Camping Vacation Day 1

 The first thing that the kids did after arriving at Grandma and Grandpa's cabin was go upstairs and claim their beds. Originally, Little Bear wanted the blow up mattress but after we explained to him that Pudge would probably fall off of the couch if he slept there and that the couch would probably be more comfortable, he agreed to have the couch. This left Pudge with the blow up mattress, Pequeño with his pack-n-play, and Papa Bear and I with our blow up mattress.They then put on their life jackets and ran downstairs with Papa Bear to finish unloading the van.

 Once everything was unloaded, the fun began.

Grandma and Grandpa had hung the baby swing for the kids to use which they were really excited about. Pequeño got to use it first which Pudge wasn't too happy about.

 But once Papa Bear set up the hammock, Pudge wasn't too interested in the baby swing anymore. Little Bear and Pudge both got to try the hammock by themselves and then attempted to sit in it together which ended with their feet digging into the other person and lots of complaints of being uncomfortable.

After a few minutes of them arguing while "sharing" the hammock, Papa Bear hoisted them out and climbed in for himself. The boys were pretty worried that the hammock was going to break and after Little Bear said " Daddy, you're going to break it. You're a giant." they started chanting "You're a giant! You're a giant!" which had us all laughing for a while. 

A little while later Papa Bear asked the kids if they wanted to go in the boat which, of course, was answered with "yes!". The kids watched from the shore while Papa Bear got the boat ready and then the older two went with him for a ride around most of the lake.

   

 While they were on the lake, Pequeño and I played in the grass for a little bit until it was nap time. The we went upstairs to the cabin and sat outside on the deck to nurse.

After he nursed, he went right to sleep and I was able to sit out on the deck and read for about 15 or 20 minutes before the older boys came back to the shore.

 As soon as they came back, they were telling me all about the fish and birds that they saw. Pudge had claimed the boat and didn't want anyone else (including Papa Bear) driving it which had started a argument between the kids so Papa Bear had decided that they needed to come back to the cabin.
Since Pequeño was still sleeping, Pudge was able to get in some swing time while Papa Bear and I got dinner ready.

 After dinner, it was time to go in the kayak. Pudge went first because Little Bear was still eating.
When they came back, he didn't want to get out of the kayak and had to be convinced with the promise of another boat ride before bed.

 Then Little Bear got his turn to take a kayak ride around the lake.

 Once they came back in, the kids made crafts at the table.

 Later, the older two went on a little walk with Papa Bear while I fed Pequeño and Pudge ran back to tell me " Here you fwower!"

 Before bedtime, we decided to make some popcorn. Grandma had put her popcorn maker in the cabin so all we needed to do was pour kernels into the top of it and watch it spit the popcorn out. The kids thought that it was great, although Little Bear wasn't a fan of the "whirring" noise and had to cover his ears for that.

  

Some Park Fun

 After spending the morning packing for our camping vacation, the kids and I took a break and headed to the park. I let the older two decide where we were going and surprisingly they both agreed to the same one. So we covered ourselves in sunscreen and off we went. As soon as we got there, the kids ran to the play equipment and were nonstop motion for the next two hours, only stopping to get drinks of water or to yell "Mommy, look at me!"

 While his brothers ran themselves tired, Pequeño happily swung back and forth in a baby swing. Every so often he'd start to giggle and then he'd swing quietly again.

Before it was time to leave, the older kids started climbing the rock walls that they have there. Little Bear was so excited to make it to the top that he told me "make sure you get a picture for Daddy!"

Father's Day 2013

 

 This year the older kids each made their own Father's Day cards. Pudge made a picture of Daddy, Daddy's motorcycle, and Daddy's helmet.

 Little Bear made a picture of himself and Daddy and also decorated the envelope. He also wrote "To Daddy From Jorge" and had me write "Happy Father's Day".

 Once the cards were done, we made a chocolate cake and some peanut butter icing. Little Bear decided that he didn't like the icing that we made (although he later ended up eating it)so we only put it on 2/3 of it. Then the older kids each got to put rainbow sprinkles on it.

Since Pequeño wasn't able to make his own gifts this year, he gave daddy a store bought card and a dark chocolate bar with almonds.

Of Monsters and Men again!

One of Papa Bear and my favorite groups is Of Monsters and Men. We saw them in concert last November and had been keeping our eye out for another concert nearby. So, as soon as we saw the tickets go on sale for this one, we bought them without question.

This time, the concert was going to be 5 hours away from where we live so we decided to make a trip out of it. With my parents watching the younger two kids and my sister watching our oldest, we were ready to have some much needed time to ourselves.

