We sold the Rodeo!

After three months and lots of prayer, the Rodeo finally sold!

This is kind of bittersweet for me, since this is the first vehicle I ever really mastered driving manual on. Plus, there were good times in it: going to the beach, watching the sun set over the San Luis pass (back in our dating days!), going fishing (well, I slept in the back), hauling out grass from pouring the back patio, pulling multiple cars out of the sand (even an F-250 once), and I'm pretty sure it's the vehicle we took down to the beach when Shane proposed.

So long little Rodeo, you rode well.

Kayaking

We went kayaking this morning. Logan was a little fussy, but calmed down enough to take a short nap. What a great time! We went into a part of the bayou we can't go with the big boat. There were trees hanging over the water - so much so that it was dark and cool back there! Refreshing on a hot summer morning.

So ready to get up!

I walked in to get Logan up from his nap the other day (he'd been talking to himself for a while), and as I rounded the corner, I saw him standing up, holding the front of the crib. He was SO proud of himself. The standing up deal was amusing at the time... not so amusing when he did this at 3:30 this morning because he didn't want to go to sleep and thought it would be a great time to play.


He also has started babbling to himself a lot. He's been a babbler for a long time, but now he "dadadada"s everything. He even does it quietly, under his breath when he's playing, like he's talking to himself. Pretty funny!

Look! I can stand!

Yup, Logan can stand, and his favorite place to practice is on the side of the tub. He also has been sticking out his tongue when he does anything. Hilarious, because I find myself doing that on occasion.

My boys

Once we got home from Indiana, the rest of the "vacation" (Shane was off), was spent on the couch. I was sick with a fever, and so was Logan. So Shane got a bunch of PlayStation playing in!

But here are pictures of my boys from a few days ago. Gotta love 'em!

Circus City - Peru, IN

I have been a little remiss in updating this blog. But today is a gray and rainy day, so I can't get out and mow the lawn as I usually do on Wednesday mornings. So yay! I get to tell you all the exciting things happening in the life of the Little Flachmans (I know, you can't wait!).


Aren't Grandpas sweet??

This past weekend, the three of us went up to Peru, IN to see Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Monica, and Keegan. The Big Flachman boys (Jayden, Ethan, and Nathan) were staying at the house as well.

The weekend started off on a great note. We got on the full flight to Chicago-Midway, though Logan had to be a lap child. Thank goodness Gram bought me a necklace that easily detaches! It was pulled off many times. Then after we FINALLY got our rental car (the low price was due to the fact that they'd been open only 2 days, so nobody knew what they were doing and it took us almost 2 hours to get our car), we went to a Polish market. Seriously, they were doing the inventory in Polish! No Kinder-eier, but I got the same chocolate (yum!). Anyway, then we tried to get on the highway. We could see where we needed to be, but we couldn't get there. Shane and I just laughed, since we kept missing our turns. It was the "scenic route".

Once we finally arrived in Peru, Shane and I enjoyed playing with the nephews. I think the first thing we did was take the boys out back for a splash in the pool. I think that's a big hit with all of them! All five little boys were splashing around in the pool.

I got to hang out with my favorite red-headed nephew playing tether ball in the backyard, baseball with a nerf football and a toy tennis racket, and playing PlayStation (okay, he's better than me, so it was a big deal when he beat me - probably why he wanted to play against me and not Uncle Shane). And look! I even got to be on camera!

Shane also got to play racetrack with the boys the next day. Ethan and Jayden had a blast playing. Then once things really got rolling, Keegan and Nathan joined in. Good times!

The house was crazy noisy (in all good kiddo ways) until Diego was put on. Shane and I sat on the couch with Ethan on one side of us and Jayden lopped all over us. Nathan had his little chair that he always sat in to watch TV, but he liked to join in when we were playing along with Diego. Apparently, the Big Flachman boys are cuddle-bunnies, since as soon as Jennifer came in she had all three boys in her lap!

When Jennifer and Mikell finally made it in town on Friday afternoon. We went "uptown" to the circus fair. We got Lion's Club Tenderloins (yes, the famous ones) for dinner. They were pretty yummy. Then we just walked around a little. At one point the twins and Jayden were having a great time being carried by Grandpa, Mikell, and Shane.

The follwing day, Saturday, we went to the Circus City Parade. For those of you who don't know, Peru is home to the largest amateur circus. So, it's called Circus City...sort of like Cincinnati is Porkopolis. Okay, moving on...

Logan enjoyed the parade so much he fell asleep on Grandma's lap. I would post that sweet picture here, but I've been forbidden to post pictures of Grandma.



Jayden, Ethan, and Nathan had a great time collecting candy that was thrown. They also enjoyed the firehats that they got...especially Nathan, who figured that all hats had a bill and put it on backwards :). But these hats made great receptacles for candy. Here's a picture of Logan, parade-ready.


The parade had tigers and bears (oh my!), clowns, senators (okay, maybe those last two are the same), gymnasts (Aunt Monica and Keegan walked with her gymnasts), unicycles, calliopes, a 25 man bicycle (go Shriners!), the 10 different beauty queens from the region, and elephants. What fun!


That night, we had a family BBQ. Mike grilled some of those yummy Polish sausages, and hamburgers and hot dogs (he even warmed up a hot dog for Nathan at mid-night, what a nice Grandpa). Barb made some peanut butter rice crispy treats...I think I could have eaten only those all night. Here's Logan with his Aunt Jenn (and my necklace).


