Peach Tree Farms

Now I've got to work my way backwards a little bit to catch up.  We visited Peach Tree Farms out here with the boys at the beginning of the season.  We went on a Monday night, and had the entire place to ourselves!  We enjoyed a hayride, checking out some farm animals (including a 75 pound catfish), and picking out some pumpkins.  I. LOVE. FALL!

Playing in the Rain

We've had SO MANY thunder/lightning/POURING RAIN storms this summer! It has been extremely hot and humid to boot. Much worse than last year, so thankfully we've at least had a year to acclimate. Some days, even swimming doesn't help, because you get out of the water and never dry off! Owen is still a little nervous about thunder, but both of them have discovered the joy of playing in the rain (and no, I don't let them out there during an actual lightning storm). The rainstorms out here make the monsoons in AZ look mild, though watching the boys run around in it brings back fond memories of my sister and I getting our swimming suits on to go out and run in the rain and puddles during the summer storms.

Cows, Trains, and Pirates

In spite of all the craziness of packing, moving, and unpacking, we've had some fun little local adventures as well. Did I mention that a friend and I from the ward organized a "Fieldtrip Fridays" group? Anyway, two Fridays a month through the early fall we've scheduled interesting local group activities for any moms from the ward and friends who wanted to come along. This month we went to the Dairy Farm, and back to the Moberly Magic City Line Train (which I did a few months ago with the Resident Spouse playgroup). As usual, adventure stories are best with pictures!

Dairy Farm

The boys had a total blast at the dairy farm getting up close and personal with the newborn calves, watching a cow get milked the old fashioned way, checking out the "cow toilet," how the cow's food is made, and the milking machines. Follow it all up with free ice cream and you have the perfect field trip!










Magic City Line

Yes this was our second time riding the mini-train this summer, but if was up to my boys we would go every week. Too bad it's by group reservation only! This time I was in charge so we actually got there on time and got to ride the train twice. Eli even got to sit next to the conductor who holds the air horn (which he would blow if there was an emergency on the tracks). After the two rides, Eli got the special privilege of sitting WITH the engineer and helping to drive the train back into it's shed. He was over the moon. Owen really loved sitting close to me on the big seat and didn't want the ride to be over.



Little Mate's Cove at Pirate's Landing

As I've mentioned before, there are quite a few fun family activities in and around Columbia for the summer. One of which we just checked out last weekend. There is a park on the south end of town with an entire pool just for little ones. And it's not just your run of the mill knee deep splash pool... it's called "Little Mate's Cove" and the water winds around through tunnels and waterfalls with various spray features and slides... and it IS all about knee deep so it is SO perfect for my two boys. Eli still has tubes in his ears and is wary of getting his heat wet in general, so this was a great way for him to build water confidence. Owen on the other hand is not at all afraid, so this is the perfect place for him to get his swimming in SAFELY. They both crawled around on hands and knees and kept saying "look, I'm swimming!" Brad and I were cracking up... it gave a whole new meaning to the term "dog paddling."

Back in Touch

Well, we've survived another move, and our third year of celebrating the 4th of July while living out of boxes. It's becoming our Summer norm! We are so happy here though... I feel a bit like Goldilocks... the duplex in Massachusetts was just too small with no yard, the big split-level we had here was just too big with too much yard to mow and too many stairs, but this little ranch level on a culdesac with a picturesque little yard is JUST RIGHT! I can't wait to finish getting things organized and decorated. I thought I'd post some pics from the move and from our 4th of July.

We started the move over the 4th of July weekend... while Brad was working on-call. He'd go in for rounds and get home after 1pm, then we'd make a few car trips to the new house in between him fielding pages from the hospital. Thankfully nothing was serious enough for him to have to go back in once he was done with rounds (this was Saturday, Sunday, AND Monday). Also thankfully, one of our good friends out here watched the boys one evening so we were able to make a couple of good trips utilizing both cars.


That first night of moving we slept at the old house since our clothes and beds were there, only to realize our toiletries and food had all been moved to the new house. I guess we didn't coordinate that perfectly. The next day we made sure to take all our clothes over, and we just set up air mattresses and decided to live without furniture for a week. The good thing about not having a table is that you get to eat your meals on a blanket on the floor AND play cars at the same time! Afterwards, mom can just shake the crumbs off outside!

The weekend after the 4th we arranged for the truck for the furniture and things that wouldn't fit in our car. Moving day is EXTREMELY exciting for a three year old! We were so lucky to have a big turnout of men from the ward to help us load and unload furniture... and Eli was right in the middle of them call carrying what little odds and ends he could find and piling it in the driveway for the guys to load. He couldn't wait to ride in the big truck with dad.

Owen never even got to see the truck in action... he hadn't had much sleep from our crazy moving schedule, and we'd gotten up early to go get the truck. I took the kids to the store to buy doughnuts for the guys, and after Owen ate his he passed out for two hours. He snoozed away as we drove back and forth between the houses.

Bye old house.



Hi new house. After getting everything unloaded (it took two trips with the little truck... thankfully we only moved about a mile away) we still had to spend a few hours finishing up the cleaning at the old house. The boys "helped" mow the lawn. It was so hot and humid! Their cheeks were flushed red. I was the lucky one in the cool house cleaning the floors.

Aaaand here they are "helping" mow the back yard at the new house (see the swingset in the back?!?!). I found each of those mowers at seperate yard sales for 25 cents each!!!



So in the midst of all that moving we did actually celebrate the 4th! We met up with some friends from the ward in the VA Hospital parking lot (since Brad has an employee parking pass). It is right behind the Stadium where fireworks are sent up, so we get front row seats without traffic hassles and stadium seating. There were about 8 other kids there for the boys to run around with. They got their first taste of otter pops!

Eli was mesmerized by the fireworks. I couldn't believe it when he jumped off my lap though to go stand with the "big" kids to watch.... I nearly cried! My little boy is growing up... Owen thankfully was still content to snuggle while we watched.


Sparklers were a big hit. We did some as a family the night before, so I thought my kids understood the safety rules ... that is until Eli ran up to another (older) kid there and intentionally touched (and burned) his arm with the sparkler! Poor kid! I couldn't believe it... other wise it was fun to watch them wave them around =).


A few days later we set off a few things at our new house. I went a little crazy at the fireworks store... it brings back fun memories of summers in Montana I spent with my family as a kid. I had to get the nostalgic ones: smoke balls, snakes, ground blooms, snappers, and sparklers; as well as a few new ones that the kids loved: moving choo choo trains and spitting frog fountains. It ended up being too much for two little kids, so I put half away for next year (really it didn't look like that many til I started opening and lighting them all, then realizing how MUCH supervision my boys need to keep from touching them etc). Anyway, the boys LOVED the celebrations, which of course made it that much more fun for us.

So that's just a bit of what we've been up to! More to come!