our first road trip of summer

Last week, we took our first road trip of the summer.  It also coinsided with Kinley turning 3 weeks old, but that was a previous post.  This trip included a wedding and then a visit with Grammy Pammy.  We drove a giant triangle shape over Indiana and Illinois and the kids all travelled fairly well, even Kinley, until the very last hours in the car on our return trip.

The wedding was up by Chicago and was a cousin of Andy's.  It was a nice chance for lots of family members to meet Kinley.  I managed to get a few photos of the meet and greet.  I will say that the drive up took longer than we allowed for, and we totally missed the wedding, but instead checked into the hotel and went to the reception. The kids did okay.  They were pretty tired and were ready to go as soon as we got there.  Thank you eastern time zone.  But, we got them fed and sugared up and I think they mostly had a good time.

Kinley meets Erica.

The "C" cousins-Cale and Cassie

Kinley meets Uncle Ron,

and Grandma Jean (and Aunt Sharlyn, Uncle Bob, Laura, Zac, Aunt Maura, Grandpa Jerry, and the Clemons family)

After a long night of little sleep in the hotel (for Kella and me, mostly), we met up with everyone for breakfast the next morning.

 

Liam liked that his pancake was a big smiley face.

Then, for us, onto Grammy Pammy's.  But first, we made a stop to see Aunt Eileen and my cousin Dan since it was on the way.  I'm glad Kinley got to meet them, too, while she was little.

We got to Grammy's later than I thought we would (story of our trip), but made everyone was nice enough to wait for us to eat.  And, Kinley got to meet Uncle Eric, Aunt Bitsy, Maddie, Abbie and Jacob.

A lot of driving for the first two days of our trip.  We were glad to be done with that for a while.

got ourselves a slip-n-slide (that lasted one day...)

For fun, we got the kids a slip-n-slide.  It was one of the two lane ones, and while they had bunches of fun with it, we will not be buying a 2 lane one again since the seam between the two lanes split after one afternoon of use.  But, it served it's purpose of fun for the children.  And, Andy got some good action shots of the kiddos.

Cale

Marcus

 

Ewan

Liam getting a push.

Kella kind of kept back and supervised the fun.

another camp experience, this time for Cale and Ewan

First, there was soccer camp for the boys.  Then, basketball camp for Cale and Ewan.  Third, Marcus and Cale went to Cub Scout camp.  A week and a half ago, Ewan and Cale got to go to a 2 day 4-H day camp.  Cale had gone once before when he was in kindergarten.  Needless to say, the boys had a blast and took off out of the car the second day when I dropped them off.  (I didn't even need to walk inside with them-but I did anyway.)  They learned about conservation stuff, plants, animals, played games, sang songs.  Ewan is already talking about going back next year!
 

the girls

I'm a little behind on blogging here.  I have a chance for a moment to get some pictures loaded.  Here's the first ones of just us girls taken a few weeks ago.  I have to say that Kella does sometimes get a little jealous and want me to put Kinley down or hand her off to Andy.  But, Kella is a little helper and will get a blanket for her sister or a pacifyer if Kinley is crying.
 

 

 

Kinley, 3 weeks

In honor of Kinley turning 3 weeks pls on Friday, we embarked on our first road trip as a family of 8.  We drove up to northwest of Chicago for a cousin of Andy's wedding. We saw a lot of family there that otherwise might not have met Kinley for a while except in pictures on the blog and on Facebook. The next day we drove a fair amount of the state of Illinois, stopped to see my aunt and then continued on to Grammy Pammy's house where the fun will continue the next few days. These events are a separate post to themselves. Through the traveling, Kinley has done well. We stop to feed her every couple hours and that usually goes with a stop for the rest of the family (lunchtime, bathroom break). At the wedding reception, Kinley got passed around and pretty much slept the entire time. At the hotel, she was up for a while, but finally fell asleep and did much better than her big sister at staying asleep that night. Overall, not a bad way to turn 3-weeks, that is.

(Baby girl stretching out at after eating. I think she like being able to lay flat and stretch herself out.)

Kinley, 2 weeks

Kinley is 2 weeks old today. Two weeks already! She is doing great and I bet she is back up to her birth weight. She has some periods of awake time that make her brothers happy. Kinley will just look around for a while and then decide that since she is awake, she must be hungry. She gets fed a lot :-). Her longer naps still seem to be during the day. At night, we can get three hours of sleep in a row by giving her a bottle in the wee hours of the morning. It's sad that I get excited for 3 straight hours of sleep. I said that its a good thing I work nights and can survive off minimal sleep. And, since Andy's been gone to camp. I realize that I can handle Kinley at night by myself. (Although, I would much rather have Andy's help to fall back on) Kinley's sleep  routine at night (for the past two nights) is to sleep for a while in her bouncy chair next to me in bed and then, after her bottle, to sleep on her crib. Can't say for how long this routine will continue.  We are just enjoying our little baby time. She really is precious and I'm thankful she's ours!

