You scared the stuff out of me!

Ryan never stops surprising me with the things he will say or do - everyday seems to bring something new, and usually funny from him. Here are a few of the most recent things he has said or done. The other day we were playing hide-n-seek. Ryan was the seeker while Auntie and I were the hiders. Anyway, he finds me first so we go off to find Auntie together. When we get close to her hiding spot, she jumps out and scares us. Ryan jumps and squeals and then says, "Auntie scared the stuff out of me!" I laugh right away because I know Ryan wants to say that he got the "crap" scared out of him, but "crap" is a word that we don't use at our house (or should I say a word we try not to use) so he has replaced it with "stuff" - one of many words he has come up to replace bad words. Others to stay away from at our house . . . "god" to be replaced with "gosh", "stupid" is now "funny", and "god damn it" (which happens to be one of daddy's favorite sayings lately) is now "dog gam it" (daddy actually came up with that one). And trust me, if you happen to slip up and say any of these forbidden words, Ryan WILL hear it and WILL correct you immediately. Half of the time I swear he isn't listening to our conversations and I'll slip up and Ryan will say from the other room, we don't say that word mom - sorry bud, I forgot.

Onto his funny stories he has told me lately. The other day he was talking (shocking isn't it - Ryan talking?) about his tattoo. This is the same tattoo he has had for about two weeks because he refuses to let me wash it off. Anyway, he is pointing out all the cool parts of his tattoo and all of a sudden says, "you want to see my tat dance?" I'm not sure what he is talking about, but I say yes and laugh when he starts wiggling his arm and trying to flex his muscle to make his tat move. When he is finished, I ask who taught him that - his answer, "Aaron." Like any good uncle, Aaron must have shown Ryan his tattoo "dancing" last time we were all back home and Ryan for some reason remembered it today. Maybe they can have a dance-off next time we get together assuming Ryan's tat is still there. And finally, today he was telling me about his weekend with Grandma and Grandpa and throws in a little story about one of his boogers. According to Ryan, at some point during his visit with Grandma and Grandpa, he picked his nose and decided to put it in his throat (his words). I asked why and he didn't answer, he just kept going with his story. After he put it in his throat, he said he cried (he even showed me how he cried) and ate it up. I'm guessing he cried because he just ate a booger, who wouldn't?! After that story was done, he went on to talking about something else totally unrelated. I was still stuck on the booger story and called Auntie to either confirm or deny - she could do neither as she didn't see him do it, but said he had plenty of alone time to sneak a boogie in if he wanted to. I know the first thing I would do if I had a free minute away from everyone would be to eat a booger - it is just so obvious.

So there is Ryan in a couple of paragraphs - I hope you enjoy him as much as I do!

Adults only weekend

Trav and I had an "adults only weekend" this past weekend at the cabin. Trav's parents were nice enough to let us have the cabin all to ourselves, and my parents were nice enough to take the kids, so we were set. We headed to the cabin on Friday. On the way, we stopped at a local bar/restaurant for a bite to eat, then went to the cabin, unloaded our stuff, mowed the lawn, watched a movie, and were in bed by 11:00pm - no kids, a little freedom, and we are still in bed by 11:00pm - what is wrong with us! Saturday was a different story as another couple joined us for the day/night and the fun started pretty much the minute they arrived. There were lots of adult beverages, some lawn games, some good grillin', a fun evening boat ride, and the highlight of the day - a trip to the local bar. When we got there, it was packed (according to the waitress) - there were 15 people there, including the four of us! They don't sell any hard alcohol at this bar, so we had to bring our own and they supplied to pop - what a deal. We had met and talked to everyone in the bar within the first 20 minutes of being there, and there were some interesting stories - let's just leave it at that. The evening was made even better when the bar owner presented me with a one of a kind bright, fluorescent yellow shirt with his picture on the front and the words,"we're just people helping people" across the back. Not knowing what the shirt meant, I asked Bob, the owner, and he said that he, and the workers at the bar, were just people helping people have fun - works for me. I will guard that t-shirt with my life. Waking up Sunday was a little difficult, but we managed and were ready to get back to see the kids. It was a fun weekend, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't do that too often - my body (and head) doesn't recover the way it used to!

Here are some random pictures of the kids from the past couple of days. These are pictures of Kelty's last day with us - the kids were showing her some love.

Here is Lauren trying on her new hand-knit hat - thanks Shirb - it fits great and must be very warm as Lauren's head was sweating when I took it off (we'll wait for cold weather before I put it on again). And finally, Ryan pouting about being in time out for not listening. He took a toy from Lauren, I asked three times for him to give it back, and he acted as though he couldn't hear me (he gets that from his daddy - maybe selective hearing is genetic). The bottom picture is him with his fake smile as he apologizes for being naughty and waits to get out of timeout.

Steele County Fair

Saturday was the final day of our 3-day run of fun. We picked up Grandma and Grandpa Loken in the morning and headed off to the largest county fair in Minnesota - this is as close to the state fair that I want to get. We started off the day by visiting the animal barns where Ryan got to see the usual farm animals, and even got to pose for a picture with a sheep - talk about fun! After the animals, we went over to see some tractors and grab some ice cream while we took a break. Once we were full and well rested, the fun really started. Grandpa bought Ryan an unlimited ride wristband so we made the most of it by riding pretty much every ride that was offered to little kids, including, riding on a live pony - lucky kid! It's funny, because when I think back to my childhood, I can't ever remember a time when dad bought us unlimited anything. By early afternoon, Lauren had already had went through a couple of bottles, had taken a nap, and was ready to get out of the stroller. Ryan, on the other hand, didn't eat or drank much, was dragging, and was ready to get in the stroller and take it easy. We grabbed some food, stopped to check out some puppies (one of which became "Kelty"), and went home. The kids had baths and both were sleeping by 7:30 - a long day, which led to a long night of sleep - yeah!
Looks like Lauren was so bored by the day she had to turn to chewing on her feet to keep herself entertained- nice.

