deep river water park

As a reward for successfully finishing swimming lessons this summer, the boys got to take a trip yesterday with Bethany, Klaudia, and Loni to Deep River Water Park. From the reports (and the pictures), they had a great time, although Max had a little trouble keeping warm (notice how he's got his arms clenched up in every picture). What lucky boys, and what a great thing to do at the end of Liam's very last summer as a preschooler!

klaudia had a birthday...

...and Max was thrilled. Really.

more than meets the eye/liam in disguise

Liam's friend down the alley was nice enough to let Liam try on his Optimus Prime mask the other day. I can already see what his Halloween costume will be...

ferris wheel etc.

After all of the excitement they had at our little county fair, the boys decided they wanted to go on a grown-up ride, so we headed off one day to take them to Navy Pier to ride the big Ferris wheel. All four of us wanted to go on the ride (although in Mike's case, "wanted" may be a debatable term -- I don't think he enjoyed it so much), so I was a little worried when I saw a sign that said you couldn't ride if you were pregnant. At about seven months now, there is NO hiding this pregnancy. But Mike figured, correctly as it turned out, that the people working there really wouldn't care as long as I didn't point it out to them. So on we went. The boys were not scared of the heights at all, and were fascinated looking out the window at the skyline and the lake. They had a wonderful time ... and then our seven minutes were over. Seemed like an awfully long drive just to go on one ride, so Mike took them on the carousel and we walked around the pier for a while and had some Dippin' Dots, and then it was time to go.








On the way back home, we stopped at Kent and Popi's house for a visit and some time in the pool, which was also a big hit with the boys. There were tons of cousins there to play with, and plenty of adults around, so we all got to relax and enjoy some good food and conversation. And after all of that, we even managed to get to Best Buy to get the new computer with minutes to spare before they closed! A very full day, but awfully fun, especially watching the boys check out the city after a long time away. Max, especially, was impressed, but he was so little the last time we were downtown that I doubt he remembers any of it.

i know, i know

Definitely not enough posting lately. In my defense, we just got a new computer (yay!!) so I've been spending most of my time archiving and copying things from the old computer so we can put it away until we're ready to install it upstairs for the boys to use (how lucky are they?). We've had the old computer for seven years, so you can imagine how much stuff there is to go through. Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll be finished and can get my office back into shape so I can think again. The current setup is just a little too far over the edge into chaos for me to be comfortable.

On the plus side, I'm so excited that suddenly the blogging thing seems to have really taken off for my family! I started a blog for the extended family last year, as a way for us all to keep up with each other, and in the past week, people other than me have started posting to it. Today's post is all about Klaudia's birthday, which is a source of excitement and confusion for the boys. They're very excited that today is her birthday, but very confused as to why we have to wait "ages" (Liam's term) until her party on Sunday. I think they'll find the waiting to be worthwhile, especially since they'll get to go out to the barn and see the NINE new Great Dane puppies Klaudia's dog Lilly had earlier this week!