Since it is September here but still 100 degrees outside the boys and I decided to go to the pool yesterday. We get all dressed up, they are super excited, and I pull up and the darn thing is closed for repairs. Would have been nice to know that on the neighborhood Facebook page before I dashed the boys love of the pool...I digress. So, we were all dressed so I said "let's go outside and I will spray you guys on the trampoline." I got lots of hoots and hollers and they ran out completely forgetting how upset they were just 5 minutes before:)
My boys love LOVE to be sprayed on the trampoline. It is constant jumping, laughing, squealing, yelling, and a big wet mess. I am sure my neighbors just love all the screaming but they are having fun and making memories and since it wasn't done at 6am or 10pm, I don't really care what my neighbors think!
I love Owen's face in this picture. Just classic Owen. Joyful and laughing at absolutely nothing. I just said "let me take a picture of you guys" and this was the face I got. Always such a loud happy kid and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Well...maybe just a TAD quieter:)
My boys started school today. Sigh:( I love for them to be gone some of the day, I hate them being gone so many hours by the end of the week. I missed them today. I 
am never bored though. Since I work 4 days a week I always have plenty to do but I did still miss them. They are growing up too quickly and sometimes on days like today I just have to make myself stop and enjoy them RIGHT NOW at the here and now. One day (not too far away) I will blink and there will be no more "back to school on the front porch" pictures.
Two of the boys favorites right now are Ironman and Mario Cart. Super awesome that I found the perfect bags for each of the boys this school year. Owen's was on the smallest setting and was still pretty much the size of his back this year. He is even a big Pre K student. I can't imagine what the small kids must have looked like.
Welcome back to school for all the kids out there. Welcome to Pre K and First grade in our household. I believe this is going to be an awesome year!
As many of you know my husband LOVES golf. He would play it every day if he didn't run a company and have a family of his own. His love for all sports (but mostly golf and football) have been passed down to 
our children. These boys enjoy playing these two sports more than any other. Over the last few months they have been "playing" golf in our backyard. They will take their clubs and hit to imaginary holes, throw the clubs in the back of their Jeep, ride to the next hole, and so on. It's hilarious to see them ride their Jeep as the "golf cart". Pretty creative.
Steven finally did something few men would do in their backyard (since it's the first summer we have true grass thanks to the rain). He mowed them a golf course. Complete with 5 holes, fairways, numbered tee boxes, and a rough for each hole. Pretty cool. He even took his orange construction paint out and drew the tee boxes, the holes, and used irrigation flags to place in the holes. Oh man, the boys went crazy.
This is not the best picture because my camera couldn't capture the view as best as I would like but you can see the fairways and the rough in this shot. My husband is a good daddy!!!!!!!!!
Yesterday I got to witness a very special event in our family history. My niece Ava got baptized! That in 
itself is pretty special but how my sister did it was even more awesome in my book. She asked my aunt if we could have a big family dinner at her house and use her pool to baptize Ava. My dad is an ordained minister (to perform weddings and such) and was asked by Angela if he would baptize Ava. Like he was going to turn that down??!!! How special it must have been for my dad to get to baptize his oldest grandchild
and now sister in Christ on her special day.
We are very proud of you Ava! I love you very very much!
This weekend has been awesome. Steven and the boys left on 
Friday for a weekend in Norman. I would have liked to go since it was my father in law's 
60th birthday party but I already had a run scheduled for Saturday morning and a night out with my friend Melinda Saturday night. So, that gave me roughly 48 hours of alone time. Heaven! This is only the 2nd time in 7 years that I have been at the house for the whole weekend without any of my family here. I love my three boys but I do enjoy some alone time.
I started my morning today running my Half Half. To all the serious marathon runners out there that probably sounds pretty lame. It was NOT lame to me. I have been training very hard for about 6 weeks for this half marathon I am doing in November. Today was 6 1/2 miles. The longest I have ran thus far in training. My goal was 65 minutes. I finished exactly 6.5 miles in 65 minutes. My legs are a bit sore tonight but overall I feel good and was very proud of myself! I treated myself with 5 hours spent with my girl Melinda.
We had such an awesome time. We spent about 3 hours shopping the 
streets of Jenks looking at boutiques and antique shops. Right up my
alley. I walked away with not one antique but rather an uber adorable chevron maxi dress. Can't wait to wear it!
While shopping I couldn't help but notice some of the junk, stuff people sell. A lamb made of yarn, an old shoe, a matchbox, a broken lamp, scary dolls, and of course old school electronics like VCR's, corded telephones, typewriters, etc. I had to snap a few shots of the corded telephones. Those were my favorites!
We ended our night with a fantastic dinner at Waterfront Grill. It was a beautiful night and can't say that I remember the last time I could wear jeans on an August night. Can't remember the last time we actually would want to sit outside to eat dinner. We had a great time together (like always) and I cherish our times together so much. With 5 boys between us it is sometimes hard to get away so it makes it that much more special when we can. Thank you to the daddy's for watching all the boys so we could enjoy each others company for a few hours.
Next girls dinner: Melting Pot. Yum-O (So I've heard. Actually have never been there yet!)
Ah, camping. Camping you say? I might not strike some people as a "camper" but I do enjoy a weekend once a year:) And when I say camping, I mean an air conditioned cabin with two beds, a mini kitchen and bathroom, a TV, and electricity. So call me a "camper" or not, but I don't mind that for 2 nights!
