Our little boat captain

My life has been pretty hectic over the last several months - more so than normal. Jason decided to give me a little gift of some quiet time. He loaded Paul in the car and headed back to the QC for a few days - fun for him and for Paul and nice for me to relax just a bit. They had lots of fun on Friday with the whole grandparents crew. They rode the water taxi called the Channel Cat. It makes several stops along the Iowa and Illinois side of the Mississippi River. This was Paul's second time riding it and they were the only ones on the boat. Evidently, the boat captain asked if Paul wanted to come drive the boat....and what 3 year old wouldn't want to drive a boat? I am still a little surprised that he let Paul do it, but obviously the captain was standing very close by....and Jason assures me they were in the middle of the river so he couldn't run into anything.

Loving on Pa during the boat ride.

They took a picnic lunch and had some fun hanging outside in a park. Paul decided he needed to push GranJo over and then sit on her!

Later, it was back to Gram and Pa's house for some outside play time...which included washing his bike without any pants on.

Jason and Paul came home mid-day on Saturday and we spent the rest of the weekend together. It was pretty low key which is just what I wanted AND needed. Today, we headed to Pump It Up for some bouncey fun. Just a year ago, Paul was afraid of the bounce house things, but now he totally loves them. This place lets the adults go on their bouncies too (not all of the places do that). We spent about an hour there and had plenty of fun.

We had lots of fun on this one....it was a little bouncie obstacle course. Paul was awesome at climbing this steep wall. We all took turns racing through it.

Hey daddy....wait for me!

Overall, a nice weekend before another long week......I do cherish the weekends with minimal tantrums and lots of fun interaction.

State Fair fun!

This weekend was time for us to visit the Iowa State Fair.....our second visit and we were excited for the wonderful weather - 80 degrees and low humidity! Compared to last year, this was such a treat. We just saw a news cast that indicated that over 1 million people visited the fair this year - that's just awesome!

Making a scope out of dollar bills while we wait for the bus. We love that you can park at the state capitol complex and catch a bus for a few bucks instead of the hassle of parking on the fairgrounds. Paul kept us plenty entertained while we waited.

And let the gluttony begin.....I must warn you that a key point to the fair for us is the FOOD.....and eat we did! First up - chicken on a stick.

Washed down with some freshly squeezed lemonade......

And then a giant turkey leg (one of our faves from last year too).....

A treat of mini-donuts.....we shared the bag, but I think big daddy ate more than his fair share!

And finally, a pink lemonade flavored snow cone.

We dropped a stack of cash on all of that food.....and needed to walk it off! So, we headed to the section of the fair with all of the rides. I will admit that I am not a big fan of the traveling rides as they just don't seem all that safe.....but we decided to let Paul ride his very first ride. He picked out the gold sparkly helicopter and had a blast! Check out his steering skills.

We also had fun on the super big slide.....you pay $2.50 per person, grab a burlap sack, hike up a bajillion stairs and then spend 13 seconds of pure joy. Paul liked it so much, he had to go twice. Listen closely to the very end of the video...."Mommy! Let's do it again!" That's my boy!




Right before we were ready to call it a day, we decided to ride the Sky Glider. I have a fear of heights, but it looked so peaceful to ride on the ski lift and check out the fair from a unique angle. I wasn't sure how Paul would react but he loved it!

And then it was back on the bus to ride back to our car and head home....another fun annual trek to the fair! Of course, no bus ride would be complete without some discussion of the choo-choo tracks spied out the window.

At home, it was time to break out the Lincoln Logs and build a garage for one of Paul's cars....that kids does love to build and then loves to knock it down just as much.

And finally, I leave you with some fun video from our outside play time. Paul is such a little ham.

Road trip!

Yep, we hit the road for the 6 hour drive to visit our dear friends the Craney's. I must admit that the drive was less than pleasant, but we were thrilled to arrive! Hello St. Louis....
The boys were so excited to see each other again and immediately started playing with their trains - big surprise! We headed outside which was great for Paul to run off some energy after being strapped in for so long.

Hey Paul, check out my cool Thomas bubble engine!

We had a nice dinner, stuck 2 boys in the tub together and then headed to bed. The boys **thought** they were going to get to sleep together....uh, yeah, not so much. But they looked darn cute in J's bed together! They both share a love of Lightening McQueen!

On Friday, it was off to Grant's Farm. We got to ride the tram and see some animals and then it was off to the goat pen for some serious goat loving action. We had tickets to bottle feed the babies, but there were so many people there that those baby goats didn't want any more milk. So we just wandered amongst the fat and happy goats and just petted them instead.

