Really? 8?

It's so hard for me to write this, but my Jackson turns 8 tomorrow. I can't believe it. It doesn't seem right that I type 8. It's just been an amazing 8 years with him. Some days it feels like Jackson has been around forever and other days it seems he was just born. Either way, I can say that he is one very loved little boy. We had his birthday party over the weekend - here are some highlights.

Jackson had a great time and got LOTS of Legos (he's still putting them together)!

Thanks to everyone who visited!

Tomorrow we're sending in [to school] banana chocolate chip muffins and treat bags for all the kiddos. We'll also celebrate by having soccer practice :), where I'm sure we'll take time to sing to Jack!

Raising Boys

My sister and Nate found out that they are going to be welcoming a little boy in December and are looking for advice on raising boys. All I can say is that it's a blast everyday and Sister and Nate, there are so many things to look forward to like:

Trucks, tractors, cars, fire trucks (anything with wheels) showing up all over the house, like on the headboard of your bed :)

Or turning your Paula Deen bowls into life-saving helmets!

Congrats to Dana and Nate!

Ag Progress Days

A special thanks to Pop for taking Jackson to Penn State's Ag Progress Days today just outside of State College. This is quickly becoming a yearly tradition for the 2 of them.

Jackson's comments on the day:

I had a really fun day today. My favorite things from today were sitting in a combine, seeing the first tractor ever invented, playing trivia games, getting a tattoo, and of course buying this combine harvester!

This is a photo of Jackson's new combine harvester that was a special gift from Pop today!

Instead of doing double duty...

I ran my 4th 5K today and instead of detailing it here, click here!

Drum Concert

We had a blast at the annual Rhythm Renewal concert @ Saint Francis last night. Our friend, Jim Donovan (see the link to his blog on my blog list), who is an amazingly talented musician, organizes a 3-day intensive workshop that culminates in this AWESOME concert. We go every year and the boys get a chance to run around and dance and see some really neat musicians (one of the coolest musicians is Jim Gagnon who plays a variety of wind instruments like the didgeridoo).

Drum the Ecstatic International group on stage together

Jude got mixed in with a group of ladies who were dancing.

Happy Birthday

Tomorrow is Jeremy's birthday!

I am so happy he was born. I am so honored to be part of his life and feel like the luckiest gal in the world.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEREMY

Beach 2010

Where do I start? We traveled to Ocean City, MD last week for our summer vacation.
We left Saturday and made our way to Columbia, MD (after encountering a lot of traffic) to see Jack Johnson in concert. We stayed in Annapolis that night and then got up the next day and traveled to the Francis Scott Key Family Resort in Ocean City. It sits back about 1 mile from the beach, but is so awesome.
The things we loved most about it:
* Outdoor Pirate Sprayground - see photos
* Mini-golf
* Indoor Caribbean Pool
* the Shuttle bus that taxied us to the beach
* Outdoor swimming pools
* Playground
* Cornhole

Here are some highlights of the outdoor sprayground

Here are some other highlights from our trip:

* Spending enormous amounts of time together

* Being silly

* Fitting as many activities into each day as we possibly could (we slept well)

* Supper @ Hooper's Crab House

* Rides on the boardwalk

The beach was much nicer in the evenings than during the day. The waves were really rough and it was really hard to get into the ocean, so we spent most of our time building sand castles and digging in the sand.

The evenings @ the beach and boardwalk were a lot of fun - riding rides, playing games, eating cotton candy, walking (you don't realize how far you can walk down the beach until you turn around and see how far you have to walk back:)

Video of the indoor Caribbean pool - we were here everyday, at least once :)

Sign of a good vacation - sleepy boys! I wonder where we'll go next year?