"Uncle Jack's Truck"

So, if you happen to follow this blog or have every spent more than about 10 minutes with my little Mr. T, then you know that Tanner LOVES all things trucks, trains, cars, etc. And therefore, he LOVES Uncle Jack! Uncle Jack is married to Dave's sister and lives just a couple minutes from us. Uncle Jack is a Firefighter and is literally a "Jack" of all trades! He is always adding on a room to their house, putting a race-track into the backyard, etc, etc. Needless to say, Tanner is fascinated with him, especially because he drives a big black truck. Every time we pass one on the road, he exclaims, "Uncle Jack's truck!" Well, Uncle Jack is working on yet another project this week and told us to stop by because he rented this fancy little contraption for the weekend and he knew Tanner would love it. Look at that boy's face - pure glee!

Tanner smiling up at his Uncle Jack!

He couldn't get enough....

And eventually Lacey and her cousin Jacque wanted in on the action too! Thanks, Uncle Jack!

Rehoboth Beach

Yesterday, we spent the day at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. Dave and I took the kids to this beach last year and we had so much fun that I definitely wanted to take the kids back this year. It turns our that my 2 sister-in-laws also wanted to go, so we picked a week-day (hoping it would be less crowded) and the 3 of us packed our 6 kids into a couple cars and made the 95 mile journey to the beach! Lacey love, Love, LOVED it!!!!!! She couldn't get enough of the waves and soft sand. She's a water baby!

Here's our little set up. This was about 1/2 hour into our stay at the beach when Tanner decided he'd had enough. He climbed into his stroller and said "I want to go" over and over and over again.

That's the beauty of going with my sister-in-laws! Lacey stayed in the ocean with her aunts and cousins and I brought Tanner to "Playland", just a short walk up on the boardwalk. It was only $6 for a sheet of 20 tickets that lasted us for the next hour and a half. What a deal!

I didn't capture the smile on his face, but T loved this. You're supposed to jump into this pit of plastic balls, then go down a slide, then jump on a trampoline and then come out. Tanner was having so much fun, he wouldn't come out! But luckily the guy was nice and told me that since it wasn't too busy, he could stay in there as long as he wanted, which was probably about 1/2 an hour! Best 60 cents I ever spent! It also happened to be Lacey's 1/2-birthday, or "Lacey Day" as we refer to it. We stole that term from my friend Mindy who has a winter birthday and always celebrated "Mindy Day" on her half-birthday in the summer. I think Lacey had a great Lacey Day (and so did the rest of us!)

Carnival

Every year, a carnival comes to town for 2 weeks. We have never gone before because our kids were never really old enough until this year. So, yesterday we went as soon as it opened so that we could beat the mad rush of teenagers that would inevitably descend as the evening progressed! Lacey loved it!

And Tanner loved it!

Here's Tanner in his "blue car" that he specifically requested. When the ride was over, he REFUSED to get out. I tried to get him out, the carnival guy tried to get him out, but he wouldn't budge! He held on to the car for dear life and just kept screaming "blue car!!!" The Carnival guy felt so bad for him (or us!) that he just looked at me and said "Oh, I'll just let him ride again!" Thank you, Mr. Carnival man!

Lacey on the flying dragon. Our tickets went by quickly and we told the kids it was time to go. That didn't go over so well. Dave and I can't decide if we're glad we took them or not. On one hand, we had a blast while we were there and we loved seeing the ear-to-ear smiles of glee on the faces of our kids. On the other hand, we weren't sure it was worth the 20-minute long tantrum that Tanner threw as he yelled for "dragon train" and "blue car" the entire way home and for a while after we got home. But that's life with a 2-year old, right? :)

Happy 4th!

Here is Lacey and her friend Bryson getting ready for the Fireworks!


And here's Tanner running around like a crazy man on the Naval Academy football field waiting for it to get dark. Look how happy he is!

Now look how scared to death he is! We took Lacey to fireworks for the first time when she was 6 months old. I braced myself for her to scream the whole time, but she sat there mesmerized, loving it. This was actually Tanner's first fireworks (he was 3 weeks old in 2008 and the fireworks got rained out and last year, we were at a family reunion in Utah and I was able to put him to bed while the rest of us went out on the deck to watch).... and he hated them! He was sitting in his own chair until the fireworks started going off. We were right under them and they were really loud. He didn't know what to make of it and just wanted me to hold him tight. He cuddled in my arms and wouldn't even look. It was sad and sweet at the same time. Actually my cuddly man hasn't been so cuddly lately. All he wants to do is run around and play with trucks, trains and airplanes. So, I actually quite liked that he was scared in that he let me cuddle him for 30 straight minutes!

The following morning we went to the parade. That was more down Tanner's ally! The only noise and bright lights there came from firetrucks, which he LOVES!

Lacey sat curb-side with her cousins waiting for the floats that threw candy.

And here's Tanner not quite as happy again - ready to go home and take a nap! Hard to believe that our family picture next 4th of July will be with another member of the family! I love the 4th of July. I love how Patriotic everyone is, I love the patriotic music, parades, fireworks, BBQ's, time off work - everything. What a great holiday! Happy Independence Day!