Four-year old decision maker

Today was Pajama Day at school, a pretty exciting prospect for the kids. Last night Kyle asked Morgan what pajamas she was planning on wearing. Her reply- "I'm still debating."

The Rest of the Trip...

Last Saturday brought a fantastic trip to parts of Sioux City that we've never visited before. Funny how you never seem to do any of the tourist stuff in areas where you live (or have lived). We toured a place that had the stages of the cross and a life sized wood carving of 'The Last Supper'. The kids sat at the foot of the enormous 'Mary' statue and were as intrigued by the little bugs crawling on the ground as they were by the large metal giant towering above them!
Morgan was dazzled by the stained glass.

Cade, on the other hand, was more excited to be the tour guide and used the map to lead us around the grounds.

After our walking tour we decided to check out the Lewis and Clark exhibits along the river. We started with the Riverboat museum. Yes, that is Kyle posing in the background of the first picture while the kids pilot the ship.

Now Captain Cade...

and finally Captain Morgan.

Morgan was pretty pleased to be Grandma's tour guide!

We headed out through the gift shop with one final pose in the fancy hats.

Next we headed toward the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, which is basically a hands-on museum where the kids got a small taste of the skills necessary to be an explorer. They each got their visitor's journal to stamp in at each station.

They practiced the life of a night watchman and got to find out whether they had the skills necessary to be a part of the exploration. Grandpa discovered he wasn't so sure he was cut out for watchman duty.

Here they are posing with Lewis, Clark, and the dog named Seaman.

And with the smaller version of the same thing inside...

But no trip would be complete without a stop at the park and a game of tag on the equipment. The rules of the game kept changing, as per Morgan and whatever seemed to put her at an advantage at any given point. Kyle did end up catching her a number of times- but for some reason it never seemed to 'count' in Morgan's opinion. My parents enjoyed this immensely (possibly it reminded them of another bossy young lady from their past).

Grandpa and Morgan took a little time to test out the teeter-totter.
After all the fun we headed back to my parent's house to rest before the birthday celebration that evening. The kids got to play with their 2nd cousins- Abbie, Ian, and Tori along with having cake and ice cream. Boy did they sleep well this night!


Morgan was determined to stop at Great Grandma's house as we headed home Sunday afternoon. Seeing Great Grandma was the added bonus to her first purpose, seeing the kitties! At one point she managed to pick up 4 at one time!


Once we loaded up in the van for the trip home, we discovered we have one more reason NOT to get a cat- Morgan broke out in a rash all over her face from playing with kitties. Had the camera been within reach- I would have gotten a nice close-up to remember the moment, red and blotchy! Too bad, looks like all 4 of us have allergies to cats. One more blessing- a really good reason to say no when Morgan keeps asking for a kitty of her own.

Weekend Trip Across the State- Day 1

Although conferences always bring a long and busy week for my schedule, it also provides a 3 day weekend. Better yet- my 3 day weekend aligned with my mom's as well since her conferences were also last week. So, at 7:30pm we loaded up in the van for the trip across state, arriving just after midnight. The kids blessed us richly- by falling asleep within the first 45 min. of travel- making for a peaceful ride!

In typical fashion, we started off much of the morning in PJ's just relaxing and having a little fun. What could be more fun than this?

And this?

There is probably some sort of safety warning against this so maybe only with adult supervision- behind the camera should count.

Thanks to the BEAUTIFUL weather with 70 degree temps, we spent lots of time outside. Cade, of course, had to test out the trees to make sure they were fit for climbing.

I guess they passed the test!

Grandma was there to 'catch' though just in case.

After proving he is part monkey, he decided to relax for awhile and determine what adventure to take on next.

Ahh, yes. This seemed to do the trick! Thanks Grandpa!

Meanwhile, Morgan sat waiting patiently to be read to as well.

All that playing and reading seemed to make us all hungry- so we got to witness LOTS of meat being prepared for the smoker.

Cade had a little fun helping Grandpa (yes, we posed him for this picture and he isn't actually touching the meat for the germaphobes out there).

Smoked chicken for lunch and ribs for dinner- both in the same day! Yum!!!

But what family gathering filled with food would be complete without dessert? So Morgan and Grandma spent time preparing a delicious batch of Rice Krispie Treats, and took a little time to snuggle at the end of a busy day.

Day 2- a trip to the city to explore and a 60th birthday celebration for my uncle... but I'll blog about that tomorrow. For tonight, I'm off to bed.

Visit from Aunt Kelly!

We were delighted to have a 2 day visit from Auntie Kelly last week- filled with enjoying new toys...

reading books...

snuggling...

playing outside in the yard, and just sharing some smiles.

Halloween at Home

We stayed home as planned to pass out Halloween candy and the kids were pretty excited for this new adventure in their lives. They both changed in to their costumes (we've previously addressed my creativity in this area) and then anxiously emptied bags of candy into the plastic pumpkin in preparation for trick-or-treaters. Next, we went outside to light the candles in each pumpkin- which of course required posing for pictures...

At last they stationed themselves on the steps by the front door to wait.


And wait...


And wait...


Although we did have some trick-or-treating guests, it wasn't quite half way through the night when Cade had left the door to join his dad in watching the Vikings game on TV and Morgan emphatically announced to me, "Mom, this is BORING!" I told her she could go join her brother and dad- and off she went leaving me to sit and monitor the door for the last 45 min and a total of around 30 guests for the evening. Kyle thought it worked beautifully in the end because the Vikings won and he got to sit and eat Reese's- just one more example of the many blessings that fill our lives!