Mommy/Son Event

Back in March (was it really that long ago?!) I helped plan the annual Mommy/Son Event for my Mom's Group. We planned a "Block Party", as in building blocks. It was a huge success! My Mom's Group has SO MANY BOYS! We also have boys of all ages since we are not an age-specific Mom's Group....just one of the many reasons we rock. ;-) This was the perfect solution. Each family brought their favorite building medium and bonded for a few hours on a Saturday morning.

A mom and her boys

The Anderson work space. We brought Trio blocks, wooden blocks, and Lincoln Logs.

 

Lego everything!

The Door Prize

I cut the #@$ out of my finger slicing this tube in half. I bled a LOT, and my co-organizer and I even thought stitches might be a good idea. I powered through, stitch free.

Our Legos for building race cars

Duplos for building race cars

The race track

T-Ball

Ian played T-ball this summer! It was a quick, six-game season. Ian was on the blue team. A lot of field time was spent rolling on the ground, and most bench time was spent holding the water bottle between his thighs, squeezing it, and announcing, "Look! I'm peeing". He ran screaming, with his arms waving over his head between all the bases, but he was having a good time, and at this age, that's what it should be about.

13.1

Cole ran his second half-marathon this year. Although the morning got off to a ROUGH start, (someone I left his time bib at home and we didn't realize it until we'd already made it to Champaign), we somehow made it back to the house to get the bib and then back to Champaign in time for Cole to line up in the right starting corral. Thank goodness we got an early start! He didn't beat his first half-marathon's time, but he finished in a fantastic 1:52:41. Way to go, Cole!

Start time was 7:00 am

All smiles

Cole is coming up the field. He's right below the right side of the "N" in Finish.

High School Preschool Take 2

Eli went to "High School Preschool" again this year. He LOVED it! His helpers were amazing. He had Miss Hailey and Mr. Colton. Each of them was fantastic, and Eli had a blast with both of them. He was definitely the most daring child there when it came to fashion. Eli frequently wore blue Speedo swimming goggles, capes, and bike helmets to school. In fact, he became well known around the High School as the "kid that wears goggles." Oh, Eli. To know him is to LOVE him. He even made the front page of the local paper for attending the Preschool.

First Day, April 2013

First Day, April 2012

Front Page!

A Conversion

So, one of the most special, wonderful, amazing events of this past year was Cole's conversion to Catholicism! I don't know if conversion is the right word because Cole never labeled his religious affiliation as anything past "I'm a Christian." Whatever the right word, it thrills me to my core that our entire family is the same religion.

The boys wore sweater vests I knitted for them. They HATED them which was incredibly frustrating.

Three handsome guys ready for Easter Vigil Mass

We thought Cole needed a picture with our "dogter"

Yep. This fuzzy picture sums it all up. I missed EVERYTHING. I was at home, in bed (sometimes), with the most horrendous stomach flu (down nine pounds in 36 hours). I cried and cried about missing it. It broke my heart, but my entire family was there, including my grandparents, and I was so, so grateful for that.

A Long Absence = Too Many Forgotten Memories

I have been SO bad. I hate that I haven't kept up with the antics of the Ander-fam because this is truly a record of the boys' childhoods. The next few posts are going to be quick and easy, but will cover the hap-hap-happenin's around this house.

Las Vegas - The Nerdy Way

Cole and I just got back from a long weekend together. No kids. Thank the good Lord above. Seriously. There is no way my children will ever be allowed to venture to Las Vegas. Ever. Period. Unless, of course, they promise to tour the area like we did...giant nerds. As soon as we landed and picked up our rental car, we drove our tired selves to the Hoover Dam!

It was incredible. So massive. So mind boggling. So hot! I had horrible vertigo on top of the damn, overwhelming anxiety inside the dam, and it was well worth the cash we shelled out to go through all of the tours. :)

Staying FAR from the edge

The river by the power plant.

Just a bit warm

Hats everywhere that had been blown off people's heads

Hat graveyard

Notice the tense shoulders...I was actually sore the following day like I had worked-out or something.

30 Steel tunnel in original diversion tunnel

How the dam works

Looking somewhat happy while fighting the urge to vomit everywhere in the tunnel

Inside the power plant at the bottom of the dam. The generators are SEVEN stories tall.

Yep, people actually work here.

The cranes at the top of the building are used for repair work

It was built with tourism in mind so the floors have ornate patterns

Italian marble tunnels...shoulders still very tense

Vent at from of the dam

View from the vent

Tunnel to the vent...not very big

Disaster escape staircase. You can't tell at all from the picture, but it looks like the stairs go straight up.

Looking down from the top of the dam

Arizona side of the dam

Lake Mead

Nevada side of the dam

Cole recovering from melting his fingerprints off on the door handle of the car.

The following day we went to the Atomic Testing Museum. On purpose. That's how nerds roll in Vegas. It was a trek. We walk EVERYWHERE on our vacations. Always have, always will. The testing museum turned out to be over three miles from our hotel. Now, walking three miles ain't no thang, but when it's 110 degrees outside and you have to turn around and walk ANOTHER three miles back...it's not very fun. Of course, I also wore highly inappropriate shoes and wound up with a blister roughly the size of a squirrel on my right foot which made the walk that much better.

Next up...The Atomic Testing Museum

This shows how the kids in the testing area witnessed so many atomic tests. Weird.

Had to take this picture for my nephew who think hearing the word "ass" is the funniest thing on the planet.

After we made it back to The Strip from the museum, we decided it was time to gamble and enjoy some of those delightfully free drinks. That's when the trip really started getting good for me. :-) To be continued...