Adventureland!!

Last year while we were working on potty training Kallen we used a sticker chart in which the reward was Adventureland. Being the amazing parents that we are, we never followed through and took him.....until Thursday. Shawn and I were way more excited than the boys (but I guess that would make sense considering they didn't even know what "going on a ride" meant).

We got to the park around 10:30 and headed straight for "the big tall thing"- the giant ferris wheel.

The boys did a pretty good job of waiting in line:

It was SO fun to watch their faces as the ferris wheel started to move. :)

Lincoln didn't seem to be phased at all (which is pretty typical for him)

I took the next two pictures because they show the personality differences between our boys perfectly.

Kallen wrapped his arms around Shawn, taking everything in, and needing a little reassurance that it was ok to be up so high in the air.

Lincoln, on the other hand, would not let me touch him, had to sit by himself, and was not phased at all by the ride. (which made me a nervous wreck between his squirminess and how close he was to the swinging exit door) 

I am not sure if Kallen is a little scared of heights or if he just warmed up quickly, but after the ferris wheel he rode all the rides without hesitation. It was so fun to follow the boys around and watch their excitement as they tried out each of the rides. 

I think we heard "Wow! Look at that!" about every 10 seconds.

When we came to this pig, Kallen said "Woah look at dat big pig! I want to touch it!" He went to check it out and in surprise exclaimed "There's a wady in dat pig!" haha

Behind the pig was this little pond, and I think Shawn was pretty proud when Kallen said "I don't want to ride anymore rides, I just want to fish in this pond."

I'm pretty sure Lincoln wore this smile every time he was on a ride. He Loved it!

I was really proud of Kallen for walking right up and getting on this one without hesitation. We even got him to put his hands up!

Moments like these make my heart happy.

Just to show you a little window into what life is like with this child with Way too much personality, Lincoln will sometimes randomly start walking like this:

It is kind of embarrassing.

And he will go straight from that goofiness to this boy with Lots of attitude:



We actually did not have to wait in very many lines, but when we did the boys had a great time swinging on the bars.

I knew we were taking a risk in the timing of our Adventureland trip (my boys are usually napping by 11:30) but I figured the boys would be so excited that they would do fine without a nap. That plan worked pretty well, but Lincoln finally gave up his fight around 2. 



We took advantage of our chance to only have one busy child and made our way over to the water park.

And this is where our adventureland pictures end. The water park was kind of fun but our boys are way too fast, with no fear of the water, so they had Shawn and I on high alert at all times!

I woke Lincoln up around 3:15 so he would get a chance to play in the water...

....and we decided to head out by 4pm. That water park was just a little too exhausting. :)

We had such a fun day!! And while I don't think Lincoln will remember much, I know Kallen will be talking about our trip for a long time! 

Walker Johnson Park

The boys and I have been trying out lots of new parks this summer and tonight we found Walker Johnson Park. It is Awesome!! (Shawn has taken the boys there once before but this was my first time)

You have to drive way back to the tennis courts, park, and walk over the hill to the trees to find it but it is totally worth the hunt. 

First you are greeted by these cute little houses...

....and a couple swings. 

Then you walk over the hill to find this amazing tower to climb!

Past the tower are these rope walls.

And this is what I mean in saying you have to walk towards the trees...

 ....the park is hidden in the trees!

My boys had a blast! They loved climbing the ropes and discovering lots of bugs! 

What is a trip to the park without shooting a few deer?

 Lincoln watched a little girl get her pictures taken, so when they moved on he had to go sit down in the same spot she did. :P

This will definitely be a park we go to often! It is the perfect place to take your kids to burn off all that extra energy at the end of  the day. :)

Omaha Vacation

Why hello! Yes we are still alive and well. :P

I am not sure if I am really returning to blog land but here is a random little blog for you.

We are not going to be taking a big vacation this year, so instead we decided to do some fun little things as a family. Shawn was able to take Friday off of work, so Thursday we got a hotel room in Omaha so the boys could swim and Friday we headed to the zoo!

Our boys have really bonded lately and  we have had some very fun "brother moments".

This was right before we left on Thursday and I believe this is how the conversation went:

K: Winken you want to hab a conversation?

L: yeah!

 So they move these chairs together and Kallen proceeds to tell Lincoln all about his toy helicopter

Then I hear:

K: Winken you want to hab wap time?

L:Yeah!

And Lincoln proceeds to back his chubbly little self onto Kallen's lap where they hang out for a few minutes.

We have had tons of these moments lately and it just makes me smile! We got to our hotel around 8:30pm that night and, against my better judgement, we let them stay up late to take a quick swim.

We got them back into our room and into pj's around 10pm and they were out almost instantly!

It made me smile to see them sleeping next to each other and they did awesome all night!

A late night equaled the next morning in our hotel room looking like this....

...feeding Lincoln in one bed to keep him quiet, while Kallen was passed out in the other bed. :)

We knew the boys were too young for a whole day at the zoo so we took our time in the morning:

-reading the Bible

-swimming and relaxing in the hot tub

- being super cute

- and getting ready for the day! It was the perfect family morning!

On our way to the zoo Kallen piped up from the backseat: "Where is Home Depot?" "I don't know Kallen." "I just want to go to the zoo after Home Depot!" (seriously!?)

We made our way to the zoo around noon and between our DesMoines zoo membership and a coupon we got in super cheap! We accidentally forgot our stroller so we headed over to rent a stinkin $12 stroller and the guy was on break so a worker gave us our stroller for free!!

The boys had a BLAST at the zoo and aside from the occasional, I haven't had a nap and it's 103 degrees meltdown, they did really well!

Kallen touching a starfish:

"Mommy wook it's a orange fish! My fabowite cowor! Take my picture with the orange fish mommy!!"

A quick stop at the playground to burn off some energy:

Watching our kiddos play:

 (yes I went to the zoo naked- wouldn't you on such a hot day!? heehee)

Seriously the biggest snake I have ever seen!!!!

By the end of the day Lincoln was so tired he sat with this cracker hanging out of his mouth for like 15min. It was ridiculous!

Checking out the polar bear:

And around 4:15 Lincoln gave up the fight:

We really had no intention of making  it through the entire zoo, but with only skipping a few things we made through the whole thing in about 4 1/2  hours. We were on the boys schedule the entire time and for the most part we just went wherever they wanted to go. The zoo was so good about having water stations everywhere and the only money we spent was $6 on some caffiene for the parents and $4 on a Shark book for the boys!

It was the perfect little mini-vacation and I was so sad to see the day come to an end.

Our goal was to keep things cheap and with a $60 hotel room found on hotwire.com that came with a huge continental breakfast, our entire weekend was under $100!

I am hoping we can do a couple more fun little weekends like this before the year is over.

I just LOVE spending long weekends with my little family- now if we could just both quit work and vacation all the time......:P