Arizona family visit

My brother and his family came for a visit in the middle of July. Both Ian and Hannah celebrated their birthdays while they were here. There was lots of playing and lots of time spent at Monkey Joe's. Ellie and Max loved having their cousins around. Max followed Ian everywhere he went. I don't think Ian was as excited to have a mini-me as Max was to have a big boy to play with. It's always nice to get to visit with family, and we don't get to see them nearly often enough.

Lake of the Ozarks Week

We had lots of fun at the Lake this year. We of course spent some time at Miner Mike's. Max was big enough to play in the climbing jungle gym and in the balls, though he was little small for the roller coaster. All the kids loved the games and the cheap toys they got when they redeemed their tickets. What a racket that is.

Jason celebrated his birthday (#32...shhhh, don't tell). He got to be the chef for the evening and make his tasty sliders. His celebration was a little late though because we had a wine and cheese tasting event. Some of the ladies had a really good time...just ask them.

We played putt-putt at Pirate's Cove...the best mini golf course at the Lake, in our opinion. Ellie even got to play a round this year for the first time, and she had a great time.

But the highlight of the week was the birth of baby Cole. He was a few days early, but when he was ready, there was no stopping him. Valerie started having contractions, so she, Bryan, and Sue headed up to Columbia. They barely made it to the hospital before Cole was ready to make his debut. Then Mom, Dad, and baby came back down to the Lake the next day!!! Valerie is a wonderwoman.

Freed Cup 2010

The theme for the Freed Cup 2010 was tacky golf, so everyone turned out in their finest. We got quite a few looks walking through the clubhouse. As you can see from the pictures above, some people were a little tackier than others, but everyone had a good time.

We played the dreaded Spongebob Squarepants ball challenge this year. Each team had a Spongebob ball that had to be played on every other hole, and had to be played alternating shots by the couple. On the first hole, I hit first and put a good ball out into the fairway, which then allowed Jason to swing hard. Unfortunately, he was swinging hard with Spongebob (he was the brave one to hit it off the first tee), and it went straight into the woods. We were the last couple to tee off so we were able to spend a little extra time searching for Spongebob in the woods, but with no luck. What is so dreaded about Spongebob is that you have to take a penalty stroke for each hole that you don't play Spongebob, which meant we were starting the round 9 over...that's tough to come back from. On the positive side, it took the pressure off having to deal with Spongebob the whole round.

Most of the teams ended up losing Spongebob sometime during the round, though most lost him much later than we did. We knew we were pretty much out of contention for the trophy this year from the get go, so we just took it easy and had fun. We still ended up tied for second place, and actually played fairly well (minus the Spongebob incident).

The Freed Cup 2010 went to Kristin and Billy (tyed-dyed outfits). Congratulations!!! It was a smart move dating and getting engaged to a good golfer, Kristin. We're going to have to step up our game in the future if we hope to win back the trophy from the soon-to-be Gossetts.

Freed Retreat 2010 - Condensed Version

This year the Freed Retreat was shortened to just a one day event. We met at a park in Cape Girardeau and planned a day of fun activities. We once again had a great turnout and got to visit with about 60 extended family members. Aunt Pam brought lots of fun stuff for the kids. They had water balloon tosses and bubbles, and played in the kiddie pool and on the playground equipment. We ate a lot and visited a lot. It was a nice, enjoyable day.

Magic House Fun

Bryan and Valerie went to Chicago to celebrate their anniversary, so Kameron and Paige spent the weekend with Papa and Mamaw. We all went to the Magic House on Saturday and had a great time. It has probably been 20 years since I've been to the Magic House, so everything was different.

There were tons of fun places to explore and puzzles to figure out. Jason and Max did the electricity ball, but Ellie wanted none of that. She tried most other activities, but repeatedly told us she didn't want to touch the ball that would make her hair stand up.

They played hard and crashed hard afterwards. I don't think we'll wait another 20 years to return.

Eat More Chicken

Have I ever said how much we love Chick-fil-A? If you know my daughter, you're not surprised to hear that one of her favorite restaurants is one that serves only chicken. And their chicken sandwiches are so yummy, but we love it for so many other reasons...

1. The restaurant is always clean!
2. The employees are efficient, friendly and helpful.
3. The provide bendy straws for the kids, plastic stick down place mats (for feeding babies right off the table), free bowls of Cheerios for the little ones, fun and educational kids' meal toys, and Purell wipes throughout the restaurant including right outside the playland.

