WI - here we come

This afternoon Mase & I are headed to WI for our annual visit & Down Syndrome Awareness Walk with my sister & her family. We have made this trip every year for the last 2 years & plan on making it an annual tradition in the years to come.

I ended up working half a day today, then went & picked up Mase from Daycare & headed to the airport. Mason was definitely excited to be going on a trip in an airplane! He is such a good little traveler - as long as he has his snacks, blanket, headphones & iPad!

We flew into Milwaukee & then rented a car & drove the rest of the way to where my sister lives. It is only an hour & fifteen minute drive so it went pretty quickly. We got to her house around 8pm & spent the rest of the evening visiting while the kids played.

Cousins Jensen & Mason are still besties & were so cute hanging out together.

And there is little Dana - such big smiles from these two! 

Tomorrow we have the entire day to have some fun & then Saturday is the Down Syndrome Walk & we are praying for no rain. For whatever reason, it is never great weather when we are here for the walk. Fingers crossed for sunshine!

Cell Phone Dump

Here are some fun pics taken with my cell phone this month....

Drove past this the other day - $400,000 motor-home pulling a $400,000 Ferrari. WOW - puts our little 5th wheel camper to shame.

Someone got a haircut :)

My boys & their muscle shirts!

The fire department stopped by our block party to show the truck to the kids!

Mason even got to sit in the front seat & sound the siren! He was beaming from ear to ear!!

Always a treat to stop at Dairy Queen for our favorites - chocolate dipped cone & a cherry Arctic Rush!

Lunch at my new favorite BBQ place - Q39! YUM

A sick little boy & man's best friend always close by.

Still sick & still Millie doesn't leave his side. That is love right there!

It wouldn't be a cell phone dump post without at least one Snapchat photo - at work of course. LOL :)

MNO = Mama's Night Out

It has been a ROUGH couple of weeks here at our house. Mason was sick for a week & then Shane got sick. You all know what it means when the man of the house is sick....

And the Mama be like....

Seriously though he has been pretty sick & down for the count for the last 6 days & it has not been pretty. This Mama has pretty much taken care of Mase, the dogs & my husband for the last week BY MYSELF & I am in desperate need of a break.

Thank goodness we had a Mama's Night Out planned & on the calendar for tonight because this Mama definitely needs it!!!

We all met up at Coach's Bar & Grill & sat outside on the rooftop where we had appetizers & drinks. It was such a nice night out & not too chilly - perfect to be sitting outside! I'm going to miss these cool, crisp fall nights out on the patio :(

After everyone filled their tummies we headed over to a little sports bar by Mary Helen's neighborhood & bellied up to the bar to watch the football game.

Later in the evening everyone was ready to do a little dancing so we headed over to our favorite little dance club & got our groove on. They always play such good music & the "people watching" is fantastic!

We all ended up leaving the club around 1am & made our way home. It was definitely a fun evening out & about! I just love hanging out with these Mama's & definitely enjoyed an evening to myself. 

Deanna Rose playdate

Today was another gorgeous day outside so we decided to head to Deanna Rose & spend a couple hours of fun in the sun. This time we asked if Greyson could join us & his parents agreed so we stopped by his house to pick him up & to say the boys were excited is an understatement. 

We had brought the wagon which ended up being a good choice on our part & the boys loved riding in it throughout the farmstead while checking out all the animals.

The boys saw the goats, pigs, sheep, rabbits, calves, fed the baby goats, fed the ducks & played on the playground equipment. They had a blast!!

Halfway through the afternoon we stopped to get a snack & drinks & cool down a bit as it was a pretty hot day!

We ended up running into our friend Hannah & her Mama & spent the rest of our time there playing hanging out with them. 

Afterwards we all headed to Chick-fil-A to have a late lunch & then returned Greyson back to his family & headed home! It ended up being such a fun day with these littles & are so glad we were able to take Mason's best friend Greyson!