I got to meet one of Shane's cousins that even he hadn't seen in maybe 10 years. John Poe and his wife Wendy were great fun, and John really seemed to enjoy playing with Logan...which, of course, Logan loved. Funny part is, John is Shane's cousin on his mom's side...but Mike Hileman's brother-in-law is John's uncle on his dad's side. So it was a family reunion in many ways! And, no, they're not from Kentucky...

Crawling!

Logan is CRAWLING!

Well, okay, so it's only in the pool on the patio, but still, it's crawling. He kind of went in a circle because he couldn't figure out how to move both hands, just one. So cute. But on dry land, he's still doing his Army crawl. Uncle Chris would be so proud! He's really fast on the Army crawl, so be careful what you put down.

Good times on the boat

On Thursday night, all the cousins and Grandma and Grandpa left us for Indiana. So, the only people left at the house were Aunt Jenn, Uncle Mike, Shane, Logan, and me. I would say it was a lot quieter, but then we still had 5 dogs running around the house, so I would be lying.

Here are most of the dogs (minus Sam) at the beach. Remember, these are all big dogs (some form of retriever in all of them) so they take up a lot of space. Zoe and Bella enjoyed jumping on each other and wrestling around as little puppies do. Montana was not sure who she wanted to hang out with, the little girls, or the older boys. Sam, being the "old man" that he is, just laid around and occassionally tried to get a little "action". After a while, I think Bug got tired of all the noise and has been hanging out under the table ever since!

Friday morning, after we all woke up a little late, we took the boat out for some good times skiing, wakeboarding, kneeboarding, and bellyboarding (Mikell is the PRO at this). Shane, of course, is stellar...he got up to slalom ski twice, got up on the kneeboard in like seconds. It's rather disgusting.

Jenn was pretty impressive - she skied, wakeboarded, kneeboarded, and bellyboarded. I bet she's sore now!! They all work slightly different muscles. Mikell has HUGE feet (and you know what they say about men with big feet - they don't fit into wakeboard bindings), so we didn't have anything the right size for him. But he had a big time bellyboarding, especially when he almost lost his shorts going over the wake. Good thing they stayed on...we probably wouldn't have found them in the bayou! He almost got up on the kneeboard - maybe next time.

Logan was pretty chill and just hung out on the boat, and slept for about an hour in his little cubby by the passenger seat. He slept until Uncle Mike bumped his leg with his HUGE feet. Later on, after dropping Logan off at Miss Shelby's house, we went out for lunch.

What a sweet time, being able to hang out with such good friends!

Life's a Beach!

This past weekend (okay, Daddy's weekend which is WTF), Grandma and Grandpa Hileman and the Big Flachman family came down. Uncle Mike and Aunt Jenn not only brought the boy cousins to play with, but the two puppy cousins! It was a full house.




On Thursday, we took all the kiddos (canine and otherwise) to the beach. Craziness ensued, of course. All the boys were fine (that includes the boy dogs), but the little girls kept running off. Of course, they're both only a few months old, but I think Zoe would love to go home with any female she could! She followed all the female walker/runners, and went over to visit a group of females parked right next to us. Good thing none of them were scared of not so little puppies.







Logan had a blast splash-splahsing with both Grandma and Grandpa. Jayden jumped the waves with Grandpa for a while, and Ethan and Nathan thought that throwing wet sand at each other was super fun!

Logan's first July 4

July 4th was rainy and gray, but we still managed to have a good time. In the morning, we went out on the boat. It was actually pretty clear out there. I went skiing and Shane got up on the slalom ski. Last time we were out, Shane couldn't get up on a single ski, but we just bought a new stainless steel prop that is so much better at "getting out of the hole" than our beat up old aluminium one was.


Anyway, after we went skiing and wakeboarding, we took little man out for a dip. He had a great time splashing around in the water. After we swam, our friends, the Norwoods, came out to the dock. Well, Mr. Khris was sleeping, but Miss Shelby, Tyler, and Tawny all came out with us. Tyler got up on the skis the first time he tried it! But that was pretty much it, since the rain started coming down in buckets.

Logan got to eat some watermelon for dinner...which I think he found super yummy. It was really sweet (not as good as Uncle James Hart's watermelons, but you do what you can), and he just loved it.

Then that night, we made a sort of last minute decision to go out to the bay and watch the fireworks. On our way out, there was the most beautiful sunset. We were able to see the fireworks from what looked like Galveston, Texas City, San Leon, Bacliff, Kemah, Clear Lake, and La Porte. Plus, we were far enough away that the booms didn't wake up the little man who was passed out on the floor.





The drive back to the dock was pretty uneventful at 10:15 at night, in the pitch black night. We drove in the ship channel, which is 45 - 50 feet deep. Of course, there were HUGE ships going in. I think we passed two container ships in our small little boat! At night, they just look like hulking black masses against the gray of everything else.







Shane did a wonderful job of driving home. Thank goodness for the red and green markers (even the PVC ones). They do a great job of leading you home. Plus, the GPS is a big help, too. And I did an okay job of backing in the trailer at night. Didn't run over any of the kids at the dock setting off fireworks! That, my friends, is a success.

Shower time with Daddy

The other day (July 2nd to be exact - digital timestamps are awesome), Logan got to take a shower with Daddy. Two of his favorite things in the whole wide world - Daddy and water! Both together makes for a great time!

Logan did well under the shower...he closes his eyes then, once he's out from under the water, opens them really big and takes a deep breath. He's going to be a fish when he gets bigger.

"Hi, Mama!"

A two-sided hubby

My sweet husband is definitely two sided.

He has his dorky side (seriously, who wears sweatbands anymore! And he'll do this while in the front yard. I guess it works, but it still looks dorky.)

Then he has his cool, California boy side. Check this awesome picture Mama took this weekend. That's one sexy man, huh?