Pitchin a tent

We have been trying for the last several years to do a little Shaw/Frederick vacation for a weekend. I think last year was our first year in several years that we didn't do the whole family outing, but we did manage to get a couple's only weekend in instead that year.

This year we went camping in Macon. It was a beautiful campground, fantastic weather and a super fun and relaxing time with great friends! We swam, fished, hung out, took walks and smelled like..... dirty skanky sweat bombs!

I love having these memories!

Riding their bikes

We left on Bronson's Birthday so we put a candle in a cookie to celebrate for him.

Roasting weinies!

Fishing!

Such a cutie pie!

Our home for the weekend

The men making our supper

MMMMM, smores!

I love this picture of Jared and Braxton

Best Buds!!!

We've been busy

We have been super busy!!!!

We have been to the Great Wolf Lodge, had Christmas parties, Christmas programs, shopped and had some family time.

Enjoy the show of pictures to follow:

braylon feeding the fish at cabelas

getting to see santa at the great wolf lodge

braylon sliding down the slide ALL.BY.HIMSELF. he was so proud of himself.

doesn't he just look ornery?

the 3 B's

and again

love this picture of jared and bronson

bronson and tinley at the christmas program. this little girl thinks bronson is HOT~

playing the bells together

rubbin his belly for some song action

his christmas party at school. i didn't get to take very many pictures because i was running back and forth between his and braxton's rooms. i didn't even get any of braxton's party.

i also didn't get any pictures of them at the great wolf lodge b/c they were too busy running around while i was chasing after braylon.

we had a great time at the great wolf lodge. it was so nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of things and just relax.

weekend getaway

we are headed out after work to lake of the ozarks with vance and andrea.

we are taking NO KIDS!

oh, i love my kids, but won't it be nice to:
not have to get up and get a child a drink,
not have to figure out what each kid wants to eat at a restaurant and then only have 5 seconds to figure out what you want b/c the waitress is ready to take your order,
don't have to listen to fighting in the van,
don't have to hear how much longer every other minute,
don't have to be doing something E.V.E.R.Y. S.I.N.G.L.E M.I.N.U.T.E.!

won't it be great to:
sit by the pool and relax,
take a boat ride and not have to worry about a kid going overboard,
only have to get up and get myself something to drink, when i want to!,
be able to actually look at a menu,
ride in a peaceful van,
and just hang out with great friends and have no agenda!

that's what i am talking about!!!

have a great weekend, i am sure we will:)

Our Weekend!

Well the boys had no clue that we were going to the lake.

Braylon ended up coming down with the flu on friday. He didn't act bad so we decided to go on and go. We made it 10 miles and he threw up. Thank goodness I went back in after a puke bowl, right before we left. Jared decided that he wasn't going to be able to handle this so he drove and I was going to be the puke bowl holder. He didn't throw up anymore.

All the way to Kirksville they talked about what movie we were going to see and about eating popcorn and what size of drinks they should get. When we went past the turn off to the movies Braxton wanted to know where we were going. We told him we had to run out to a store. When we passed there, they wanted to know what was going on. So here is the video of it. Sorry for it being sideways:)

and yes our kids got out of their seat belts to see if out suitcase was in the back. but i do promise, they got back in them:)
The first night there we went swimming and just hung out.
Saturday we got up and went to eat breakfast. Bronson ended up with the runs! Braylon was better so we might as well have another one get it, right! We made several trips to the bathroom. We just drove around, mini golfed, rode go karts, bumper cars, swam, went to Miner Mikes and ate. We had no agenda, so it was nice to just go with the flow. We decided that we wanted to eat on the Lake. The place we chose was terrible. $100 later, we were off and knew to never eat there again. Bronson didn't eat supper b/c he said his stomach was hurting. And we all know when Bronson doesn't eat, HE IS SICK! So we decided to go ride go karts one more time! On our way there Bronson decided he needed to use the puke bowl! and guess who had to help him..... JARED, ha ha ha!!!

bronson HAD to have some fake cigarettes. he thought he was cool

here are the boys getting an educational trip out of it:) they got to see how power was generated at the dam.


braxton was very intense

ahhh, aren't we cute?

brax posing for me

bronson and i got a hole in one on this hole

the 3 amigos!

braylon hamming it up

two pirates, bronson and braxton

my boys!

here comes braylon down the slide at miner mike's

and then there was bronson

our last fun thing before heading out of town

this is how braylon mini golfed. he would take his ball right up to the hole and hit it in. so i guess you could say he got a hole in one on all the holes!

jared and braxton were in a competition. jared's ball stopped under this rock and braxton told him if he took it out it would cost him a stroke. so jared got down like this and hit it and it went in! lucky duck!




Sunday we got up and let the boys do some more swimming. Then we went and mini golfed one more time before we left. Then we decided to go eat at Bandana's BBQ. Jared and I decided we might be getting the flu. Neither one of us had to use the puke bowl, but there were a couple of times that I thought I might have to.

So despite the flu bug hitting 4 out of the 5 of us, our trip was great. We didn't let the flu put a damper on our plans!

AND

we are off!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i will post lots of pictures when we get back.

keep us in your prayers for safe travels and for everyone to stay healthy and not get the flu:)

I'm so excited....

