Missouri Trip

Well, after a 12 1/2 hour car ride, we made it from Houston to Missouri! It was actually one of the more pleasant car rides we have taken in a while. And what do you do after a long car ride...take a nice bath (with the cousins, in Harrison's case)! Thanks to a portable DVD player and Dora the Explorer, we made it with minimal stops and had a great drive. Once we got there, we were ready for fun! We spent 2 1/2 weeks visiting my sister's family and helping out for a little while.

We had a calm weekend and then started football practice, so while Jeff went to that, I took the 4 other boys to the playground. We had a good time for an hour and then we got tired!
Talon by the swings.
Everyone up the slide...
And everyone down the slide!
Harrison was given an Oreo and this is the mess that he made. Really, it was just one Oreo!
Bath time again. This time we had bubbles, so all the boys were in. Talon didn't like the jets so he was out before the bubbles, but the rest of the boys had to be bribed to get out.
Out on the tire swing...all the boys loved the tire swing. Gage was even nice enough to share a ride with Harrison while he got the hang of things.
Then he loved to ride by himself.
Talon also loved the ride.
Swinging away!
Mommy wanted a ride too!
Nothing like an old box to entertain the babies. Good thing Chance was willing to push. All the adults didn't want to start, so we just watched.
So the first two weeks was a lot of the day to day stuff. We were really busy but not a lot of pictures. My sister and I got pedicures (SO WONDERFUL!) and I was able to spend an afternoon at the park with an old friend. We had a great time and then my parents and younger siblings came down from IL for Labor Day weekend. We had a great time and did A LOT.

Interestingly enough, this pictures was taken that Saturday morning. My mom brought some old home videos and a few minutes in, Jeff looks to me and asks if I know where Harrison is. Nope, I don't. So we start looking and calling. I am sure he is in the house so we search the basement, the pantry and all the boys rooms (all his favorites) and he is nowhere to be found. So now I am worried. Then Jeff comes around the corner holding a very wet Harrison. Jeff found him in my sister's bathroom, putting toilet paper into the toilet while flushing. We don't know how many times this happened, but there was water everywhere. While I supervised timeout (seen below) Jeff and Tom got to clean up the bathroom. He has never done that before and hopefully that will be the last time!
Harrison and Talon are 5 weeks apart and right now, the love to play together but need to be supervised so they play nicely. Hopefully next time they can play by themselves without any crying coming from where they are playing.
Grandpa helping Harrison ride the tricycle.

Harrison loves his Grandpa (he really migrates to both his Grandpa's) He calls them Papa and warms up to either Grandpa so quickly.
He had a great time here with his Grandpa Willerth.
All Harrison's cousins on my (Willerth) side of the family. They are all boys so we got a picture of the 5 grandsons and also my youngest brother. Three generations of Willerth blood.
I took family pictures for my sister and her family. So many turned out so cute (that will be it's own post!) Harrison was clingy and jealous that I wasn't taking pictures of him, but he did a good job as my assistant!
After pictures, we found some time to ride the 4 wheelers. Everyone had to pair up. With only 2 full size 4 wheelers and a lot of people, it made the time go faster.
Harrison LOVED riding! We was not good at holding on so only Jeff and I rode with him. Luckily shifting was with your feet so one hand could be wrapped around Harrison, but we did have to slow down to make turns.

Kissing cousins...it's still okay at this age! And these two were definitely frienemies so it was nice to catch a good moment for them.
Needing some down time so we watched "Buzz", a new favorite for Harrison.
Not happy when Aunt Dillan interrupts the movie.
Who's driving this car? And with a trusty navigator...
Getting ready for our fun canoe trip. They had a big slide and all the kids loved it.
Ready to go and no sunburn happening to my little guy!

Thinking he can row the boat. Actually Jeff did all the rowing and I focused on keeping Harrison in the boat. It was a lot of fun and no one tipped! After a 4 hour canoe trip, we went for the "World's Biggest Banana Splits" at the cafe. It was fun and a nice change from canoeing. All of these tables are for us and we have 2 more tables across the way!

Bringing our own entertainment.
He has a sweet tooth!
Rounding off the night with a campfire and smores. Yes, banana splits and smores all in 1 night. The kids had a great time and the adults enjoyed sitting out and talking.

The tire swing fell (sad!) and the babies where so confused about it being on the ground.

Before my parent's left on Monday, we had a little birthday celebration for Harrison. My parent's brought a present for Harrison and we thought, why wait. We wanted Grandma and Grandpa to see his joy so we sang and opened his present.
Elmo legos wrapped in Elmo paper...he was loving it.
Giving his thank you hugs to Grandma and Grandpa.
Finding and trying to bring caterpillars into the house. Boys will be boys.
Then it came our turn to head back. I was not excited for the 12 hours home, but we did it again in about 12 1/2 hours. Harrison again spent his time sleeping...
laughing, eating and drinking...
and watching Dora.

It was an awesome trip. We are so grateful to the Decker's for the hospitality and can't wait to see them again. We are happy to be home in our own beds again though and not living out of a suitcase too!