Just Us

After a fabulous McChesney wedding and a weekend visit from the future CEO of JCPenney this past week was great for Jace, Easton and I to just kick back and relax...just the three homies. Yep. All three of us are homies now. Keep up.

Mondays are...well...Mondays so nothing to report on that...except that Jace was asleep at 7:30pm.  Guess driving roundtrip from Dayton to Minneapolis in a 72-hour span of time is a bit exhausting. Easton kept telling him to "watch Mickey" but not even Mickey Mouse's clubhouse could keep my man awake on Monday.

He was back to normal by Wednesday the 29th...which just so happened to mark our 11th year in the Air Force! He had flowers and a very encouraging note waiting for me when I arrived home.

The staff at Beavercreek Florist love him...
and so do I :)

I gave him a huge hug and then we proceeded to talk about how much graduation must have sucked this year without the Thunderbirds. We both then decided that though the T-birds were pretty cool it was even cooler to graduate with jobs and no student loans. The mood turned happy again :)

happy!! now go study kid
USAFA c/o 2024

Fast forward about an hour...Easton's fed and we're all acting pretty silly, just goofing around having a ball...and Jace drops a bomb.  Begin conversation:

Jace (said as he's pacing around the room like a weirdo):  "Babe, I've done something I'm not proud of...and it isn't the first time."

Me (thinking, what the hell did this kid do? and why is he following one super-sweet gesture [ref: flowers/card] with an announcement that he's got herpes or something else that's going to force me to punch him in the nose): "What are you talking about, psycho?"

Jace:  "Come with me..." (and then he leads me down to the basement bedroom where I'm thinking holy sHiz this is getting serious...AND THEN...NOOOOOOOO...he reaches into the nightstand next to the guest bed where I've (CRAP) hidden his anniversary gift!!!!!)

Me (in between fits of hysterical laughter): "NOOOOOOO! WHAT THE bleep, MAN?!?"

OK so if you didn't follow that (which I hope you did because I'm laughing just re-reading it) it was the play-by-play of Jace totally crashing yet another surprise I had planned for him.  I'm the world's worst surpriser. Yes, that's a word, now go get me a coffee cup or a mousepad that reads "World's WORST surpriser!" I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me.  For his 30th birthday I just flat-out told him about his surprise party (on accident)...like he'd been helping me plan it for the previous two months or something.

Jace: "Hey babe, who was that on the phone" 

Me: "Oh just the caterer from Game On...AHHHHH!" 

I was so mad at myself...and there are others but I won't bore you...more than you already are.

So we exchanged our 10-year anniversary gifts...on our 11th Air Force anniversary.  I suppose we wouldn't be here today if it weren't for this fine service so I can get with that.  But this will be a fun story for years to come.  Oh and also, I'm done trying to plan surprises for him.  There, it's written.

To add to the greatness of our work week Easton pulled a cute little stunt on Thursday evening.  He has been awesome about staying in his bed once we put him in there but for whatever random reason he decided to get out of his bed and fall asleep right inside the door to his room.  No big deal, people sleep on the floor all the time, right? (just go with that...)  But the problem is that I go in and check on him every night before I go to bed myself and so in I went and BAM! slammed the door right into his cute little noggin.  I felt horrible. This is how he felt about it...

Bang my head with a door, Mom. No problem. I'm still sleeping...in my
new shark jammies (there are sharks on his pants)
I had to snake my arm in the door like a pipe cleaner. OMG I'm killing
myself with the crap that's spewing into this blog tonight. Pipe cleaner?

So that was a fun week...on to the weekend.  I'll stop writing so much...more pictures, more pictures, right?

Saturday -- we went to swim class, ran some errands and had a scrumptious (and free) dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings.  LOVE.

Sunday -- we got up, I made pancakes (in the toaster...MOTY, don't be jealous) and then we enjoyed the morning on the patio. It was gorgeous outside and we had fun watching Easton play with his chalk eggs and bubbles...all while wearing his Clarice union suit. I loved every second of this morning.

In the afternoon we went back to Wegerzyen Garden Children's Discovery Garden. The last time we went there it was all closed down for the season (and cold) so I wanted to see what it looked like with the flowers and plants in bloom. My allergies were very thankful for this opportunity. 

Super fun place. I love it there :) But eventually we had to leave. It was time for lunch. The rest of the day was filled with laundry, weed pulling (at our maintenance-free condo) and just a touch of crazy...

The "loooooooooooove" book

And that's a wrap.  Thanks for reading...guess I had more to say than I originally thought...(surprise?) ;)

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

While Jace was representing Team Anders at some family wedding festivities back in Minnesota, Easton and I had an action-packed weekend here in Ohio with some super special visitors...Sam and Hayden Kaiser all the way from McKinney, TX!!  Sam and I have been friends since Brandy and Monica were arguing over some boy.  We always have fun when we get together and this time we added some offspring to the mix so that amped up the excitement fo' sho'!

