A different kind of Mothers' Day

As you have probably noticed I try to keep this blog focused on the positive parts of our lives. I want to capture for the readers and ultimately the kids (when they grow up) the fun days that we have. As anyone who knows us knows, we don't always have fun days. Grieving the death of the kids' mommy and my wife Melinda is hard. On Mothers' Day this year we took a break from our normal routine and spent time remembering mommy.

We took new flowers to mommy's grave, watched the "Melinda's Greatest Hits" video and looked at the brand new mommy books that our friends Chas and Adrianne had just finished (if you haven't seen the books yet you are missing out - swing by the house next time you can and we will share them with you). We took a hand written note (picture attached above) and tried to send it to Heaven by attaching it to a helium-filled balloon that we bought at Homeland. The note was too heavy for the balloon so I saved it in our mommy box at home. We went ahead and sent the balloon to mommy - we are pretty sure she got it because we watched it soar into the sky until it was just a tiny speck. To cap off the day we skipped rocks on the pond by mommy's grave - a new family tradition.

Welcome to the Gun Show

While sifting through pictures to use on the blog I came across these and couldn't resist. As those of you with more than one kid can imagine, my little guy likes to do everything his big bro does. He is starting to mimic him in lots of ways - especially in his attempts to make you laugh by making funny faces and voices (I'm not sure where that comes from....).

After bath this evening the boys spent some time grooming in the mirror (with help from a step stool) and then put their muscules on display. I know their momma was always stacked (especially after lugging around all these kids) so I'm sure they are getting their muscles from their daddy. Disclaimer - I try to always keep my shirt on, especially when there is are pictures being taken.

This was a fun moment that was just perfect for a camera. I'm just glad they decided to pass on the baby oil and fake tanning cream before the big pose down.

Camping at the lake

In June we had a wonderful camping trip with Grandma & Grandpa and Uncle Mike & Aunt Nikki - our first ever family vacation. Nikki organized the trip to a local state park that had everything we needed and much more. We rented a cabin right on the lake and a tent site and jumped right in to the offerings of the park and attached resort. Unfortunately I misplaced my camera after the first full day and so I'll have to wait on more pictures from the rest of the family. There were several "firsts" for the kids - including our "baby" having a first experience "painting" a stick using a feather or at least that is what he said he was doing in the second picture from the bottom. The big kids struck out on fishing but enjoyed their first real attempt. Some of our favorite activites were fishing, sleeping in a tent (my middle M backed out on the second night), skipping rocks, boating/swimming in the lake, swimming at the resort pool, arts and crafts at the rec center (where Uncle Mike dominated me at ping pong), horseback riding (where we saw several baby deer including a set of twins), hayride (where my big girl had her shoe stolen by some "outlaws"), visiting a nature center, taking a long hike (what better way is there to find ticks?), and cookout on the fire (including my favorite - smores). Hard to imagine that we crammed all of this and more into basically 2 days. Aunt Nikki did a great job of keeping us moving so that we could hit all of the main attractions. I will let her speak for herself but from my view, Aunt Nikki's highlight was breakfast burritos - a traditional camping food! We had such a wonderful time and made some great memories. We have vowed to go back this next summer and explore some more.