Our September

We've had a pretty fun September. Jake had a full month off starting the end of august. So here are just a few pics of some of the fun we had. I actually have all pics (excluding pics taken with a waterproof camera) on my facebook page for those who want to see.

Brylee had her 2nd birthday on the 17th. I think Jake was happy to finally be around for one. We didn't do anything spectacular, but we did have fun. We started with birthday syrup in the morning. Then let Bry open her birthday presents after breakfast. She got a Dora scooter and a bunch of dress up stuff. She actually wouldn't take off the wings for a couple of days. She even wore them while she napped. In the evening we had cupcakes and played at Chuck E Cheese for an hour. As I said, we kept it simple but had a lot of fun.

Earlier in the month we went to one of the Aquariums. The kids had a blast looking at the otters while Jake and I were spooked by one of their sharks. The thing looked mean. It was almost a 3 hour drive to get there though. So we figure if we do this again we're gonna budget it so that we could make a day of it and visit the beach while we're there. And the final thing we did this month was go on a family retreat paid for by the US Army. It was once again at the Great Wolf Lodge. It was originally supposed to be in Myrtle Beach but for whatever reason it got changed at the last minute. It worked out though. We knew what to expect for prices and was thus able to stay within the budget given to us by those paying for everything.

We had lots of fun. Brylee was old enough to do her own thing in the kiddie pool in the waterpark so I didn't have to hold her the whole time. Zach went down one of the adult slides with Jake giggling the whole way and Jake and I even had time to ourselves to enjoy the mini golf and the adult waterslides without the kids. One slide, called the Tornado, was especially fun. Jake had a freaked out look on his face the whole way. But that was probably because he was going backwards down a dark tube that has an incredibly steep drop at one point.

The Lodge also had an animatronics show every night at 8 followed by story time. I was actually surprised that the kids enjoyed it. Well, not Zach, but Brylee. I thought she'd freak out, but she enjoyed it as much as Zach did.

Pumpkin Land '09

Here it is. Pumpkin Land 2009. It's moved to a different farm this year. It was just the same only bigger with better parking. My Mom and I took Zach, Sophi, and Brylee. We wanted to bring Fina as well, but she had a soccer tournament she was competing in. The very first thing the kids did was ride tricycles. Zach only got a few feet before his handle bar came off and smacked him in the nose. He suffered from a bloody nose, on and off, the rest of the day.

This was one of Zach's favorite things to do. He made sure to ride in every cart before we left.

They had this wooden train along with trucks and other things for the kids to play on. And even Brylee could join in on the fun.

Last year they had a large slide made out of bowling alleys. They still had that only bigger this year. But I didn't get any pictures of Sophi and Zach doing that. They also had this small slide for younger kids that they enjoyed. Brylee went down a couple times on her own and loved it.

She even tried to climb back up. But got mad when she didn't succeed.

This is inside a large blown up pumpkin that they had thrown balloons inside for kids to play with. Zach had to be forced out so other kids could have a turn.

The Horse drawn carriage ride was Sophi's favorite. Brylee enjoyed climbing around on the floor and making noises when we hit bumps.

Zach and Sophi had fun in the ball pit. They would climb on the walls and jump in on top of the balls. Zach even thought it was fun to get buried by the balls.

At the end of the day we took a tractor ride to get our pumpkins. We had lots of fun, even though it was freezing by the end.

Apple Picking

We went apple picking back in September. We didn't stay long because it was cold. But we did get five bags of apples and still haven't used them all.

We let Zach climb a ladder to get some apples in the tree. He loved it of course, and didn't want to climb back down.

At first Zach just took the apples we were picking and putting them in the bag. But after we showed him how to pick the apples himself there was no stopping him.

First day of School

I'm sorry this picture is sideways. It's been so long since I've used this that I don't remember how to turn it and I'm on a time crunch.

Zach started going to Nursery School a couple of weeks ago. We thought it would be best for him to be able to socialize and get out of the house. So he goes to Busy Bear Nursery School 3 days a week. He wishes he could go every day. His teacher, Ms. Sherri, is great. She's been able to keep him involved. I don't know how she does it. Anyone who has experience trying to teach Zach anything knows that he has perfected the art of ignoring.

Unexpeced Weekend

So we aren't going to Myrtle Beach this weekend due to a couple of things that make this all work out for the best. Still sucks. But oh well. Earlier this week I was giving Brylee a bath in the sink and Zach decided he wanted a bath in the sink too. As you can see he got what he wanted. I couldn't resist. The thought of him bathing in the sink was too funny to pass up.
This is one of the reasons we didn't go this weekend. Zach woke up with his cheek swollen from a bug bite. And later this morning his ankle swelled up as well. He is now on Antibiotics, steroids, benadryl, and gets cortizone cream put on the bug bites. Hopefully this will work otherwise we get to go spend atleast 10 hours in the ER again.
I included this cause I think my baby is cute. She saw me taking a picture of Zach and wanted in on the fun.

Too much Harry Potter?

I think it's cute.

Mom's visit

My Mom took a break from being the family backbone and came to visit me. I can't tell you how much I loved having her here. It helped keep me sane while Jake is at JRTC. We did lots of stuff and had a blast! Mostly the stuff we did was to entertain Zach, but we had fun watching him have fun. We took him to Chuck e Cheese. It turns out that you can get coupons which made going there cheaper. Zach liked going on rides, but there were two games that he wanted to do over and over again. He really liked the ducky game. All you do is press a button and an arm punches out and knocks over a duck. And you're supposed to try and knock over as many ducks as you can. I tried this game a couple of times and it turns out Zach was better than me. The other game he loved was a kid sized version of a hoops game where you try to get as many balls in the hoop as you can. Unfortunately Zach is too small for it and we had to hold him up.

Mom soon found out that Zach needs a couple hours of outside time every day or he goes crazy. So we made sure to take him to the playground. I really like this picture. Zach tries to push Brylee on the swing all the time. This is the first time she's ever enjoyed it.We made sure to go to Raleigh to see the Temple. For the record, it was actually beautiful and sunny while we were there. I don't know why the picture doesn't show it. I had heard the Temple was small, but I didn't realize how small. The Stake Center next to it is bigger. But still, it was beautiful. Just outside post is the Fort Bragg Fair. Mom came at the perfect time. We took the kids a couple of times. It was only $5 to get in and all the rides were free. Zach had fun on a bunch of rides. What's funny is that most of the rides he didn't smile on. If you don't know him you'd think he wasn't enjoying himself. But, as his mom I can tell you he did. The slide was one of only a couple rides he smiled on. Mom said she could hear him giggling all the way down the slide. The first time he went with me (which almost didn't happen, because he dived to go down the slide as soon as we got to the top and I had to catch him) and the rest of the time he went on his own. The other ride he LOVED was the race car ride. It would put-put around like a normal kid ride. Then whip around on the corners and it looked like he would fly out. The guy operating the ride got to know Zach real quick. Every time he would unbuckle Zach, Zach would run and climb into another car. So the poor guy had to carry Zach off the ride every time. And Zach went on this ride A LOT.Thank you mom for visiting us. I don't think you know how much I appreciated it and loved having you here. And for the record, anyone else is welcome to visit. It's beautiful here, but I really prefer having family around.