What could make us like Chick-fil-A even more, you ask? Well, this morning we received an email to let us know that Belle from Beauty & the Beast (from the Muny production starting next week) would be at our local Chick-fil-A tonight to visit and make crafts with the kids and sign autographs. Wow! What a treat for a soon to be 4-year-old that loves Disney princesses.

We headed there for dinner, and surprisingly, got a parking space and a table right away. Ellie, however, has developed a bit of fear around dressed up characters. She liked to look at Belle from afar, but wasn't too crazy about going up and taking a picture with her, which is why we don't have a very good shot of Belle. It was pretty fun though, and Ellie has been talking about it non-stop. Yay for Chick-fil-A!

Country Days 2010

We headed down to Farmington for another weekend of Country Days. The kids always have a great time. We met up with the Felkers and watched the parade. Ellie has developed a bit of a fear of dressed up characters, so she was constantly getting up from her chair and hiding behind me whenever a clown or princess came near.

After the parade, Gran took a sleepy Max back to the house and we took Ellie down to ride some rides. She's getting big enough now that she wants to try some of the bigger kid rides. She and Jason rode this spinning ride, but they didn't spin too much (so Jason wouldn't get sick), and Ellie loved it.

The giant slide is always a hit and a must do each year.

Ellie rode the boat merry-go-round and the car merry-go-round. This might be the last year Ellie enjoys these rides, but I think they'll be perfect for Max next year.

But Ellie's absolute favorite part was the pony rides. She kept talking about it afterwards and telling us how much fun it was.

After we finished at Country Days, we headed back to Gran and Popi's for lunch and to cool down. Luckily we planned ahead and brought bathing suits for the kids, so they had a good time playing in the sprinkler.

Gran saves Max from the cold water.

Max got a cold blast of water and wasn't too sure if he liked it.

The kids also played in the playhouse. What kid doesn't love a playhouse?!

B-day waterslide party

We headed to Columbia on Memorial Day weekend to celebrate Kameron's (our nephew) 6th birthday. It was a warm, sunny day so the water play that was scheduled was anxiously awaited.

My cute, little guy hanging out in the calm backyard, before all of Kameron's classmates arrived.

Ellie and Paige played a little dress-up before they put on their swimsuits. What a goofball!!

Kameron blowing out the candles. Mmmm, doesn't that cake look yummy. I'd like a piece now. I think I need to steal a page from Valerie's playbook, because she always springs for a regular cake and a DQ ice cream cake, and they are both soooo good! Max even got angry with me when his slice of ice cream cake was gone.

The huge, amazing inflatable water slide! It was so cool, and made me wish I had brought my bathing suit. The big, red bucket at the top would tip over and spill its contents on the unsuspecting climbers coming up the middle, then there were slides down both sides.

There were tons of water balloons, and the party favors were these great, water squirters that Ellie is modeling below. Ellie wasn't that big of a fan of the slide (she's my cautious child, and being 2 years younger and a bit smaller than the other 15 kids running around made her even more so), but she loved the water squirters.
And if Ellie is my cautious child, Max is my fearless child. He loved the water slide. He got to spend a couple minutes on the slide and in the pool at the bottom of the slide by himself while the big kids finished their cake. His little face would light up when someone helped him go down the slide.
Ellie, Paige, and a couple other friends found refuge together in the kiddie pool. The pool was just big enough to keep them cool and let them fill their water squirters without being splashed by the crazy kids on the waterslide.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetie!

Jason and I celebrated 10 years of marriage with a trip to San Diego. Jason was out there all week for business, so I flew out on Friday and we spent a long weekend together. This was our first time to be away from the kids for more than one night...the kids have spent the night with grandparents, but we were always just a phone call away if needed. So this trip was a big deal for us and brought a little parental guilt as it was being planned.

We did all the normal touristy things....trolley tours around the city, duck tour into the ocean (where we saw the sea lions), a day trip to Coronado island, and a short trip to Torrey Pines. We had big plans for Coronado, with Sunday brunch at the Hotel del Coronado and thoughts to rent bikes and play on the beach in the afternoon. Unfortunately, it was freezing, so we had to go shopping instead....oh darn. Jason was excited to visit Torrey Pines, though he said it wasn't as cool as Pebble Beach. I know he would have loved to have played the course, but with such a short trip, I couldn't justify the pain of having to lug clubs all the way there. So, we'll just have to go back another time.

We relaxed and ate, and as Jason said, did our part to support the struggling economy. We were a little bummed at the timing of the trip because the Cardinals were coming to town for a series on the day we flew home. But it was a nice little vacation, and tons of fun to spend time just as a couple.

Here's to another 50 years, Honey!