What's Up With the Pomeroy's: July 2008

Ear Infections and Dirt

Well, it's been a long week here...Aiden came back from camping with a fever that wouldn't quit for several days, but no other symptoms - except for waking up all the time. A trip to urgent care revealed a double ear infection. Two days later, Brendan came down with a cold. He has the super stuffy head, runny nose, cough, sore throat and just generally miserable. Hopefully since he has everything else, he can skip the ear infection part ;)

On Saturday morning Wellyn and Brendan went to Como Zoo to help make breakfast for the primates. It was a fun experience to get to prepare the different foods for each of the primates housed there, learn interesting facts about them, and get to watch them eat - up close, without all the crowds. Here is Brendan watching one of the gorrilas eat.

Sunday we worked on the hole for the shed - it was going great until Wellyn got out the level...I do not like the level! So, it increased the number of wheelbarrow loads of sand/dirt immensely... Here is what is done so far. Don't let this fool you, I did shoveled the dirt and Wellyn dumped it and leveled it by the pond - I was helping!

The boys love it when we're working in the dirt - right up their alley! The hose is always popular too...

Here is our proud son with his first real purchase with his piggy bank money that he's collected over the past 5 years. He had a hard time decided which one to get, but has been glued to it since he brought it home. The first night he worked on building the first boat right up until bedtime - and came down at 4am to look at it again! Too funny...

Camping Trip

Like usual, we've had a busy week and weekend. Brendan's golf camp was cancelled last week due to low enrollment, so we had a "free" week...although those are almost busier! Last Wednesday he had his first sleep over at his best friend house. He did great overall - just a little sad at bedtime after Mason had fallen asleep. They went for a bike ride, played in the pool and had tons of fun. Mason rides his bike without training wheels so now Brendan is much more interested in taking his off. I think the whole experience was harder for me than him - my little boy is growing up!

Here are some photos from the past week.

Ummm...yeah, this is what happens when Aiden uses the potty without us being vigilant.

Brendan with his "Save" "Spend" and "Give" banks that I made him. Right now he is saving for a trip to Legoland.

Mr. Fix-it.

For whatever reason, Aiden decided to dress up as a pirate before dinner the other day. He found almost all the pirate gear and has the pirate "pose" down.

Brendan with his Rescue Hero robot he earned last week. I have to say, it's one of the coolest toys and the boys have played with it almost non-stop.

Friday we headed to Wabasha, MN, for our annual camping trip. Wellyn had the day off so we were able to leave by noon and took the scenic route along the Mississippi River. It was a beautiful drive and so fun to see the river, the huge boats and all the hills and rock bluffs surrounding the river.

The weather was warm and sunny the majority of the weekend. We did have a thunderstorm and subsequent downpour on Saturday evening, but we all gathered in the screen tent and the kids did some art and the adults literally shouted at each other to have a conversation over the sound of the rain hitting the tent. It blew over fairly quickly though and we were able to get the kids all to bed and have some fun around the campfire.

Here is the campsite. Our friends Heather and Tony and Brian and Jess joined in the fun with their kids.

Here's Kaylene, Brendan and Keaton doing some art projects.

Aiden trying to make his had fit on Wellyn. A game that never gets old!

Me and Brendan trying out the teeter-totter before hitting the pool. I have to say, that is the biggest teeter-totter I've ever seen...

Aiden and Wellyn having some fun with the teeter-totter - Aiden sobbed when it was time to get off! He quickly recovered when he found out we were going swimming in the pool.

4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend again this year. The weather was warm and sunny making it easy to get outside and do things. We started off with redoing some landscaping on Thursday and on Friday Wellyn cleaned out the garage - a much needed task; while I stained some benches and a bird house for the yard - getting the "work" out of the way first! . At dusk we packed the kids in the bike trailer and headed to the fireworks. It's nice we live close to about everything and the fireworks are no exception. They are only a mile or so from our house, and after sitting in traffic for over 40min leaving the display last year, we opted for a different mode of transportation. We had so much fun! Each boy brought a football and we played catch, had muffins, chips and pretzels until it was time for the big show. Aiden was a little scared at first, but as long as I was hugging him he was fine. It's probably the latest our kids have ever stayed up... by the end, they were more than ready to head home and get in bed!

A couple videos with the kids and the water hose:

Here's Wellyn and Aiden enjoying a slow start to the morning.

Saturday we did errands in the morning and had our own fireworks show in the evening. Our neighbors joined us with their little boy, Joseph, who turned one a few weeks ago. It was incredibly windy so we anchored our fireworks in a bucket of sand to keep them from blowing away. We ended it up calling it a night after about half had been lit as the wind was just too strong. The boys were a little disappointed - until they found out I'd made some 4th of July cupcakes! Nothing like a little sugar before bed ;)

Yeah, the cupcakes seemed easy to do... after three of the "fancy" ones, I gave up and just put sprinkles on the rest!

Some of our fireworks:

Sunday we woke up, packed up and headed for the beach! There is a great park and beach area near Wellyn's work and the kids swam, waded, played in the sand and playground. Brendan practiced swimming with his lifejacket and Aiden had fun wading around. We didn't get a lot of pictures since we were in the water so much.

This past week, Brendan started zoo camp at Como Zoo. It's about 25 minutes from here and has a lot of youth programs in the summer. He was really excited about it - until we got there... then it was tears and asking me to take him home. I stayed for the first 40 minutes and then when it was time to go visit the giraffe and zebra I made my exit. He usually does great after he gets comfortable, and this was no exception. Each day they went for 2 hours and learned about Africa and the people and animals there. They played games, made crafts and visited the animals.

Blaine's Blazin' 4th Celebration

This past weekend was Blaine's Blazin' 4th celebration. We started the festivities on Saturday with the parade. It's only a few blocks from our house and amazingly, this is the first year we've gone. The boys had a great time - mostly anticipating all the candy they were going to get!

Here we are getting ready for the start of the parade.

Aiden waved at EVERYTHING and EVERYONE!

Brendan thought the sirens were a "little" loud.

These little boat cars were awesome! They had all these patterns they weaved at high speeds - a big hit with the boys.

These little dune buggies were great too. Brendan loved how they stopped and turned at the same time - he won't be driving until he's 40 now...

On Sunday, we headed to a local park where the craft show, carnival and petting zoo were. The petting zoo is always our first stop...followed by the pony rides and this year - a camel ride!

Brendan is a pro on the ponies.

This was Aiden's first pony ride - obviously he enjoyed it! Everytime he went around he'd say "yee haa" when he saw me.

The first camel ride...everyone did great!

After the animals, it was off to the carnival rides! This celebration is great because the rides are all geared toward smaller children. Brendan was able to go on all the rides either by himself or with one of us and Aiden was big enough to go on all but a few rides.