathering at the window, he noticed everyone and walked up the hill.  At first, he turned his back on everyone and stuck out his butt.  Not sure of what that meant!  But then he walked right up to the glass and looked directly at the boys.

Fun at Pump It Up

Over the weekend, the boys went to our neighbor's birthday party at Pump It Up.  It was Miles' 5th birthday.  Basically, it was a couple of hours of fast-paced fun for the boys.  And I have to admit it was fun for mommy and daddy, too.  Oh, and did I say how tiring it is to climb up those things?  Especially if you're having to carry a 15-month old in one arm and hang on with the other arm!  Fenn had been to another party there before, but still started off going down the slides with his daddy.  It didn't take him long to start doing everything on his own, though.  And Boone was fearless and absolutely loved going down the slides with either me or Dan.  Here are a few pictures from the day.  {Sorry they're not necessarily in focus, but the lighting in there is horrible!  You can still see the joy on their faces.  And isn't that the point?}

First time down the slide.  Dan had to go down with both boys.

Do you think Boone enjoyed his first time down?

Fenn went down right behind Mr. Wayne (Miles' daddy).  I think he kind of crashed into him at the bottom. 

Then it was time for a big 'high five'.

And a couple more fun ones.

Oh, and one with mommy, since I'm hardly ever in any of the pictures.

Thanks, Miles, for inviting Fenn and Boone to your birthday party.  They had a blast!