Our Trip To E-I-E-I-O

Ethan calls any farm or farm-like place "E-I-E-I-O" (it can also mean McDonalds- you know Old McDonald had a farm and as far as Ethan is concerned he also had one of the largest fast food chains in the world). We took our last vacation of the summer this last weekend to the Haws and Myers farms. Both of Andrew's grandparents have dairy farms in New Plymouth and Emmett, Idaho. So here are the highlights in no particular order:

-The batteries in the camera died the first day we were there so there are not many pictures to chronicle our adventures (I'm really sad about it)
-Lots and lots of cows - I think somewhere around 300 or 400 - and the accompanying smell and poop
-A couple horse rides - Ethan enjoyed a couple rides, Andrew and I tried to ride a horse, but I think it was leading us more than us leading it
-Hours and hours of trampoline jumping - both farms had trampolines and you couldn't keep Ethan away from them
-Ethan wearing Great-grandpa Myers' hat - shown below
-A new tooth- Hudson's first
-Boating with wakeboarding and tubing
-I don't think you can fully appreciate this highlight unless you have been to the Haws farm, but I know Steph will know and appreciate it - Late night jam sessions with Andrew and Dave on the saxophones, Great-grandma Haws on the piano and Great-grandpa Haws on the harmonica
-Four-wheeler rides - Andrew and Ethan went without me (they snuck away), and even Great-grandpa Haws and Ethan went for a ride
-Sleeping family-style: Andrew, Ethan, Hudson, and I all shared the same bed which really means Ethan and Hudson slept good, but Andrew and I didn't sleep well with elbows, heads, knees, feet and hands in our faces
-A couple of mice - we saw some running randomly around the Myers house
-Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story viewings
- No naps by Ethan or Hudson (they thought there was too much to see and do)
- Driving through the night - good for kids, bad for adults
- A lost cell phone - thanks to honest nice people who turned it into customer service at Walmart it was not a permanent loss
- Milk straight from the cow
- Lots of flies and mosquitos
-A new Cars Mack toy, kid scissors, and sippee cups - thanks Grandma and Grandpa!
-Lots of playtime with cousins (I don't really know what the relation of Andrew's cousins' kids to Ethan is so we'll just call them cousins)
-A trip to Costco - the samples will never ever get old with me
-Amazing food - tri-tip steak, brownies, chocolate-zucchini cake, chocolate buttermilk cake, mandarin chicken, tacos, hamburgers, ice cream, peaches, garden tomatoes, diet pepsi, pancakes, eggs, bacon - everything tastes a hundred times better when someone else makes it
- Here's my only emotional input right here...I think I have gotten a little more emotional now that we have two kids....I don't think I really felt like a "mom" until about 3 months after Hudson was born. Before that I think I felt like an individual who just had a couple of boys, but now I feel more like a mom of two boys who also happens to be me- I don't know if that makes any sense. But, I catch myself having more and more moments with my boys that I wish I could just freeze and keep in my memory- the kind that I know pictures wouldn't capture. I have the most horrible memory so I enjoy the moments and try my best to remember them, but having trips like this I think that we have a million little moments that we will never have again....like watching Andrew's grandpa, his dad, and Andrew playing marbles with Ethan playing next to the table, Ethan and Hudson playing in the grass together in the sun with Andrew, his parents, and I, holding Hudson while he is completely crashed and his hair is all spiky, and so on and so on.......I know I am going to be awfully sad when I know we have had our last child and I won't get to have more moments like that with babies and toddlers like Ethan and Hudson.