Papa Bear had gotten home from work around 6:45 and we were on the road around 7:30. We had agreed to each drive half way and he took the first few hours o that he would be able to sleep the rest of the way. This was a great idea until (while driving), I realized that I was driving through tunnel after tunnel (my own personal form of Hell). I may or may not have cried after exiting a few of them. However, I managed to get us safety to our hotel without any other issues.

Since we were going to be seeing them at Stage AE, we decided to stay at The Hyatt Place which is within walking distance to it. When we drove to the hotel, we passed the place where the concert would be and noticed that there were only two people waiting in line (this was about 6 hours before the doors were scheduled to open) so we decided to go to the hotel first and put our stuff in our room before going to wait in line. When we got to the hotel, we were told that the rooms weren't ready yet and that it was basically a first come first serve once they were so we would have to keep checking back for an open room ( Papa Bear was less than pleased...). So, we went for a quick walk and came back to the hotel about a half hour later and were given a room. Once we dropped all of our stuff off and changed, we walked back to the concert place which at this point only had 4 people in line.

Agreeing that we wanted to eat and weren't too worried about getting good spots based on the line, we ran across the street to Jerome Bettis' Grille. Holy Moly. The portion sizes on the food there are ridiculous! I ordered a buffalo chicken sandwich and when I took it apart to take off a tomato (my fault for not asking for it without), I realized that there were TWO chicken breasts in the one sandwich. Needless to say, we weren't able to finish all of our food. It was delicious though.Once we were done, we decided to go to the bathrooms and then head across the street to wait in line (which had been starting to grow). Apparently, the men's bathroom here has a two way mirror at the urinals so Papa Bear thought that was funny.

After that, we ran across the street and sat in line. For the next 4 1/2 hours. Surrounded by overly dramatic teenagers, ticket scalpers, and what I can only assume was a happily drunk woman.  One of the in-line highlights happened as we were all standing and getting ready to be patted down before entering. A pizza delivery car pulled up and apparently some guy who was in line had ordered himself a personal pan pizza. After having been waiting in line for the last 4-5 hours some of the people around us were really hungry and started offering him money for a slice, which he happily took. Then we were quickly patted down and claiming our spots. We were able to be right in the front although Papa Bear chose to stand behind me.

The openers were Half Moon Run who I had never heard of but ended up really liking.
In the time in between shows, someone got sick behind Papa Bear which was awful and everyone started cramming forward to get away from it which pushed us into different spots although we were still in the front. Someone had the wise?  idea to cover it with a poncho (starting a "poncho!poncho!" chant). Finally, Of Monsters and Men came on. Although they were awesome again, Papa Bear and I both agreed that the first show (without General admission and with higher ticket prices) was much better than this one (filled with teenagers who were bragging that they had gotten the tickets for free and being obnoxious throughout the entire thing) because the whole atmosphere was more fun being surrounded by people who honestly wanted to see Of Monsters and Men and weren't there just because they could be. That said, we'll definitely go to another one if they come back to the area again.

 

Stovetop Jiffy Pop!

When the kids went grocery shopping with Papa Bear, they came home with a few treats. One was popcorn that could be cooked over the stove or a campfire. Since we aren't going camping for a few weeks and the boys (Papa included) are all too impatient to wait that long, they made it over the stove top for a snack. At first, they weren't too impressed but as the foil started to grow, it became awesome!

Little Bear was concerned that it was going to explode but his fears were easily calmed. Once it  finished popping, we all dug in. It was determined that it was a "much better" way to cook popcorn than in the microwave bags but Little Bear wasn't quite sure whether or not it was cooler than Abuela's popcorn machine that "spits out" the popcorn. Either way, we plan on bringing some of these on our camping trip.

Well, it happened

After 2 and 1/2 years, Pudge finally figured out that he could easily scale the side of his crib and escape. He chose to do this at nap time and somehow managed to sneak out of the room without waking Pequeño. I heard the thump thump thump of little feet and by the time that I realized that it was him and not Little Bear (who was quietly playing in the playroom) running down the hall, he was on the stairs proudly proclaiming "I did it! I climb my bed! I big boy!".

I was hoping that it was a fluke but after trying to place him in the crib for his next rest time, he immediately started climbing out. So, off came the front of the crib. He was ecstatic! Since I was taking it apart, I figured that I might as well change the sheet then and upgrade him to an actual pillow. This was probably the coolest thing to him and he kept asking "Dat mine?" Once the front was off and the bed was made up, he climbed right in to check it out and was all smiles.

When bedtime rolled around, I was petrified that I would be taking him back to bed every few minutes. However, Papa Bear ever so graciously took the older boys grocery shopping and they were exhausted when they came home. So Pudge went to bed without a fight and stayed in bed for the entire night! He even slept through Pequeño's wake up without stirring. The next morning nap had no issues either so let's hope that it stays this way!