Camping

We're brave--we took 2 kids camping! Not just camping, tent camping. And guess what...it was a blast! Our friends Jason and Amy invited us to go with them and their boys. They have a camper so we weren't totally without some comforts of home, thank goodness! Minus the thunderstorms that we had the first night and our tent getting a little water logged, it was a success. We got everything dried out on Saturday, the weather cleared up, and the rest of the weekend was beautiful. Here's the family at our home away from home...

Blake and Aaron hanging out by the campfire before bedtime...

Blake and Mommy snuggling...

Cole hanging out at the park...

Jumping in the bounce house...

Cole liked the bounce house too!

Cole was so good. Since it had rained, the ground was a little muddy so the poor guy had to hang out in his pack 'n play or the tent most of the weekend. He was a trooper though.

Getting ready for dinner...

We were camping at Sugar Creek campground in Crawfordsville. The boys went swimming in the creek on Saturday. They had a great time walking up the creek and finding frogs. As usual, Cole just watched from his carrier.

Blake and Aaron frog hunting...

Aaron!

Drew...what a cutie!

Blake and one of the many frogs he caught...

Devin and the boys before their hike in the woods...they all have their walking sticks.

It rained most of Saturday morning, so to keep the boys occupied Amy got out the play-doh and moon sand. It worked for about 20 minutes...

Sorry for the picture overload!

Just for Fun

Blake learned to ride his bike a few weeks ago, and I've been meaning to post some pictures. He loves riding it and feels like such a big boy. We take walks around the neighborhood almost every night while he rides, and it's so nice. (Why is this underlined?)

Cole watching his big brother ride his bike...

There's a park by our house that we go to walk and ride bikes sometimes. Conveniently, the trails come out right by Dairy Queen--yum! Of course, the real reason we go is for the exercise!

Cole's first ice cream cone... It's funny how things work with the second baby--Blake didn't have his first ice cream cone until a couple of months ago, and Cole already had his!

Hendricks County Fair

We made our annual trip to the Hendricks Co fair this past week. Right when we pulled up, it decided to start raining like crazy (when we left home it was sunny!), so we had to hang out in the car for 1/2 hour until there was a break to run into the expo hall. It ended up being a nice night after the rain passed, just a little muddy. Or as Blake would say "It's coo muddy". Here's Cole waiting patiently in the car for the rain to pass...

Blake petting the bunny rabbits...

Blake taking a pony ride--his favorite part of the fair this year I think. If you look closely you may notice a theme with Blake in all of these pictures...he is really obsessed with cheesing for the camera right now, so every picture we get of him he has this goofy grin on his face. What can you do?

Checking out the animals with Daddy...

This was before we left for the fair, but I thought it was cute. I've been wanting to get some pictures of them in these shirts (corny, I know!), but I just hadn't done it yet.

Family picture--there's that goofy grin again!

Blake Sings

Blake saw Cole's video on the computer and decided he wanted one too. He wanted to sing his ABC's, so here you go...

I Can Crawl!

Louisville

Sometimes blogger is so frustrating...it won't let me arrange these pictures in any kind of order, so sorry for the randomness.

We went to Louisville for the weekend with some friends of ours. We left the boys at Grandma and Grandpa's house and had an adult trip--yay! We started off at the Jim Beam distillery,which was closed due to renovations, so we ended up at the Maker's Mark distillery. We got a hotel in downtown Louisville that was within walking distance of this awesome place called "Fourth Street Live". We went to dinner then hung out at the bars the rest of the night. It was so nice to have some adult time and hang out with great friends!

Here are Janel and I at the entrance to Fourth Street Live...

Amy, Janel and Devin? at "Howl at the Moon"... Amy, me, and Janel before we went out...

Devin at the Maker's Mark tasting bar...

Janel, Travis, me, Devin, Jason, and Amy at the Maker's Mark bar...straight whiskey is not our drink of choice. We decided we needed a splash of coke (or a 2 liter as Devin would say) to make it go down a little smoother.

Devin and me at the Jim Beam distillery...

Us with Jim Beam himself...

Buddies

Last week Amie invited the boys and me down to go swimming. This picture was too cute not to share!

Traders Point Creamery

Today we went to the Traders Point Creamery with our friends Janel and Reagan. The weather was awesome--not too hot and a little overcast--and I think the kids really enjoyed it.

Here's my mom, Cole, me, and Blake (with his yummy yogurt we bought from the creamery).

I think the chickens were Blake's favorite. They didn't care for him too much though...

Petting the baby calf...this one was born on the 4th of July.

Janel, Reagan, Cole, Blake, and me--Blake was having a mini-breakdown at this point, hence the tears. Who knows why, he's 3!

Blake and Reagan...

Hanging out by the chicken coop...

So remember I said Blake loved the chickens? Well, do you notice that rather large rooster standing at the entrance to the chicken coop? He decided he had had enough of Blake and decided to attack him. From that point on, I don't think Blake cared for the chickens that much.

8 Months!

Is it really possible that this little guy is 8 months old already!? That little smile just melts my heart every time. In the last month, Cole has learned to pull himself up onto pretty much anything, which he is loving. He has also started eating some solid food. He loves the Gerber puffs, he's tried Nutri-Grain bars, and most of all he loves bananas...he gets so excited when he sees "real" food. He flaps his little arms in the air and opens his mouth until you give him a bite. He's not crawling yet, but seems to be getting closer. For now, he makes his way around by scooting on his bottom...it is the funniest thing to watch him scootch from one end of the room to the other while sitting up. He's also learned to go from laying on his tummy to sitting up. I think this means we are going to have to lower his crib mattress soon.

Here he is pulling himself up to the train table.

4th of July

We meant well for the 4th of July, but all of our plans got rained out! We had some friends come visit for the weekend--Anthony, Julie, and Noah. We were planning on taking the boys swimming at the Plainfield Aquatic center and then to the 4th of July festival at Hummel Park to watch the fireworks. We ended up at Jump 'N Play, going to dinner at Red Robin, then doing sparklers in our garage. We even kept the boys up to watch the fireworks from our front porch, but they ended up getting postponed too. Not the most exciting 4th ever, but we made the best of it and the boys didn't know any different. Here they are having a ball at Jump 'N Play.

Blake's first time with sparklers...he loved them until he grabbed the hot end of one, then he decided he was done.

This was the main source of entertainment for the weekend. Noah and Blake rode their bikes in circles in our garage for what seemed like hours. Blake just learned to ride his bike and he is LOVING it...it's pretty much all he wants to do. I will get some good pictures of him soon, it's too cute not too! He's such a big boy now!

Noah and Blake with their sparklers...