Photos from camp, day 2

Andy was kind enough to text some more pictures of the boys from camp. Really, most of them are action shots of Cale. It sounds like the boys are having a blast and I know tonight, that Andy and Marcus are sleeping with the other Webelos out in the open instead of in tents.

Cale in the center of the picture. This is a life size game of foosball.

Apparently, this is Marcus rising off in a wagon. I guess he was gone all day. I have no other pics of him.

Cale on an orienteering hunt. Andy said the directions basically lead the boys in a large circle. They didn't catch on till near the end.

Cale pointing the way. 

The group of orienteers.

Cale bb shooting. He had some trouble aiming until the instructor gave Jim safety glasses that covered one eye. I guess that Cale was having a hard time closing one eye so he could aim his shots.

They come back tomorrow! I will be happy to have my family back together and to hear some of their camp stories.

Update from Cub Scout camp

Marcus, Cale and Andy left for several days of fun at Cub Scout camp yesterday. I'm glad we have the ability to send the boys and that Andy's schedule is flexible enough that he can go along. Last night, some storms came through the area and the campers ended up spending the night in the mess hall. Tonight, the weather is much nicer and they are sleeping in their tents. Andy was kind enough to send me a couple pictures from today. Looks like the boys did some archery and rock wall climbing. They are having a blast.

Cale the archer

Cale the wall climber

Marcus the archer 

Summertime, time for a baseball game

One of the things Andy had to do for a class he's taking this summer is attend a professional sports event.  Lucky for us we live near Indy, which among other things, has a minor league baseball team-the Indians.  Of course, he couldn't go by himself...he bought tickets enough to make it a boys' night out.  But, a tired Liam wanted to stay home and Kella was excited to go in his place.  They had great seats, the concessions were $1, what more could you ask for?

 

They all got game balls!  Marcus caught one that was tossed into the stands and at the end of the game, one of the umpires gave Cale and Ewan each one, too.  Happy boys.

Liam stayed home with me and Kinley. After watching several episodes of Lazytown and The Chica Show, Liam drifted off to sleep in the chair. I didn't have the heart to try to get him to go to sleep in his bed when none of his brothers were there.  Everyone for home about eleven and were ready for bed. Except maybe Kella. She had a blast and did not fall asleep in the car like we thought she would (she's a night walker like her mama). What a fun experience for  the kids to have as a summer memory. They would readily go back. I'm thankful that Andy was willing to take the kiddos with him. What an awesome dad we have!

First doctor's visit

 

Kinley had her first doctor's visit last week Wednesday.  The doctor diagnosed her as "perfect".  Kinley was a little jaundiced at the time and her weight was down to 8 pounds 4 ounces.  We had to go back for a weight check that Friday and by then her weight was starting to creep back up-8 pounds 6 ounces.  We don't go back until her one month check-up at the beginning of July.  As you may be able to tell from the picture, Kinley was super-happy to be at the doctor.

having fun at home

Grammy Pammy was here last week to help with the kids. 



Liam found a new game playing friend

Monopoly (Grammy's favorite game) was played a couple times.

Of course, there was some outdoor play time.  Cale wanted me to take this picture to show Grammy. (Hope you see this-I told him I would post it online-he was so proud!)

Not to be outdone, Ewan wanted his picture taken, too.

The new thing in our yard, also, is playing lacrosse.  Cale got a lacrosse stick this week and Andy already had one, so now we can have little matches.  I'm pretty sure we are the only house in our neighborhood where kids are playing lacrosse.

Soccer camp (aka keeping the kids busy)

Last week was also soccer camp for all 4 boys.  Yes, I even signed Liam up since the minimum age was 4 years old.  He was probably the youngest kid on the field.  Ewan came on the days he did not have tee-ball.  The last day was a slightly organized scrimmage event in the kids' different age groups.  We all came to watch and try and get some great action shots.

Here's Ewan, he did pretty well for never having done soccer before.  Got in there and kicked the ball a few times.  Tried to play goalie, too.

 

Liam kind of just ran around the field.  He stopped a goal once, only because the ball bounced off of him instead of going into the goal.  When it wasn't his turn to be on the field, he sat in the grass looking for flowers.

 

Marcus, throwing the ball in. 

 

Cale

One sports camp down.  Basketball is this week for Ewan and Cale if they want to go.  I haven't made a decision yet to ask them if they'd like to do it.  I'm pretty sure the answer will be "yes".  Anyway, all the boys had fun, even Liam, and it definitely wore them out (=quicker to fall asleep at bedtime).