Here's to July

To start our July out right, Jack and I went on our first mommy/son double date with Erica and Logan.  We took the boys to see Toy Story 3 and they had a great time!  Cute movie and the boys did a great job during the movie.  Afterwards, there was a comparison of injuries, making crazy faces and having fun! 

This last week, Reid, Stacy, Ethan and Rebecca came up from Texas over the 4th of July.  Jon had to work that weekend, so we met Oma in Sioux City on Friday and Jack and I headed down to West Point to go hang out with everyone.  The kids had a great time playing together in the pool Oma had in the backyard.  A lot of time was spent outside!!  Oma and Opa's shed was converted into a clubhouse for the week.  My old kitchen set that my grandpa made me was in there, along with the cradle he made for my dolls, plus a great new tool set for the boys.  Man did they go to town with that!  Hard hats were put on within minutes and Ethan's boom-boom (aka hammer) was with him most of the time!  Ethan was ready for projects!!  On the 4th, we headed down to the park to play and have supper.  Jon got to West Point around 7 that night.  Because of some lovely rain/cloudy weather, the dinner was moved into the Nielsen Center.  It was air conditioned, which was a welcome relief.  The band was setting up, so once the boys got enough guts to go, we headed up to the stage to watch them set up everything.  The guitarist even let Ethan strum a few times and gave him his pick...he was stoked and was trying to pick up some chicks with it later in the night!  Our good friends, the Wimmers, are always in charge of the firework show.  Andrew is amazing and coordinates music to the fireworks and always has an awesome show!  Miss Rebecca slept through the whole show!!  Ethan just kept saying "fireworks go BOOM BOOM" and would pound his fist in the air...it was funny! 



On Monday, my best friend, Melissa, came up to West Point with her husband and new baby, Rowan!  It's been a long 7 weeks waiting to meet Rowan...Jack thought she was pretty awesome!  He couldn't wait to hold her and give her snuggles and kisses!

On Tuesday, we headed to the Omaha Zoo and met Aunt Boo Boo.  The kids did really well and had a good time!  Our biggest story from the zoo was Jack and Moe.  If you're Dylan and Austin, you know who Moe is!!  He's a huge silverback gorilla.  We were standing on the ledge, watching this adorable baby gorilla play with Rosie, the grandma who always looks a little cranky.  Jack was standing there...watching, laughing, having a good time.  Well, Moe was at the other side and started slowly walking across towards the baby gorilla (sorry Boo, can't remember the baby's name!).  All of the sudden, Moe starts picking up speed and I was thinking he was going to swoop by the window and run past...nope!  Moe picks up speed and at full speed, shoulder butts the window...right in front of Jackson!!!  I've never seen his eyes get so big and the tears come so fast!!  Boy did that scare the little man!!  He cried until we got out of that gorilla house and then continued to talk about it until well after lunch!  He still is talking about it...minus the tears though!  So yeah..besides that little incident, we had a great time.  Jack, of course, loved the elephants and all of the kids loved the penguins.  They let them up by the window now, so Ethan was running with the penguins, up and down...it was cute! 




Wednesday, we headed into Lincoln and went to Pioneer Park for a while.  The kids got to watch one of the elks walk around and then we had a picnic.  After that, we met up with Melissa and Rowan at the children's museum.  Talk about a big hit!!  Wish we would have been able to stay all day and night.  There were so many things for them to do and they had a blast!  Ethan was all about driving the semi truck and firetruck...Jack was all about the face painting.  Opa was in charge of him for a bit and when I got there, Jack had painted his entire face, both arms and called himself a tiger.  We met Uncle Jay and David for supper and then Oma and Opa took the kiddos back to West Point and we stayed to hang out with Jay and David. 

Thursday was a pretty quiet day...until the UPS truck arrived!  Oma and Opa got the grandkids a jumping house!!  Talk about a hit!!  After naps, the jumping house was up and man did they have fun!  Jack convinced everyone to move the pool next to the slide and man oh man did things get crazy!  Rebecca would stand at the top of the slide, raise her arms each time as if she was a gymnast, and jump...except she would jump so far that she would skip the slide all together and land into the pool!  They had an awesome time...it was great! 



So that's our trip in more than a few words!!  It was great to see the Texas clan again and we wish every day that we could see them more often!  Love you guys!!