I would like to dedicate this collage to Mitchell Hall...
WHOA, ANDERS!

Sam and Hayden arrived on Saturday around 12:30 and Easton and I swooped them up and headed home to...surprise, surprise...eat lunch!  We dominated some pizza and samiches and then headed down to Sugarcreek Metro Park for a hike.  It was super fun but, damn, Little Homie isn't so little anymore so we stuck to the blue route and let the kids frolic in the nature play area before heading home.

If you line Easton up properly he's already half my height...
at two years old...awesome

Miss Sam is the most fun.  Mom tried this and
bonked the poor dude's head off the wood.  #nojoke

                              

 

Mr. Adventure! (and he's strong, too)

Hayden wanted me to document his
scraped up knee.  He was a super trooper!
I'd still be on the trail crying...

We wrapped up our Friday night with the kiddos running amok and the A-dults spitting out "Hayden, stop!" and "Easton, be nice!" on heavy rotation.  Boys.  They finally zonked out around 9...I think...

On Saturday morning the Keurig got a solid workout while we made breakfast and the little guys caught up on the latest episodes of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.   Thank goodness Hayden can still tolerate toddler TV (thanks, Colt).  Our primary mission on Saturday was to dominate the he** outta the Air Force Museum... 

We had so much fun!  Just look...

Can't wait to send this to him when he graduates from UPT 

Kiddo best heed the warning...

This is as far as he got before he
began to freak out and immediately
sprint the other direction

Sam refreshing her knowledge 

And this is how Easton enjoyed most of the museum...

Mickey Mouse Road Rally BAM!!!

I learn something new every time I go to the museum and this time I learned that there is actually a gallery dedicated to our space and missiles!  This gallery was unreal...all I needed was to run back out to the gift shop and grab some astronaut ice cream to have been the happiest little nerd on the planet.  So you have to see the missiles, satellites and space launch vehicles in person to truly appreciate their size but here are a few of my attempts to document...

                          

Easton started getting a bit restless after an hour so I took him out to the playground and talked to him about his great granddad at the Eighth Air Force memorial.  Love those heritage moments the older I get :)

After our museum adventure we headed home for lunch and naps.  Lunch was successful...naps were not.  Sam and I accepted defeat and packed up the kiddos one more time for a trip out to Young's Dairy.  We fed the goats, admired the beautiful cows, Hayden rode the Moovers & Shakers "train" and there was even a sweet-lovin' carnival set up and running.  Unfortunately Easton did not get to participate in said carnival due to an earlier incident involving assault on Mommy Dearest.  Toddlers. So much fun...except when they clock you across the face!  After Easton's 15 minute timeout and Hayden burning through $10 at the carnival we tried to get some ice cream but the line was a million people long so we moseyed back to Beavercreek and hit Graeters (a definite upgrade in my opinion).  Hayden liked his chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream so much that the literally boxed Sam out so she couldn't have any and then spilled his last bite on the ground. I was dying inside but couldn't laugh because Sam was pissed and I didn't want to negate the solid parenting that was going on.  I'll disown Easton if he ever denies me Graeters.  Truth.

                      

 

Once we finished with our ice cream it was back to the ranch to get cleaned up and ready for dinner.  Are you sensing a theme here?  If not, reference the first photo collage and you'll see the results of how Sam and I enjoy spending our time.

                 

We got the kiddos down eventually and then Sam and I watched Zero Dark Thirty. I was disappointed. Thought it'd be cooler...and at 2.5 hrs it should have been.

Monday morning started off pretty slow as I had been up with Easton all night. He couldn't stop coughing so it kept interrupting his sleep and eventually he got really frustrated and had a few meltdowns. It was sad.  Sam made it better with pancakes!!  Jace rolled in around 11:00 AM so we left E at home and took Mr. Hayden to Red Robin for some bottomless steak fries. From there we stopped by the park to work off a few of those fries and then continued home.

We packed up the suitcases and loaded up the car for the airport. It was still early and Hayden didn't get nearly enough time at the park so we all headed over to Scene 75 to round out the Tour of Dayton.  We had so much fun!

Mini bowling

Video games

Bumper cars

After a solid hour and a half at Scene 75 it was inevitably time to go.  I dropped them off at the airport but, of course, once I got home I got the text from Sam saying that the flight was delayed. It was eventually cancelled and they didn't get out of Dayton until this AM. She leaves tomorrow for a work trip so I know she was thrilled about the whole thing :(

I'm so thankful she brought Hayden up for the weekend and hopefully we can get Easton and Colton together before too long!  Thanks for making the trek, Sammy!!! Love ya :)