a choo choo ~ reunion ~ tent

Which is better, a long post with a lot of pictures, or a slideshow?  I'm not sure so this time you get the long post.  Summer is flying by.  Poor Bronson doesn't get to play outside much so this is what he does inside.  He loves his "choo-choos" and I love that he loves his choo-choos.  He is so cute when he plays with them, he loves getting them all lined up and hooked together, then one will come undone and he'll start over.  He is so cute.  Last weekend we had a fun family reunion, but I have to be honest, it's getting a little lame.  This is my Grandma's parents reunion, there are 11 kids in her family which means a lot of people.  I always loved these reunions when I was little but now it's to the point where we just hang out with our own family anyway, so what's the point?  But I've always been more of an observer than a perfomer anyway (well sometimes :)  Anywho, it was fun.  Bronson had a lot of fun bowling.  Jared and I both had some lucky shots as well as not so lucky, but Jared did beat me - I don't remember the score, how convenient. 

We camp at the bottom of Jordenelle dam.  Well actually we didn't camp, we rented a yert.  It was nice and Levi got to relax a little too.  Have I mentioned I hate camping, I love the outdoors for sure but lately I haven't felt the need to live in the dirt.  In fact I think we're going to be selling our trailer.  It seems so stupid to keep it when we aren't going to be using it enough to make it worth the expense.   Anyway here are some reunion pics. 

sleepy cousin Bracken

sleepy Levi

our family was the Broncos, can you tell?

They had some games for the kids, but it didn't work so well for the little ones.  Basically there were some squishy water balls that the kids were throwing to each other, or at each other.  It took the tiny kids a while to get the hang of it but they had no idea what was going on.  Then from out of nowhere Bronson gets pegged in the head with a wet ball.  He was so mad.  The kid who threw it didn't know what to do, because everyone kept encouraging him to throw it right?  Ya, Bronson didn't have too much fun.  

(not to point fingers but it was the kid in the yellow shirt I think)

so we went and played on the play ground instead.

this is Bronson's classic "cheese" 

if you pull out the camera around him, this might be what you get

more "cheese"

cousin Averi

It was fun, but I might need some convincing to go back.  

(Man when did I become a party pooper?)

Finding Solutions.  After we switched Levi to soy formula we were very happy because it finally felt like we could get a little sleep.  That didn't last more than two days however because someone figured out how to climb out of his crib and open doors.  After one week of playing the very fun game of going to bed, Bronson was exhausted as well as his parents.  He climbed out of his crib so much that he got a big bruise on his chest from leaning on the corner rail as he hopped over.   We went from a five minute bedtime routine to about two hours, seriously.  Then at 3 am, we'd hear his door open, he'd come into our room and say, "hi!" then we got to start all over.  I remembered something I'd seen in a baby magazine a long time ago, it was something I remember laughing out loud at, thinking "oh brother, how pathetic can these parents be."  Well I am such a parent.  Once we put it up I honestly think Bronson was relieved.  He was so exhausted but he couldn't ever let himself relax because he knew he could climb out.  I am happy to report that going to bed takes 5 minutes again and we have gone from 6 am mornings to 9 am mornings and 2 to 3 hour naps :)  Thank you crib tent, you are my hero, and Bronson's too.   The only downer is now that Bronson is sleeping so well Levi has gotten very sick and is hardly sleeping at all.  Will this cycle ever end?