Laundry

Lets hope that in a few years Sammy will continue to be super excited when I mention the word laundry.....Okay, so this week I learned the real reason behind his extreme excitment at the word 'laundry'. While he does do a great job of helping me move the clothes from the washer to the dryer, his FAVORITE part it turns out is when the clothes come out of the dryer and he can sneak in for a quick rest.

Trip to Dallas

This was not Sammy's first trip to Dallas, but it was his first 'road-trip' to Dallas. We left Jacksonville on Thursday evening, stopping for a quick overnight with Aunt Teresa & Uncle Tom. Then, Friday was drove the remaining 8 hours to Aunt Gina, Uncle Matt & Cousin Hudson's house just outside fo Dallas. Sammy was an awesome traveler!!!

On Saturday, we all went to a neat Museum to see the 'Dinosaur's Alive' exhibit. Sammy and Hudson were a little apprehensive of the life-like dinosaurs at first, but by the end of the trail, they seemed to really be enjoying the dinosaurs. They even got to ride one :)

On Sunday we got to visit the 'Big Orange Pumpkin' farm. I think Sammy's favorite part was feeding the goats. He was even 'teaching' the goats about sharing. When the goats started lining up anxiously awaiting the food, Sammy very politely would move down the line to ensure that they all got some food!

On Monday we were 'on the road again' back to Illinois with another quick stop at Aunt Teresa & Uncle Tom's. This picture shows Sammy 'relaxing' with Uncle Tom after a long car ride...

Is it really Fall?

So, it hasn't really felt all that much like Fall around here, but we are starting to enjoy the leaves changing color and on Sunday we went to our first wiener roast at Mamaw & Papa Howerter's house. Sammy really enjoyed sitting by the firepit with Papa. He didn't get to actually help adjust the logs on the fire because it was too hot, but he did like to play with the gloves that Papa used to keep the fire going.

JHS Cross Country

Will has been helping out with the Jacksonville High School Cross Country team this season. So, a couple of weekends ago we made it to the Jacksonville Invitational and helped keep the meet running smoothly :) Sammy got to enjoy the meet for a few hours in the morning. This picture is him trying to keep up running with the big kids.

After a couple of hours running around at the meet, Sammy got to go play with Aunt Linda & Uncle Johnny for the afternoon while we helped out at the finish line for the remainder of the meet. So, after Mommy & Daddy were worn out from keeping the high school & jr. high kids in order through the finish shoot and Sammy played hard with Linda & Johnny everyone was 'pooped'. Here are a couple of pictures of a couple of worn out boys:

Pumpkins, Apples & Raspberries

I'm a little late in getting this posting up, but wanted to share a couple of pictures from our trip to the Pumpkin Patch & Apple Orchard a couple of weekends ago.

While Daddy was playing golf with his NCC alumni buddies, Sammy & Mommy made a trip up 'North' to Loves Park to visit Aunt Judy, Aunt Jackie, Jenn, Dave, Emma & Isaac. Joining us on the adventure was Grandma Nancy, Aunt Mimi, Jojo & Uncle Andy. The first stop was the pumpkin patch...where Sam picked out his pumpkin within 2 minutes of entering and wanted to hold it the rest of the time. Here is a picture of Sam walking through the patch carrying his favorite pumpkin, which now sits proudly in our kitchen :)

You can't go to the pumpkin patch without getting one picture of your head through a wooden cut out :) Here is a cute one of the little pumpkins:

Next, it was on to the apple orchard. In addition to apples, the orchard also had 'Pick your own Raspberries', which happens to be one of Sams FAVORITE things to do whenever he visits Grandpa Swain....Grandpa has also taught Sam that you only pick the red ones :) Here are a few of my favorites of the weekend...Sam & his cousin Emma picking the raspberries and then enjoying a walk through the raspberries:

Jump Start Gymnastics

Today was camera day at Gymnastics......Oh, I guess I should back-up for those of you who we haven't talked to in a while. While I was watching the Olympics this summer, I happened to catch a commercial for a gymnastics center in Peoria and found out that they offer classes for young kids (part of what they call their 'diaper gym' program). I was reminded of how much fun I used to have in gymnastics as a kid and decided that with all of Sam's energy and climbing skills, we should try out a class or two. Well, it has been a month now since we started and Sam LOVES gymnastics. He gets to do everything mom & dad won't let him do at home, like climb over pretty much everything he sees, jump on 'beds', swinging from bars & other wild and crazy things. So, today the adults got to bring cameras into the gym area and capture some of the exciting things happening. Below are few of my favorites:

This first picture is Sam getting ready to jump....he decided he didn't want anything to do with crawling and rolling down the hill, but had more fun standing at the top and jumping down to the bouncy floor:

Next, we were off to another part of our obstacle course, which required a bit of climbing and crawling:

Then, we were off to the trampolines. Today was a special day at the trampolines, we go to pretend we were cowboys:

Finally, when it is time to say goodbye, Miss Dawn leads us in our 'goodbye song'. Sam has learned to play the 'drums' with Miss Dawn, but as you can see in the picture, we need to work on facing our friends when we say goodbye :) hehe

The ABCs with Sammy

For Grandma Nancy's birthday, Sammy learned his ABCs :) He needed a little prompting from Mommy and he can't quite do the entire alphabet in one sitting, so we captured the entire thing in 4 different videos. Enjoy!!

A - D

E - M

N - S

T - Z