Here, There, Everywhere

We've had a crazy couple of fun weeks!  Two weekends ago, we had Amy's cousin Jeff and wife Niesha down with us for the weekend. It was super fun to have them and of course the boys were beyond excited.  As soon as they found out that they were coming, Zachary began to beg to go swimming with Jeff.  Amy responded that it would depend on how Jeff felt (he's been feeling a bit 'off' lately) when Kaleb pipes up "Niesha swim!"  If it wasn't one, then it was going to be the other! :)  We did have a fabulous time and the boys kept them busy playing "chase", swimming, reading books etc.  Zachary was so enamored with them that early one morning, one of them had gone into the bathroom and he laid down on the floor outside the bathroom door just to see feet!  At least until Mommy caught him and they had a discussion about privacy! :)

Awesome action shot - Kaleb's knee is up in the air - he was loving it!

Not to be outdone, Zachary makes the most of his throw from Jeff in his own action shot

Zachary had a "lease" on, and Jeff was walking him around like a dog (much to Zachary's delight!)

Last weekend, the adult Z-s flew up to Canada to visit Amy's Dad while the boys stayed with Grandma.  Amy's Dad had been in the hospital the week before with a suspected TIA, and of course his overall health has been declining over the past year.  We were very happy to be able to go and visit with him.  We actually had a family meeting with his doctor (not sure that our doctors down here would have been caring enough to meet with the entire family to discuss medical issues, but who knows....) - anyway she spent about an hour and a half with us discussing all of the various medical problems etc.

After that we went out to eat with Brad, Cam, Tracy and Dad where we literally had the BEST apple crisp Amy has ever tasted.  Coming from a cooked fruit hater, this is really saying something!  We were able to go to Dad's church the next day where we really had a blessing from the sermon (all about spending time daily in God's Word) and then headed over to Norma's house for a fabulous meal.  That night we actually were able to go to a concert at one of the local SDA churches that was celebrating their 40th anniversary.  Sunday we just made it a day of relaxing and enjoying each other's company before we headed back VERY early on Monday.  Something special happened on Monday when we got home, but that'll be next week's blog post! :)

Brad, Dad, Cam, Tracy and Amy

Dad's sporty wheels!

The boys had a fantastic time with Grandma -although they tend to get up even earlier when Mom and Dad are out of town.  When Grandma told Zachary to sleep in, he said "well, when Mom and Dad are out of town, my body worries about when to get up!"  They enjoyed the zoo, the Science Center, swimming and the highlight was going to the butterfly experience where Kaleb actually let a butterfly suck nectar off of his finger!  Yep, you heard it here -KALEB, our animal-phobic child! :)

He is quite proud about the butterfly on his finger!

Phrase of the week:  "I gonna take you DOWN Mommy!"  When your 3.5 year old emphatically tells you that he is going to "take you down"when he asks you to wrestle with him, it is so cute that you engineer ways during the wrestling match for him to think that he has actually pinned you!  It is hard to do when you're about 3 times bigger than he is!  Zachary's phrase revolved around a midnight episode of a coughing fit.  He was coughing with virtually every breath (he has a cold, but nothing like this!) and so Amy got up with him and after about 30 minutes in desperation she decided to give him allergy medicine and take him outside (it always works for her when she is in an allergic fit) - well at 1:00 in the morning Zachary is wide awake, telling her what each cloud looks like  - "Look Mommy, that is a kitty kat.....and that is an alligator......and that is a cow!"  All Mommy wanted to be doing was sleeping, but thankfully after about 15 minutes outside, the combination of the medicine and the fresh air calmed his cough down enough to go back inside where all parties went to sleep.