A couple weeks ago, the 3 guys, Grandpa Ekstrom and I headed
out to the fair. It was a nice rural one with lots of animals for the
boys to see. Man, they had SUCH a great time! They saw so many
different animals, farm & exotic. We watched horse barrel races too
which they really liked. Oh and you can't forget the very high class
car/truck demolition thing. Haha. Being the boys that they are though,
they loved it of course! We ate junk food, played games, watched the
rides, and got to pet lots of creatures. Oliver loves animals and really
was enjoying his ride. He sat in that backpack for all 3 hours we
were there! Happy as a clam. He is such an easy going guy. Noah
had a blast of course too. All in all, it was a wonderful night out in the
country with my favorite people on the planet. The boys were so well
behaved, never complained or whined or anything. Just an absolute
pleasure to be with. By the time we packed it up after 9, they passed
out within seconds of being in the car.
Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. At least we had our cell phones
so I was able to catch a few shots of them having a great time. So,
I apologize in advance for the terrible quality. I figured they were still
too cute to pass up on though!
Noah LOVING all the tractors & Oliver enjoying the
view. Look at Steve's face, keeping an eye on that goat! My love & I (with Oliver), & Oliver super thrilled! Noah & Grandpa watching the ride, petting goats, and
playing games We bought the boys a cowboy hat, which they have been
fighting over ever since,
definitely should have bought two! Sheesh! Is this kid not incredible or what??
Can you believe it is already AUGUST? I mean come on. August means it's
almost September, which means basically Christmas. Seriously. I might as well
drag the decorations out now and start salting the driveway!
Ok. So maybe that is a slight exaggeration. But really, from here on out, the
last
of our nice days are going to just speed on by. Then comes the season of 400
holidays and birthdays. Then the dead of winter for the next 13 or so months.
Well, or so it seems!
Hmmm. Maybe I should be more optimistic huh?
Alright. It is August. Which is an absolutely lovely time of year here in NY.
The sun is shining, the temps are still hot, and everything is in bloom and nice
and green! My hydrangea tree is absolutely bursting with blooms, branches
sagging from all the weight. The window boxes on the porch are nice and bushy.
It really is quite beautiful and I have LOTS to be thankful for! It has been a
perfect summer really. Not too much rain, not cool like last summer, nice and
hot with lots of sun.
We have filled our days with day trips, camping, drive-in movies, fishing, bike
rides,
playgrounds, walks through the park, swimming, picnics, friends, family, BBQs,
popsicles, berry picking, canoeing, s'mores, sprinklers, sand boxes, horses,
baseball
games, and so much more. It has been a fun summer for sure so far! It's not done
yet and we have a full schedule from here on out. Weekends are packed with more
trips and family plans, and I am sure it is going to go by in a blink!
So, here are a few of the shots I have snapped in the last month. These are all
from at least 2 weeks ago though. I have a gobzillion more on my camera to go
through. Including our camping trip to the Adirondack's 2 weekends ago. SO,
those are yet to come. I can't quite seem to put the camera down when the days
are sunny and the kids are smiling! Oliver is walking like a pro by the way!
Crazy.
Oliver (11mos today!) in his awesome shades Oliver loves his bike and Noah pushes him around the
house, just adorable. Oh, and look at the tourist! Ha. Noah having a fresh fruit salad snack in his boxer briefs
(stinkin' cute right?) All 3 kiddos watching the garbage truck, Oliver
riding Noah's bike, and Noah about to go fishing! UGH. ADORABLE! Noah and Charlotte in their glasses and
Oliver flying his plane. These are from our 1st camping trip. Look at his mohawk!
Thinking....thinking... Mmmmm pancakes! Oliver roaming around nakie (it was in the
90s and HUMID!). Oh and discovering the fishing pole. My brother Jonah and his gf Courtney. Noah making kissy
face! My baby sister Hayli with her cutie bf Tom on the 4th (he
is stationed in ALASKA!) The boys love riding together! Noah reeling in a big ol
fish. We were wondering why Noah was so down while we were on
the beach. Turns out he had a 104 fever!!!! Terrible parents. Terrible.
Noah playing on the playground, Papa pushing Oliver,
Oliver & dad reading (look at those feet of his!) HAhaha, look at that hair! Two of my loves. SIGH. This boy is just precious. What a sense of humor he
has already!
That's all for today. Soon we'll be heading to Baltimore
to meet
the newest member of the family! My sister in law gave birth to
sweet little Zachary (the 1st boy cousin for Noah & Oliver!) on
Saturday, he was a healthy 9lbs! Can't wait for baby kisses!
