Corn Maze

To start things off on the right step while Trav is out of the country, I decided to let the kids decide what we should do on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.  Their choice . . . the corn maze!!  And a good choice it was.  The place is 5 minutes from our house, the sun was shining, and most importantly, I had a coupon ($13 per person is not cheap).  So after a late breakfast, the kids all picked out their own clothes (a new thing they've been wanting to do lately), we packed up, and drove down the street (ok, it's not just down the street, it's more like 9 blocks, but you get the idea, it's really close).  We haven't been to the corn maze for a couple of years (like I mentioned before, it's kind of spendy), but when we walked in, I was happy to see some new attractions (and so were the kids judging by their smiles).  We did it all (or at least tried to) . . . the bouncy pillows, the corn pit, the maze (the little kid one not the big one), listened to some music, played on anything and everything they could climb on, had some mini doughnuts, and even took in a magic show.  The one thing the kids were not interested in was seeing the animals which is weird because in the past they always wanted to see them (maybe we've over used our zoo pass this year and seeing more animals just isn't exciting?).  Anyway, after 3 or so hours, everyone was sweaty and dirty and it was time to go home.

Ryan "lost" his head

And now the girls are trying to "lose" their heads too

It was a great start to a hopefully great week.  We're at Tuesday already and everything is moving along nicely.  Trav sent a couple of emails saying how wonderful Columbia was and telling me about his "work" dinners (since when do work dinners consist of awesome food, drinks, and live music?) - I think I need to get myself a job already!  Although, this has sort of been like a vacation for me too - one less mouth to feed every night, one less person to divide my attention with - guess we're all winners this week!  Just kidding, we'll be happy when Trav is back in the good old USA (and then he can take over as Ellie's butt wiper, it's getting old really fast!), can't wait for Daddy to be home!

MEA already??

Apparently time flies from the end of September to mid October - not sure why, but it seems like we've been  busy and clearly I've been lazy with my writing.  Time to get back on track . . .

So MEA "break" was just this past week (I'm still not really sure why we have MEA - it's not like school has been in session all that long, but apparently everyone already needs a break?).  Anyway, with MEA break, comes a lot of extra planning.  There is no way I'm going to sit in the house for 3 straight days with all four of the kids (Colton being our plus one), so it's always a struggle to find some fun activities that everyone can participate in.  And surprisingly, this MEA break went pretty well.  We spent the first day (Wednesday) at our friend's house (luckily for us, this family has two kids to play with, one for Ryan and one for Lauren, and even luckier for us, their mom doesn't mind having a couple of 2 year olds tag along so we all got to have some fun).  After a busy morning/afternoon of fun, the kids and I packed up and headed back home for some late afternoon naps and a little rest - a good start to the break.

On Thursday, we were joined by Grandma Loken and Auntie (and Kate too) for a trip to the zoo.  I wasn't sure what to expect with this trip being MEA and all, but surprisingly, the place was not too packed.  We've done the zoo many times in the past where it's been just me and the four kids, let's just say having a Grandma and an Auntie (even with her newborn) along certainly makes life easier - so thanks for coming along ladies!  I tried to make a point of taking more pictures on this outing (especially since my time wasn't completely consumed by keeping an eye on everyone), and was pleasantly surprised when I downloaded the pictures tonight and saw that I had taken 52 shots - not bad if I have to say so myself.  Then, the pictures started downloading and all I saw was blurry shots of animals way too close up and that's when I remembered that Ryan decided that he should be in charge of the camera for the majority of the zoo visit - great.  So if you ever want to see tons of "so-so" pictures of big blurry animals, stop by and let Ryan walk you through our visit, I'm sure he'll be more than happy to do so.  I did find this one though and had a good laugh.  I was out getting our lunches at this time so I'm not really sure what was going on (or who was in charge), but it looks like Ryan might have tried his hand at taking a picture of actual people and not just animals - too bad the only person who is looking at the camera is also the only person who is upside down - oh well, at least he tried.

And here are the few that I managed to get in before Ryan took over . .

 As you can see, getting all the kiddos to sit and look at the camera was nearly impossible so these are as good as it gets.

With the zoo down, and only one more day of break, we spent our final day of fun at the dentist - yay!  It was actually fun though because no one had any cavities and after our appointments, we spent some time at the mall where we ran into Dawn, Paul, Tyler, and Amelia and where we rode the carousel, played around, and had a bite to eat - nice!

With MEA technically over, we still had the weekend before we had to get back to real life so we decided to have some more fun.  Saturday was spent helping our favorite little plus one, Colton, celebrate his 2nd birthday.  Really, what could be more fun on a Saturday than Thomas the Train and ice cream cake?  After the festivities, it was back to get ready for our new reality for the next week . . . being Dad-less.  Trav had to leave for Columbia early on Sunday morning (it was either 4:10 or 4:40am - I was still half asleep) when he left and that meant it would be just the kids and I for an entire week - can you imagine!!!  I'll get to some of our fun in the next entry.