The best part about summer is...

EVERYTHING!

We have been keeping busy by hanging out at the pool,

playing outside,

watching jet ski and boat competitions,

and going to the zoo. Why doesn't summer last a couple more months?

IOCR

This past weekend I headed down south to see Nick. He was moving from one phase of OCS into the next and they had a ceremony for them and then they got the weekend off. I drove down with a friend and this was our beautiful morning view as we drove.

As we waited for the ceremony to start we got to hang out with this little guy. 

This is Nick declaring that he was branching Artillery  That means when he goes to his specialty school it will be for Artillery as an Artillery officer.

Basically he will be shooting this thing

We had a very nice relaxing weekend. I even learned some Army tactics if I were in the field and going to attack someone

Which I learned by way of laid out snack mix

Nick took me on a nice date to dinner and then a walk along the river. There were tons of turtles sunbathing on the rocks. Brayden would have thought it was cool to see them all

We ran across a store called Boo's. We thought it was cool but Brayden thought I should immediately bring him back there so he could see it.

The weekend went by way to fast, but it helped knowing that the next time I got to see Nick he would be coming home.

Brayden at the end of 3

Brayden seems to be growing up so fast all of a sudden. Everyday he picks up something new weather it be a mannerism or a saying, but he continually amazes me with what he knows and notices. I am looking forward to Nick coming home in a month and a half to see how much he thinks Brayden has changed since he left back in March.

Brayden has very little interest in sitting still to do anything. When he does sit still he likes to color and is getting good at staying in the lines. He usually only colors for a few minuets before he moves on. He enjoys drawing pictures of people. The one below is a picture of Nick, Brayden and I all holding hands. He did it out on the driveway with chalk one day.

 Brayden is very good with numbers. He loves to count things and ask how many of something there is. He is also getting good at looking at groups of objects and just telling you how many there are without counting them. He is also getting good at combing things to get a total. If you have two piles of an object he can tell you how many you have total, or he will use his fingers to count. I guess that is one of the perks of having a math teacher for a mother, I am already making him learn how to add.

With letters, Brayden can recognize most of the upper case letters. He knows how to spell his name and he can write it. He can write most of the uppercase letters as well, but sometimes he needs to look at one to remember how to draw it. Below is him writing his name in chalk. The B is hidden a little in the shade, but then it goes, R A D Y (he forgot the E so that is why it is below the rest) n.

His favorite things right now are playing outside and trucks. He loves to do anything outside, but he really likes to play in the sand box with his trucks. He is always making a road or a building or tearing something down "demo-lies-ing it" he says.

He is such a great kid. He can go from being your best friend in the world to throwing toys at you in an instant though. He is a very rough kid and I hope he calms down a little before he has to start school or we will be getting a lot of calls home I think. I can't wait to see what the next year brings!

It's a party

Bryaden is super into trucks these days. He knows all the different kinds of dump truck and will call them by the correct name. He will also spend hours watching "Mighty Machines" if I would let him. So what better of a cake to have for his birthday than a construction cake!

Brayden even helped me make the cake! The best part of the cake aside from getting to finally eat it after looking at it all day, was the inside of the cake.

There were also present at Boo's birthday. He got some awesome new outfits and some great toys (trucks of course)

Waiting to open presents...trying so hard to be patient

And as soon as the presents were opened he went for the cake! I think he really just wanted the trucks off the cake.

At his 4 year well check, Brayden was 42 inches tall and weighs 41 pounds. We also have a follow up appointment in a few weeks to find out about getting tubes put in his ears since he tends to get about 4 ear infections a year. Other than that he is doing well and growing up so fast!



Cabin Time

Spending time up at the cabin is so much fun with Brayden becasue he gets to play outside all day long and run around to his hearts content. This weekend he went tubing for the first time this summer. He went on a tube with Rich. They also played in the lake and had a bonfire. I think the highlight was the bonfire. Brayden had been looking forward to it for the whole week! 

He even got to roast his own marshmellows and make smores with them. he thought that was great!

There were also sparklers and firworks to be done. Last year Brayden was not a fan of sparklers, but he seems to really like them this year.

It's a date

Brayden looked at me the other night and said "Mom, let's just me and you go on a date". So on a date we went. We went for a bike ride.

And we rode all around town before we ended up at what Brayden calls the "secret park". It is hidden in a wooded area.

At the park we climbed and went down the slide and dug in the dirt for an hour before we finally rode back home.

Thanks for the fun date Boo!

NIck's Graduation

After 10 weeks we finally got to go see Nick at Basic for his graduation. We were so excited! Brayden had been looking forward to this for quite some time. So we headed to the airport and waited for our flight. When we finally boarded our plane and took off Brayden was so good! He looked out the window and exclaimed " I can see the whole world up here". He was so good on both of our flights out there. We ended up getting in much later than we planned on but he was still a  trooper! We got to our hotel in South Carolina at about 5:30 am. We left MN at 4 pm!

Wednesday was Family day, so the soldiers did a presentation and the Battalion Commander spoke. After that we finally got to see Nick! I am not sure which one was happier to see the other.

We got to spend the whole day with Nick on base, so we took Brayden to the park to play for a little bit. Then Nick gave us a tour of base and we just hung out for the rest of the day.

Part of our tour went by the museum on base. Brayden wanted to stop and look so we did. Here he is looking at one of the guns and wanting to know if daddy shot this one.

He was in awe of the big tanks. All he wanted to do was go outside and look at them.

This is my favorite picture of the whole trip. Brayden just wanted Nick to carry him.

Thursday was the actual graduation. We got there early to make sure we got good seats. That left a lot of time for taking pictures and entertaining Brayden. Luckily, he was deep in thought for part of the time.

He was very cuddly the whole time we were waiting he wanted to be right up in my face and with me.

I did pawn him off to Grandma for a few minutes though.

This is the whole battalion

The soldiers all had to walk past the bleachers one final time. Nick is in the second row from the left and the 3rd one back.

Brayden and Nick after the graduation

As soon as graduation was over, Nick checked out and wanted to leave. We got to drive him to his next location but got to spend a few days with him in between. On our drive to Georgia, Brayden fell asleep in the car. He is all boy (notice the placement of his right hand)

Once we got to our hotel in Georgia there was about a 10 minute turn around time from getting out of the car and into the pool. Makes us feel like we are home in Vegas again! Brayden was really excited that he could touch the bottom of the pool and keep his head above the water.

We went out on Thursday night for a nice dinner as a celebration.

On Friday, Brayden and Robin flew back to Minnesota, so we had a nice breakfast before driving to Atlanta to bring them to the airport.

We stopped for lunch and to let Brayden run off some energy before he had to get on a plane. He loved being able to run and play with Dad again.

It was nice to have our little family all back together again for a few days.

After dropping them off at the airport, Nick and I continued on our way to the base. He didn't have to be there until Sunday, so him and I got to spend the weekend together. On Saturday morning I made him come running with me. It was beautiful! We ran along the Chattahoochee River and through this cool bridge.

The view was spectacular and it made me excited to run Grandma's in a  few weeks!

Other than running though, we just hung out and got Nick repacked up for OCS

It was sad to have to drop him back off, but he gets to come home in 12 weeks. The end is in sight and it cannot come fast enough. We miss having him around, but we are so proud of him and all that he is doing!