Family Beach Pics 2012

My sister Nicole and her husband are great photographers and they were gracious enough to take some pics for us at the beach. I don't like posey pics, I just like to have pictures capturing us so that we can look back and remember the boys and our family at each stage. Nicole did my maternity pics for when I was pregnant with Cole so I knew she'd do a great job. Love them.

Note to future rebecca self looking back at these pics: You still mainly wore bikinis.This was a random tankini day. While more flattering, you still will not give in to tankinis. You are more stubborn than wise.

Stare down.

If it's wrong to call a boy "beautiful", I don't want to be right.

Pat has always been able to LAUNCH the boys so high in the air. So glad we finally captured it.

With Fin.

With Cole.

I. Melt.

Arms Full. Couldn't be gladder.

My boys.

Prom pic with Pat and Uncle Will.

All the boys (minus pops) (Dangit wish we had thought to put him in there). Robs hiding.

patapalooza 2012

I guess you could say that we're still in the midst of the celebration of Pat's birthday that is Patapalooza. Pat went golfing all day with a friend Saturday as part of my birthday present to him. Then his actual birthday was Sunday where we did presents and had his parents over for dinner, but we still won't celebrate with my family until this weekend so we are still in birthday purgatory. Pat takes full advantage of this too, reminding me, "But it's my birthday" if he wants his head rubbed.

We always take a family pic on his birthday and this is one we won't soon forget b/c of a certain pantsless member. Potty training 2012.

Pat with his parents

SO for one of Pat's presents I gave him a small wolfpack hoop to hopefully hang on the back of Fin's door for him and the boys to play with. Mama was quickly nixed and now it's hanging in our entryway. So very classy. Notice Fin's ambitious flying slam dunk.

28 and he can still slam dunk.

Batman and his grandparents.

We loved have Dennis and Denise over and the boys were in heaven with their grandparents here. One of the things I love about Denise is she works at Trader Joe's and when she comes to visit, my fridge always has more in it when she leaves then before she came :o)

Happy Birthday Pat! We love you so much!

perfect summer morning

Tuesday morning Jamie and I packed up the kids and headed to Jordan Lake nearby. I grew up going there but I was always there on Saturdays when it was packed with millions of kids, sagging diapers, and middle aged ladies wearing glitter bikinis.

When we got there it was beautiful, and quiet and we almost had the whole beach to ourselves. 

It.was.perfect. Jamie and I were pinching ourselves at having such an idyllic setting. The water was cool and shallow and the kids played so nicely without having to worry about waves coming in and wrecking their sand creations. I basically spent the whole morning alternating between floating around, eating fluffernutter sandwhiches, and praying that naptime wouldn't come too soon so we wouldn't have to leave.

Sweet Annie floating with a life vest suit on, in a zebra float, holding onto a boogie board. You can never be too safe :o) This was her doing, not Jamies.

Cole picked right back where he left off throwing shells in the waves at the beach, and spent 2 hours throwing rocks into the water. It never gets old.

We bided our time there splashing and sunning until Noah and Cole started objecting to delayed naps.

Then I had to convince Fin to "surf" his way to shore and we packed up and left.

We loved it so much we vowed to go back next week. And before we left I did see an older lady spilling out of her bikini several times over, proving that some things never change :o)

Since we've been back...

You'd think life would be chill after settling back from vacation, but I have not found that to be the case. In the past week, Fin has learned to swim and Cole has been potty training. Neither things I planned, but Pat took Fin to the pool one night and came home declaring him a fish. Cole was hanging nakey on Thursday and said, "I poop" so I picked him up, plopped him on the potty and he peed. And he's been going since. He is actually doing SO well with it and we're officially done with diapers except for sleeping time. Can I get an amen? Although in my opinion diapers are much easier then dropping whatever you're doing and mad sprinting to the bathroom the second you hear "I poop".  So that puts Fin potty trained at 18 months and Cole at 21 months. And mom rocking in the corner with a (clean) diaper moaning, "whyyyy must they grow up".

The boys have been a big fan of playing outside in their little pool which is filled to the top with spiderman bubbles.

I dumped the shoe bucket in the garage out and filled it to the top with water and bubbles and the boys thought it was the coolest thing. I stinkin love this picture.

Our yard was also the hit of the neighborhood when I dragged out our slip and slide and poured baby oil on it. Let me tell you, babies go flying on that thing :o) Funny store how we aquired the slip and slide. Pat took the boys out one night andspent the rest of our cash budgeted for the week to buy a slip and slide on a whim. When I protested, he assured me it was a necessary purchase.

To my horror, Pat began lessons in teaching the boys how to do armpit noises. I will not say "fart" b/c I HATE that word, but the noises were unsettling. Notice the pure joy on Fin's face.

We hit up cow day for the third year in  a row. My mom had the best outfit. I would have gotten more pictures but that place was a madhouse inside. It was like herding cattle to get the kids to their seats. Pun intended.

Saturday night I took Fin on a date to Panera and to walk to aisles at Target to look at the new spiderman toys. I don't know if it's a sad thing or a proud thing but my boys LOVE to walk the toy aisles at Target or Walmart and play with the toys there but they know that we never buy them and bring them home :o) Fin pointed out all the spiderman things he wanted for his birthday and then to cover all his bases he pointed to all the batman toys that he was SURE daddy would want for his birthday presents. Clever Clever.

Turtle Hunting

On a whim at the beach, Pat suggested one morning we take the kids to the aquarium. He told Fin by calling him into our room, having the aquarium website on his computer where the penguins were dancing everywhere and saying, "are you ready for the best time of your life??". Haha, no pressure. Fin's face lit up and he was sooo excited. So off we went with Uncle Will.

There was this projected pond on the floor where if you stepped on it, it would ripple and splash. The boys loved it...not gonna lie it kinda blew my mind too ;o)

Seeing penguins

Fin kept saying, "Pops would love these penguins". My dad is a big fan of 'March of the Penguins'.

My favorite thing was we all got to measure ourselves to see what penguin we would be.

Seriously, who knew there would be a penguin Pat's size? Although if I ever met a penguin that big, I would totally sprint in the other direction.

Cole and I riding a turtle. He loooved all the "fishies" and "turtles" but he's like me when we go to a museum...we like to be educated at a sprint. Pat and Fin on the other hand could have studied those fish for hours.

Moment to note: EVERYONE should have an Uncle Will. How many 13 year old boys are so good with kids, volunteer to push strollers, and don't mind being silly with little boys? He can live with us anytime.

Love this pic of the boys.

Cole looking guilty. Knowing him, he probably messed with a shark or something.

For all Keegans, I present...

I was really impressed by this place. It had been recently renovated and you could tell. We will def go back next year.