trip to the joe part 2

While in St. Joseph we had a big to do for Levi's 4th birthday. Granted it was a week or 2 late, but still worthy of a party. Grammy went all out! And Grandma Connie brought the balloon bouquet.

He got a spiderman cake, naturally. It's a given for a four year old boy. Auntie Vera is helping him check it out here.

Uncle Michael gets a gold star yet again. He got Levi his very own Remote control car. Awesome present. Now we just need to have new batteries on hand at all times!

Auntie Vera gave him this big Toy Story book that you can turn separate parts of the page and mess up every one's body parts. This was Levi's initial reaction to the chaos of it all. It's wrong and he couldn't quite handle it until I explained that it's silly.

There were kiddi pools set up and thoroughly enjoyed.

Their cousin Nehemiah was very smitten with Gracie and was determined to entertain her up close and personal. He spent several minutes up in her face like this singing and making faces and Gracie was enjoying it.

This is Levi's little cousin Landon. (Nathan's brother's son) Levi was opening his present from him and Landon was sweetly assisting him. I like how similar they look even from the back. Both shirtless with swim trunks, pale white and blond.

Grandma Connie with all her grandchildren. Levi (4) Landon (21 months) Gracie (4 months) Brigham (3 weeks)

Eventually those nice pools were soiled by continual trips with buckets from the sandbox. Apparently brown water was just too inviting to resist for Xander.

We decided to take the cake and song outside to avoid any frosting of the couches. Levi sat on that table and protected his cake from curious onlookers.

Everyone is singing happy birthday to him. He just sat on the table with a look of wonder and a small smirk on his face looking around to each face. He's never had a big family birthday party before. I think he felt pretty special.

Gracie Bella made 5 months while we were on our trip. She's doing plenty of new things now. While we were in St. Joe she pretty much just stared at all the new faces and smiled most of the day. When we got home and she got back into her normal world she started learning some stuff. She began rolling over about 2 days after we got home. She started balancing better when propped up by pillows and now she is so close to being able to sit on her. She sits just fine on beds. But when the surface is hard like the floor, or too soft and tilted like a couch she topples over shortly. But she is very close to being a sitting girl. She also has two teeth coming out on the bottom. Like Levi always did, she's serving double sentences with her teething. It makes a happy girl cranky sometimes, (that could refer to either Gracie or myself) but hopefully it'll be over soon and for a while.

I have about a trillion pictures of my uncle Lou kissing my cheek this exact way throughout my years, and now we have one with my daughter. Very cute.

Chillin' with Uncimal Gabe. I think her amused face is due to her imagining what it would be like to get caught in that crazy beard.

This is what the three of us did about 5 minutes after everyone left the day long bday celebration.

In the middle of our trip we took a drive to Great Grandad's house. It was a quiet afternoon with lunch and sitting by the pond outside. I'm glad Grandad got to have some one on one time with the kids. It's hard to get that when everyone is together.

He was in the Navy back in the day and he always talks about it with Nathan (and me when Nathan is not there) This is the first time I saw his uniform; it was cute.

On my birthday Morgan asked me (and the kids) to run some errands with her. The whole reason we went to Missouri was for her wedding and I tried to do as much as I could with her while I was there. We drove to KC to pick up her reception dress; of course she tried it on for me.

Levi had to have his moment on the platform in front of the mirror.

Morgan told me she needed to stop by a restaurant and pick up something she had previously left there. I told her we would just wait in the car because both the kids were cranky. She said, 'oh I thought we could all run in real fast. They have balloons and stuff for kids so it would be nice to see.' I replied with, 'umm...I think we'll just wait here.' she hesitated and said, "umm...I hoped we could have dinner real quick. They're fast." I politely gave in and assured her it was fine. Then as we turn the corner to be seated inside I see a table full of Vera and kids, my mom and my aunt Lora waiting to surprise me for my birthday. I was indeed surprised. I thought my mom was out of town, and I had been texting with my aunt all day about driving down to watch a show with me that night. I was caught off guard completely. And it was a lovely little party with gifts and dessert and I've never had a surprise one before. Thanks ladies...and Faron who was there for a short time.

yes, my birthday tiara that I had to share with my son...hmmmmm

speaking of Levi dressing up, here are a few photos of his different costumes throughout our trip. Those rain boots are a present from my mom; for me of course.

This happened while Auntie Vera was babysitting as I did wedding things. She and grammy and Pop all did their parts in watching my chillins so I could be there for my best friend in all her wedding fun. I'm very grateful they were willing to help me out since Nathan couldn't come with us after all the planning.

Me and Miss Morgan. Best friends for 20 years! She always tells me "I remember when you were taller than me."

Now she's a wifey and moving to Chicago soon. And I'm a wifey of nearly seven years and living all over creation. I pray that someday we'll live in the same area and live it up old school style.

On our last evening in St. Joe Grandma has a family bbq at her house. It was lots of fun and just one more chance to see everyone and soak up all the attention. I love Nathan's Grandma in the background of this picture. She's so sweet and every time I looked over at her she was just staring at Levi or Gracie with that little smile on her face. I wanted to capture it and I'm glad I did.

Gracie is tiny but she looks almost as big as Grandma Dorothy here! This is a great picture to have too. I know Nathan hopes to get to visit with his Grandma soon and I'm glad she got to visit with our kids.

Uncle Michael lit up a bonfire that night and these two boys were precious as they watched it.

They're darling little cousins

Uncle Naaman looks enough like Papa to trust in a hurling yourself off a picnic table game.

This little cutie is Brigham, the newest Shalz cousin. Anytime we visit, our kids have an abudance of cousins to choose from in all sorts of ages. It's a special trip whenever we go. Levi and Gracie do miss out on daily happenings with grandparents and cousins/ aunts and uncles. But it's such a big ta do everytime they see everyone. They get to be the superstars. That's a very fun position to be in as well.

So that was pretty much our trip. Lots of visiting family, several parties/gatherings. Busy busy busy but lots of memories captured and saved.