Omaha

On Friday we headed out to Omaha to visit Carl's aunt and the zoo. We left around 2:00(nap time) thinking the boys would sleep in the car at least part of the way, oh so wrong, ,Gabe fell asleep for about 30 minutes and Ty did not sleep at all! Usually in the car he zonks out when I don't really want him to and for the trip he was awake the whole time and not very happy to boot, ughh. We arrived Friday evening and Sara had supper all planned for us, when we were done we headed to a park nearby and let the boys burn off some pent up energy from the car ride. It was a nice park and they both had fun. Ty aquired a fan club of two preteen girls who would follow him around and make sure he didn't fall and help him up on things and get him off of the slide when he went down, the whole time exclaiming he's so cute(even though his butt was wet from his car seat(he leaked bad in the car on the drive) and he was unbeknown to us poopy) Gabe just loved everything and had a great time, neither wanted to leave when it was time. Saturday we woke up to a little rain and wondered how the weather was going to be for our zoo day but it turned out pretty well. We arrived and it really wasn't raining anymore so we set off to do our outdoor things. We walked around and looked at all the animals and rode the train. By then it was lunch time and starting to drizzle a little bit, we grabbed some lunch and the boys were quite cold so we went in the gorilla exhibit. Gabe loved all the bubble windows you could climb into to look at the gorillas. We then headed to the very busy aquarium where the boys loved the penguins and especially the shark tunnel, I think they could have sat there watching them for hours. When we were done in the aquarium we made our way to the jungle where we went from cold and rainy to hot and humid. The boys loved all the bridges and water falls. We ended our zoo day by visiting the desert dome where Gabe was really wishing he could have climbed up on all the sand and played, he also really enjoyed the cactus. Our zoo visit wore Ty out and by the time we arrived at the desert dome he was out for the count. Gabe soon followed on our drive back to Sara's. Sunday we woke up to more rain and thunderstorms and made the drive over to Council Bluffs for my cousins confirmation lunch. We didn't stay for confirmation itself as the boys were getting quite crabby and we needed to be back by 6:00 for connection group. Ty once again failed to fall asleep on the way back and we drove through some very unpleasant rain, we were glad to arrive home! All in all it was a great weekend!

Shorts!

Thursday was a beautiful day. We headed out to Ada Hayden again to let Gabe ride his bike around the lake. It was so fun to see the boys cute little legs again after being under cover all winter.

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the hubby has started a new blog, you can find it by clicking on the link The Husband on the right of this blog or by clicking here.

Veishea

The weather held out for the most part on Saturday so we were able to go to the Veishea parade and enjoy some food while we were out. Pete and Andrea, Alan and Clark all came to our house and we walked over to campus and found a good spot to watch the parade. All the boys did a good job waiting for the parade to start. Once it started Ty turned into our little candy scrounge, if there was candy anywhere in the near vicinity he would find it and try to eat it. Gabe liked the candy as well but he paid more attention to the things actually in the parade. He loved the bands, the firetrucks and the Wall-E float especially. We had to make sure Ty didn't run out in the street but for the most part they did great at the parade. It started raining about half way through, not too heavy of rain but enough to make the ground wet and everything dirty. It stopped shortly after it started and then didn't rain on us again(much to Carl's displeasure as he was counting on the rain to help out with reseeding and fertilizing he did on our lawn on Saturday morning:) After the parade we walked over to the Block and Bridle club and got our brat meals(the brats are made by the meat department at ISU and are great!) We ate them in front of Mckay Hall where the boys found new entertainment playing in and around the bike racks. We also got to enjoy Fudge, Cherry Pies and Homemade ice cream, along with the candy from the parade I think we were all on sugar overload! We visited the big sprayers in front of Davidson Hall where the boys liked to climb. After we visited the petting zoo area we walked back to our house, Ty almost made it back awake but sleep caught up with him about a block from our house. It was a fun day and we were all ready for bed Saturday night. Gabe and Ty will have candy to munch on for the next few months:)

Bubbles

We have been enjoying the beautiful weather this past week. We have been playing in the new tree house everyday and have even had a few friends over to try it out! Today is probably the nicest we have had so far so fresh off new haircuts we broke out the bubbles. Gabe finally got the hang of it and could actually get bubbles to come out this year! Ty on the other head just put his bubble wand in his mouth, I can't imagine it tastes very good but he didn't seem to mind. Both boys has so much fun watching and chasing the bubbles and trying to blow their own. We played in our front yard and enjoyed the scent of our Star Magnolia tree that is in bloom right now. We are hoping that the weather holds out for Veishea tomorrow so we can go to the parade and eat some brats!

Easter, The Tree House, and Ladybug Friends

We had a busy weekend! On Friday we went to Krugers to dye Easter eggs, the boys did a great job this year and we had no huge messes to clean up, only a few egg casualties but I suppose that is to be expected. Ty and Bree wanted in on the fun as well even though I think Ty would have been just as happy to dip Lightning McQueen in the dye instead of the Easter egg but he tried. Friday also began the assembly of the untree house as Carl calls it(in amongst the trees but not actually in a tree) Friday night my parents came over and helped Carl set the posts. This was some of the progress from Friday. Saturday I had to work from 7-3 so I missed most of the progress until I got home and then I managed to get a few shots. Saturday night after a long day working we went to church, I got the boys cute little sweaters to wear and tried to get their picture with their easter eggs with their name on it. Yeah you see how well those turned out. Sunday we woke up and ate Grandma Nancy's hot cross buns for breakfast, look Grandma even Ty is eating it! Then we did Easter baskets and I made lunch for us and my mom and dad, who came over to help out with the tree house again. Somehow in all the excitment of the weekend we still managed to do an Easter egg hunt, Gabe was very excited with the jelly bean eggs, Ty didn't care too much but did manage to sneak a few into his bucket away from his brother. The tree house made tremendous progress Sunday afternoon and is now ALMOST completed, it still needs a few little things here and there, most importantly slats put on the sides so Gabe doesn't fall out when he climbs up in the loft area but it is usuable and has been used frequently already. We spent lots of time outside this past weekend and got to explore our flowers blooming. Gabe liked this daffodil a lot, he also really enjoys lady bugs, for some reason we have about a billion of them in the house and he is always finding one and letting it crawl all over his hand and talking about how cute it is. Here is one of his lady bug friends. Even though this Easter was busy with building, working and playing we were glad to take time and praise God for sending his one and only son to die for us, but more importantly defeat death for us and raise us up to new life in him! Thank you Jesus..all praise the one who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead!