Catching Up

The weather is nice and cool and it is a rainy day. The perfect day for creating a blog post to catch all of you readers up with pictures (and video!) of our recent exploits.

Since our last post was at the end of July, and really only covered our visit with Jeremy and Shannon, I feel like we have a lot to catch up on. Besides the events we will cover below, I wanted to make a few notes about Xavi and Viktor.


Xavi- he is growing much too fast. He is inquisitive and can be a little smart aleck (at 2 and a 1/2!) He is a daredevil who likes to run, jump, and go fast. He loves to jump over his brother when he is laying on the floor which scares Amie and I. He is talking more and more and is starting to like stories, not just pictures.


Viktor- he is loud, and wants to move. He gets so mad that he can't crawl that he just starts crying. He seems to always have a look of concern on his face, but with an older brother who is jumping over you it is not too surprising. He LOVES food and if he sees one of us eating he will start to get upset because he wants to eat too. He may start crawling soon as it is something he wants to do so badly. As i am tying this he is sitting yelling for me as he just wants to be picked up.


A Funeral in Memphis
My Nana passed away in mid July of this year. Amie and the boys went down with my mom a little earlier and I went down later for the funeral. It was great to see the family and allow Xavi to run around with all his cousins. Viktor didn't seem to mind things either.


My cousin Ben and his wife Lauren let us stay with them in their estate. It was lovely. Their son Nate is as tall as Xavi, yet Xavi calls him the "little boy Nate" which makes us laugh. My cousin Tara and her husband John, along with their family, also stayed with us (I told you it was an estate!) It was nice to catch up as I hadn't seen them in quite a few years.

We were able to make it out to my Aunt Jane's home on Saturday which was great fun for Xavi as she has lots of machines for her farm and horses too. It was the highlight of his trip as he can still tell us the names of all the horses that we rode that day. We also drove the gator around and this time i managed to keep it out of the lake.

Not sure what to think of the horses at first.

But then he rode one and liked it.

And by the end of the day was helping with the bath.

A quick story - There are blackberry bushes throughout the property that had EXCELLENT berries on them. Ben, Xavi, and I were driving around and found some of these bushes. I picked some of the berries and tried to give them to Xavi first. He wanted nothing to do with them. So Ben and I split them. They were amazing. Xavi reaches into my hand and grabs a berry. He does the "little kid taste" and once he realizes it is delicious, pops the whole thing in his mouth and asks for more. I pick another handful of berries and hold them out for Xavi to take a few. He grabs all of them out of my hand and proceeds to stuff his face. It was hilarious.

Family Picnic in Chicago
At the end of July we headed up to Chicago for the annual family gathering. We stayed in a hotel with the rest of the family and had a lovely time. Xavi had a wonderful time playing with Dean and all his "old" Thomas trains on Friday night. It is crazy to think that in a few years all the toys we have will be sold or boxed up.
Saturday we went to the picnic. The weather was nice this year. We had a good time relaxing and enjoying the delicious food, followed by some games. Amie and I took zero pictures as Sandy is the resident photographer and gets great shots of the entire day.

Sunday we reintroduced "Man Day" and headed out to my cousin Ron's house for a day of boating and enjoying the gorgeous lake/weather. That night we had a feast at Ana and Paulo's house as a lack of communication and gluten intolerance ended up with a table filled with Deep dish pizza, thin crust, and rice and beans. It was glorious. Overall a lovely weekend.

Jeff out of town/Rachel in town
I went out of town for a friend's bachelor party and Rachel came in town to stay with Amie and the boys. Of course they ended up having people over and fun times ensued.

Bird Sanctuary/Zoo/Lone Elk Park

Last weekend we decided to go on a more local adventure. Saturday the 3rd was International Vulture Awareness Day. We headed to the World Bird Sanctuary and despite the heat learned all about vultures and why we need them

(EEEEWWW. Vultures are gross, but we need them the most).

(A vulture as it flew over our heads, Xavi loved that it "touched his head")

We also got to see lots of other kinds of birds and Xavi was very interested in all the different types and their names.

Clyde the Eagle

(Daisy the chicken was also a favorite)

Very near the bird sanctuary is Lone Elk Park. Since we were so close we decided to drive over and take a look. We did find a herd of elk laying in the shade. Xavi started to walk very close to the herd and i was able to snap a few pictures before i got nervous and ran to get him. There are also bison in the park, but we didn't see any that day which was a bummer.


On Sunday we went to the zoo and had a great time as many of the animals were out and active because of the weather being a little cooler. Xavi loves to see the Hippos and they swam right next to him. It was good to get to go with Amie, Xavi, and Viktor as I often am at work when they go.



That about covers it. The rain is still falling and it is nice and cool. I guess i will go play trains now. As always check the link for more pictures of all of us.