Vacation??????

a V A C A T I O N to Utah should consist of time with family, visits to the zoo, Wheeler Farm, Millcreek Canyon, Park City, the childrens museum, and lots of yummy food. Instead, this is what we've been dealing with the last couple days:

That's right, folks. Poor little Nick has an ear infection AND strep throat!! When we went to the doctor on Monday his temperature was 102 degrees on tylenol! So not cool. Literally. Needless to say, if your almost-three-year-old has to get strep throat, Granny and Grandpa's house in the place to do it! He has been spoiled with love, popsicles, shows, and anything else he could possibly need. And I have been spoiled with N A P S to make up for our last two extremely sleepless nights! Looks like he's coming out of the woods though, and I do believe we'll be attempting Park City tomorrow! Seriously, thank Heaven for penicillin!

We L O V E summer!

So I realize that my blog is always about my kids, but what do you do? That's my life. And I love it. We have had so much fun this summer! Now that it's August I'm already starting to get a pit in my stomach thinking about the upcoming winter. I hate cold and I hate being couped up in my house. So until then we'll be patronizing Spring Creek park, Whipple Dam, Bald Eagle reservoir, Welch pool, the neighborhood playground, and the library. And my house and my cooking will continue to be neglected and forgotten. Hurray for summer!

Brad's 17-year-old sister, Miranda, came to stay with us this past week and we had a blast! Miranda is one amazing girl. She is super smart and talented (singing and piano) and we loved having her here. She was like a live-in nanny/maid for me (always a good thing) and was constantly helping out and cleaning up. Last Saturday she heard me spout off my list of stuff to clean to Brad and the next time I came downstairs she had done half of the things on my list! She also changed diapers (and not just the wet ones, either), was a horse for Nick to ride on, and made Chase laugh his head off by taking him on adventurous rides every time he was in his stroller. Nick affectionately calls he "Arana" and has asked about her every day since she left on Thursday. On Monday (her 17th birthday) we went to Del Grosso's, an amusement park about 45 minutes from here. Tuesday we spent way too much time in the car driving to Lancaster and the outlet malls, and on Wednesday I made her watch some movies she hasn't seen that I consider classics (i.e., Pride and Prejudice...the A&E version--so not a fan of the Keira Knightly one...Mr.Hollands Opus, Sleepless in Seattle, and You've Got Mail). Thanks for the fun time, Miranda. Come back soon!

Little Chase man just a'swinging away.

I know I always blog about Nick's crush, Morgan, but I have yet to mention her beautiful little sister, Mikayla. She's about 6 weeks older than Chase and they are fast becoming best buds...if that's possible for 6 and 7 month olds!

Instead of running away when I try to take his picture, Nick now makes this lovely face. I seem to remember my little brother Daniel doing the same thing when he was younger. Classic. Here he is feeding the ducks.

6 months of C H A S E

Here I am again with a collage -- why won't blogger let me publish more than 4 pictures per post? It's really irking me! Anyway, it's true, it's true...my baby boy is 6 MONTHS OLD today, and I'm in shock! No one told me it goes a billion times faster the second time around! Chase is such a joy to have in our home. He has a very sweet, peaceful, gentle nature about him, is quick to smile and laugh, and rarely cries. He can entertain himself for hours -- he LOVES his jumper chair (and has fallen asleep in it a time or two) or is content to just roll around on the floor watching Nick or whoever else is around. We started rice cereal, oatmeal, and green beans within the last week, none of which he loves but is learning to tolerate. If I had to pick a favorite baby phase, this would be it. I wish I could just freeze time and keep him this age forever. He is so curious and tickled by everything and everyone around him. I can't wait to see what the next 6 months bring! We love our little Chase!

Arts Fest

I am so loving all that there is to do here in State College in the summers! As someone who HAS to get out of the house everyday, it's nice to have endless options. Each week we have numerous parks, pools, libraries, and great community events to chose from, which is fantastic for both mine and Nick's sanity. Last week we went to two different Arts Festivals (I L O V E arts festivals). The first one, in down town State College, had "kids fest" on it's first day, where all of the crafts and art that is sold is made by kids -- so cool! They also had an area where kids could make their own art, hence the picture of Nick painting above. He loved it!

I told Nick before we left that he could choose one thing to buy at the festival -- little did I know there would be wooden swords!! Once he saw those there was no turning back, and so far he's been very nice with it (I was a little worried). Morgan (who we have to see everyday for Nick to not ask relentlessly about her) and her mom Melissa (who I have to see everyday because she makes my life so much fun) were with us and Morgan got a camouflage marshmallow gun! Getting Nick to stand by her long enough to take a decent picture was pretty much impossible and this is the best one I got!

Poor little Chase spends most of his days this summer being carted around to whatever adventure Nick and I are off to next. Good thing he's a perfect baby...as you can see in the picture above, he doesn't seem to mind too much! I can't believe he's going to be 6 months old next week!

Nicker-Bocker playing hide-and-seek with me in a play house at kids fest.

The Motherland

Brad often refers to his hometown of Wilmington, Ohio as "the motherland," and we just got to spend a fabulous 4th of July weekend in this beautiful place. The weekend included many firsts for Nick, almost all of which are photographed and included in the above collage. On his first fishing trip, he and Brad caught a 3 pound cat fish, which Nick was very excited about until he overheard Brad say we were going to cook him and eat him. He wore big boy undies to the park for the first time. Brad came home with them in a plastic sack. He sat on a horse for the first time...but there's not a picture of that because it only lasted for 30 seconds. He ran into the back of Preston's head and got his first black eye, which doesn't show up very well in the picture but really was quite black and blue. And last, but definitely not least, he got sick and threw up for the first time, all over Brad. Fun for both of them! :)

Our trip also included lots of food, some games, rain, Jeff playing barbies on the couch with Ella, an excellent fireworks show on the 4th, swimming, playing and playing and playing with cousins, and a w o n d e r f u l night in the Zeigler's back yard around their fire pit, roasting hot dogs, making s'mores, and sharing experiences from the journal jar, my personal favorite. We love you, Jeff, Debbie, Phil, Mindy, Ella, Preston, Brennen, Mallory, and Miranda!

PS- Click on the collage to see the pictures in all their glory. The one of Nick crying after he heard they were going to eat the cat fish is well worth it. Incidentally, does anyone else's blog only let them publish 4 pictures per post? Any way to fix that?

Nick's favorites

We made the mistake of letting Nick watch "Lion King" last week. He has been acting like a lion ever since. Above is his classic roar face!

Nick's favorite activity in the world right now is having Brad and I act like a horse. Whenever I am on all fours (bathing Chase, scrubbing the kitchen and bathroom floors, etc.,) Nick will jump on my back and say "You a horse, Mommy!" Fortunately, sometimes he lets us be a "sick horse" which just consists of lying on our tummies while he bounces on our backs and says "giddyup!" over and over again.

Nick loves to help in the kitchen, especially on those rare occasions when we make something C H O C O L A T E!

And, as always, Nick continues to be the best big brother! We love our Chase-man, who just turned 5 months old! Yikes! Time goes by way too fast.

A chocolate K I S S

Nick had chocolate pudding during lunch one day that left his face looking like this:

He then went over to hug and kiss on his brother, leaving his face looking like this:

I love chocolate kisses!