Birthday and Baseball

Yesterday was a very low key day as we celebrated Bs 4th birthday. Did some running around and then for dinner we had his requested meal of spaghetti. Then had cake and ice cream and presents. The superheros seemed to be the theme of the night. Batman, Superman, Spiderman...

Today we went to a minor league baseball game. The Lake County Captains. They lost by one run. Not a bad game. There was a little bit of excitement as both benches cleared as a batter got hit. We were feet from a foul ball and a bat broke as contact was made and flew into the stands not far from us. At the end of the game all the kids were invited out on the field to run the bases. I was nervous that B would run off course but he did great. I tried to get pics of him but did not turn out very well. The blue stuff in the pics dripping off of J is cotton candy...thanks to Aunt Kelly!!!!

Cedar Point

Cedar Point

This part of the country is beautiful. So many trees. They have a great Parks and Recreation Department with lots of huge parks, trails, swimming pools, etc.

We spent all day at Cedar Point, known as the roller coaster capital of the world. The park sits on a penisula on Lake Erie. Beautiful. It was pretty hot and humid until about 4pm when things cooled off, the wind picked up a bit and the clouds moved in. I think the longest wait we had was 20 minutes. They have 14 roller coasters! I am glad I don't live close to an amusement park because I love the rides but having equilibrium problems is not good. I rode a twisty, loopy roller coaster with my nieces and that just about did me in. Then later in the day I rode a small roller coaster with B and then the swings (that go around in a circle) and that sidelined me for the rest of the day. B had a blast. There were 2 different roller coasters he went on. He rode the tilt a whirl (I almost got sick watching it spin), did the bumper cars and bumper boats and rode several other kid rides. J got on his first ride with his older cousin and loved it. I think he had the best time though playing with the chains that are used to rope off entrances and exits. We were at the park 10 hours and both boys did really well, despite J only taking a 30 minute nap.

There was one ride/roller coaster there that I could not get over. It is called the Dragster. It lasts probably 1 minute, if that. You go from 0 to 120 in 3 seconds and you climb straight up 420 feet, loop over the top and come back down. I have enclosed a pic of it in the slide show.

Several of you have asked about leaving comments on the blog. I think I have fixed it so that you don't need to log in. Just hit the word comments at the end, then type your comment, hit name/url and enter your name. Then just publish the post. For those that want to leave a message, hopefully this will work.

Tomorrow is B's 4th birthday! Hard to believe!

Bowling

We had a pretty laid back day. We anticipated rain but it did not happen until later in the day. So our plan had been to take B bowling. He had never been bowling and had a great time. I got a few pictures and just as I was starting the video, they turned off the light and turned on the flourescent lights. Will have to try to go again to catch it on video. J had fun getting chased all over the place. He sure feels like he has to do whatever his brother does - only natural huh? He kept trying to pull the balls of the rack and picking them up.

Off to Cedar Point, an amusement park on the shores of Lake Erie, from what I hear.

Pictures from Cleveland

I wish I could get the formatting down, but atleast I got a slide show. Lots and lots of Sun. We are having a lot of fun. We have quiet mornings, playing out in the front yard. Eat lunch and then tend to head to the pool for at least part of the afternoon. J is going to bed easier and easier every night, can you say exhaustion. The more he is out in the sun, the less he looks like me. Although I don't know when the last time was I saw so many freckles on me. B is getting quite a few freckles on his nose but seems to be tanning nicely. We plan on spending all afternoon at the pool tomorrow. B loves the little kid area. The water is about chest deep and he takes off for the water before I get my shoes off. I have even been able to swim some laps the last two days. We have two amusement parks in the next couple of days, plus some trampoline time, making snow cones and gearing up for their July 4th celebrations, which last most of next week.

Ohio

We are here and the boys are enjoying their cousins. My neices are 4, 7, 13 and 16 so lots of activity. Yesterday we went to the park and swimming pool. The city has a program where they offer arts and crafts throughout the summer at the park - pretty cool set up. Then the pool has a baby area, a toddler area and then a big swimming pool, with swimming lanes. There is a separate area for the two water slides and then a separate fenced area for the diving boards. I went down the big, long twisty slide, the speed slide and the high dive. Hopefully I can get videos of it next time!
J is enjoying all the new cabinets and drawers to explore. Today he got into the cereal cabinet and made a huge mess. As I was vacuuming up the mess he grabbed another box of cereal. He was ready to make another mess when I took it away from him. As I was putting the cereal up, he walked over to the wall and tried to unplug the vacuum. What a squirt!
B is enjoying playing Wii, he is pretty good at golf. He has discovered their 'dress up' box and loves the spiderman costume. Both boys are getting plenty of activity and are sleeping very well at night!!!
More later!

Life is Crazy

Tuesday afternoon I finally found some flights to head out to my sisters house in Ohio. Have been watching the frequent flyer flights and nothing was available. The only downside was I needed to leave pretty quickly. So the boys and I are headed out today and will return on the 4th of July. Will be cool to see the fireworks from the air!
I know I will have more time and access to a computer so promise to do better with the blog.
Lots to do before our 11:15 departure.

We are home

Okay, I can't figure out how to place the pictures and text....so it is all jumbled up.

B at the pool...........J at the beach..............

