Looking back in my phone....just a few pictures I never posted.....
Harlow walking the balance beam during gymnastics.
Mario and Luigi at Hudson's birthday party. These costumes were a very good purchase, well worth Grandma's money!
Doing what they love most, riding their four wheelers at Grandpa and Grandma's house.
And sister looking pretty at Grandpa and Grandma's house.
Unfortunately, this is Hudson. He is obsessed with costumes! Literally, he wears them nearly 24 hours a day! And he's especially in love with the scary and gross ones.
Such a sweet moment caught on camera.
Our one and only day at Flandrau this year.
I got his picture from daycare, of Harlow carrying her toy phone in her shirt. She learns this from me. I'm always putting my phone in my shirt when I don't have pockets or a purse. I loved this picture!
So....Hudson ran errands with Jamie and they had to get beer for his birthday party at the B&L. Hudson insisted on playing the claw game there, and he won big! An E.T. , some pink stuffed animal, and an Adult Video!!! Jamie told Hudson that it was a really scary movie so they weren't even going to open it, even though Hudson tried convincing him that he promised he wouldn't be scared, he just really wanted to see it. Gross!
Again, just because she's pretty.
Hudson asked me to take this picture and send it to Uncle Lon, because he loves to make stupid faces and he was sure Uncle Lon would appreciate this one.
Me and Pacman on a ride at Nickelodeon Universe.
Daddy was away so me and the boys baked tiny pink cookies in the Easy Bake Oven.
And one more, just because she's REALLY pretty! Like seriously, ugh, I melt.
It was the Annual Kids Fishing Contest last night and Jamie took the boys. Actually he took all three kids and I went to pick up Harlow after I got done with work. Us girls had better things to do, like eat! I've been told that Hudsy caught a fish, that Paxton was pretty crabby the whole time, and that all three of them won a prize (tackle boxes and a minnow bucket).
So while the boys fished, me and this girl went on a dinner date to Subway. When I told Jamie I wanted to take her out to eat, he looked at me like I was crazy and said, "You wanna go with just her?" Sure do! I love times like this with just one kid, and I so rarely do them with her. And let me tell you, she was a fun date!! Some snapchats.......
We spent last weekend up in the cities celebrating Hudson's birthday weekend courtesy of his godparents, Maddi and Zev. They've made it a birthday tradition to get him a weekend at Maddi's hotel and it has proved to be his favorite gift! And I let him make the final call of deciding to bring Harlow with or leave her home with Grandma, and he was quick to say "She's too wild so let's not take her." Good point buddy, and Harlow happily waved bye to us as we drove away, saying "See you later!".
On the way up Friday night we stopped at his favorite restaurant, Chili's. He can't get enough of their corn on the cob and blue slushy drink!
Last year Maddi decorated the hotel room and Hudson thought it was nothing short of amazing. He had been asking me if I thought she'd do that again......she did! Balloons and streamers and his very own jar of candy!
A video of him walking into the room. I love how he tries to hide his excited smile, and right away proclaims, "Yep, I got it. I got it again."
We spent the rest of the night and the next morning swimming and hot tubbing.
At Chipotle for lunch on Saturday, Hudson looked at my heaping bowl of deliciousness and said, "I dare you to eat all that!" Ha, dare met and accomplished easily! Probably not a good thing.
On the agenda for Saturday, Mall of America for Seal Life and Nickelodeon Universe (Family passes for both provided by Maddi and Zev!!! Waaaaaay too much, and waaaaay too sweet!!). Hudson was beyond excited and Pax is such a lucky brother getting to tag along.
Maddi and Zev met us for our day of fun. And since Jamie had never been on rides at Nickelodeon before, they even offered to take the boys for a bit to let Jamie and me go on some bigger rides. Of course while they were "babysitting for free" as Zevlen called it (with help from Logie and Patrick too!), Paxton was on the bumper cars and couldn't get his car to work and had a meltdown right there on the ride. But it wasn't anything a little cotton candy and pop couldn't cure.
This was our favorite ride, well at least it was mine. It was the boys' first "big" ride and I was a little nervous for them but they loved it!! Heck, I loved it! I laughed the whole time, which made Jamie laugh at me the whole time. It really took my breath away and gave me butterflies.
I love this picture Maddi got of us during the ride.
Paxton making mean faces at Zevlen.
Jamie talked us into going on the Log Chute but I made it very clear that I did NOT want to get wet!! The first time we went down, Hudson and I sat in front and got considerably wet, especially Hudson. He said he was mad, but we could tell he really enjoyed it, and as soon as we got off he wanted to go again. So the second time I made Jamie sit in the front to get wet and me and Pax hid in the back. Before the ride started, I could hear Jamie and Hudson whispering to each other and giggling. I knew they were up to no good, then on the way down the biggest hill, they hid under the front of the log in hopes of getting me drenched! In the video Maddi took, you can see Jamie hiding and then coming up to check if I got soaked....I didn't, their evil plan failed.
It was a long day and we got a little silly.
