Awesome Fall Day

Once a year, Columbia hosted the "Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival." It is a pretty cool venue all throughout downtown. Hundreds of people compete in BBQ contests, there are tons of blues concerts and vendors everywhere. Last year we took Cohan, but he was little, the year before we (I) couldn't enjoy it because I was pregnant.

This year, we were excited to go and listen to music, people watch and drink a few beers! =) Cohan loved the kettle corn, "fruit skewers" and listening to music. We took a break from walking through the Roots N Blues to let Cohan get out of the stroller and play on campus. He thought the columns were the coolest thing ever. He also just loved the openness to run!!!

Walking through all the BBQ contestants was a tease since you can't eat any of it. It was still fun to look at all the people. Scott liked looking at the names of their BBQ teams. They were very creative and funny. Cohan just liked clapping his hands to the music and waving to people.

After walking all around downtown and through campus, we met Matt and Betsy for lunch. Cohan loves Bengal's mini corn dogs. We loved the beers on the patio and their BBQ. Matt brought his camera and I got some awesome pictures of Cohan. These pictures make me realize how badly I need to buck up and buy a new camera!!!

We finished up the day with Carson's first birthday party. After we put Cohan to bed, we talked about what a perfect day it was!!

Labor Day Weekend

Last Friday, after work, we headed to Springfield for the weekend. It is always nice to go on long weekend so we don't feel rushed. Cohan woke up on Saturday morning and helped GramMo make breakfast.

Cohan always finds new toys at GramMo's house. This time it was a remote control car. He couldn't get enough of it.

On Saturday night, we all went to MeMo's house for dinner. She lives on Illini golf course. Cohan loves watching the golfers from MeMo's screened in back porch. After dinner, when the golfers were finished for the night, we all headed to play in her "backyard." Cohan took his mower and "got to work." He and Tayler chased each other, ran the greens, rolled down hills and played outside until it was dark.

We couldn't decide what to do on Sunday while Scott and my brother went golfing. Cohan woke up with a temperature and very fussy. My mom found that there was a "dog agility competition" at the fairgrounds. This sounded like it was right up Cohan and Tayler's alley. They both LOVED watching the dogs and cheering for them.

Cohan couldn't take all the excitement. He fell asleep, even with all the noise!!

Cohan just wanted to lay around since he was not feeling great. My mom got out sleeping bags she got for the boys. Cohan loved it.

The whole reason we decided to head to Illinois was to get family pictures taken. Even though Cohan had a 101+ temperature, we wanted to get the pictures since we had made the trip. My sister, Staci, did an AMAZING job! There is not a bad picture. We did the "shoot" at our farm in Lincoln. It was perfect. I will add the pictures in a different blog post. While we were waiting for Staci, Cohan found kittens. He thought they were puppies, but none the less was in love.

On Monday, before we headed out, my mom told us how we had to take Cohan to Sheels, a HUGE sport's store. As soon as we walked into the store, there was an awesome arched fish tank that Cohan loved looking into while pointing to all the fishes.

Even though Cohan got sick, we had a great weekend!!! Thanks to my family for an awesome time!!

Party Time

We had two fun celebrations the last two weekends for Avery, who turned two and Macklin, who turned one. Our first celebration started with a "cousins only" party at Chuck E. Cheese. Not sure who was more excited, Scott and Mark, or the kids. I had a really cute outfit on Cohan, but Scott told me it was going to "hinder his ability" on the games. Here are a few of my favorites.

Our next celebration for Mack and Avery was a lake birthday party. The party wasn't until Saturday, but we made a weekend out of it and headed down Friday after work.

Saturday morning, while Cohan napped, we headed out to do some tubing and skiing. I was sore for awhile.

Then Saturday evening, we headed to the "Monster Bash." Macklin and Avery's theme was monsters. It was absolutely adorable!!

Cake time!!! How cute are those cake and cupcakes. Beth and her family made them all!!

We had a great week of celebrations. We love you Avery and Macklin!!