Bennett Springs State Park

We are headed to Lebanon, MO where Bennett Springs State Park is to do a little camping on the Niangua River. We have never been camping here before so we are super excited to check it out, do a canoe trip & some trout fishing!

The campsite was an awesome place & once we got all set up we took a little walk around the area, threw some rocks in the river & met some folks along the way who were camping there as well.

Our 2nd day there was spent touring the fish hatchery, feeding the fish, watching the expert fisherman catch rainbow trout & then my boys tried some fishing themselves.

Our last full day camping here at Bennett Springs was spent taking a canoe trip down the Niangua River. I was SO nervous about taking this canoe trip with Mason on board & Shane later told me he was also! I had no idea how deep it would be, if it would be treacherous or hairpin turns or not & my fear of losing Mase down the river was enough to make me ill. 

The lady at the office assured us the river wasn't any deeper than 2-3 ft, it was crystal clear so you could see the bottom & it was a very calm, peaceful 3 mile trip. So we agreed to go & the nice thing about this campsite was that they had shuttles that took you to the drop off site & your canoe trip ended right at the campsite. SO nice!

So I strapped that life jacket on my child as tight as I could get it, sat his little chair in front of me so I could see him at all times (& grab him easily) & away we went down the river. 

For someone who had never been in a canoe before I was scared to death. Not for myself but scared to death the canoe would tip over & I would lose my child down the river. As you can see in the pics it was a super calm & peaceful ride so I was able to relax a bit.

Mason was enjoying it for about a mile & then for some reason he got scared & kept saying "I hope the alligators don't get us." I tried to reassure him that there weren't any gators in the water but he didn't quite believe me. 

We pulled over half way down the river for some lunch & let Mason fish a bit. It was so quiet & peaceful on the river. I was SO enjoying our little afternoon excursion until out of the corner of my eye I see something moving on the rocks & spotted a baby Copperhead snake wiggling it's way towards my son. One thing about me is I don't do snakes - especially poisonous ones. I had no idea where the Mama snake was & I wasn't about to find out so I quickly scooped Mase up, threw our stuff in the canoe & we got the heck out of there & fast. 

 Turtles sunning on the log

Around the corner was a fork in the river. We had encountered several of these forks & would always take the left side which proved to be a good choice. There were two teenage kids sitting on the bank & we asked them which way to take & they said the right side is better so that is the way we took. A**holes. Those kids were a**holes. They told us to take the right side for a reason because they knew what was ahead. 

Two minutes later we are in a turbulant area with a 90 degree hairpin turn, Class VI rapids (okay maybe I am exaggerating a wee bit here but it felt like it at the time) tree limbs are down & we are ducking to avoid from hitting our heads & doing what we can to avoid tipping over the canoe. I have Mase between my legs scared to death, Shane is steering the front, I am steering the back & by the grace of God we managed to get out of that death trap without tipping over or losing my child or getting a divorce. Man nothing challenges your marriage like a canoe trip let me tell you!!

Once we made it back smooth territory we looked back & saw that those two kids had left. Imagine that! I was SO mad - clearly they saw we had a child with us!? I made Shane pull over to the bank so I could calm down & pray to God for saving us. After that little situation Mason was done with the canoe trip & so was I. Unfortunately, we still had at least a mile yet to go. 

The rest of the trip down the river was smooth as glass & the river was super shallow. It was actually quite enjoyable & Mason was able to calm down a bit & enjoy it as well. 

It took us about 4 hours to canoe down the river & we got back to the campsite around 2pm. We turned in our canoe, got our fishing poles & sat on the bank to do a bit of fishing. We saw trout in the clear, shallow water but sadly never ended up catching any.

The next morning we sadly packed up the camper & made our way home. I always hate packing up & leaving our camping trips. We absolutely loved it here at Bennett Springs State Park & are looking SO forward to heading back there Memorial week in May. 

I just love all these awesome memories we are making as a family & all the quality time we are spending together! Warms this Mama's heart!