Field trip to visit Papa and some trucks!

With my days at home coming to an end after tomorrow (at least until the summer) we had to get one more fun field trip in.  So we went to NY to visit my dad at the property he's been working at.  It is 65 acres with 6 buildings and they are redoing all of them.  There is a tremendous amount of history here and some great stories about some of the well-known families who have lived here.  They are keeping so much of the classic look but updating so much as well, making for a really cool look.  However, the most exciting part was that Tucker got to see Papa, and that Tucker got to see/experience some ENORMOUS trucks.  These are not your average machines-these are the legit big-boys of the excavating world!  Despite a bunch of traffic on the way up, the boys did awesome in the car.  Brayden slept the entire way and Tucker enjoyed a Thomas DVD and part of his truck DVD.

We got to see this loader in action later in the visit.

He didn't know what to think-he was up so high and it was so cool! He was in awe-stunned into silence:)

So this huge truck (I forget what the real name is-some sort of dump truck) is really only used at the job sites because it's so big.  It isn't allowed to drive on the road, and to transport it, it has to be moved on a flatbed and they have to get a special permit every time they transport it because of the extreme weight on the roads.  Interesting stuff! (it really was like a field trip!)

This picture and the next sort of put the largeness of it into perspective-the tires were almost twice tall as Tucker-at least 5 feet!

the boys and the ginormous truck!

being a trooper as usual with a huge smile on his face

 Tucker had fun following my dad around-this was in the guest house.

this is going to be the game wing-Tucker had the best mode of transportation to navigate the terrain

in the library checking out the loader doing work outside

brayden got around in the ergo-pardon my scary face

this may have been one of my favorite things in the house-a window in the marbled shower...

 and there was one in the toilet room too! How cool!

 I thought this staircase was very cool too-you can see the old curtains that are still up

 After a couple hour visit, checking out the trucks, different buildings on the property, eating lunch, pinching tucker's finger in a chair (my bad) and having a blast visiting Papa, the boys were back to sleep within 5 minutes of leaving:) Thanks for a very fun visit dad!

Happy Golden Birthday Danielle/DD!!!

Today my amazing sister is 29, on the 29th-her Golden Birthday! Danielle is the most awesome sister anyone could ever ask for! I have always been envious of her humor, easy-going nature, love of people, charisma, courage, and willingness to go wherever and follow God's will.  She is amazing and doing amazing things in Africa right now so we couldn't be with her to celebrate, so we danced to a few of her favorite songs and made her a little photo message to celebrate here.

Brothers!

They have LOVED cuddling a lot lately! I think it's SO cute!

Visit with the Crews's

Well we took our first trip as a family of four (finally) last weekend! What better place to go for our first trip then to Lititz, PA to visit our great friends the Crews's!  We had never met Tyler and we haven't seen them since last summer so we were SOOO excited to make the drive to visit!  We had a blast hanging out at their awesome house and playing in the huge yard and swing-set.  There are farms everywhere you look from their house atop a hill-it's beautiful!  Tucker had so much fun playing with Wesley and Brayden did a great job sleeping in a new place for the first time! He was a champ in the car too-Tucker had so much fun looking at all the trucks, etc on the way down, that he didn't fall asleep until 10:30 though!

We went to a fun roadside place for lunch and the boys had fun with the petting zoo.  Katie and I got to relax in downtown Lititz (super cute place) and we also went to an awesome farm store with every farm tractor toy/replica known to man.  Of course we had to get some John Deer paraphernalia for the boys:)  I am so thankful that they moved closer and we can go visit for the weekend now! Thanks for having us! We miss you all already:)

Tyler-love his hair and eyes!

Boys playing with the super fun $4 toy purchase the dads made! So much room to run!

The younger boys

he is one smilely boy

Tucker had a blast being able to run free and explore

so fun to play on this playground!

view from the front walk...gorgeous! horse/cow farm right across the street.

boys playing

i love his face here

Wesley rolling down the hill

buds:)

 Air-Zieter

playing with trucks...shocker!

watching trucks...another shocker!

this was one of my favorite moments...the boys spent a lot of time after dinner one night yelling out the window to the cows across the street..."Hi cows!" over and over again.  Then they kept trying to climb out the window.

another gorgeous front yard view. it was a picture perfect day-literally!

 the petting zoo place

 throwing rocks!

 Saturday was a rough day for Tucker's head...he hit it pretty badly at least 3 times...the last time was what caused this big mark on his head...head vs. pavement. 

At least he got to enjoy his first S'More that night!

The way home was pretty pleasant too, just took awhile.  Tucker was unfortunately exposed to his first McDonald's meal...thankfully the Chicken nuggets weren't too exciting too him!