Taking our zoo to the zoo :)

Over the weekend we went to the Drive-thru Safari! We wanted to do one last little getaway with the kids for the summer and Ryan is not the best long distance traveler yet so we needed to stay closer to home. We with with Nathan's brother and his family, Nathan's mom, and my brother Eli and his family tagged along too along with my other niece and nephew. It was hot - but nice in the shade - I guess it finally decided to be hot this summer - this week anyway!

We started in the petting zoo and the kids loved getting to pet all the animals! Goats, donkeys, pigs, llamas, chickens, and kangaroos. We got to go in the ring tailed lemur cage and feed him too.

Then we moved on to ride the camel and horses. I rode the camel with Ryan - she just really looked unsteady up there and I could just see her falling off and the camel stepping on her, so I hopped on too.

Then it was time for the drive-thru safari! There are these birds that look like they want to peck my eyes out and eat my brains and Nathan kept rolling my window down so they would come try to get me - yes I screamed very loud - at least Noah and Ryan thought it was funny! It is so cool to just drive through and see all the animals right beside the car and even roll the window down and pet some if you want to (we may break the rules a little) :)

The bird that wants to kill me!

Nathan about to die!

I love family time, especially extended family time! Watching our kids make memories with their cousins is the best :)

Fair 2014

It is one of my four year old's favorite times of the year - FAIR TIME! Each year we get more of our moneys worth and he has more and more fun. After almost 3 hours there this year we had to make him leave and he did cry a little - I felt bad because I remember being sad when we had to leave the fair too. But we can't live there :) 

My dad got both kids arm bands and they put them to good use! Noah also won his own prize! He had 9 frogs to attempt to get one in a lilly pad - it had to go all the way in a lilly pad with nothing hanging off the edges - finally with his last throw he got one in! He was so proud and he picked out a sea turtle as his prize :) While riding rides the sweetest thing happened - some older boys (sons of some people we know from high school) asked Noah to ride rides with them and were so nice to him! They helped him on and off the rides and were holding his hand between rides  - it was so cute! It made me a little less nervous about kindergarten as silly as that sounds. It made me realize that there are still nice kids that will just be friends and be nice to others even if they don't know who they are. 

The kids also loved seeing the animals - Ryan especially! She made the sounds for all the animals and knew all of them (even though she called most of them puppy until she got closer to them) :) We didn't make it to look at the crafts this year - we were too busy riding rides and petting animals - maybe next year. 

The fair was good to us - until next year Fair...

This is blurry but still so cute! He screamed the entire time :)

Noah with his new friends :)

Last Unofficial Summer Weekend

We packed our last weekend of the summer full and it was awesome! Saturday we got up and headed out to the river for a boat ride and some swimming (not me - I am one of those people who will only swim in water I can see in - especially after shark week) :) It was Ryan's first time on a boat and only Noah's second - they loved it! I am hoping we can maybe go once more before it gets too cold this fall. Noah jumped off the side and would swim back to the boat - this is a huge difference from last year! Of course since Noah was doing it Ryan had to jump off the side too :) We didn't stay out too long - just a nice quick trip making some memories :)

After that Nathan started working on being the best husband in the world and he helped me go get a large heavy treadmill and then take it apart to get it inside and upstairs to our bedroom - he is a doll I tell ya! Then I got a wild hair and wanted to rearrange our living room that has been the same for 6 years and he helped me do that (minus the nap he took in the middle). But he needed to rest up because that night we took Noah to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! I really liked the movie - it was funny and entertaining for all of us! Noah kept saying "oh this movie is making me die" (aka: it's killing me) and slapping his forehead and yelling "Oh gosh" or "mind blown" :)

Sunday was church and more house cleaning (for me anyway) :) Nathan was with us all weekend which is not something he gets to do often but I am so happy when he gets to and I know the kids love it :)

Bargains, Birthday, and a Baby

That pretty much sums up our weekend! Nathan was out of town all weekend so me and the kids had some quality time together. Friday was the middle of the annual Bargains Galore in our area and I decided Noah was finally old enough to tag along. My dad and I always go in one direction from Clarksville to Alma or Clarksville to Conway. This year we went towards Alma and how the weather played out that day that was a good choice! We don't stop at every sale but we stopped at a lot - we left Clarksville at 8:30 a.m. and after stopping to play at the park in Altus and to have lunch at Rivertowne in Ozark we made it to Alma around 2:00 and headed back. Noah ended up with lots of new dinosaur toys and books and didn't spend over $10! After that we had a fashion truck in town for a few hours for a fundraiser so I took Noah to shop on it with me - the poor thing was all kinds of confused after I took him shopping in people's yards and in a big pink truck :)

His yard sale money Daddy gave him :)

Break at Altus Park

Lunch at Rivertowne

One excited boy when he found this!

The next morning we went to Smokey the Bears 70th birthday party! I really didn't know what to expect, but it was so fun! Noah was the perfect age for all the activities and Ryan was a good age for a lot of it but wasn't crazy about the strangers talking to her :) Noah went on stage and talked to one of the rangers, looked at animal foot prints, did a cave simulation, bounce houses, target shooting, face painting, made airplanes, got tattoos, did a water brigade (simulating how fires were put out before fire trucks), and went on a fire truck tour! It was a lot of fun even though it was really hot!

Cave simulation

Target practice

Smokey Hats

He wanted to be a white tiger

Fire brigade

Sunday we went to church and then had to go on the search for a cake or cupcakes for my brother's baby shower. I had ordered one but we had some bad storms in the area on Saturday and it knocked out the power where our baker lived and she messaged me at 1:30 a.m. to tell me the power company still was unable to get her power back on so she couldn't do the cake :( We were able to find some cute cupcakes and made it work just fine. The shower decorations all turned out so cute - it took us a while to make them all but the end result was perfect!

One happy family :)

Parents to be :)

The Hostesses

It was a busy fun-filled weekend but those are my favorite ones. We sure were happy when Daddy got home though!