A week (or so) of pictures...

Brian was in Chicago for work last week so the boys and I held down the fort.  What?  You'd like to see pictures from Brian's Chicago trip?  Maybe later.  After all, why look at fantastic city scenery and fun excursions like baseball, boating and a Rascal Flatts concert when you can see pictures of boys in their jams hangin out in the good ol WV??!!??!!  And maybe, if Brian uploads the pictures from his phone, I'll post some Chicago fun later ; )

Just a little breakfast fun with my two smallest dudes.  These boys have been doing some major growing lately and practically eating us out of house and home, especially at breakfast!

Horses waiting on their breakfast too.  So much for the 'no toys at the table rule'.

Fun with the fur baby...

 Seriously, how patient is this dog...

Block towers happened and amazingly didn't get knocked down by baby bro (maybe O was sleeping when this occurred because if not it was surely divine intervention)

So proud...

Daddy went out of town just in time for the first heat wave of August (almost of the whole summer, its been gloriously mild).  We were stuck indoors beating the heat most days and were going a little stir crazy.  Several evenings the boys and I headed to the park after dinner and stayed until sunset when it was cooler out.

Daddy came home last Sunday and we were so glad to have him back!!!  And he brought some rad glow sticks from the concert.  They were kind of a hit...

Monday morning had Owen feeling those back to school vibes as he sported Scott's back pack for a few hours around the house.  (Scott doesn't go back to school for a few more weeks yet)

And no morning is complete with out a little glow stick dance party

Monday afternoon riding back from a play date, we had barely made it across the street before we had to stop for a snack.   It took us nearly half an hour to get home and our friends only live around the corner, good thing we weren't in a hurry.

 Tuesday morning we hung out with Parker John all morning and decided to take our breakfast to the park.  Coffee and raisin bread with my tiniest guy, sounds good to me!!!

These two had about two bites of breakfast before the playground beckoned.

After a few hours and a meet up with Katelyn, we headed back from the park and loaded up for Scott's last soccer practice.  Lucky duck Owen got to forward face for the first time (it was the only way to fit all three car seats) and there might be no going back now, we'll see.

We were a little early so we stopped for some Starbucks (drive thru duh!) on our way.  Peach iced tea lemonade (my new FAVE!) and three tall (watered down) lemonades and we were a happy bunch!  And I think our car served as some pretty intense birth control for the sweet 19 year old helping us out at the window.  Let's just say we weren't quiet when it was our turn to pick up our drinks!

 Hilary and I had kind of prepped Parker that he would be coming to watch soccer practice, knowing full well he wouldn't be allowed to play but that he would probably really want to.  Well as luck would have it only 3 kids showed up for the last day and the coach asked Parker to join in.  Everyone was thrilled.

Scott participated almost the whole time (which has not been the case for the last 5 sessions, the first two weeks were great and it was downhill after that). 

I was sure to take lots of pictures of Parker for Hilary and Matt considering this was his first soccer practice and they didn't even get to see it!

Wednesday Hilary and I traded off watching all the boys so she could work and I could attend a seminar.  My seminar was about the early signs of brain degeneration, fascinating stuff people, and we watched a few video clips of brain dissections to illustrate certain points.  Well its been a while since neuroanatomy lab (five year since I graduated and neuroanatomy was probably in my 2nd year so, yeah, like 6-7 years, yikes, I'm old) but I kid you not those images came on the screen and I could smell that smell like I was in the lab.  Talk about bringing back some memories.  I probably complained a lot when in dissection labs (years worth of them!) but looking back it was probably the most intense learning I have ever done in my life.  You can study text books for days, but, for me at least, there is something about it seeing it in person, touching it, cutting it, that makes everything come together, it made everything I had ever learned in all of my anatomy and physiology classes solidify in my brain, never to be forgotten.  Plus the smell, it took a while to get the smell out of my clothes...and hair.

Shout out to my sister for moving her work schedule around to accommodate my seminar schedule.  I came home to theses three crazies running around pants-less.  It seems we are pants-less a lot in this house, well I wear  pants (usually) but the boys almost never do.

The 5 of us braved trader joe's that evening and this cool dude even got to sample a graham cracker.

What it looks like after a loooong day:

Can't handle the cuteness...

This past week Papa also had a pretty nasty bike accident.  He is still recovering in the hospital and is hoping to move to rehab soon (today or tomorrow).  We have gotten lots of kind well wishes from friends and family, thank you all for that.  We are hoping to be able to visit this weekend, we all sure do miss him.  It seems it will be a long road of rehab and PT but the prognosis is good that he will be back to normal at the end of it all!  Thank you friends and family for your continued prayers and support for him!