Haircuts 2 & 1

While we were back home for the Johnson Family Picnic (future post), Shelby and Morgan got haircuts. This was Shelby's second haircut and the first for Morgan. My aunt Suzie owns a salon in Arizona and she gave Shelby her first haircut 2 years ago when she was home for a visit. So I guess you can say up to this point she is the only one I have trusted to cut their hair! We stuck around after the picnic and she was gracious enough to cut hair on her vacation. Luckily my mom has a pair of hair cutting scissors since Suzie only had carry-on luggage so she couldn't bring hers along. For whatever reason I don't have a final cut pic of Shelby but I'd say she got a good 6 inches cut off of hers.

Shelby

a few inches gone & taking off a few more

Standing Still......
Morgan you are such a great help!

Morgan's hair is a little thicker than Shelby's so Suzie cut hers in 2 layers. It was soooo hard for her to hold still for this!

Ready to cut the first layer stand still!!!

Finished!

Morgan no longer has to have her hair pulled up to go potty! That gives you a good idea of how long it was. Shelby would have been happier with a few more inches off and no curls or new hair growth in the front. Already at 6 she wishes her hair could be like someone else's. At least her American Girl Doll Emily anyway.

T-ball for Shelby

Tonight wrapped up summer T-ball for Shelby. She was on the green team and they practiced on Tuesdays and Thursdays and had games on Fridays. They always played against the blue team who practiced on Mondays and Wednesdays. It was all very entertaining. She was disappointed to miss the awards night when she was sick on our anniversary. On Tuesday, it was Tballers vs Parents. Nate participated while I took the pictures. My pics aren't the best. I have a new camera and I probably should have changed the mode to sports and with the sun and trying to zoom in, they turned out a little blurry.

Shelby 1st At Bat vs Parents

Running to 2nd Base

At 3rd standing next to daddyDaddy's first At Bat
(Shelby is in front of boy in green ready to field the ball)

Check out the pink bat!
I think these girls are rubbing off on him!Daddy sneaks into 2nd BaseTonight's Final Game
She had 2 good hits with one making it to the
outfield grass!Ready in the field
Approximately at short stop positionTaking a water break
She always has good running formFinal handshake with the Blue Team
Shelby is 2nd in line Green Team
(several teammates are missing)

Being Goofy

With Buds Cam & Carson

(2 CUBS Fans but they are still young)

Coach Michelle

(her favorite)

I did find her a pink St. Louis Cardinals hat in the mall at the hat store. It came complete with scratch & sniff candy on the front! She didn't need the hat tonight though. Cloudy and cool at game time!

(As we were getting ready to go tonight, I asked Morgan if she was going to play WeeBall next summer. She said, "No, I don't know how to play WeeBall"! I told her that is why they have it, to teach her! We shall see.

Nate's Visit to the ER

A few weekends ago we were in my hometown in Wisconsin for a family picnic. Shortly after we arrived at my parents on Friday about 5:30, Nate asked me how it felt when I had a kidney stone. He already had the privilege of losing his appendix in college, so the kidney stone seemed the obvious killer. Around 7:00 I decided to be nice and take him to the ER. I told him he had to throw up at least once before I'd take him. I was giving him a hard time cause I probably threw up 3 times at home before we made our way to the hospital. (To his defense we did have to get the girls organized before he could take me). I couldn't believe it when they hooked him up to an IV with some morphine for the pain before he had a CT scan to confirm it was a kidney stone killing him. At the ER here in B/N, I had to wait my turn for a CT scan, while waiting I got sick for the 4th time, had to wait for the CT scan to be read and confirmed that it was a kidney stone before they would give me any kind of pain relief! The pain meds kicked in fast and he only got sick once right before they wheeled him off for the scan. After he returned to the room he was comfortable. I received a text from my sister saying the Med Flight was coming to town. Its flight path from Madison goes over my parents' house. Since Nate was settled, the nurses disappeared to take care of the patient next door that was going to be taking the ride in the helicopter. The small town curiosity in me could only find out that it was a 5 year old boy that had taken a fall. Finally at 10pm he was released and luckily with some meds since there is not a 24 hour pharmacy in the small town. Mid afternoon on Saturday he passed the tiny killer. That's the good news. Bad news is he has 3 stones sitting in his other kidney waiting for another day of pain.I was not born at my hometown hospital and I personally have not had a reason to use their services. Now Morgan and Nate have been to the ER. That leaves Shelby as the only one from our family to have not visited an ER. Let's hope it stays that way!