We went for supper (at 8pm!) at Jake's Grill. Hudson ordered his favorite meal of buttered noodles and cleared his plate in less than 2 minutes!
Some snuggling on Sunday morning before leaving the hotel. We went to see the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie despite the PG-13 rating and it was a good decision. Paxton LOVED it! Laughed outloud in the theater and declared it his favorite movie of all time. Even I enjoyed it, we all did!
It was a GREAT weekend!!!!! A million gazillion THANK YOU's to Maddi and Zevie!!!! Hudson is one lucky godson, and Jamie, Paxton, and myself are lucky he let's us tag along! Maybe next year he'll even let Harlow.
The kids were anticipating the Brown County Fair all week and the day finally came on Friday! I took off work early and met Grandma and the three kids at the fair. The boys were already busy on rides, so Harlow and I went on the Merry-Go-Round. She loves rides! Last year she screamed bloody murder when Jamie took her off the Merry-Go-Round, this year thankfully, she was more cooperative.
Carson and Alec joined us in the fair fun, and they all squeezed into a tractor.
I think they had fun on the rollercoaster......!!!!
But leave it to Paxton to have a little naughty fit. I joked and said I'm going to have a lot of pictures of him making these mean faces if he keeps this up! He was furious with Grandma because....she smiled at him when he was getting off the ride. The horror, right!?!?! How dare she!
A couple snapchats I sent.....
And a short video of Paxton and I going down the big slide. It's his favorite ride. He wanted me to go down with him the first time, but then went by himself. But I think he had the most fun going with me!
The boys ended their swimming lessons for the season, both passing onto the next level (Hudson to Level 1 and Paxton to Preschool 2). I'm pretty sure each of them could skip a few levels but we'll trek along the course and meet all of the necessary requirements.
Their lessons were right after another, so each brother had to sit and wait through the others lesson. And let me tell you, it was HOT in there!! Sitting through the 30 minutes of lessons each proved to be difficult sometimes (especially when sister was with!). We got a little silly to pass the time.....
So we set off for Bemidji/Cass Lake at approximately 6:00pm on Friday, ready for our 5 hourish drive. We really can't complain about how well the kids drove. Paxton was the best, but he's always the most content car rider. He barely said a word, watched movies, played his Kindle, and took a couple short naps. Hudsy talked most of the time, with every other question being "How many more hours is it? Why are we going somewhere that's so far away? Is this further than Faribault (remembering the drive to Maddi's house)? This is like as far as Florida! What town is next? Then how many more towns? Is this Bemidji yet?" He only slept about 10 minutes right before we got there. Harlow was talkative too and happy most of the time, slept later on in the drive which resulted in her being wide awake when we got to the hotel......
So she and I stayed up awhile by ourselves. I was more than happy because Big Brother After Dark was on TV and it's like my favorite show! Some time after 1 a.m. I kindly asked her to close her eyes and go to sleep, but I know I fell asleep before her so I'm not even sure how late she stayed up.
Jamie got up early the first morning to go fishing, so it was me and these three kids in the hotel. We had breakfast and headed straight to the pool.
When Jamie was done fishing, he came and picked us up and we headed to Paul Bunyan's Animal Land. Harlow liked seeing the animals but it took some coaxing from Morgan to get her to finally feed one. The boys loved walking around and feeding the deer.....until......
Hudson realized that there was deer poop all over and he got sick of watching out for the bombs and opted to ride on Kayla's shoulders. Pax didn't care one bit and ran like crazy through the park, but he didn't want to turn down Declyn's offer to carry him too!
Seeing these big bucks was right up Jamie's alley, although as a hunter, you can guess what he was thinking about! This poor buck was nice enough to let him get close and feel the velvet on his antlers. Poor guy didn't even know Jamie was dreaming about shooting, mounting, and eating him!
We went fishing and Paxton caught some teeny tiny sunnies. It was fun because you could see them swim and bite the worm on the hook. He knew exactly when to reel up because he could see his catch!
Daddy got sick of catching little sunnies and went for the bigger bass.
Grandma Sharon let Harlow play with the worms so they were the best of friends.
Our last stop before heading back home was to see Paul Bunyan and Babe the Ox. Can you see the three tiny little kids sitting with them?
The boys completed their t-ball season as the Courtland Green Lizards. It was.....interesting, or I guess NOT interesting would be more appropriate. Hudson definitely had a better season than last year. He didn't complain about playing, he tried harder, he went for the ball, and all in all he paid more attention. Paxton started out okay, but by the very last night, he walked off the field sat down by Grandma and had enough. We had to really coax him to get back out there, but he did. He seems to like playing ball, enjoys hitting with Jamie at home, but I think he was bored during the games, and would see Harlow playing with her cousins and eating suckers and he'd much rather be doing that. So let's just say, from this mother's perspective (and I think I can speak for cheerleader Grandma and coach Daddy too) that we aren't too disappointed to see the season end.
To call these three kids "flirts" seems a little silly, but they really kind of are. Poor Brenley had to tell Paxton to quit kissing her more than once. I think their favorite part of the game was sitting and giggling on the bench with each other.