And then we had to WASH our hands! Cute little kids height sinks....and the boys had a blast washing up.

I can't tell you how many pictures I snapped of the boys holding hands and walking (or sometimes running) together. Too cute!

Checking out some more animals.

The weekend seemed to revolve around maps.....here's Paul showing us where to go.

Big J got up close and personal with a camel.....

Checking out the baby Clydesdales.....

Back to the house for some yummy pizza, more play time, another bubble bath and to bed! Saturday's adventure was a trip to the St. Louis Zoo. The boys bought tickets for the Metro.

Loving their Metro ride!

We headed to Forest Park and waited for the tram bus. Plenty of time to mess around....big hug!

Map reading in tandem.....

We finally made it to the zoo and Rebecca and James were brilliant to suggest renting a double cart for the boys. Paul isn't much of a stroller rider anymore but riding in a cart with his friend was right up his alley. They even shared a snack while riding together....

Sharing his Leapster.....

There was lots of bike riding and racing and crashing into each other.....

By the end of our visit, we were pooped out! We had SO much fun invading the Craney's house and visiting with such great friends. I really wish they lived closer so we could see them more often but we certainly made the best of the time that we had. Just so we are clear how much fun we had.....here's a parting shot of Paul fast asleep on the way home. He was exhausted!

Let the care package fun begin.....

We totally missed out on the ability to send care packages to Paul when we were waiting to bring him home. We weren't connected to the web board with others working through our agency. We had asked our social worker how we could send things and she had indicated that we couldn't....since we didn't know any better, we didn't send anything. I must admit that I felt terrible when I found out later that we could have sent things. I wonder if Paul's foster family thought it was strange that we didn't send anything to him. I certainly hope they didn't think that we weren't head over heels in love with him. In the end, I guess it doesn't really matter that we weren't able to send anything since he came home and is healthy and happy and seemingly well adjusted....but I will admit that it has always bugged me a little that we missed that chance.

And now with the miracle of our second adoption, we are so much wiser.....and our connections are so much broader. We have already assembled our first care package for Miss Lillie. All the pieces came together today and I did my trial run to see how much of what I bought would actually fit into that minuscule gallon sized bag. For those of you unfamiliar with the art of the care package - since the foster mothers typically have to travel by public transportation, it is customary to only send a package the size of a gallon ziploc bag. So, the mission is to cram as much as humanly possible into that gallon sized bag....no easy feat.

On my first foray, I was able to fit 3 outfits, 2 jars of California Baby cream, a fabric photo album with 5 pictures of us, a flash drive, a flip video camera and a big bottle of vitamins. And of course a letter to Lillie's foster family with a lame attempt to thank them for taking such wonderful care of her.....tough to choose the exact right words. The other interesting fact is that vitamins are pretty pricey in Korea so they are a much appreciated gift by the foster families. So we bought them a large bottle of Centrum and told them in our letter that they can keep the flip video camera as a gift as well. Selfishly, between the flip and the flash drive we are hoping for lots of pictures and videos.

Here is all of the loot that we are able to fit into our first gallon ziploc bag......

And here's what it looks like all squashed in there.....not sure I could fit one more thing in the bag without it bursting or not being able to close it. Before we send it, I will mark it with our case number, etc and then tape the heck out of the bag to make sure it stays closed!

I am quite pleased with our first package. We are hopeful to send another around her birthday and I look forward to the super human feat of dominating the gallon sized bag yet again!

GranJo's birthday bash!

My family tries to get together each year for my mom's birthday....and this past weekend was the big bash. We hit the road on Friday in the late afternoon......healthy dinner on the road.
We spent the day together on Saturday just relaxing and enjoying each other. Auntie Jen had lots of fun playing cars with Paul.

After lunch, we headed to the park to play on the equipment and we took Paul's stomp rocket along. Talk about a fun and cheap toy!

Loading his rocket......

Last inspection before launch time.....

Climbing up for a better and more powerful launch.

Big jump......

Wheeeeee!!! Someone had a blast launching his rockets super high.

Then it was back to the house for a rousing game of Candy Land. Paul didn't really have the attention span, but GranJo tried hard.

So Paul moved along to some iPad games instead....he is now obsessed with Angry Birds although he calls it Hungry Birds.

It was time for more outside time so we broke out the trunks and the buckets and Paul had fun playing in water in GranJo's backyard. She surprised him with a plastic fishing rod and he had a blast catching the magnet fish.

I caught one THIS big.....

And why stand on the ground when you can climb inside the bucket of water?

Fishing from inside the bucket......

Don't get stuck.....

We had a fun weekend for sure......thanks GranJo for getting older so we can all hang out and have lots of fun!