"Daddy, Boat Ride?"

This little guy loves a boat ride. He asks several times a day, "Daddy, boat ride?" If we are driving through Lake Forest and he sees a boat on the water he yells to me, "Mommy, boat, lake." He is definitely a water boy!

As soon as Dave hooked the boat to the truck and pulled it out he was ready to jump in.

We tend to go out on the water during the week and in the middle of the day. Everyone is at work and it is smooth and quiet out on the water.

Dane likes to sit with Dave and look around as Dave drives the boat. He usually looks for ducks in the water and any dogs that happen to be in back yards.

He loves to honk the horn on the boat.

When we put out the anchor he loves to turn the wheel.

I am not a lake swimmer, but Dave is and Dane loved watching him.

Dane decided he wanted to get in. His lifejacket automatically causes him to float on his back and keeps his face out of the water. Strangely enough, those are two things that Dane hates. He loves to put his face in the water and he likes to lay on his belly and kick his legs in the water.

No matter how much Dave sat him up or held him so he could practice his kicks from swim lessons, the minute Dave would take his hands off of him the lifejacket would flip him on his back to float. That is the purpose of the lifejacket that we bought, but Dane sure didn't understand that. He would just kick his little legs trying to get back over to swim on his belly.

I relaxed on the boat while the boys played. Dane finally came out for a snack.

After swimming we took one more slow lap around the lake. Dane must have been worn out from swimming. He sat on my lap and fell right asleep.

When we got back to the Marina Dave got Dane and I out and he went on a "fast" lap around the lake. He says it is good for the boat. I don't know if it really is or if he just gets a little bored with the two of us and our slow boat rides. Dane yelled, "Daddy, boat ride" quite a few times while he was gone.

We came home and Dane ate TWO peanut butter sandwiches for lunch before taking a three hour nap. Swimming and boating must make him hungry and wear him out. When he woke up the first thing he said to me was, "Daddy home? Boat ride?"

Riding A Bike

A couple of weeks ago Aunt Amy said she had a tricycle that Dane could have. Our trunk was full that day, but when we went up last week Amy pulled it out of the shed. The kids washed it all up for him and we brought it home.

Dane was so excited! Dave wasn't with us, so the next morning as soon as Dane woke up he said, "Bike, Daddy". He loved it! He was also excited about wearing his helmet that Mama had given him quite a while ago.

Dave had some work to do at the Firehouse so he took Dane and his bike up there with him and let him ride for a bit. Before they left he kept walking around the house saying, "Bike, Helmet."

His little feet barely reach the pedals, so he can't pedal it yet, but he sits on it and pushes it around with his little toes on the ground. He hates to get off it!

Kids Carnival

Dave and I took Dane to a Kids Carnival at a daycare near our house last weekend. I left my camera in the car at first so I missed our first activity. When we first got there we went to the Ste Genevieve County Sheriffs Department activity. They were making ID kits for all of the kids. Dane got stickers and coloring books to play with while we filled out the paperwork. They weighed him, got his height, fingerprinted him, and took pictures of him. They gave us a CD with everything on it and also gave Dave and I each an ID card for Dane which listed all of his basic information and his picture on it.

After we finished up with this we went outside to the games.

Dane played horseshoes.

He played basketball.
He went bowling.

He LOVED riding the pony. There wasn't anyone else in line and he loved it so much that the guy took him around the field several more times.

He looked at the animals in the petting zoo.

He really wanted to get in and play with them, but there were a lot of other, older kids in there at the time so the animals were getting pretty wild.

They had two bounce houses. He started off in the little one.

After the little one he wanted to move to the bigger one.

When he would bounce and fall he would crack up!

He ran and played hard for an hour.

Before we headed out we went inside to get a capri sun to drink and to cool off a bit.

Our Weekend and Susson Park

This weekend was a perfect example of why I love summer vacation. It was such a relaxing weekend and we just did whatever we wanted.

Friday afternoon Dave reminded me that a big company in Ste. Gen had rented the entire Community Center in Lake Forest on Saturday. The pool and playground would be closed all day. Dave had to work Saturday, so I started thinking about what Dane and I could do. We had planned to be in Kirkwood for Father's Day, so we decided to go up on Saturday afternoon and spend the night. We went to Mama and Papa's house and Dane played and hung out with Papa. We ran a couple of errands, then had dinner at Amy's house before going out for ice cream.

Dave came up late Saturday night and Dane was so excited to see him Sunday morning. We cooked a big Father's Day breakfast and just sat around hanging out and talking all day. Amy, Darnel, and the kids came over, so Dane had a ball running around with them. We all got ready to go to T.J. and Ashley's for dinner with the rest of the family.

Dinner was delicious. We had cake to celebrate Father's Day and cake to celebrate Trey and Delaney's birthdays that were also this month. Dane played so hard at T.J.'s and Ashley's house that he fell asleep on the way home and Mama carried him straight to bed when we got back home.

Monday Mama, Amy, Delaney, Trey, Dane, and I spent the morning at Susson Park. I had a feeling Dane would love seeing all of the animals and I was right. He ran to look at one animal, ran to the next one, then sometimes would run back to see others that we had already seen.

We got to the park about 15 minutes before the petting barn opened so we took a walk around the lake.

There were several ducks in the water.

We feed the ducks in Lake Forest pretty often. Dane LOVES to see the ducks.

He seemed to be a little fast for these ducks. When he started moving, they started moving pretty fast!

He kept running, pointing, and saying, "Duck, mommy, duck."