Well things seem to get done in spurts here huh? Oh well, we do
what we can right? Summer is always such a busy time for everyone.
I don't even want to ATTEMPT to empty my camera right now.
There are at least 900 photos on there at the moment. Yeeeeaah. I
am definitely not motivated enough to tackle that!
In other news, we took the boys camping over the 4th of July weekend.
It was our first trip tent camping with them. Before the kiddos were
born Steve and I really liked to camp together and with friends and
family. The last time we tent camped was the summer of 2007 when I
was freshly pregnant with Noah (Mmhmm, NOT a great idea when you
are wrestling 24/7 morning sickness!) Then when Noah was 6 months or so,
we did some cabin camping which was nice and easy with a little guy.
Last year I was pregnant so we did a beach house vaca instead.
So this year is the first year in several summers where I am not pregnant
and don't have a newborn. It sure is fun to be your regular size and have
energy in the summer!
So anyways, we decided this was a tent camping year. Noah is 2.5 and Oliver
is almost 1, so the ages are pretty good. We don't have to be holding
Oliver all the time and Noah is just a breeze.
Our first trip on the 4th was a local, one nighter. We figured it would be
a good introduction to camping with the boys and good to also get all our
equipment sorted through and inventoried. Which is a good thing since
we had to make a last minute trip to get a new tent because somehow
most of the poles had broken while in storage??? Weird.
The boys had a BLAST!! Noah was absolutely in LOVE with the tent.
He wanted to be in there all day (nevermind that it was in the 90s!). He
also thought his little cot was awesome. We bought him a little kid sleeping
bag and he was just so excited to sleep in it. Oliver had fun crawling all
over the place and following around his big brother!
It was so cute to see them sharing a s'more, riding the tricycle together
(Oliver sits on the seat, Noah stands on the platform, and Steve pushes them),
and discovering the fun of camping. They both love being outdoors so
for them to be able to stay outside ALL day and night, they were floored.
Overall it went really well. Thankfully (as the mom I am), I brought along
our medicine kit because Noah sprung a 104 degree fever in the evening.
A little Advil and he was feeling much better. But yes, we all had a
great time and there wasn't anything to stop us from doing it all again.
Our next camping trip will be to Old Forge ADK for a few nights next
weekend. That should be lovely. Then we will cap off the summer with
one last camp trip to Assateague Island in September where we will tent on
the beach next to the ocean (yep, listening to the waves as you sleep)
and enjoy the wild horses roaming around. That is always a fav for me
since there aren't any bugs and well, it's the ocean!
Now that we've covered our ambitious camping with 2 toddlers plan,
let's see if I can manage to dump my camera!
Oh man, I am behind a whole week here! Here are a few of the last
of the photos from last weekend. (I have a few more of the boys that
I haven't quite gone through yet that I'll try to do soon.) Steve's
cousin runs a power paragliding business and we went to watch
them fly a bit. The boys thought it was so neat! It was pretty cool
actually. Oliver was pumped about trying it out. I had to step in
and knock some sense into him!!
We really had a great time, can you tell? So many
photos!! Just a couple more and we'll move on.
Promise!!
Ok. So I know I said 24 hours....I'm not sure what I was
thinking! We just got home from camping and I am exhausted.
Obviously. Camping (in a TENT) with 2 babies is surely a lot
of work! I'll try to come back tomorrow but you know, it is in the
90s here with 110% humidity, so we'll see. I will say this, the boys
had a BLAST on their first camping trip!!! It was awesome.
Hopefully you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend!!
July 1, 2010
JULY?!
Ok. So how is it possibly already JULY?! The summer is just
whizzing by, I can almost see the Christmas decorations! Ha.
I sure wish that Summer was twice as long. Why do I live here
again??? I'm not really sure.....I think I was supposed to be born
in Hawaii!
Anywho, things are just lovely here in the Ekstrom household.
I just finished up watching that darling Sadie Mae. She was with
us until her mama finished up the school year at work.
She is such a sweet thing, we will surely miss her! It was fun
having 2 boys and 2 girls here (Two 10 months, 18mos, 28mos),
but I am enjoying my 5 day weekend for sure!
Oliver thinks he's the same age as Noah these days. I don't
really think he knows he's not! He has been taking steps here and
there on his own. The other day I looked up and he was just walking.
Took about 4 or 5 steps then decided to plop down. That little man!
He is finishing up baby food. Starting to eat more and more table
foods. Yesterday I cooked up the first zucchini of the year from
my father in law's garden. HE LOVED IT! He really ate the entire
thing in one day. I cubed it up and he went to town. Plain too.
