This is what it's all about

What an awesome, fun-filled weekend!  If this weekend is any preview of what the summer looks like, I can't wait.  Oh, if only we could speed through the next 5 days.  We have 5 more days of wasted time school left and then I will have 8 weeks of freedom!

So, back to this weekend.  Yesterday, we took a trip to Rockford.  It was Mitchell's first birthday party, so we headed out there for the day. Because of all of our hectic schedule's, this was also our first time meeting Mitchell too, so this visit was long overdue.  In the past, we tried to take longer road trips while the boys would be napping in hopes of them sleeping in the car, but that wasn't going to work this time, so we thought we'd plan for a couple stops along the way to keep us all sane.  First stop - donuts at a local donut shop in Flint that Troy hits up every so often.

Then, after 1.5 more hours driving, we stopped at a park in Carson City.  Cute little park that the kids loved playing at and had their picnic lunch.  I was shocked that the park was completely empty - until we left and saw that 1 mile down the street, there was a much larger, newer looking, busier park (with absolutely no shade, in the middle of a field).  I'm happy we stopped at the one we did!

An awesome wooden train to play on

A HUGE slide built into the side of a big hill.

And then finally to Rockford!  What a great time.  Both catching up with Bryan and Erin (and their families), meeting Mitchell and seeing the kids play.  The boys were very well behaved and despite no nap, they had no meltdowns, and had a blast.

Logan actually kept the party hat long enough to get a picture.

It's always fun watching a 1-year old dig into their first birthday cake!

Guess who was super excited when it was cake time?

Ellis surprisingly took 4 bites of Troy's cake!  This was quite the shock since he isn't (or hasn't been) a cake person.

Angie (Erin's sister) reading Ellis one of Mitchell's new books!

Boy they LOVED the playhouse outside!

They both fell asleep within 10 minutes of leaving their house and except for a few where-the-hell-am-I wake-ups where Logan was trying desperately to get comfortable, it was a quiet ride home.

Ellis, not even 5 minutes after leaving.

On to today - just a chill day close to home.  After I woke up, I made Troy breakfast, but since he was up for me, I ordered him upstairs to bed, so he could have breakfast in bed (with 2 crazy kids playing around him)

Troy was originally planning to go fishing today, but because of a lot of paperwork he had to get done for the week (which he couldn't have worked on yesterday since we were gone all day), he spent a bit of his Father's Day unfortunately doing that.  We had a quick lunch/stop-through visit from Grandma and Grandpa as they drove through on their way home from up north and then a laid back afternoon since the boys took a later-than-normal nap.  After dinner though we headed to the park where they got out all of their energy running and climbing around on the playscape.

Now, Troy is just jamming on his guitar on the deck (and yes, our neighbor brought over a tip jar with a dollar in it to ask him to play loud enough to entertain his guests at his house), while I sit here updating the blog.  Oh how I'd love for all days to be like today, weather-wise, too.  Just an awesome night to sit on the deck!  

I'm looking forward to little day trips like yesterday, or anything that resembles fun or relaxing, this summer.  Soon-to-come = our 2014 summer bucket list.  Any can't-wait-for ideas from anyone out there?  I'd love to here other's ideas, especially those that are kid-friendly!