Como Zoo/Como Town

Auntie and I decided to make the most of a beautiful day by taking the kids to the Como Zoo on Friday. We headed out early to beat the crowds and everything seemed to be going good. We saw a baby orangutan, some lions up close, and a variety of different animals, but the exhibit that Ryan liked most . . . the construction zone for the new polar bear exhibit. It was full of big tractors, other machines, and most importantly, a "worker man" that took the time to talk (or should I say listen) to Ryan for almost five minutes. If I had known he would have been happy with seeing construction, I would have just taken him down the road, there is always some kind of construction going on with all the new buildings going up. Once we got past the constuction zone, we headed to the adjoining amusement park for what was supposed to be a quick visit to catch a ride or two and then head home - good plan, too bad it didn't happen that way. Ryan wanted to ride on the train so we did that without any problems, then I told him to pick one more ride and then we were going to head home. He chose the fire truck ride - short line, quick ride, sounds good to me. We get to the front of the line, Ryan does the ride, and then it gets ugly. I tell him it is time to leave and he keeps saying, "I want to ride in the fire truck." The ride had two parts, one in the actual truck, and one that was in the ladder that went up and down and you got to shoot water at a burning building in the middle. I figured he would like the ladder part as the trucks didn't do anything but go around in a circle, I was wrong, and he let me know it by throwing the biggest fit ever right in the middle of the park. Of course everyone was starring at us. I tried to stay calm and talk to Ryan, but every time I said something, he would just scream this high pitched, nasty scream to drown out my voice - isn't that sweet. So, instead of talking through this situation, I decided to just pick him up and carry him out. Lucky for me, he decided to make his entire body limp and throw his head back - I had to keep reminding myself how much I loved him, because at that moment, I wanted nothing to do with him. There was about 5 more minutes of screaming, nasty looks from strangers, and trying to lug a limp three year old before we got to the car and got out of there as fast as possible - thank god it is over. Once he was buckled into his car seat, it literally took him less than 5 minutes to fall asleep. What can I say, the kid needs his sleep or he turns into a little devil.
Luckily we still had one happy kid when we left!

Horse races

We have been trying to get out to see the horse races all summer, and this past Thursday, it finally happened. Thursday is "Buck Night" at the races, meaning everything is one dollar - admission, food, and drink - what a good deal! So, with the weather finally cooperating, we headed out to have some good, cheap fun at the races. We took Ryan once last year, but he didn't really get what was going on so it was a short visit. This time, he was really into the horses, even pointing out that there were "working horses" and "racing horses" - he liked the working horses better because he got to pet them while the racing horses were taken right back to the stables. Ryan and Daddy went down on the track to see the action up close while the girls stayed up in the stands and ate our fair share of food - how can you not when it only costs one dollar! While the boys were walking back up to the stands, they ran into some of our old friends who we hadn't seen in well over a year so they gathered up their stuff and headed over to our section. Ryan was in heaven as they have a little girl about the same age as him so he got an instant playmate. The two of them, along with the little girl's cousin, spent the rest of the night sitting by themselves a couple of rows ahead of us doing their own thing while the adults got some time to catch up. Before we knew it, it was almost 10:00pm - way past bedtime - so packed up and headed home. The kids were out cold within a couple of being home - Trav and I weren't too far behind - all that food and drink makes a person tired.

The new arrival!

Ash and Mike extended their family this weekend by adding a 6 lb, brown haired, blue-eyed little girl to their family. We are still debating who she looks like. What do you think?They picked up their puppy, which they named "Kelty" on Sunday morning. Lucky for us (mainly Ryan), Ash and Kelty are staying with us for a couple of days until she is done working and moves in with Mike. Ryan is enjoying his time "babysitting" the puppy while Auntie works. He is very gentle with her when she sleeps, even telling everyone to "be quiet, the puppy is sleeping." He also takes Kelty out to run and play in the backyard - a very attentive babysitter. Here he is making sure Kelty takes her nap.We'll see what happens when Auntie leaves and Ryan's puppy days are done - hopefully he won't have too much puppy fever because I don't see any puppies in our near future - two kids are enough to handle.

Preschool letter

Ryan received a letter from his preschool today to let us know when orientation is, and when school starts - can you believe our little boy will be starting school in less than one month! The letter included a schedule for the year - some of the highlights are a pumpkin patch field trip, picture day, a Christmas party, a Valentine's Day party, and two parent/teacher conferences - I don't know who is more excited, Ryan or me, as there are many opportunities for parent volunteers as well, I might have to get in on a few of those. It sounds like the year will be a blast, I just hope Ryan enjoys it as much as I think he will. Orientation is September 2, class beings September 9th - I look forward to Ryan's stories from school, I'm sure they'll make for some good blogging! Here are a couple of pictures of Ryan and his "school" letter - he is so excited!