We have been going to MarVal since Will was a baby. In fact, the first time we went was for a Kueny family reunion when Will was just learning to walk. I would say he was about 9 months old. We have gone back every single Summer since then so this was Will's 6th time to visit.
My boys love this place. Even Will, who is not as outdoorsy as his 
brother really thrives here. They love the freedom of the outside at all times of the day. They love to skip rocks, play at the park, play mini golf, sit by the fire, watch the outdoor movies, ride the golfcart, swim at the pool, play at the splash pad, raft the Illinois River with us, grill hotdogs over and open flame, play in their loft upstairs, and play volleyball. I am sure I left some 
activities out but every year there is never any lack of fun stuff for them to do.
This summer was one of the first summer's in a long time that there was not a burn ban. The last two summers have been from the 
Devil and we had to make s'mores in a microwave. Not the same AT ALL. This year was awesome because we could do the s'mores, have a bonfire, and make dinner all at the same time. The whole camp just smelled of open air fires all weekend. I love that smell!
It is also a tradition to hit up a local 
restaurant while camping. The place is called Soda Steve's. It is at the Fin and Feather Resort right on the edge of Lake Tenkiller. There is a pretty little pond with ducks and a sand volleyball court right outside that the both boys were 
consumed over during dinner. I will let you guess which of the boys was knee deep in the pond in attempts to catch/talk to a duck and return a feather he found on the ground. Did you guess yet? Yep, you're probably right!
Soda Steve's makes all their root beer and cream soda homemade. If you are ever there you MUST try it. I have sipped on both and in my opinion the root beer is better. Still try both. They are worth trying!
Thank you to our friends, The McCarty's, for going with us this weekend. Camping is always fun but it's even more enjoyable when you have another family to share your experiences with. It was their first time at MarVal and I am pretty sure it will not be their last!
Tonight the boys went to a Super Hero birthday party. This was right up Owen's alley. I KNEW he would enjoy it. I wondered about Will because Super Hero's and dressing up have never really been his thing. He was surprisingly just as stoked for this party as Owen was. In fact, he kept his mask on even longer than Owen did.
This party had it all...cake, ice cream, games, trampoline, baseball, silly string, and a pinata. The boys loved hitting and smashing the pinata to their hearts content. Will was so focused
on being the one that actually smashed it that when it did break he wasn't quick enough to even grab any candy! 
Thankfully, his friend Mason came to the rescue and willingly shared some of his loot. Thanks Mason!
Happy birthday to our friend Dylan. We hope your 5th birthday was amazingly fun! I know my boys had a great time and we thank you for inviting us!
I promise this will be my last 
Florida post. When you go away to such a beautiful place you have a lot of pictures and stuff to say about it:)
Today's blog is going to be all about the beach. Ahh, the beach. My love. My second home (I wish). Steven and I love the beach. I love it even 
more than him I think. I also think it's hilarious how my boys have adopted that love. They have only been to the beach 
twice in their lives but every time we can not get them away from it. We will be there 6, 7, 8 hours AT A TIME and still they do not want to leave. Still they cry when they have to get in the car. Sand, ocean, waves, castles, 
crabs, shells, burying each other, volleyball, snacks, coral collecting...they ENJOY it all!!!
One of Will's favorite things to build while on the beach is a "fort". I am not sure if you can really call it a fort. It's more a moat that he tries to build around our chairs and things. He works so hard on it with digging it out, carving a save place where water can not penetrate the things behind it. It usually works and sometimes it 
doesn't. Owen's favorite thing to do is smash all brother's work. Of course, I didn't allow this but I think it's funny how even at the beach his "Hulk Smash" comes into 
play.
This picture is probably one of my favorites, if not my favorite, of the whole week. I just love the colors in it. The blue sky, the torquise water, the white shirt, the red swim pants. Of course, his sweet face is good too!
The last thing they enjoy at the beach is being buried. Daddy does this task. I am the picture taker. This year Owen's favorite was a mermaid. I thought this was hilarious! He didn't even care that a mermaid is a girl..he just thought it was so funny. It's hard to keep Owen still for this long so if you look closely the mermaid was cracking down the middle section. He liked the mermaid so much he kept lifting his head (and his body) to see it and it kept falling apart. Steven still did a fairly good job with the little mermaid seeing as how his model is not the stillest kid around:) He also liked being the shark but once again the fin kept falling down because he wouldn't stay still. Will was a sea turtle but it didn't really come out so there was no picture available. Oh well...there's always next time!!!!!
This was our second year to do the Buccaneer Pirate Cruise in Destin. The boys really enjoy it but I think the next
time we go we are going to switch out the pirate cruise for the local water park called Big Kahuna's. The boys were very interested in that park every time we drove by it. But, for this year we did the pirate cruise again. I like several things about this boat but the main thing I like is how they have such a positive message they are teaching the kids about the whole 2 hours. How to work hard, how to never give up, how to dream, how to 
believe in yourself and never give up on your dreams or your goals. They might not be getting the message but the parents can hear it and I think the older ones are hearing it. Never bad things to hear!
The boys love the water gun fights, swabbing the deck after the fights to clean up the mess, and they love looking for the treasure. This is Will's favorite part. He has Steven go up on the top part of the boat to get a good look out. He always believes, ALWAYS that he is the first one to spot the treasure even if he isn't. It's cute because rarely does Will get super excited about anything (unless it involves sports)!
I love my "mean" little pirates!
