15-Year Class Reunion, Memorial Golfing, and Vacation

Two weeks worth of catching up to do...

Last weekend Matt and I had our 15-year class reunion. It was on Friday evening at the Country Club. Out of our 31 classmates, 11 of us were in attendance. We had a great time looking through our elementary yearbooks and reminiscing. The steak dinner was excellent! Here is a picture of the group...I don't think we've aged at all! :)

Class of 1995

High school sweethearts!

Saturday was the 3rd annual Shane Sweeney memorial golf tournament. He was our classmate who passed away 2 1/2 years ago. There was a great turnout, the weather was gorgeous, and a fun time was had by all! I rode around on a golf cart with some of my classmates and ate way too much food!

Kim and I at the tournament

Saturday the boys headed to the Ozarks with Craig, Keeta, Carroll, Leann, and Marcy. We stayed back to go to the races, then were heading that way Sunday morning. Chris got 3rd that night, and we got back to KC about 1:30 a.m. Our intentions were to do laundry and pack, and leave by 7:00 the next morning. Well, that didn't get done...we were tired! So we went to sleep and got left about 9:30. It rained on us for quite awhile, so hard in fact that we had to go pretty slow. When we arrived, everyone was eating some lunch, so it was good timing. Our cabin was okay...not quite what it looked like in the brochure, but it worked for us! By the time we got there, the boys had already been in the lake and the pool and were having a great time. We were definitely ready to spend some quality time on the lake!

Mason reading Green Eggs and Ham

Mason picking on Zane while he was asleep...sweet revenge!

This summer the boys have been lazy...sleeping in anywhere from 8-10:00! On vacation, Zane was up and going by 7:30 at the latest every morning! I think he was afraid he would miss out on some boating action if he slept any longer! He spent a lot of time swimming in the lake, pool, and riding on the boat. He loved swimming in the lake with Marcy!

Zane and Marcy swimming in the lake

Zane & Matt driving the boat
So relaxing...
Mason & Matt driving the boat

Last summer we kept trying to get Zane to ride the tube, and he wouldn't. This year he was all over it! He wanted to take a ride with everyone, and did with almost all of us! It was fun for Matt and I to ride with him together! After riding in the tube, he made a list of all of the people he rode with. It was cute! He was asking me how to spell everyone's name so he could "add them to his list."

Zane & Papa tubing

Mason figured out he had pockets...studying the lake!

Little lion all wrapped up...

Sunday evening, I noticed Mason felt hot. He had a temperature, so we gave him some ibuprofen. Once it kicked in, he seemed to be better, but each day the fever would spike and you could just tell he didn't feel well and wasn't acting like himself. On Tuesday we decided we'd go-cart. You can tell by the next pictures just how he felt, but as soon as he saw us getting in the go-carts, he wanted in! He rode with Matt, but didn't fully enjoy them as he was bounced around with a fever!

Zane riding a kiddie cart

"Get away from me"

Mason and Matt

Wednesday was my birthday and I was excited to be at the lake to celebrate! Unfortunately that morning Mason woke up hot again, it was the 4th day in a row, so we ended up taking him to urgent care. In true fashion, when we got there, his ibuprofen had kicked in, so he was laughing, smiling, eating, etc...but we did find out that he had an ear infection, so we got an antibiotic for him. Whew, a reason for the fever, and relief in sight... While we were picking up his medicine, Matt bought me some beautiful roses, which decorated our cabin very nicely for the remainder of the week! For dinner we boated to a restaurant that also has a beach. It was so neat! Mason wasn't much of a fan of the boat ride (he hates wearing a life jacket) so it wasn't much fun getting there and leaving, but we had a nice dinner, played some video games, and swam on the beach. We could go there every day and not get bored! That night, I enjoyed strawberry pie that Keeta made for me...YUM!!!

Didn't have corn holders...so we made forks work!

Thursday they were calling for rain, so we decided that would be a great day to head to Dogpatch, an area full of shopping and games. We visited our favorites...the shirt shop, fudge shop, and arcade.

Mason squirting Papa and Grandma with a water gun!

Just when we thought Mason was getting better, we were proven wrong. He was completely out-of-sorts...only wanted "Mama" to hold him, clung to me, threw himself on the floor crying, wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink, whined...you name it! I really think he just didn't feel good and was also in a strange place, so that didn't make things any better for him! He is always such a happy, playful kid, and didn't want to do much of anything other than cry and have us hold him and walk around outside. We couldn't even get him to want to swim in the pool!

