And HE WALKS!!

Backpack took his first steps today!!! Not for the camera, of course. He walked three separate times for a few, quite stable, steps. Hurray! We'll post a video soon...

Grammy's Visit

(Pictures are below, all out of order!!)

So after we drove home from visiting with Kelly and her family we stopped at Kirtland...which has already been posted...and we got home at 10pm. We laid the kids down for bed, cleaned out the van and got a little shut eye ourselves. We woke up first thing Sunday morning, cleaned everyone up, made beds and jumped back in the car and drove 2 hours West to a little town S of Indianapolis to meet Grammy, Dave, Grandpa Yocum, Joyce and more of the Yocum clan. It was Grandpa Yocum birthday and his family wanted to do a bit of family reunion. So we got to meet Lori's (AKA Grammy...Travis' Mom) brothers Steve and Lester and bunch of other people I don't remember. After the food and festivities we said goodbye and kidnapped...or Grammy-napped Lori and took off for home. We had a wonderful visit full of adventure and surprise.
We went to the Air Force museum. Trouble got to go on the simulator, which wasn't as exciting as we wanted it to be. I first dragged Lori to the every end that has to do with Travis' missile job and we worked our way to the front. We even stopped by the Space Hall of Fame.

We got to experience the "Tattoo". WPAFB does a festival complete with music, an airshow, vendors, and fireworks. We first hit up the free hot dogs our housing provided then went into the actual festival. It was crowed and hot. So we checked out the tent with the vendors and information booths, walked to the end, listened to some music and walked home. From the hill behind our house we could see some of the air show and we were okay with that. Our new neighbors come over and said hi. We ended up watching the awesome fireworks display with them and retiring for the night. On neat thing was that before the airshow started we saw an airplane drop 2 somethings from the sky. It was like giant crepe paper. Travis and Lori chased them down. We were later informed that it was to test the wind. Fancy!!

We also got a chance to go to Cesar Creek Lake. We had got the pool earlier in the week and ran in to our neighbor who told up about a place to look for fossils. So we headed that way and went looking for fossils. We found mostly shells and tubular coral. As we drove around we saw a beach. Even though we had no towels, swim suits or other clean clothes we went swimming. It was refreshing and warm. And yes, with is a typical outing with anyone in Travis' family. You'd think I'd be more prepared after all these year to expect the unexpected.

We went to the traditional trip to Young's Dairy for Ice Cream.

Baby showers are always fun, so Lori went with me to the one for Laura and Emma. Of course Lori is always very friendly and chatted more than I did :-)

I have a favorite park here called Orchardly Park. So we took Grammy out to see it. She is in the process of convincing her Homeowners Association board to do the same to an area where she lives. So she got lots of good ideas. Kids had a blast as usual.

We spent one day at the Boonshoft Children's Museum. Another favorite with us. There is so much to do and see. This time we was an anaconda shed its skin, Dynomite wear a stethoscope wrong while nursing animals back to health, and learn all about dragons. There is one room in the Boonshoft that changes its displays periodically. We got kick out of what what displayed about dragons, like how the can breath fire, dragon Internet dating, and what makes them good or bad.

So all in all we had a wonderful time! We can't wait for her next visit!!

At Cesar Creek Lake...poking around in the creek.

Dropping a flag to begin the air show for Tattoo

Trouble after Tattoo, playing with his toy plane.

Daddy and Backpack playing in sand at Orchardly Park.

Dynomite on the climbing equipment at Orchardly Park.

A 17 year old Grammy

Grammy with Grandpa Dave, Grandma and Grandpa Yocum, Steve and his wife, and Lester

Swimming at Cesar Creek Lake, with all our clothes on!!

Presenting Princess Dynomite

Presenting Prince Trouble

Dynomite helping the duck, if only these things worked!!

Grammy hanging out with Backpack, watching the turtle below

Trouble is a shopaholic...

Shedding skin

Grammy and Backpack having fun at Boonshoft museum

Fossil hunting!!

Flying a fighter jet at the Air Force Museum

Travis old job described at the AF Museum. I think its neat to see yourself in a museum.

How a Dragon makes Fire....according to the Boonshoft museum.

Happy Anniversary

Today, 9-9-09, we celebrate 9 years of marriage. Travis e-mailed me at 9:09 this morning:

Tonight we are going to dress to the nines (fancy) and go to The Cheesecake Factory for cheesecake and watch the movie "9". We went out early this week and bought Travis a tux and me a dress. Should be fun night!!

We're not AWOL!!

I have a list to blog about so stay tuned:

1) Grammy's Visit to OH
2) Yaya's Visit
3) Me and kid's adventures at Yaya's house.
4) The kid's and I's adventures with Papa.
5) Travis' Alaska trip
6) My HS Reunion
7) Backpack's 1st birthday.
8) Trouble starts pre-school.
8) Our terrible Labor Day (me and holidays... what did you expect!) AKA Hair cut day
9) Whatever else we can blog about!

So we've been busy and have only been home for a few weeks. I was asked to be the Hospitality Leader at MOPS, so this weekend was spent doing what most people have all summer to do. But with some help from Travis we got it all done and it was fun...right sweetie :-) We've also been very busy watching all the past episodes of The Office, hence the constant yawning (if anyone has noticed).

The kids are doing well. Backpacks learning to walk and has officially weaned. Dynomite starts dance lessons on Monday. Trouble is having a blast at school.

Fearless by Max Lucado

Max Lucado has invited you to “imagine your life without fear” in his newest book titled, “Fearless”. Each chapter is dedicated to fears that we face in this life. After describing the fear he tells us how we can overcome it with aid of God. The answer to all our anxieties and worries can be solved if we turn our hearts to God and allow him to enter our lives and guide our path.

I had a hard time getting into this book for two reasons:
1) I don’t live my life in fear. Even though a few of chapter could apply to my life, fear simply doesn’t play a role in how I live or handle situations.
2) It reads like a sermon. Granted he is a Minister. Hence, with some passages I would get lost in the meaning of words and miss the point we was making.

With that being said I did, in fact, like the book. This tome is geared, obviously, toward people who live with fear in their lives. Because this work provides insight and great ideas, I would also recommend this to counselors (professional or friend) who are working with fear laden people.