Countdown to Joy

Zoo trip!

Yesterday, after picking up my new stroller and getting Jack’s haircut, we met up with Melanie and Jude at the zoo! Our membership card expired yesterday, so I wanted to get in one more free trip :). We were so excited that Mel and Jude could join us-it was great to see them! 

We had a ton of fun. This was Jack’s first time being at the zoo where he was actually big enough to know what was going on. He was so excited about everything. He refused to ride in the stroller, though, so I ended up carrying him on my back all day-thank goodness for the Ergo! I guess because of the rain in the forecast, the zoo wasn’t very crowded-it was so nice to be able to walk around without bumping into people all the time! 

Elephants! 

Mel and Jude

Jack LOVED the elephants-they were definitely his favorite animal-he just watched and watched them. He even spotted one the rest of us didn’t see! 

Watching the meerkats from the observation tunnel :)

Jude and Melanie watching the meerkats

Jack watching the alligators. This picture reminded me of a picture I took of JOSIE watching the alligators when she was just about the same age as Jack. So I dug it up, just for kicks:

Josie, 12 months

Jack and Jude

Alligator! 

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE when little ones stand on their toes-I think it is one of the cutest things, ever. :)

Check out Jude’s little Tom’s-aren’t they adorable? (and he is too!)

Josie’s favorite-fluh-men-goes! :)

Jude loved the petting zoo-he really liked petting the goats! 

Jack liked the goats, too….but from afar! 

This is the closest he would get to petting one…which surprised me, because he loves to pet dogs! 

Jude

Two munchkins….These two are going to be trouble when their older! 

Josie requested we eat our picnic lunch on the ground, on our blanket…so of course we obliged :). 

Sweet girl

Jude was CHOWING down on his bread. 

A mess, all.the.time.

This picture has a funny story. Jude was picking up a stick (the one he has in his hand) and showing it to us. Then Jack walked over and picked up the LOG he is holding, and showed it to Jude, as if to say “oh yeah?”. We laughed so hard, it was really funny. :)

After lunch we rode the carousel. Josie used some of her piggy bank money to buy her tokens :). She had to ride the flamingo, of course.

I thought Jack would love the carousel, since he had like the one at the mall so much. But once we got on, he clung to me for dear life and wouldn’t ride. I finally convinced him to get on behind Josie, though. She is a great big sister-seriously. I am so proud of her! 

After the carousel, we went to the playground. I love the big foam room they have for little ones-finally a place where Jack can’t get hurt!

 He kept showing us his “trick.”

Josie LOVED jumping off this-she did it over and over again.

Jude and Jack are just one month apart, and they are almost exactly the same size :).

Josie was dying to go into the snake tunnel, but once we got down there, this is as close as she would get.

This is what a good day at the zoo  will do for you :).

After we left the zoo, we went to visit Jake at his work. Josie LOVES to visit her daddy, and if I even mention Nashville, she begs to go see him. So I try to plan our trips accordingly so we can swing by.

Being sweet….

It was such  great day! These are the kinds of days I miss during the school year.  

Jack’s First Haircut!

Jack had his first haircut yesterday! I took him down to Franklin, TN to go to “Snipits,” which is a just for kids salon/barber. He did really good-He almost threw a fit right at the beginning, but once she started spraying water on his head, he calmed down and sat still. I am really glad we went there-they are perfectly prepared to handle kids, and have lots of experience in the fine art of distraction. :)

I, of course, had to get some pictures to commemorate the occasion:

Some “before” shots:

I was so afraid he was going to lose all his curl, so I wanted to make sure I got some good shots of it :).

During:

Not so sure about this….

Well, okay….

Almost done!

After he was all through, she gave me a baggie with his curls, and Jack got a rubber ducky as a “prize.” :)

And some “after” shots:

Handsome little boy! 

No more hair on his ears! 

I was still afraid, at this point, that all his curl was gone forever….but the straightness only lasted about an hour, until he got sweaty-and the curls were back in full force! :) 

Josie was so funny during this whole process. She had been hearing me joke too much, I guess, because she kept saying she was going to cry when they cut Jack’s curls off. She has a fascination with curls, I guess because her hair is so straight. She didn’t cry, though-she was as fascinated with the whole place as Jack was. She was also fascinated with the whole hair-cutting business-she has never had an actual hairCUT-Nana has trimmed her hair several times, but she wants it long, so no haircuts for her! 

SO prissy! 

Summer Break…so far

So far, summer break is getting off to an awesome start. We haven’t done anything exciting at all, but that is part of what makes it so great! Yesterday we stayed home ALL.DAY.LONG-like, we never had to get in the car-those days are so few and far between-definitley a nice change up to our normal go-go-go pace! And on the plus, side, I got all of my gardens weeded and cleaned out and ready for mulch. :)

Today we had some errands to run, so we had to get out of the house. After errands, we met Mom, Nana, and Shshr at Ridgetop Station Park so Mom and I could run. Nana and Shshr watched the kiddos on the playground while Mom and I jogged the trail. Thanks Nana and Shshr! I don’t mind running with the stroller-but it sure is nice not to have to! 

Warning:lots of phone pictures coming up in this post-but I’m always impressed with how well the iPhone takes pictures!

Sister being sweet moment….Jack was holding her hand, too, but I wasn’t fast enough to catch it :).

The kiddos love their Grammy…

And I loved this picture so much I just  had  to play with it. 

After we left the park, the kids and I headed down to Grammy’s for lunch. After lunch, we walked down to Christie and Andy’s so Josie could give Katie Ann her birthday present, and then we just hung out so the kids could play for awhile. 

Sweet Josie girl

Doesn’t she look SO grown up in this picture??