Mason, Matt, & Zane in the pool

Zane "diving"

Of course we had to make S'Mores a couple of times...yummy! Zane enjoyed helping Matt get the fire going for it.

Zane helping the fire by blowing air on it...


S'More time!

Zane explaining the hand signals he made up for when he's tubing...

Before going to bed Thursday night, I went on the deck to lay our wet towels out to dry, and this greeted me...I was scared to death! Matt walked right out on the deck and took this picture, I could never have done that!

Well hello friend...NOT!

Thursday night was ROUGH! Mason woke up about 2:00 and was up until 4:00 and then was restless for the remainder of the "night." He was SCREAMING! I didn't know what to do...everywhere I thought of taking him would wake everyone else up...so I just stayed put and tried to keep him quiet. Then at 6:00 I ended up walking around outside with him just to keep him quiet. I couldn't imagine he wasn't feeling better, he had been on medicine for a couple of days at that point...and started worrying that something else was wrong. Friday we wanted to go back to the beach, but I was so tired from being up all night that I stayed at the cabin with Mason. He ended up sleeping for 3 hours, but woke up crying and fussy. He was really inconsolable and I was getting worn out and felt bad that I couldn't do anything to make him happy. By the time they all got back from the beach, I was ready to pack up and go home! Matt had rented a jet-ski, so we did that for an hour, then tried to go to the pool, but Mason wanted nothing to do with that...so we ended up packing our things and headed for home.

We got home late and ate a little bit before putting the boys to bed. I could tell that they were both glad to see their own house, toys, and beds. Mason slept like a log, only fussing once in the night, and woke up his regular old self! I was thrilled! We were starting to think we should take him back to our doctor. I decided that it probably wouldn't be good to travel another 2 hours to Iowa and have Mason sleeping another new place...so Matt headed there and the boys and I stayed home. They played and played and played all day and we had fun! I was so glad to see Mason back to his normal happy self! It was a complete 180 for him! Matt ended up not coming home until Sunday. It felt weird to be home for a weekend, I kind of feel like it's halfway through the week already!

I'd love to have a "do-0ver" for vacation...with a healthy Mason, but even though he didn't have much fun, it was a great time with family! When I didn't have a kid clinging to me, I did enjoy relaxing on the water! Until next year...

Zane-isms

• Whenever we go on vacation with Matt's grandparents, she always brings presents for each day for the boys. One day she gave them toy boats that they could play with in the water. Zane was walking with her and said, "Grandma, do I get to keep that boat?" She said yeah and he said, "You mean I get to take it to my house and you're not taking it to your house?" She said yeah, she gave it to him. He said, "I never dreamed of that!"
• Saturday we went to Target and I told Zane he could get a new toy. He found a semi-truck that he's been wanting, and he asked if he could have it. I noticed it was marked down on clearance, so I said yeah he could. He was a little dumbstruck because he's been asking for it for awhile, so he didn't quite believe he could have it. Later, at home, he said, "Mom, why did you buy this truck for me, is it because you love me?" I said yes, I love him very much, I love him all the time. He said, "Even when I'm bad you love me?" I said that yes, even when he's bad and I'm angry with his behaviors, I still love him. He just kept asking me over and over about why I got him that truck!

Mason's Marvels

• Lately Mason's been playing a little game with us...if you ask him for a hug or kiss, he'll smile and say, "No!" He did this on vacation with everyone too...and when Old Grandma would ask him, he'd grin and say "No!" and then she would say "Oh, shoot!" He got to where he would repeat her saying "shoot!" but it sounded like another bad word...it was pretty cute how he'd say it after her though!
• One time when Matt asked Mason for a hug and kiss, he said his typical "No!" and then Matt ask him why not. His response was, "I no no (I don't know)."
• Mason talks and talks about "No-ee (Nora)" from daycare. So the other day I asked him who her sister is and he said "Sis-ter...Ma-de-en (Sister, Madelyn)."
• When we were at Target, we went back into the school supplies and were looking at backpacks for Zane. Mason looked over, pointed, and said "Doh-ee (Dora)!" Oh my, we are already recognizing cartoon characters!