14 Years and Counting!

July 20, 1996. Our wedding day. 14 years ago! Don't we look so young? That's because we were! Nate was 24 and I was 21. A few weeks shy of turning 22. It was a hot summer day in a church in Platteville, WI with no air conditioning. At least it was an early evening wedding at 5 (I think). Our dinner reception was held at UW-Platteville in one of their banquet rooms. We took a nice honeymoon to Puerto Rico. Maybe we can return there next year to celebrate #15! How did we celebrate 14? Brace yourself, it's exciting! Morgan is spending the week at my parents. So we took Shelby to see Despicable Me and then Nate went to work. Shelby was supposed to have her ribbon night at T-ball and then my neighbor kindly offered to take her home so we could go out for dinner. Shelby didn't feel good all morning. Her stomach was hurting and she was leaving nasty stuff in the potty! :( We came home after the movie and she started a small fever. So we missed T-ball and the dinner out. We went to Family Video and Taco Bell and had dinner in. Shelby headed to bed and Nate and I watched Bounty Hunter (at least I did, he fell asleep). Folks, it doesn't get more exciting then that. I guess making it to 14 years will have to be exciting enough!

Six Flags Kind of Fun!

At the end of June, the girls and I headed south to Nate's brothers for Trey's 4th birthday party. We have a tradition of spending the night and doing something with them in St. Louis on Sunday before heading home. One year was the zoo, 2 years ago was the Magic House and some yummy pizza, last year we had a blast at the City Museum and this year we hit SIX FLAGS! It was a hot one but that worked to our advantage. Sunday seems to be a down day at Six Flags and most of the visitors headed to the water park. The longest we waited for a ride was 10 minutes or less. Al, Drew and I were able to just walk right up to the roller coasters. We had to wait for 1 or 2 runs before we could go but that was it. It was amazing!

Just as we entered the gates the girls were excited to be greeted by these guys Reese, Shelby & Morgan on the kid swings

(they did ride the big swings but they go around too fast for a decent picture)

The gang by the Mystery Machine
The girls spinning

Morgan & Reese flying

The kids with some random boy between Drew & Trey
I love how Morgan has her hands up in the air

Shelby flying with Drew

Morgan spinning with Drew in balloons

More fun together

We had a ton of fun. The biggest challenge of the day it seemed was who was going to ride with who. We did so many other rides that I don't have pictures of because I was riding too. I took Drew, Shelby and Morgan on the Tidal Wave ride. We got pretty wet on that but nothing like we did standing on the bridge afterwards. Morgan did not enjoy that part! She sat out the next time and I did it again with Drew and Shelby. I had just about dried out after riding a bunch of roller coasters with Al and Drew and then the rain came. We got the last ride on The Boss and then they shut it down. We were lucky! Thanks to Jill and Martha for entertaining the rest of the kids so we could ride. This huge storm blew in and it was a mass exodus to the parking lot. It was already getting late and had it not been for the rain we probably would have done a few more rides. The girls and I headed back to Greenville to spend the night. Had we continued home it would have been around midnight when we got there and I would have had to drive through rain the entire way. We slept at Nate's dad and Martha's and the girls got to sew a bit with Martha and play in the basement. And of course, a visit to papa's means rides on the 4 wheeler. PJ's and all!

Big thanks to Papa and Nonny for spoiling us all. We are already talking about going back next year for 2 days and doing the water park as well. Fun family times to look forward to. We met Nate's mom and Allie in town for some lunch and then we headed home. Thanks for the memories Metzger family!

Wild Rides at Canoe Fest

Mid June I took the girls back to my hometown for the annual Canoe Festival. My sister and I were a little disappointed in the choice of rides, but we were able to find a few to ride with the girls. Let me tell you though, my years are numbered in my ability to handle carnival rides. I can ride roller coasters all day, but carnival rides are another story! You will see from the look on my face in one of the pics just what I am talking about. Later the next week I suffered a headache I know was from the Sizzler ride! Aunt Ashley took them on the first ride. This was Morgan's first time riding the big rides so I was anxious to see what she thought. She looked terrified, then like she was having fun, she'd say she hated it then ask to ride it again!

