The Final Days of Our Trip

We ended our 2 week long trip with a few days in Kansas. We left WI a day early because Jackson got a fever and we weren't sure what was wrong. The cabin doesn't exactly have lots of drs around so we thought it would give us a better peace of mind if we drove to KS so we could be around drs. if we needed them. Turns out he had an ear infection...shades of his brother!

Here's Jackson trying to recover from his infection.

The big hit of the trip was FIREWORKS!!!!!! Cooper was in heaven. He loved the poppers and, really, everything else too!

Jackson liked to be outside checking out all of the toys too.

Cooper loves Grandma S!

Looks just like he did in WI with fireworks! (Please excuse his horrible outfit! Doesn't really match does it? :))

We also played with water balloons. Cooper LOVED them.

And Jackson loved Cooper! (can you tell he's reacting to his brother? You can kind of see Cooper's reflection in the glass door)

This "excited" look was Jackson's new expression while in KS. He did it ALL of the time. He'd just open his mouth as far as it would go! Crazy boy.

Uncle Chris came down to spend the weekend with us. Both boys were in heaven. Ryan was too as he and Chris went to Manhattan to golf on Ryan's birthday! :)

Celebrating Ryan's birthday after they got back from golfing. I asked Cooper how we should decorate and he said "Fuzz Lightyear birthday!"

We did a little 4th of July craft while we were in KS since it was almost the 4th of July!

One day while we were there we drove up to KC to visit some friends. Here we visited our friends Justin and Kelli and their kids Eleanor and Will. Here Eleanor is telling Jackson something! It was so cute because she was really having a conversation with him complete with hand gestures and he just looked at her like... what?!?

When he's older he's going to be mad he spurned the advances of Eleanor :)

Cooper and Will are relaxing before lunch.

Justin and Ryan with all of the kiddos.

After we had lunch with Justin and Kelli, we headed to Gretchen's house for the rest of the day. We had an amazing time catching up and relaxing, then a few more of our college friends came over for a BBQ. We had such a great time.

We actually got a good picture of all the kids looking! Probably the first time this has ever happened!

Cole, Nolan, Avery, Maya, Jackson, and Cooper

All the kids with their mommies! Linsey, Megan, Gretchen, and me.

Then we made the dads pose: Brandon, Ryan, Craig, and Darin

Ahhh, finally done posting about our trip! We had a wonderful time though and I was sad to see it end.

Last Days at the Cabin

We had a fun last few days at the cabin before we drove down to KS.

The kids enjoyed having Grandpa read to them...
and our cousins Evan and Emma came up and joined us one day...

we played ring around the rosie a bunch while they were here!

and Jackson learned to stand!

"To infinity and beyond!" One of Cooper's favorite games to play right now. He likes to pretend he's Buzz Lightyear (or "Fuzz Lightyear" as he would say) and he calls "to infinity and beyond" and jumps down from wherever he is. (from the movie Toy Story for those of you who aren't familiar with this)

One day the kids made dirt pie with Grandma complete with a real flower!

Then one of our best friends Nikki came to visit at the cabin with two of her kids-Katie and Kellen. We exchange gifts for the kids in the summer and here the kids are posing with some of them.

We had them do an obstacle course,

and then went out on the boat! What is Jackson doing here?!? So silly.

Posing with Nikki and all of our kids.

Eliz, Cooper, Ben, Katie, and Kellen enjoying popsicles.

After they left we had a bonfire.

and we also shot off fireworks! Here Cooper is doing one of our favorites- poppers!

Watching Uncle Tom do more "big boy" firecrackers :) He was a little scared. Poor Ryan was still in TX working and hadn't made it back for this yet. He makes it back by the end of our trip.

Cooper would only do sparklers with me at first...

but then was brave enough to do them on his own!

smoke bombs (Cooper covered his ears just in case they were loud :))

the kids also had fun playing in the sandbox and building sandcastles.

The last weekend we were in town we drove into the cities to go to the baptism of Nikki and Brett's third child Caroline. Laura and I are very honored to be Caroline's godmothers so we were SO thrilled we were able to attend her baptism!

We have been friends since we lived next door to eachother in MN when we were 1!

Beautiful Caroline.

After the baptism (Ryan was in town at this point) we drove back to the cabin for a few more days. Jackson is showing off his pulling up abilities!

My cousin Casey came over to the cabin with her kids Cain and Brooklyn, and her parents (my dad's sister) We're just about the same age and had a lot of fun catching up.

Casey and Brooklyn. Cain was fishing so I don't have pictures of him.

There's a bald eagle on my parents' lake, I thought that was amazing to see one in person!

That night we made S'mores- yummy!

Here's the one picture I remembered to take of my parents' cabin (this is from the back of it) It's taken from the firepit area, near the lake.

A family photo. This actually happened to be our 7th Anniversary! My how time flies.

The traditional picture at the big fish.

and we were off! I'll finish up soon with the end of our trip (in KS).