So, the weekend started on Thursday night really. We had our annual presidents dinner at the zoo. Because we are Patron members we get to go. And we have been going to this dinner for 8 years now. It has grown, and there are finally some couples our age in the group. Usually we were the babies in the bunch. But you still know you are in a group of older folks when they are comparing knee replacement stories at the dinner table.Usually this dinner is so much fun. We have had a few years where it has just been awesome. This year was just kind of 'eh'. I guess every year can't be fabulous. But as usual the food was tasty. And I got to pet Tiger Lilly the skunk. That's always a bonus!
Friday morning our neighbor came over with her girls. The girls played for a few hours while we had some Mommy Chat Time and coffee. Ahhhh.....
Friday night we had plans for our friend's the P's to come over for dinner. However, that ended up falling through. So, we called up Rick and asked him to join us. Plus Kim from Hubby's work. She has two girls around our girls ages, so they joined us as well. It was a fun night. Courtney is finally getting to the age that she can go and play with a friend and we don't need to be in the room the whole time. And Kasey now follows the girls around too. It was extra nice because we all kind of got some adult talk time!
Saturday morning was zoo preschool. We learned about Colobus Monkeys. They don't have thumbs! They only have 4 fingers and they have had to adapt to that. Interesting! Courtney took this self portrait while we were there. I didn't know she did it until I uploaded pictures tonight. When I saw it, I had to laugh!
After the zoo, we went with our friends the P's over to Rudy's restaurant. That is the yummy BBQ place that Hubby loves. It didn't end well, Kasey had a major diaper blow-out. Thankfully we were done with lunch and getting ready to head out. It was bad, the worst I have ever seen. After we got home, she went right in the tub.
I guess the bath woke her up more than it relaxed her. After her bath I tried to put her down for a nap. But she wasn't having any of that. She threw her Taggies and Hokie Bird out of the crib, those are her 2 security items she has to have to sleep. Then she was mad that they weren't in the crib. She will NOT sleep without them. So, what did she do? She climbed OUT of the crib! 16 months old and she climbed out of the crib! Jeez... Today I took the mattress out and noticed we could drop the mattress even further, so I dropped it down as far as it will go. Hopefully this helps to keep her in, but I am not sure it will. We may need to convert it to a toddler bed much sooner than we had planned. We will keep an eye on her.
Anyway, after Courtney woke up from her nap, we headed out to the grocery store. We had to buy all the fixings for dinner on Sunday. After a quick dinner out and running home to put the groceries away, we headed out again. This time we went down to Memorial Park. Labor Day every year is the Hot Air Balloon Festival. And in the evenings they have a balloon glow. We had plans to meet up with the Z's and the P's there.
Once we all met up, and got some food and drink, we settled on the lawn to wait.
Finally all the balloons were blown up. Once they are all up, and it's dark, the emcee for the night does countdowns and when they get down to 1, they all hit their burners and the balloons "glow". It is beautiful.
The other really cool thing is that you can walk through the fields of balloons too! And it's pretty warm in there with all those burners burning. I went several times as a kid. This was Hubby's first time to experience the glow. And of course it was the girls' first time too. I kept Kasey on my back in the Kelty backpack, there were SO MANY people! I really enjoy the balloon glow.Sunday morning Courtney and I went to Sunday school. We skipped the service, if we do attend the service we don't get home until almost 1pm. And we had a lot to do that afternoon, so we had to skip it. Courtney hates missing the service, it cracks me up. Who would have thought an almost 4 year old would be so excited to go to a church service!?
When we got home it was a cooking party. It's parent's weekend at the Air Force Academy. So, we had 3 families coming over for dinner. I made 2 types of potato salad, Hubby smoked a 16 lbs brisket, and we made homemade baked beans. We also had rolls and a veggie tray, plus 2 pies for dessert. But we cheated on the last items mentioned.
After all the food was made, it was cleaning time. Not that our house is a mess, but we needed to run the vacuum again. I had just done it on Friday, but with 3 dogs, 2 kids and 2 birds, we could probably vacuum every day and be amazed at how full the vacuum gets.
Around 5pm the guests started arriving. First was one of our seniors and his family. We know his parents already from the several trips they have taken to visit Scott over the past few years. But this time they brought their other 2 boys too. We finally got to meet Scott's brothers! Next to arrive was one of our new cadets and his parents. They are currently living in South Carolina. His dad is in the Navy, so they have always moved around. Last to arrive was our other new cadet and his parents and brother. They are from Minnesota.
So, including our family, we had a total of 16 people around our dinner table! All the food turned out yummy and everyone got along really well. I think that everyone had a great time, and it was really nice to meet 2 new families. This was only the second chance we have had to see our new cadets. Hopefully now we can get to see them more now. Things should start settling down at school for them.
This morning we headed out of the house about 8:30am. We had plans to meet Brian's cousin Mike at the zoo. Mike recently became engaged, and his fiance has 2 girls, ages 4 and 6, and a 15 year old boy. Mike and Rachel live up in the Denver area (well, in 2 different areas). They brought the girls down and met us at the zoo gate. We spent most of the day wandering around the zoo with them. The girls hit it off right away and enjoyed spending the day together.
Here is everyone! The 3 older girls are in the red stroller being pushed by Mike. Rachel is on the right. And you can see Hubby and Kasey bringing up the rear.
Once we finally got home, Kasey was asleep in the car. With her, if we moved her to her crib, she would wake up and not go back to sleep. So, we roll the windows down in the car, and let her sleep in the car. We also keep the door open to the house so we hear her as soon as she wakes up. She slept for another hour once we got home!Courtney was filthy, so I gave her a bath. I did lots of cleaning upstairs while Courtney played in her playroom and Hubby was working downstairs and listening for Kasey.
Then this evening, we finished our weekend. It was the first Virginia Tech game of the season. Rick and Toby (our other senior cadet) came over for dinner and to watch the game. It just ended a few minutes ago. The Hokies lost by 3 points. Poor Hubby....
And that concludes our busy Labor Day weekend. No wonder I feel so exhausted!
Plus last week was so busy too! We finally got the sump pump in our basement replaced. And have I also mentioned that our microwave died? Hubby ordered a new one this past week. Hopefully it comes in soon. We also had a sprinkler line blow out back. We have yet to dig that up. We didn't get the time to this past weekend. But we will need to get to it soon, before we have to blow the lines for the winter. Which of course is right around the corner. We have been joking that we guess we are finally grown up. That's what happens when you have to replace all these things. We also joke that the warranty on the house must have just expired! Please let there be no more big issues!!!
Looking forward to this upcoming week, it too will be busy. I have one more week of MOPS training. Plus we have some other fun things planned!
It's amazing, it hit September 1 this past week, and so did the weather. It's like fall came in with September. The weather has been a bit cooler and there is just that feeling in the air. Maybe it's because the night time temperatures have started to drop into the 40's overnight too. Really? The 40's? UGH! Night time is my favorite time of summer. When I can't take a glass of wine and go sit on the deck in my shorts and t-shirt, it's no longer summer. And I get sad. I was only able to do that in July and August this year. It feels like we only got 2 months of summer. Ah summer, I will miss you....
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