1st Day of School

It was a BIG day at the Wilson household this morning! Both boys were up and at 'em by 6:50am this morning, dressed, brushed (teeth and hair) and downstairs by 7am and ready for breakfast! After some pictures outside Nolan and I met our neighbors, Evan and Adam, and together we made our way to school. Nolan was excited and walked to his new classroom with the confidence of a high school senior! He hung up his bag, got a quick picture with his teacher, sat down and began playing with some Play Doh at his seat. I gave him a hug and asked him if it was ok for me to go and he says "yep!" There's not a doubt in my mind that he's completely ready for Kindergarten!

Now that Nolan was off to school it was Luke's turn! He was thrilled to no end to wear his big red back pack! He marched into his classroom, also with great confidence, and began playing. We chatted a moment or two with his teachers and headed out. He didn't even notice! I do hope he finds comfort in his teddy that I packed in his bag especially for nap time!

Dane sits!

He's at it again...continuing to learn new skills all the time. In the past week he's managed to push up to his hands and knees and rocks, eats cereal and now he's sitting! We captured these pictures after church this morning (btw, he was the BEST behaved of the three boys, of course) and he was prime time! If his smile got any bigger we'd see his tonsils.

Can someone make him stop growing?

Sweet baby Dane...growing up so fast! He turned 5 months old on August 10th and is already getting up on his hands and knees as if he's going to start crawling anytime. Perhaps my memory is foggy but I don't remember time slipping out of my hands so quickly with the other boys! Now I know why the baby of the family always gets spoiled!

Branson Trip

Too much waterslide! Rock Star!
Papa & Dane catching a snooze!
Tickle Tickle!
Daddy & Dane
Family picture at the ballgame
Dane

Nolan & Dane at the Arkansas welcome center

They DO love each other! They really do!

Although our trip to Branson ended August 1st I am just now finding time to sit down and share with everyone some of the fun we had! Our trip started by making a pit stop along the way in Little Rock, AR. The boys did some swimming at the pool and we attended a minor league baseball game which was lots of fun since the ballpark is smaller and perhaps more kid-friendly than let's say, the Ballpark in Arlington. Not that I'm dissing the Rangers, because there is always fun to be had at a major league ball game it's just that the minor league game is easier to get hot dogs (which also cost 1/3 of the price), beverages (those are also 1/3 of the price) and to the bathrooms (which is extremely important when you have a little boy who is potty training!).

After driving through the Ozark National Forest we arrived in Branson on Sunday afternoon to join all of our "cousins" as Nolan likes to say! Luke's favorite part of the trip was getting to ride the "alligator" (i.e. elevator) everytime we went to our room. There was lots and lots of swimming and the boys came home cocoa brown after spending a full week in the sun (no sunburn, thank goodness!) Nolan even gave his best efforts waterskiing and managed to get up and go a short distance. He still claims it was his favorite part of his vacation! Besides swimming the boys also got a chance to kayak, ride a wave runner, ride go-carts, see Ice Age 3 at the Imax (on a rainy day), play horse shoes, go down a waterslide and just plain have fun hanging out with their cousins. Luke's famous words the entire vacation was "I need my Daddy". If I could have charged $1 each time he said that I'd be RICH!

Sadly, vacation had to come to an end but we were lucky enough to bring Alexis home with us! She got the pleasure of riding home in the back of the mini-van with Nolan and probably thought Drew and I were poor navigators on the way home (there just isn't a direct route out of Branson to Fayetteville, AR). We enjoyed having Alexis with us and having Vicki come visit the following weekend to escort Alexis home on the airplane. Vicki is looking fabulous these days and it was a lot of fun shopping with her and Alexis too!

Here are a few pictures of our trip that I thought everyone would enjoy!