Good use of time...

I was talking to Kay on the phone yesterday mentioning how I was beginning to get the "back to school anxiety" that comes every year at this time.  Summer is virtually over, our house "to-do" list isn't finished, our grad classes aren't done, and we haven't even been to school. 

So Kay graciously offered to come stay with Parker for a few hours today so Travis and I could make good use of our time and check some things off of our list without having to worry about Parker. 

Guess how we used this valuable time??????

We went golfing.

Actually we went to the driving range.

and then we went to lunch at the recently reopened Cherry Street. 

It was yummy!

I guess it's true...once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator!

(P.S.  we did spend 45 minutes at school!)

Mini-Vacation

This weekend we went to visit Travis' sister and family in Des Moines.  Actually, Waukee, but it's in the Des Moines area.  The trip took about 4 hours there and Parker did a really great job!  He took 2 good naps on the way.  He was resting up for fun with all 3 of his cousins and their new puppy.

 

Parker took his crawling to new levels.  There were wide open spaces and lots of little feet to chase after.

Unfortunately, some feet were faster than his!  Caught Ya!

He also had lots of things to climb on.

Love, love, love this photo Travis captured in the window!  If you look really hard you can see his reflection.

"Why can't I go out and play with everyone else?"

Play time with Caleb and Annica

Saturday after lunch it was pool time in the back yard!

The shorts got to tight and the regular diaper was super soaked so all the clothes had to come off. 

Parker's first skinny dipping experience

MOOOOOOOOMMMM!

Although swimming is fun, Parker does not enjoy the slip and slide...maybe next year..

The verdict is still out on the trampoline...

However, bath time....

Is great fun!

Rub a dub dub, 3 kiddos in a tub!

Huh?  What are you doing cousin?

Look!  I learned to wave on command!  Hello everyone!

We chose this weekend to visit the Chervenka's because Annica was being baptized in the Raccoon River.  This was extra special because her dad got to baptize her.  Annica was the youngest of all the people being baptized but I would wager she has just as much understanding and love of the Lord as everyone else there!

We were so happy to get to celebrate with Annica and our family during this special time in their lives.

Parker was tired after a long weekend playing and slept most of the way home.  However we discovered at the Iowa 80 truck stop that he has a ugly heat rash/diaper rash and are now treating it at home.

We arrived home safely full of memories from a fun weekend away!

We can't wait to go again.

A "Good" outing

Today we took a "Good" outing to Good's Furniture in Kewanee.  Kewanee is about 45 minutes from Galesburg and none of us had ever been.

Good's is HUGE...very easy to spend a day browsing.  There are lots of glass elevators so bringing a stroller was not a problem.. Everyone was very friendly and oodled over Parker....he made lots of new friends...mostly older women....much older....older than both of his Grandma's...but friends none the less.

Isn't this cool?  Parker was envisioning all the books and toys he could neatly put on his shelves.  There are 3 drawers under the bed for P.J.'s and sports shorts too.

Isn't this high back, mission style bed neat?  I love mission style furniture!  What would make this bed even better would be if it had little things like this...

on all 4 posts.

Dream shopping is great!  No budgets to follow!

We took a walk over the sky walk to "Good's East" and ate in their winery bistro.  It was very good and quite upscale, but still on the affordable side.  We were worried about Parker but he did a really good job.

We saw Proud Mary's plane...and actually ran into Mary the owner twice.  I should have been brave and asked for her picture...but that would have embarrassed both Stecher men to the fullest. 

We had a great day window shopping.  I would recommend anyone looking for a fun day getaway to check out Good's in Kewanee!

Mr. Crabby

 Hmmm...I wonder what that is...

What's making that water?????

YIKES!  Retreat...retreat....MOM!

The only way I'm going back in...is if you give me that shiny can...deal?

Now THIS is fun!

I had a great time in my crab pool today!

Naptime Bandit

Parker has been going to bed/nap with a receiving blanket lately. He seems to find comfort in the blanket and we thought we might have a blankie lovin' man on our hands.  

We have also been having problems getting him to fall asleep for nap time.  He'll sit in his crib for an hour or more just quiet enough we think he's asleep and then out of no where start talking or laughing.  We have also found him "playing" with his stuffed toys through the crib.  see here...  So we've started covering the toys when it's nap time with a flannel blanket we used when it was cold out.

Today, after only 37 minutes of a nap this morning, Travis put Parker down at 2PM for a much needed nap.  After an hour of "play" Travis finally took the "toy" away....the blankie...

After about 20 minutes it was quiet so we went to check on him and this is what we found...keep in mind there was no blanket, no toys, no distraction...

This is Parker on the far left side of the crib...with a blanket...

This is the toy bin on the far right side of the crib....blanket"less".

I think this is Parker's way of telling us not to take his blankie away...

or maybe he was just wanting to play but it took all of his remaining energy to pull the cover off the top and fell asleep before he could make it back to the toys...

non the less, I think we should move the toy bin, and invest in a video monitor!

Little League

We are St. Louis Cardinals fans through and through...

but on Saturday night we became Yankee fans for one of Parker's friends.

The Yankees played a great game!  It was a nail biter to the end! Way to go Kannon!  We're all proud of you!

  We look forward to many little league games in the future!

Both boys were tuckered out from all the action.