He got pretty close to them, but they kept their distance.

This little one let Mama, Trey, and Dane walk next to him as he walked to the water.

After walking with the ducks for a while we headed over the bridge to the petting barn.

Dane loves Trey and Delaney. He must have said, "Trey, LuLu" a hundred times.

The first animals we saw were ponies, then this big horse.

Trey and Dane watched this turkey for quite a while.

Dane enjoyed watching the goats and sheep play. They would run up onto a rock and then back down. He would laugh, point, and say, "In, mommy, in". Guess he wanted to play with them.

Sticking their faces through the mural for a picture.

One of Dane's favorite areas was the stable with the cows. When we drive into Ste. Gen Dane will yell, "Cow, mooo" everytime he see the cows. He loved checking them out close up.

The kids also watched a cow being milked.

Dane sat on Trey's lap during the demonstration.

After we had seen all of the animals we walked up to the playground and found a picnic table to have lunch. The kids ate and then ran around and played on the playground for a while.

We had a great morning at the park. I can't wait to take Dave back with us sometime so he can see how much Dane loves these animals.

A Boy Who Loves to go Swimming

The neighborhood pool opened last weekend. Usually it takes quite a while to get the water warm enough for me to want to go swimming. With these warm days we knew the water would be warm enough to start our daily visits.

Someone was very happy to be heading to the pool.

Dane will say, "Cheese, Mommy!", but then he does all kinds of silly stuff while I snap pictures....

Just the beginning of our fun summer vacation!

Appointments for Baby Evelsizer!

Yesterday morning we left bright and early to go to St. Louis. We met Amy at Kirkwood High School, she was dropping off Trey for Football Camp, and she took Dane for the day so that Dave and I could go to our 20 Week Ultrasound and a Dr. Appointment.

Both appointments were at Missouri Baptist Hospital, but different areas so we walked quite a bit. We parked closest to where our last appointment would be and walked across the hospital to the ultrasound. Our good friend's mom works in the office and she was excited as we were.

This little one wasn't quite as cooperative as Dane was at his ultrasound. The ultrasound with Dane went pretty quick and I don't think we were in the room for 5 minutes before they told us we were having a boy. This one took a bit longer. The tech got what she could from the first view and then it seemed when she needed one side, the baby would show the other. Or she would barely be able to see what she needed and if the little one would move just a tad she would be able to get it. It took a bit longer, but eventually she was able to check off all of the boxes.

They once again reminded me that I was in the "Advanced Maternal Age" category so I had to have a specialist come in. He looked over all of the pictures the tech had taken and then took a look on his own.

We are having a healthy baby boy!

We were excited! I had told Dave for several weeks that I thought we were having another boy. I get excited thinking about Dane and his little brother growing up together.

When we walked out of the ultrasound room our friend's mom was just waiting to hear the news. She promised she wouldn't say a word and was thrilled to know that her two grandsons that live right down the street from us would have another boy in the neighborhood to play with.

As we walked to the elevator to head to our next appointment our phones were vibrating like crazy with text messages from friends and family asking for the news.

We got to my Dr.'s office and were told that he had been called to a surgery, we could either wait or go have lunch and come back. We decided we needed to eat so we met my mom at St. Louis Bread Co. for lunch. When we got back to Missouri Baptist my Dr. had only been back five minutes, so I am glad we decided to go have lunch. They called us right in. It was a real quick appointment. The Dr. went over the ultrasound results and was very happy for us. The baby is measuring right at 19 weeks, which puts my due date on October 24th.

So things are great here. The "morning sickness" which used to be with me 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, seems to be limiting itself to mornings and every so often after I eat. I also have had such a sweet tooth this pregnancy. Dave likes to cut up broccoli and cucumbers for me to have with fat free ranch dip. While I do love this, I usually have to have something sweet after I eat the healthy stuff! Another plus was that my Dr. told me that even though I tell him at every appointment that I can't believe how big I am already, the baby is right on track size wise and my weight at this point is great!!

We can't wait until our little baby boy is here!

Pirate Party

Friday afternoon Dane was invited to Trey's 6th Birthday Party. It was a Pirate Themed Party.

What a neat looking Pirate cake!
As the boys arrived they got a Pirate Hat. Dane only wanted his on for a few minutes.

Trey was dressed up as a Pirate for the party.

Trey had 15 guests coming and Dane was just as excited as Trey was as they started pulling up.

The whole group!

Amy had the backyard set up in stations. At each station the boys collected a piece to complete a Pirate's outfit.

At the first station, Walk the Plank, they got a hook.

Delaney helped Dane walk the plank.

At the Peg Leg Hop the boys were supposed to hop through Hoola Hoops on one leg to get an eyepatch.

Dane didn't really hop, but he loved running through the hoops.

At Swab the Deck the boys had to use a mop to get the ball in to a bucket. They got a telescope at this station.

Dane didn't do this station, but he laughed as he watched the boys.

At the last station, Buried Treasure, they dug for gold coins.

Looking for the gold coins

After a game of Pin the Treasure on the Treasure Map we all came inside to have pizza and punch. Dane found a seat at the table with some other boys.

Then it was time to sing Happy Birthday and have cake.

Dane was eyeing the cake, ready for a piece.

Amy had the boys busy, busy, busy. Towards the end Dane started to fade. He watched as the boys hit a pinata and he didn't leave Mama's side even when the candy fell and all of the boys ran to get it. He had a great time at the party and hanging out with the big kids.