I had to take some pictures of Jack’s curls because 1. They were in FULL force today with the humidity and 2. He’s getting his first hair cut tomorrow *sniff*, so I wanted to make sure I had some “before” pictures to document. 

The back

The front (and yes, he STILL has a black eye, along with about a million other bruises, too).

I guess it IS time for a haircut…..

When we got home, Jake and I put tomato cages over my tomato plants. The garden is doing GREAT this year (except for the cucumbers-I have no clue why).

Tomatoes! (and bell peppers on the far end)

The squash is growing like crazy, climbing the gate….

We even got our first “harvest” today- 5 cherry tomatoes! Yay!

Summer break…..so far, so good :). 

Memorial Day Weekend 2012

This weekend we, of course, went on our annual Memorial Day camping trip to Dale Hollow Dam. This was kind of a weird trip for us, because since we still have a hole in our camper where the TURKEY hit it, we were camper-less. So we stayed with Nana and Shshr in Nana’s camper. :) It was a beautiful weekend, with not a cloud in the sky, warm weather, and a great breeze. We also had a really shady spot which helped with the heat. 

Saturday morning I got up and ran-I have been missing my training schedule since the half marathon-I have still been running, but nothing consistent. I ended up running 4 miles, which is the most I have run at one time since the race-I felt great! After breakfast we headed to the lake on Mom and Dad’s boat. We never take our boat on this trip because the lake is usually really busy. It was an AWESOME day to be out. The weather was hot, so the water felt great-not freezing like some Memorial Day trips. My cousin Steven and his family had rented a pontoon boat for the day, so we met up with them and just hung out all day. It was so good to see them, and Josie had a lot of fun playing with their kids, Brianna and Cole. I was afraid of how Jack would do on the boat/with a lifejacket/in the water-but he did great! He didn’t even protest the life jacket, and he was fascinated by everything on the boat. He loved the riding in his float in the water (which I did not get a picture of), and stayed in for a really long time. Josie turned into a raisin, she stayed in so long- she literally only got out to eat! :) 

Driving the boat

The Johnson crew…

Jack LOVED watching the wake while the boat was going….

Josie swimming with Cole

Sweet girl

Brianna, Josie, and Cole

Naptime….

Saturday night we went to eat at Mitchell Creek boat dock before heading back to the campground. They had a seafood buffet that was amazing-we will definitely have to visit again! 

Jack loves his Pappy….I think Pappy is his favorite person, hands down :)

“Mommy! Take a picture of me eating my corn!”

Shshr and Jack

Pappy and Grammy

Kiddos with Grammy

Sunday we just hung out around the campground. We rode bikes, sat around, read books (I am DEVOURING the Hunger Games series for the second time-I love summertime for reading, because I never get to read during the school year.), and watched the kids play in the water-twice :). We even all got a nap-that never happens-it was SO nice. 

Brandon and Ella

Silly girl

Surefire way to get Jack to nap camping: take him for a stroller ride. 

Chalk!

It got really hot, so we filled some buckets with water and let the kids play-it kept them entertained for FOREVER. :)

By the end they were COMPLETELY drenched-and completely happy :)

Blowing bubbles with Katie Ann

Playin’ in the mud…

All his various head injuries….when we came camping he already had a black eye. By the end of the trip we had added a scraped nose, a scraped forehead, and at least 2 knots on the head-bleh! 

Katie Ann got a sprinkler for her birthday-they had a blast playing in it! (And this was the second set of clothes we got wet this day-I think both kiddos had 4 outfit changes in one day :P)

That afternoon, once it had cooled off a little, Mom, Dad, me, and Brian Tomblin ran again-3 miles this time-so I got in a total of 7 miles this weekend-not too bad! :)

Sunday night we had Katie Ann’s birthday party-she  is FIVE years old now-she gets to start kindergarten this year! 

She wanted her cake to look like  a wedding cake :)

Josie LOVES Katie Ann

Monday we had to pack up and go home, but we had some fun before we left. We made our annual trip to the fish hatchery-the kids love going-they always want to feed the fish :). Jack was so excited this year, too-he loved throwing the food in the water (although I’m not sure he really knew what he was doing). 

Jack LOVES Josie’s helmet, knee pads, and bike :)

Looking at the minnows at the hatchery…

All the boys…

Josie with Ella and Isabel-she loves these girls, and they are SO sweet to her…

My favorite boys…

The whole gang-we get a picture every year of all the kiddos at the hatchery :). It’s fun to watch them grow, and see how much they have changed from year to year. 

In the picture: Jake, Jack, Jolene, Wyatt, Leah, Ella, Isabel, Josie, Christie, Katie Ann, Tyler, Bryce, Alec, Boone

All the littlest members of our crew….

Katie Ann and Christie

Jack always has to help…

He loved feeding the fish…

Pretty girl-she looks so OLD in this picture!

Look at the crazy hair!

Isabel is SO good with little ones-she is a sweetheart for sure :). 

After we left the hatchery, we headed over to the playground. I wanted to see Jack go down the big slide ALL.BY.HIMSELF. Jake had taken him the day before, and he was not afraid to go down at all! He is SO different from Josie-they are like polar opposites. It is also a little scary how LITTLE Jack is afraid of-nothing scares him!

Big boy!

Josie loves to climb-she is a little monkey :). 

After we ate lunch, we packed up and headed on home. The kids are great car-riders-we didn’t even have to stop once. When we got home, we got everything unpacked and i started laundry. Justin came over, and Jake grilled burgers and hotdogs and I fixed home fries, baked beans, and pasta salad. It was YUM, and the perfect way to end a great weekend :). 

Bad:When your toddler pees out of their diaper while you’re out.

Worse:When your toddler pees out of their diaper while you’re out, WHILE you are carrying them on your back in the Ergo.