Month of June: Trip #1

Since Jon can't take a ton of time off of work, we planned a trip down to Memphis coinciding with a trip to Des Moines my parents were planning. Jon drove us down there and left for work in Kansas. The boys and I stayed for four days and then rode back up with my parents to Des Moines. This was our fourth time in Memphis since my parents moved there last year but our first time to get to swim in their pool! It was so relaxing and easy on me since Dawson and Channing could still get good naps inside and we could have fun outside. Man, I wish we could enjoy this setup on a much more regular basis. :( 

Their backyard is gorgeous so I was having fun with my camera, snapping pics of what was in bloom:

Give this boy some animals and something to build a tower with and he's a happy camper (as long as his big brother's not around. Why is that?? He's seriously a different child when Bennett's not there). Hippo's on the King Kong tower:

Channing's loving the Bumbo now!

Dinner on their patio:

Lots and LOTS of jumping:

And of course, the highlight for the boys: when Grandad gets in!

We had one really rainy day there. We were sitting out under the covered patio next to the pool sipping coffee (my mom) and tea (me) in the late morning. My mom said at one point, "this is the life". It was just so calm and peaceful. My three precious boys around me; nowhere to be, nothing to do but still having fun. She was right.

Banana bread and basketball in the nude. No big deal:

He caught his first firefly. "I always wanted to catch a firefly and my dream came true!" He was so proud:

This was right before we found a giant (silver dollar sized) spider under the diving board. My mom tried to kill it with a shovel. Turns out it was so huge because there were five MILLION babies riding on her back which proceeded to scatter in all directions like some kind of plague. The sight scarred me for life and gave me nightmares. Literally. Another reason to add to my "be thankful you live in Iowa" list.

This trip was Channing's first road trip. He only slept for 20 or 30 minutes at a time in the car which was not fun but he did ok despite the lack of sleep. I just nursed him a little more often than usual. He also went to the nursery for the first time ever during their Wednesday night church. Bennett learned how to do a forward somersault in the water without getting water up his nose! I remember how hard that used to be. He also improved on his deep water swimming without any floaties. Dawson is just as brave and was jumping off the diving board on his own and really figuring out how to get himself across the pool. I hope we can get down there again this summer! Its a heckuva lot of work to pack and prepare and drive there with these three little boys but afterwards, you never really think about all of that. You just think about the fun you had while you were there.