Tate and the mirror

Tate's favorite thing to do in the room was look at himself in the mirror. He laughed at himself, talked to himself, made faces at himself. It was pretty funny...and cute.

It was a fun, fantastic, family weekend.
Much needed.
Now back to reality.

jumping in

I could not get any good pictures in the regular pool area. This one is terrible quality, but I couldn't resist. Tate was LOVING jumping in to Daddy!

Como Zoo

It was free!

Admission by voluntary donation.

And amazing.

And fun.

Can't believe it was free!

Tate loved all the primates and LOVED the tiger! He has lately been a fan of tigers. It's pretty cute.

And seriously, the orangutans were amazing and so were the gorillas. I've never been to a zoo that had animals as amazing to me! I could have stood there and watched them the whole time! There was a super cute baby one that the mom just drug around. You can see it in the video below.

SURPRISED!

A fun weekend...

We arrived at the hotel/water park around 5 pm on Friday. We checked in to our room and immediately headed to the water park. Tate was a little nervous...there was lots of noise, water shooting unexpectedly out of random places, kids running around screaming...you know, the usual water park stuff. Tate tends to get scared easily though, so he didn't like it very much at first. Sean was like a kid in the candy store though going down the super huge, fast waterslides. Tate warmed up to the water park on Saturday and had a great time. Sorry for the lack of pictures...I was scared my camera would get wet or stolen, so I didn't get it back out or bring it back the next day.

It was a HUGE water park. We spent most of our time on one of the 6 waterslides, in the lazy river or just in the zero depth pool splashing and playing.

This is my husband...

We're in Minneapolis, leaving our hotel to go get some lunch and then go to the zoo.

Jennie: "Honey, let's go somewhere fun and different for lunch."

Sean: "What do you mean?"

Jennie: "Well, you know...some place that we can't go to in Des Moines."

Sean: "Um, okay...I was actually thinking we should just go somewhere fast so that we can get to the zoo quicker."

Jennie: "Oh, I guess we could do that too."

After having driven around for quite some time, Sean sees a White Castle in the distance...

Sean: "OH LOOK White Castle, I've never had White Castle before!!!"

Jennie: "I guess that's fine."

After eating our gourmet White Castles (Sean ate 6...and fries....and chicken rings)...

Sean: "See honey, I think this satisfied both of us!"

Um, ya, not so much!

And We're Off!

I am off work in 15 minutes. Sean and Tate will be picking me up and we'll leave right from here.

I. am. so. excited!!!!!

Tate and I are both not 100% as far as our health goes, but something tells me that a fun family weekend and an exciting water park will overshadow any congestion and coughing we have! At least I hope so! Tate's been doing much better at night than me. I have had a rough time sleeping without having cough fits. No fun.

I have butterflies just thinking about a whole weekend of family fun!

No work. No school. No stress.

Much needed.

Can't wait to post all about it and show you lots of fun pictures when we return!

Have a great weekend!!!

Just Can't Shake It

This cold that is. I came down with a fever last night and just felt terrible. I went to bed early, hardly slept, woke up feeling equally as miserable and just want to curl up in a ball and sleep. I am attempting to make it through the work day. It may be hard.

I just want to feel better for our fun, family weekend! And poor Tater isn't well either. He has such an awful cough, but at least the fever has managed to stay away. Whew!

Catch Up

My "Girls Weekend" was fabulous. The concert was amazing, we had great conversation and stayed up WAY too late. I am sick. I felt TERRIBLE on the drive home and when I got home, I slept all afternoon and evening. I was feeling pretty awful! Then, Tate caught the bug. UGH! He has a terrible cough and is just not feeling well at all. He has been waking up coughing so bad and choking on phlegm. It's so sad. And we are TIRED!

It's been tough for us this past few days. I am not going to elaborate. None of use are feeling well...emotionally, mentally, physically. We would appreciate prayer.

We need some family time. We've never gotten it before. Ever! Since Tate was born, we have not once gone some place just the 3 of us, alone, for no reason. We are getting it this weekend. We're taking a weekend trip...alone! I CANNOT WAIT!!!!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Even Mommies! SO, I am leaving for my "girls weekend" in 3 hours!!! Sara, Gretchen (who I've never met in "real life" yet, but am blog friends with) and I will be going to dinner, the Mercy Me concert and then back to Gretchen's in Cedar Rapids for a sleepover! It won't officially be a girls weekend in 3 hours though because Tate will be with us for the drive to Cedar Rapids. I will then drop him off for a day and night of fun with his Aunt Sara, Uncle Travis and cousin Tyler. Then MY girls weekend begins! Sean will be staying home and studying all weekend because he has his finals next week! So here's to a good night with the girls!

I knew I'd seen this picture before!

Kayla at 1...

Leah at 9 months...

Sunglasses

Happy Easter

We're silly...

A little outdoor activity...

We played a little golf, a little baseball and a little Tag. When Brigg hit a long one, Sean decided he'd make a diving catch...right into a thorn bush. Seriously. He couldn't get out, he got all scratched up by thorns and the whole thing was just a little too dramatic for a back yard baseball game. And funny...it was funny.

And here is Sean in the thorn bush.

Tate's1st time dying eggs...

At first, when the other kids were dying their eggs, Tate didn't want to join in. After they were done, he decided he wanted to give it a go. He liked it and thought it was so cool! He kept wanting to lift his eggs out and check them. He made quite the mess, but it was fun for him.

Nana and Papa with their Grandkids...

Before church Saturday night, we had a photo shoot. This is the best we could do. Tate was not terribly cooperative. I thought this one was cute though.

The Hunt

The kids had a BLAST on the Easter Egg Hunt. It was so fun watching them!

The Easter Bunny Visited!

All the kids were so excited...all except for Tate. He was scared of the Easter Bunny. He did okay though. He insisted on Sean holding him the whole time though, so no pictures were able to be taken of just all the kids and the Easter Bunny. Oh well...maybe next year. I got some cute ones of the other kids with the Easter Bunny though!

Happy 1st Birthday, Kayla!!!

We cannot believe that Kayla is 1!!! It seems like just yesterday she was born!

We love you so much, Kayla!
We are so happy we were able to celebrate your 1st birthday with you!

Kayla's Birthday Party

Kayla's 1st birthday party was on Saturday. We had so much fun. There were lots of kids, delicious food and we had a super fun Easter Egg hunt! Tate had a blast!


All the kids before the hunt...The Peakin cousins before the hunt...

Tate is all his Easter Egg Hunt excitement...

This was a common picture this weekend...lot's of chocolate was eaten by this little man...

More chocolate eating with his cousin, Tyler...

The Peakins

I love these pictures of Sean's brother's family...

Kayla and her cake...

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!