Next was the little swinger for the girls. The adult swinger ride was one Ashley and I were disappointed not to see. It was hard to get pictures of them on that. Morgan was so excited when she got off she ran to the gate and only like she can, tripped over the big cords running across the ground. Down she went leaving her skin from both knees on the blacktop. I took her to the van and doctored her up. Thanks to Hello Kitty she was good to go and we headed back for her to ride the miniature ferris wheel with Shelby.

They rode the horses and bounced in the bouncy house

Then it was my turn to take them on the Sizzler ride. Seriously, some carnivals may call this ride the scrambler because that is exactly what is happening to your brain while you are on it!

Just getting going.....

HOLY COW!!!!! Cut my head off now!!Morgan's pony tail came out and my entire body was killing me. We stumbled over to the next ride, the Spider. This ride goes around in a circle and up and down while your little bucket is spinning. The only part I don't care for is sitting in there with little kids who want to site see from highest point when you stop to load new riders. They just don't comprehend the fact they can slide right out the back. There is nothing holding you in! (PS. Don't mind my hair. These rides do nothing for one who is trying to grow their hair out!)I successfully avoided riding the Ferris Wheel. Both girls like to ride it and it is my least favorite ride. If I am going to be up that high I want to be moving. Not sitting almost still swinging back and forth with two antsy little girls looking all around! Things started to look stormy and we had just heard a report the town just south of us had spotted a tornado. I told the girls if it started to lightening, I did not want to be up that high!

We finished up the rides and got some treats to enjoy while watching the fireworks. Morgan had fun eating her sno-cone.Sunday after church we set out for the big parade...... in the rain! We did not torture ourselves and stay for the entire thing. We left after seeing part of the Wisconsin Badger band perform. Morgan was not happy when her wet dress kept rubbing up against her sore knees.
We headed home to get some dry clothes and finished off the fun weekend with a trip to see A Year in the Life of Frog and Toad performed by the community theatre. It was well done and fun for me since one of my high school classmates played the part of Toad. He did a great job!

#6 & #4 Birthday Party Fun!

We finally had the girls' birthday party on Memorial Day weekend. May was a busy month for everyone and since the girls are still young enough to enjoy a party even if it is a month past their birthday, it worked out. Shelby had a Fancy Nancy party theme and I talked Morgan into Strawberry Shortcake. She wanted a Hello Kitty cake. That would have been perfectly fine if that wasn't her party theme last year! Silly girl. Even after this party was over she told me next year she wants Hello Kitty! It has taken me a long time to get to this post because I had a ton of pictures to sort through. My sister recently bought a new camera and we also spent some time at the sprinkler park. So I had a lot of pics of the kids all having a blast. So stick with me, this post has a lot of pictures. I think if you click on it you can enlarge the collages. I did a collage for each kid at the water park. All of them except Caleb took a spin in this wild spinning orange dish. So each of them have a collage of pictures of them spinning and a collage of them playing in the water. I realized I didn't have very many pictures of Morgan playing in the water. She must have spent more time in the play park instead. She also has to wear ear plugs to keep water out of her ears and at that time I was putting them in wrong and they probably kept falling out. For my blog readers who do not know our extended family, I am including last names so you will know the kids from my family and the ones from Nate's.

Shelby opening her gifts

Morgan opening gifts

I think Morgan's favorite gift may have been

Gummy Bears from Nonny Moe!
Shelby at the Sprinkler Park

Shelby spinning

Morgan at the Spinkler Park

Morgan spinning

Noah Mosley

Noah spinning

Caleb Mosley
(He is my brother Jamie's payback. As you

can see he has a sweet smile, but beware)!

Drew Metzger

Drew spinning

Reese Metzger

(same age as Shelby)

Reese spinning

Trey Metzger

(Morgan's age)

Trey spinning

I had a lot of fun looking at all these pictures. While cropping them I could really see some of the facial expressions as they ran through that cold water. I think both of the girls had a lot of fun. They love getting together with their cousins and there is always a meltdown session when everyone leaves. We just don't see each other enough!