VACATION!

We've been talking about it for months and now our vacation week has come and gone so quickly! We had a great time spending the week with Scott's family at the Lake of the Ozarks. Saturday evening the boys got right down to business and caught some fish and that trend continued throughout the first half of the week. Many days were spent swimming, fishing, and playing with cousins. We had a special day of mini golf with Uncle Matt, Aunt Jen, Cole and Mya. And there was even a treasure hunt. Cole found an old bottle that had washed ashore with a treasure map inside and the 4 kids (along with 2 more "big kids") went on a hunt. They found quarters and dimes marked with red x's and then a big X with four treasure boxes under it. They had so much fun and Luke walked around all day saying Yo Ho Ho, Mateys! After relaxing by the lake we ended our vacation at Busch Stadium where I surprised Scott by having his entire immediate family meet us at the game. There were 11 of us in all and it was a great time. Thanks, Jen and Matt for helping me get it all together. All in all it was a great week. It was mostly wonderful due to my live in nanny who spend almost two weeks with her two nephews. WE LOVE YOU AUNT LYDIA! Thanks for putting up with us. You truly made it a great trip!

Here are the snapshots from our trip...

Bickel Camp

I'm so glad we decided to sneak up to Michigan for at least one day of Bickel Camp. It was a great time as always. The boys had a blast playing with cousins, and second cousins and first cousins once removed and of course Great Uncles. I loved catching up with all my cousins, the newly married and the new parents (Nicole). It was especially great to help celebrate Grandma and Grandpa's 60th wedding anniversary. Everyone's songs were great. I think they really captured the last 6 decades. Of course the part I will cerish was our closing devotions when Grandpa took the opportunity to remind his family (of 60+ members) to keep our eyes on Jesus. It reminds me how blessed I am to have my amazing Christian family. I'm excited to share it all with my own family, especially my boys.

Here are the pictures to highlight our great time in Hartland.

Best Week Ever

So Scott's 30th birthday really turned out great. If I could take credit for it...I would! Here's how our week in STL went...
Monday - Scott went fishing with his little brother and caught TONS of fish. Came back bright red but loved every hour out there.
Tuesday - Zoo with the boys. Both boys were very good. We saw monkeys (Ben's favorite) and "nakes" (Luke's favorite?) It wasn't very hot that week so we didn't sweat to death walking around the zoo.
Wednesday - The whole fam was together for Scott's steak dinner. Scott got Cardinal tickets for a game next weekend. It was a great night to be outside and everyone was having a great time until...Luke was more focused on the lightning bug he was trying to catch than the 4 foot drop on to concrete below him. He ended up with a fairly good sized goose egg and his daddy stressed out and kept asking if we should take him to the ER. But Luke was a brave kid and the swelling was gone by the next afternoon so it was alright. He's been using a lot more words lately so we think he might have shook something loose. =P
Thursday - Grant's farm with Shawn, Anna, (and Baby D). Luke loved riding the "train" and he made us wait until he had pet every baby goat (totally Uncle Josh's influence!).
Friday - We were scheduled to leave in the afternoon...until Scott found out his favorite band of all time was playing a FREE concert on the riverfront in STL. We headed down there with Jen, Matt, and Cole. We met Jeff and Sally and Shawn and Anna (and Baby D). It was nice and laid back and aside from the very long line to get back on the Metro it was a great time.
All in all, Scott couldn't have fit anymore of his favorite things into the week, so I hope he feels like we celebrated his 30 years!

"Wa Wa Paw"

Luke and Ben traveled to Noah's Ark in the Dells with Grandma during my last day of vbs. Here's a little footage of the fun they had without their parents...

And some pictures...

Thanks for letting the boys have so much fun at the "Wa Wa Paw" with you guys! I'm sure we'll plan another trip for next year!

How can I have s'more when I haven't had any yet?

Last Friday we had a group of friends over for our annual "Matteson Fest" bar-b-que. It was a blast. We even had Grandpa and Grandma J and Lydia and Kurt* join us. (*he sat inside and watched game 7 of stanley cup) We ended our cook out with s'mores. I was impressed that everyone made at least one. And Luke made a few. The boys had fun eating them although I'm pretty sure Ben may still have pieces of marshmallow on him.

There's no way Mom meant for me to have this much sugar...what's the catch?

Did I get any on me?

Cheese!

Feeling the sugar buzz

Trip to STL

We took off right after school got out Friday morning and drove to St. Charles. Friday evening we spent at Jen and Matt's house to "wa wa in Cole, Wall-e" (swim in Cole's pool in Wall-e trunks)

Aunt Jen and Uncle Matt fed us hot dogs, brats, and cupcakes!

Luke LOVED being able to follow his cousin around and try to be a big boy, just like Cole.

Ben passed out on their living room floor before we could get the boys back to Grandma's for bed.

Saturday was full of tractor riding, putting our feet up to watch cartoons and playing at Stacey's house for Dan and Erin's graduation party.


Luke and Ben did some tractor riding on Sunday as well.

AND THEN....Luke and I tagged along with Scott and his cousins, Dan and Katie to a CARDINAL GAME! It was Luke's first time at Busch and he loved every second of it. We had the sweetest seats I've ever sat in for a MLB game (third row, ya know, where they still use letters for the rows instead of numbers). Everything was exciting, watching the team warm up, watching the dog catch frisbees on the field, seeing EVERY Cardinal logo as we walked around. Grandma told him to pick out something at the Cardinal store and bring something back for Ben. Luke carefully picked out a bat and ball set for himself and a glove and ball set for Ben. The glove came in very handy as he played shadowball with himself throughout the first 4 innings.

He tried to follow his daddy's example on how to behave at a game even during the national anthem.

Scott and I both enjoyed watching Luke's sense of wonder throughout the afternoon and even though the Cardinals lost (to the Rockies ={ ) Luke gave the whole experience two thumbs up.

Playgrounds, Parties, School, and BIG Slides

We start with Saturday when the boys watched Scott cut the grass

Then we went to a graduation party where Scott and Luke jumped

On Sunday we went to the park to play ball!

And go down the big slide

On Monday it was back to work

(Luke found one of Scott's old name badges and set up his own tutoring session for Ben)

On Wednesday we went to the school picnic where Luke decided the big blow up slide was too much so he opted for the playground until...

Ben went down the slide with Scott

Then Luke needed to go...and he went about a dozen times with a bunch of sweet 6th grade girls

The school picnic isn't complete without the traditional snow cone

Ben was upset that Luke had the spoon, so he went in to grab what he could.

Then Luke suckered some 8th grade girls to take him in the obstacle course. He kept stopping to get nervous but they plugged along and made it through, up and

over!