Better late than never

Merry Christmas Happy New Year? (At least I am early for that one!)

I promised to hold the boys down with force if necessary, trick them into looking in the general direction of the camera and sitting next to each other without punching, pushing or elbowing each other.  It’s getting tougher to accomplish each year-bribes and “please do it for mom” don’t work anymore.  It’s so much easier to take pictures of other people’s kids.

Now only the mothers here will care but I have to share a mom frustration. I could tell you “please ignore the tear in Braxton’s shirt” but most moms have already seen it and everyone else would never notice it. It’s a mom curse I guess. Neither of my boys will EVER wear a collared shirt. The minute you suggest it they writhe on the floor as if in pain. I warned them weeks in advance that they would be expected to wear one on Christmas because Steve’s parents were coming and we would be taking pictures. It really is akin to being set afire to them. So imagine my surprise when Braxton BEGS to wear his brand new red collared shirt to school the Friday before Christmas break. This is the same boy who has ruined most of his shirts with paint and markers but he just keeps begging and promising that there are no crafts scheduled that day and in a moment of weakness I give in. He comes home PROUDLY that afternoon and shows me that there is no paint on his shirt, only a tiny hole! I could have strangled him. So now as an outsider looking at this picture I see two pretty handsome men but as a mom all I will ever notice is that stinking hole in Braxton’s shirt!  :(

Store bought Christmas goodness

 

 

 

 

I love these

do you?

we love homemade cookies in our house too

but there is just something about these!

A birthday Celebration

In honor of Braxton’s 12th birthday we spent part of our weekend at the Waterpark of America in Minneapolis, MN. It is the largest indoor waterpark in the U.S. It is 70,000 sq. ft in size and one of its slide towers is nearly 10 stories tall. As a parent all you need to know is that it is very loud. There are three body slides, two tube slides and a family slide.

As you can see, the slides all curve in and out of the building.

There is a wave pool and a lazy river (which believe it or not, is where the boys spent a heck of a lot of time).

here is the birthday boy

here is Cayden and Brandon (Brandon is a good friend of both Braxton and Cayden and we invited him to join us this weekend.)

here is a view of some of the smaller slides

I think the coolest ride at the park is the Flowrider…here it is empty.

The flow rider is a shallow but very fast moving sheet of water, moving from 30–35 miles per hour, that you surf or boogie board/knee board on.

Here is Cayden trying it out. It is just like the waves-you never know which way you are going to be tossed.

The object is to get to your knees and ride. This is just about when he decided to try and push up…

almost there…up on one knee…

WIPEOUT!

Here is Braxton giving it the college try.

Braxton wasn’t nearly committed to actually getting to his knees. He just had a lot of fun riding the waves on his stomach.

 

Well we had a ton of fun and I wish I had the pictures to prove it but the lighting was terrible and my subjects were even worse (especially Braxton). The minute I picked up my camera the boys disappeared under the water or around a corner every time. You’ll just have to trust me, he is another year handsome and another year ornery.