Justin Gets Promoted

Friday was a much anticipated day in the Redfern household.  Justin got promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel!!  Friday morning we woke up with 3 extra house guests (Susan, Christian, and Jeff) and no heat.  Yep, our heat wasn't working.  I called housing and they were able to send a repair guy out pretty quickly.  

Justin wanted to have the ceremony at the WWI museum in downtown KC.  It was a great location and many of his friends and coworkers made it for the promotion.  

 I have a friend that makes cakes.  More specifically she makes vegan cakes so that Will could also enjoy cake!!  She did an amazing job.

 It was great hanging out with Susan.  I miss her!!

 Nana and Papa wanted a picture with the man of the hour!

 Oh Will!

 There were lots of people taking our picture.  I think we are all looking different directions.

 Before the ceremony Mimi and Grandaddy took some of the boys to the top of the tower.  Amazing views of the city.  You can see it was a bit windy.

After coffee and cake we headed back home to get ready to host about 40ish people for dinner.  It was a great day and we are all so very proud of Justin!!

Weston Orchard and Vineyard (lots of pictures!)

Friday the stars aligned and the kids and I both had a day off!!  After Justin and I went to the boys' parent teacher conferences that morning and the kids had played outside with friends, I convinced them to go to an orchard.  We had not done anything "fall-ish" yet this year so it was about time.  The weather could not have been better.

Will really wanted to fire the cannons and shoot rotten apples at the targets.  But they weren't operating while we were there.  Still had to get a picture!

 They all three loved the giant bouncy pillow thing.  I should have brought a book and just parked it on one of the hay bails.  They didn't want to leave!

 The kids are getting so big!

 There was also a little obstacle course.  Eric really enjoyed it as it was suited to kids his age.

 And who doesn't love a zipline!!

 The weight limit was 100lbs so Caroline didn't get to go and Will is so close to the limit he shouldn't have gone either, but did!  It didn't work as well for him as he would have hoped!

 There was also a small corn maze.  We let Eric lead the way.  He didn't make one wrong turn.

 After bouncing again on the big pillow we went up and over a hill to another area with fun stuff to do.  The 'rat race' was so fun.  I laughed so hard watching the kids figure it out.

 Eric was the perfect size for fitting in the rat race tube thing.  He was able to really get that thing moving.  I wish I had gotten a video of when Eric got in with Caroline.  He got going fast enough to spin her out!!
They quickly climbed the hay stack.

 Victorious!

 Then it was on to the corn pit.  Those are all corn kernels!

 He loved the way it felt on his feet.  Oh that face!

 Just like you do in sand, the kids all wanted to be buried in the corn.

 This would have been another good opportunity to have a book to read.  As they played in there for a solid 30 minutes!  Then it was back to the bouncy pillow.

We did finally get around to picking some apples.  Will figured out how to cut the apples on the wire that was holding up the trees.  So we taste tested some of the different varieties!  We came home with a bag full of Empire and Pink Lady apples with requests to make applesauce and apple crisp.  The afternoon was a delight and enjoyed by all!!

Eric

Last week I got the chance to watch a little bit of Eric's soccer game.  Justin is one of his coaches so I don't go to practice or the games.  Caroline and Will also have sports the same nights he has soccer so it's a divide and conquer type of situation on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  But Justin had to go on a quick work trip, so my afternoon/evening looked like this.  

I took Eric to his game, watched for a few minutes, then had to go take Will to football practice, then back to get Eric, then off post again to take Caroline to karate, then picked up dinner for the kids, then back to pick up Will, then picked up Caroline.  Once we all got home I warmed up leftovers for myself and got the bedtime routine started.  DONE!

Eric's team isn't all that great, but he has a blast and loves playing.  Below Eric is doing the throw-in.

 Most nights after Eric goes to bed, Justin and I go walk the dog.  I was tired and didn't want to go walk in the dark by myself so Eric got to cuddle with Miles.  He was so excited.

 Last week Eric went to the fire station.  Neither one of his parents could go but he was ok with that since I went with him last year.  The pictures are from his teacher.

 No matter where we move my very tow-headed boy sticks out!!

My almost teenager

This girl, my first born, is about 2 weeks from being a teenager!  Ack!  When did I get old enough to have a teenager??  

When the weather turned cool Monday she was thrilled to wear her new clothes!  Sweater from Grandma and Grandpa(from our shopping trip while in Branson), jeans from Mimi and Grandaddy(while they were in NYC), and boots from her parents (thanks ThredUP!).  Those boots are the same size shoe I wear BTW! 

 One afternoon she drew this picture of her and Lili.  The cat still makes her extremely happy!

 She is the resident gardner around here.  I can't be trusted with plants.  I can buy them though and if were up to Caroline we would have tons more!!  The budget just isn't big enough for this child's love of plants and seasonal decor.  When I told her this she wants to have create a decorating fund and deposit into it monthly so we can buy more!!
Below she is planting daffodil bulbs (I think).

Science City

Friday I had to work, but the kids and Justin had a day off.   So after he took his car for an oil change they went into downtown KC to Union Station.  The science center was somewhere we had yet to explore but something that was on our list.  It was a perfect opportunity to get out of the house.

They all had a blast and can't wait to go back!

Below they are playing with magnetic sand.

 The sky bike was also a hit.  Eric was juuust too short to ride.

 I love her facial expression in this picture!

After work I went to the commissary, came home to unload the groceries, started a load of laundry, then drove to Panera (30 minutes away) to meet the fam for dinner.  They had a great day and didn't miss me at all!

Throwing it back

So I have been hanging on to these papers since we went on our big camping trip in June!  It's time to clean up and get rid of them so I guess I need to get them in the blog so I don't forget what the kids said about the trip.

On the way home from Denver Justin and I asked the kids a series of questions about our trip.  A sort of AAR (after-action review) if you will.  Most of their answers were predictable and a few surprised us.  

The questions:

1.  List your favorite things about the trip.

C - Southern loop of Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore

W - Yellowstone, Uncle Mike's, Ernies(?), donuts

E - Mt Rushmore, Old Faithful, 

2.  Least favorite

C - all the driving, having to get up super early for Dad's race

W - the long ride, camping cold

E - Glaicer (because his ankles hurt on our hike)

3.  Top National Parks that you've ever been to.

C - Yosemite, Volcanoes, Yellowstone

W - Yellowstone, Volcanoes 

E - Glaicer

4.  Would you rather stay in a hotel or camp?

C- Camp

W- Camp

E - Camp

5.  What part was better than going to Disneyland?

They all said seeing the wildlife.

6.  What 1 thing would you add to camp?

C- a real bed

W- wii u

E- tous (can't read it)

7.What food/dinner would you want to have while camping that we didn't have?

C- pizza

W- pizza

E - 

8.  What activity did you want to do that we didn't get to do?

C- white water raft

W- sleep

E- biking

As you can see we can change/accommodate some of those requests, but not all of them!  I haven't figured out how to bake a pizza over a fire yet and we aren't going to add a real bed to our tent.

Our next scheduled camp adventure is to Arizona at the end of May.  We will camp on our way there (I'm assuming) and stay in a hotel for a week, then camp on our way back.  A good mix of both if you ask me!  We don't plan on doing much while there.  School will have just gotten out and we will know by then if we are moving or not in a few weeks.  So taking a break before a move is always nice.