Zucchini

Grandpa Gary and Grandma Cindy have a big garden in their back yard. Aiden loved it earlier in the summer when the raspberries were in season. He would run to the back of the yard to pick his own berries. Now that raspberries are done Grandpa and Grandma have been letting Aiden help pick the zucchini. When I went to pick him up yesterday he was trying very hard to say zucchini. This morning between bites I got him to say it.

Bug Cake

Kyle's Birthday was almost a month ago, can you tell I'm behind on going through my pictures. His favorite things are bugs so I made him a bug cake for his party. Hopefully I'll catch up soon and add pictures from his party before he turns 4!

Chloe

The McFarland Family welcomed a new little one into the family yesterday morning. Chloe Ann McFarland was born at 4:45 am, 7lbs, 20.5 inches. Angie did wonderful and looked fantastic. Miss Chloe is just adorable!

Focus: UPDATED

We finally got a chance to see the car after the accident. Gary went to the tow yard yesterday to get his personal things out of it. The insurance company is looking at it today and will let us know if it's totaled or not. I have a feeling it is, what do you think?








Update: Well the car was indeed totaled. The insurance company called today. I think Gary is going to stick to a bike for awhile, such a long ride to work!

Bikeys

Aiden's favorite thing right now are bikeys, which is his word for popsicles. I don't know where he got that word but it's very clear what it means. From the moment he wakes in the morning he's asking for a bikey. He then continues to ask another 20 times throughout the day. He gets so excited if you tell him yes, he runs into the kitchen and stands by the freezer doing his happy dance.

The Gang

Just thought I would share some pictures of the whole group in MN. The mommies with their December babies and the whole gang.



Brrr mamas and babies. L to R... Me/Aiden, Carla/Heather, Kari/Bennet, Andrea/Talan, Brenda/Tyler, Carrie/Colin, Amy/Allie.

Brrr Babies in Minnesota

We left Wednesday July 4th for our trip out to Minnesota to meet with my baby group. We left bright and early at 5 am and hit the road. The drive was estimated at 10 hours but with 6 stops along the way so Aiden could run around it took us 12 hours. The first night we got dinner and just hung around the hotel. The next morning the group was heading to Valley Fair, an amusement park, since Aiden wouldn't have as much to do there we headed to Mall of America.




Day Three was the Minnesota Zoo. When you first get there you walk through a building with some smaller animals and birds. It was quite impressive walking through that part. We were very excited to see the rest of the zoo. We headed outside and stopped to see a bird show.












After the bird show we headed for the tractor that took you back to the farm. While waiting for the tractor to get there Aiden played on the playground. The farm was a full working farm with cows they milked. A litter of pigs had just been born so we got to see those also. After some lunch at the farm house we were off to the dolphin show. The dolphins were hard to take pictures of b/c they were so fast. Aiden had fallen asleep before we got there so he and Gary sat the show out.











From there we caught the monorail that ran all around the zoo.



It drove slow enough to see all the animals from above. The odd thing about the zoo was it did not have very many animals. They didn't have the typical animals you think of when you think of the zoo. No elephants, zebras or lions but they did have a moose...



That night consisted of taking over the hotel's room again, the kids playing and the adults drinking.



Saturday we were off to the Mall of America again to the Underwater Adventure Aquarium. They have lots of neat fish and a ton of sharks. We even got to touch a shark or stingray.













From there some were off to the mall to shop, since we had already been there we headed off on our own adventure. I had been looking online and found a park, Minnehaha Falls, that wasn't too far away so we decided to go check it out. The park was beautiful with lots of trees and a gorgeous waterfall.











That night things were quiet , as three families had headed home. We said our goodbyes early and headed to bed. We had an early wakeup call and were out the door at 5 am. With a slight detour that took us through downtown Chicago we still made it home in 12 hours. Aiden was such a great kid in the car, but I think it's going to be awhile before our next long road trip!

10-4 Good Buddy

A Friend of Uncle Tim's drives a big truck. When we stopped by to visit he was there with his truck and let Aiden sit in it and push all the buttons he could find. I even got to pull the horn! Aiden looks so small standing in front of that huge truck.

Zoo

We spent ALL afternoon at the zoo. Melissa was running a bit behind so Brye and I decided to head over to the zoo and get an early start. The zoo was packed but it was such a gorgeous day. We walked around a bit and grabbed some lunch. Shortly after that Melissa and Jake joined us. Thank goodness we had Brye, two strollers, two kids equaled a handful. Brye was an official stroller pusher.

Wow what a horse

Well the picture may not be appropriate, but I just had to share. At first we weren't sure we were seeing things correctly....

Photos

 
 
 
Just thought I would share some recent favorite photos that have been taken. We are off to the Zoo tomorrow with "Aunt" Melissa, Jake and "Aunt" Brye, I'm sure there will be lots of photos to come...