J playing soccer with the guys

These two are of us at the zoo!!

(Lets try this again. My first blog did not happen because my computer froze up and shut down before I could save it.)

We are home and had a great trip. Always great to go but always great to get back home. The boys loved getting reacquainted with JR's family. J is definitely going to be our water baby. He loves playing in water. B enjoyed it but spent more time in the sand digging. He also befriended people everytime we were there. We enjoyed the Miami Zoo, shopping in downtown Miami, the beach 3 times and Bs favorite memory - Chuck E Cheeses! The weather was really nice, especially when I heard that it rained/snowed back home the whole time we were gone. They said the sun did not shine the whole time we were gone! B spent one night with his cousins and watched endless tv! He got to see Diego at the Miami Zoo. Probably the worst part of the trip was the tired boys - we got some endless whining and arguing at times!

I give up with messing with these pictures. I will download a few more tomorrow along with a video or two. (I realized am not in a lot of these because I was behind the camera....)

The water is great

Yesterday we had a good time swimming and playing. I am pleased to announce after two days of sun, no sunburns for anyone! I enjoyed a lot of fun on the trampoline and realized I still could pull a lot of the old tricks out of the hat, although I could not nail the landing on the flip. I did impress B though! J loved the water, his first time in a swimming pool.
Still enjoying all the 'cultural foods'. Last night we had chicaronnes, which are the real pork rinds. Lets just say I liked them so much I ate more than I should have. I knew it would come back to get me and at 4am, I was up this morning for several hours. Everything finally cleared the system. The good news in this, if there is good news, is that at one point in my life my body would not have been bothered by all that greasy food, but it sure was this time around.
We managed to go to the beach today where B loved digging in the sand. We then went to a really cool 'garden' that had an perfectly sized splash park! I was excited when B wore his bathing suit this time around.
Tomorrow JR and I are headed into downtown Miami to have a day off.
Still having problems downloading pics or video but will keep trying.

We are here!

Before we left for Florida, JR called the state to find out about his test. He made an 82. He was a little bummed, he was hoping for better but then his boss reminded him that some people fail the test the first time and he made it through the book in 4 months and the average is 6 months.
We are in Florida. Both legs of the flight were okay. Jacob slept a fair amount. A lot of turbulence, especially just outside Miami. To the point that I grabbed the 'motion discomfort' bag. I had a headache for several hours after. Miami - what can I say: palm trees, humidity, Abuelo (grandpa), traffic (why do I complain about traffic back home in a town of 8,000), Prima (cousin) Gabby, lots of concrete, playing soccer with Tio (uncle) Roland0, crazy drivers, homemade tortillas, sweat, Miami Zoo. I don't recall ever seeing B sweat before but both days he has. I loves running with his cousins and chasing Abuelo. We went to Miami Zoo today. B is so funny, in the past when we went to a water park he would never take his shirt off. So, today we got to the Splash park at the zoo and what did he do, he wanted to take his shirt and shorts off. My kid was the only one in his underwear and then he wanted to wear his tennis shoes. I was mortified but figured I would never see any of these people again. Of course he was not wearing any of his cute little boxers that could pass for a swimming suit but he was wearing whitey tighties. Now picture those on a kid that is fairly pale to begin with (this is the first time his stomach has seen sun) running with all the hispanic kids. And for some reason, he kept his arms crossed across his chest the whole time. Too bad the battery on the video camera was dead.
Having a hard time finding a good computer connection but will try to post photos or videos later.
Tomorrow we are hanging out at JR's cousin's house - swimming pool, play scape and trampoline with BBQ. Should be fun!

Test was great

We are busy trying to get everything ready for the trip to Florida.
Jose took his test Monday at lunch. There were 50 questions and he said it took him about 10 minutes. He felt like he had either a low A or high B. Will know results next week.

Will email more from Florida!

Gymnastics

We have had a good weekend. JR is preparing to take his test Monday evening (he won't know the results for a week or so). Nate joined us Thursday and the boys are really enjoying having another person around to play with. We drive to Billings on Wed and fly out for Florida early Thursday. Hope to post lots of pics and videos during the trip.
Friday was the last day of gymnastics for B. A few short video clips are attached of him 'performing' or lack of performing. (I wish I knew how to cut and paste the videos into one longer video).
I have decided that our first ER visit is going to be because of J. He is way more adventurous than his older brother.
Yesterday we went garage sale-ing and B found some rescue heros at his friends house. There were 7-8 of them and I was prepared to buy them all (they were a great deal). He said he only wanted 3 of them. Imagine that. Then later that day I was scooping him some of his dairy free ice cream and after the third small spoonful he said 'mom, that is way too much and will hurt my stomach.' So he made me put one spoonful back. Everyday it is something different that just makes me laugh. This morning at church I met a guy that had been watching B that morning and he commented that he was an elementary ed major and had never seen a 3 yr old with his extensive vocabulary!
B is begging me right now to type so I will let him and then attach the videos.
I am so glad that one of you (mom!) has figured out how to leave a comment. It was beginning to look like Pinky was the only one reading my blog, although I know others of you do.
fhdfnfncj fvjkfv kfdjqwjrfmjkfemki (from B)
B is obviously in the green shirt!