That I just can't hide it:)

i am up and it is 11:00! everyone that knows me, knows that i am usually in bed by now. but sleep won't come. i think it is b/c i am so excited for tomorrow.

jared and i decided to take the kids to the lake this wknd for a family wknd getaway. the great thing is, is they have no idea! andrea told me a couple of weeks ago that she remembers her mom and dad waking them up when they were younger and telling them to get in the car that they were going to six flags. it was so unexpected that she still remembers it to this day. so this sounded really cool to me and so when jared and i decided to go, i told him that we weren't going to tell the kids.

it is has been really hard for both of us to not say anything. i got all of the packing done tonight. so tomorrow i will load the van before work and once we get off of work the boys think we are going to kirksville to get groceries and go to a movie.

i am hoping to tape the conversation as we leave kirksville and they are asking tons of questions. i don't know whether to say we are going to macon to the movies and just keep putting them off or once they figure it out then tell them. what do you think?

so i better get to bed so i can be in great spirits tomorrow on our trip!

night all~

Campin'

We headed out on Friday evening around 5:30. We were completely FULL. I was a little nervous that something might fly out but Jared had it all under control. We made it to our campsite in about 1 hour and 45minutes. The kids were so excited. They talked, argued and hit each other with pillows all the way there.Once we got to the campground we drove around until we found the "perfect" spot. Braxton ended up picking the spot and he picked a good one.
Braylon was a lot of help, as you can see. Braxton and Bronson (mainly Brax) helped unload everything. I took some pictures of the other two helping but it was dark and they didn't turn out too good. Once we got the tent up we thought we might as well start supper. We cooked hamburgers, hot dogs, fried potatoes and corn on the cob. We also had lots of junk food and of course the cottage cheese. I cut my finger with a knife whiile trying to get the hot dogs opened. It was dark and I thought the knife was pointed in the other direction but to my surprise it wasn't. So here I was with NO bandaids (and I always have that stuff, guess I thought we wouldn't need them camping) so I took a napkin and wrapped it around my finger and then took black electrical tape and taped around it. It worked and the boys thought I was crazy. We all sat around the camp site and just relaxed. Then a coon came right up to our picnic table. The boys thought that was great. Braxton woke me up right after I fell asleep and said "mommy I think there are coons out there" I said then check it out. Turns out there were 3 in the back of Jared's truck and one underneath it. Braxton shoo'ed them off. On Sat we got up bright and early (before 7). Braylon was really cranky and kept telling me he was going to throw up. But he never did. We headed to Fun City to meet the Buford's. Braylon didn't like the water and wanted me to hold him all the time. He ended up throwing up. So I sat with him the rest of the time or was holding him over the trash can. So I didn't get to take any pictures of the boys there. He also had diarrhea. That was fun while camping. And then again I didn't bring tylenol or anything else. What was wrong with me? I never do that!!! Braxton started feeling crumy too so I gave him some Pepto too and he went to bed. And by the way the Pepto cost me $6.79. And I sent Jared to Wal-mart to get the "cheap" kind of tylenol. He came back with $7.00 tylenol. Real cheap huh. He must have had selective hearing. Anyway Sunday morning everyone woke up (before 7) feeling better and we decided to go fishing.

Braylon holding his first fish. He didn't really like it.

Bronson chilling...

Braxton reeling...

They only caught a few little fish. They ended up throwing them all back. We went back to the campsite and loaded up and started for home. We had a great time and decided if we go anymore we are going to have to get a little more organized and Jared said he wasn't going to sleep on the hard ground anymore. Either that means buy us a camper or get some air mattresses. I say the air mattresses they would be a lot cheaper:)

Heading Out

We are heading north in about 4 hours! We have everything ready and all we have to do is pack into the back of Jared's truck. He thinks we will need to take 2 cars, but he doesn't pack good like I do. The kids are so excited to camp. I had forgotten how much stuff you have to pack for camping. I went to Wal-mart yesterday and got lots of supplies. Then I went home and started gathering everything and packing. I feel much better today knowing that everything is ready.

We went to Tri Counties annual meeting last night. I was (and still ) upset on how the election went. They had to have a revote b/c the winner for Scotland County did not have "a simple" majority. I have looked thru their by laws and I can not see where it says that. I am sure it ties into something else that NOONE ever gets to see. I have contacted Prepaid Legal Services and they are reviewing the by laws for me and then will get back with me.

I had to take Bronson to the Dr. today b/c he has two large lymph nodes, one behind his ear and one on his head. He wasn't feeling sick at all so I was concerned that maybe it was b/c of a tick bite. Sure enough that is exactly what it was. He had a bite of some sort right below his hairline on his neck. She figured it was probably a tick b/c tick's are notorious for causing large lymph nodes. They put him on some medicine since we were going to be going camping this weekend.

I went to the Dr. yesterday. I have been having troubles for the last two weeks on my right ovary. It hurts every month right around my period but this time it hurt in between. Last weekend it hurt so bad I thought I was going to have to have Jared take me to the hospital. Turns out I had a cyst that had ruptured. Which is normal, but mine had bled and the blood was trapped in my body and that is why it was hurting so bad. Once my body absorbed the blood it quit hurting. I am really glad that that is all it was. She also prescribed me some medicine to help with my "sexual desire". Jared wanted me to take 4 of them last night! Like that was really gonna make a difference. I have been having troubles being very irratable with my kids (and jared), so hopefully this will help with that!

Better run, lots to do before our big camping trip. Hope everyone has a great weekend and I am sure I will have lots to blog about come Monday:)