He pretty much eats and loves everything these days. There hasn't
been anything he doesn't like I don't think. He has been going nuts
over Grandpa's strawberries and now raspberries. Just eating them
by the handfuls! I mix a few in with some yogurt and he devours
it. He is such a joy! He sleeps through the night in his own room,
and doesn't need much prompting at all. Basically I nurse him and
then lay him down and he's out! Naps too. It really is nutso! I
am really thankful for that. In terms of playing, he loves to play with
Noah. LOVES it. Loves to play fort, matchbox cars, kitchen, chase,
swing, slide, play in the sandbox...just a typical boy. He is TEN
MONTHS tomorrow. WOW. Almost a year. Where did all that time
disappear to??
Noah is, well, Noah! He is potty trained now which is just marvelous.
He seemed to really be easy about that. At not even 2.5 years old,
I sort of expected him to take longer, being that he is a boy and all.
He was actually trained about 6 months ago when we started naked
training, but he was having a problem wearing underwear. I mostly
would just let him do his thing nekkid during the day and didn't really
push the underwear issue since I was a bit lazy! Finally a couple weeks
ago I just decided to do it, and after one day, he was good to go. He
does it all one his own now, with no prompting or help. He even can
take his bottoms on and off by himself. Wonderful. You probably
feel a lot better now that you know all that huh? You were DYING
to hear every word I bet. If you have potty training ahead of you, I
have lots of tips!
Other than that, he is such a sweet little man. Always
helping with the little kids and being such a good boy. He is just a
lovely kiddo. Everyone should have a little Noah in their life! One
cute thing he has been doing is singing "Jesus Loves Me" to himself.
He sings it in Sunday school (as well as the Hokey Pokey apparently!),
and a while ago while we were driving, he started singing it. Oh man,
I just about died! It was so cute. He also has been singing the ABC's
which is pretty cute too. He is just such a blessing. Both my boys. I
told Steve that I hope our next (not yet!) baby is another boy. I thought
I would want girls, but now that I have 2 boys, I really would love
another. Not that I wouldn't take a girl, but boys are great! Plus, I
really like the idea of the boys having 3 buddies. AGH! I am really
getting ahead of myself aren't I?? Don't get any ideas, we are not
having another for awhile!
Ok. With all that, here are some more pictures from last weekend.
Man, our weekends sure are busy lately! We haven't had a free one
with nothing planned in ages. We all just love doing fun things together.
We tried to get a last minute camp trip out for this weekend, but seeing
how it is 4th of July weekend, that was a no go! We will surely be busy
as usual though. It is supposed to be a scorcher of a weekend!
Enjoy and come back soon for more fun!
Aren't these horses gorgeous??
Oliver was not the least bit afraid! (Uncle George sure was though!)
The ones on the sides were taken at Aunt Sis's house, her neighbor has a farm
too!
Oliver having fun with Dad!
This little man sure is adorable! Look at that smirk!
Oliver & Grandpa enjoying the horses.
I'll be back with the last round of ranch photos sometime
in the next 24 hours!
This past Saturday we spent the day in Steve's family's hometown.
We had a lovely drive with the boys and my father in law, and Noah
even made the long trip wearing "underwears" without an accident!
So that was a plus! Nothing like a mid drive stop to pull out the potty.
Good times for sure.
Anyways, we spent the day learning some history about the family
and connecting with a bunch of wonderful people. I love visiting
in Frewsburg. His family is all pretty close and very loving. We all
have some dysfunction of course, but they at least hide it well!! Haha.
Kidding! But really, his father is one of 11 children so there is quite the
web of relatives down there.
I have a LOT of photos to share within the next couple days, so here
are the first bunch. One of our stops that day was to the Ekstrom farm.
This farm is where the 11 kids grew up and the youngest was born. It
was so interesting to walk around the property (well, there are 200 acres),
and hear stories from their childhood. Steve's Aunt Donna lives there
and there are parts of the house that look like they are the same as they
were 30 years ago! Very cool. I really love gaining knowledge about
family to pass on to our boys.
Noah was LOVING exploring and thought it would be nice to spread
the yellow flowers, ahaha....
Here are some clicks of the beautiful views...
I think it is worth noting Steve's Grandfather's name on the middle sign. The
year 1960 was the year before he died.
Noah & Grandpa exploring. He loves spending time with Grandpa!
Tomorrow I will highlight our trip to the ranch with all the horses! I also
have some paragliding photos to show (don't get any crazy ideas, we
were just watching!), as well as some gorgeous shots of the boys. Oliver
was sleeping while we were at the farm, but I promise I have a lot more!
Isn't it so awesome learning more about your family? I love how Steve's
fam has such an interesting story to tell!
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