Bondurant Summerfest

This year Jasper was lucky enough to have buddies Quinn and Delaney McMurray join him for Bondurant Summerfest. The girls go to the same daycare and are the daughters of Sean and Casey (Quinn) Mcmurray.

For the record, this is Jasper's fourth Summerfest. He slept through his first, when he was 3 months old, but has lived it up at each of the last three.

This year Jasper and the girls hit the rides, flying on the airplanes, riding the carousel, slipping down the slide and finishing up on the round-and-round firetruck (an annual tradition now -- he's all business when 'driving' the firetruck).

Very fun times.

Father's Day

I'm thankful every day for the family I have, and it was wonderful to spend Father's Day with the Wilson side while we finished our vacation in Branson, Mo.

There's nothing more rewarding to me than being a father. I love Jasper more than I thought I could ever love anything, and I can't wait for the day when his brother or sister is born. (That day, by the way, is coming very soon -- July 29 is the due date.)

We bought a new grill this summer as an early Father's Day gift to me, but the best gift came when we got home from vacation and Jasper (and Natalie) gave me a new stepping stone for our flower garden that J decorated with his handprint.

The kids

Just a couple of snapshots of the kids from the grounds of the Suites at Fall Creek.

Ridin' The Duck

Many big cities located on the water have Duck Boat Tours, and we all rode The Duck in Branson. (Natalie skipped out, which was probably OK because it was sort of a rough ride.)

The rough ride didn't bother Jasper P - very tired at this point of the trip - who fell asleep about 5 minutes in and didn't wake up until we crashed into the water at about 20 miles an hour.

If you don't know about Duck Boat Tours, they're 30-person land and water tours in a World War II amphibious landing vehicle.

Capt. Preach was our guide and driver, and did a nice job mixing Branson-related history with funny stories to pass the time.

Preach offered all the kids on the ride an opportunity to steer the ship once we were in the water. Sydney got to make a big turn and, despite his sleepy state, Jasper spent a few minutes behind the wheel.

The kids

A photo of the kids - Jasper, Kyren and Sydney - down on the Branson Landing, prior to our ride on 'The Duck' on our last full day of vacation.

First of many vaca photos

We spent Thursday-Sunday in Branson, Mo., and had a great time.

We ate at Jackie B Goode's Upton Cafe - a 50s diner - for dinner one night. Before dinner the kids posed in front of the yellow cab parked outside. After a few shots we told them to 'act cool.'

This photo is what they came up with.

We're still not sure what Jasper was doing, but it sure makes us laugh! (If you can't tell, I'm talking about the third pic in this post.)

We'll upload more vacation photos this week.

Snapshots

Just a few snapshots of us with the new camera.

Siblings class

Jasper and his buddy Quinton Hall attended a siblings class at Mercy Hospital on Saturday. (Reminder: Natalie is due July 29; Melissa Hall is due July 4.)

Jasper jumped right to the front of the group when the instructor asked the kids to sit on the floor at the front of the room, and was very involved. Mrs. Tamela chose J to show how to properly hold a baby ('Here's my hook arm and here's my scoop arm.'), and he answered every question whether he was called on or not. They also talked about some of the gear daddy would have to wear in case mommy had a c-section (hair net, face mask, she covers, etc.) and the kids even got to try them on!

They went over everything from the importance of washing your hands to what toys babies can and can't play with. We then toured the birthing floor and the recoop floor, and got to visit the area where you can see all the babies that have been born lately. All the kids thought that was pretty cool.

Then we headed back to 'my school' (J's words) where we worked on putting a diaper on a baby doll (anatomically correct!), folding blankets, testing out which toys babies can and can't play with (do they fit through the tube of a toilet paper roll?) and more.

By that point the boys' patience was wearing thin and their attention spans weren't what they were at the beginning of the class.

They did awesome, though, and hopefully learned a lot!

Jasper and Quinton

Jasper and his buddy Quinton met when Jasper was just a few days and we got their first photo together when J was 3 weeks old and Q was about 4 months old.

Quinton is the son of Ben and Melissa Hall. I grew up with Melissa and we've all become good friends.

Both of their mommies are pregnant and due in July, so all of us parents took the boys to a siblings class Saturday at Mercy hospital. (More on that in another post.)

This post is just to show the first photo and the latest. (As you can see, Jasper tried to escape in one of the pics.)

Crazy how much they've grown!

Fun with 'fish eye'

We got a new camera and it's got a 'fish eye' setting that distorts everything except for what you're directly focusing on. Here are a couple of examples. Note Jasper P's enlarged head and the rounded fence in the background of the photo of Cozmo. I'm not sure what's going on in Natalie's photo. Ha!

Erin's Wedding Shower

We had a wedding shower for Adam's cousin, Erin, who just moved back from Colorado with her fiance, Jesse, and will be getting married in September. Can't wait for the big day! (9-10-11) The wedding shower was a lot of fun, including a take-home craft of a canvas lunch tote that everyone at the shower got to decorate.

Mommy's Belly

Jasper has found a nice little resting spot for his head during our nightly reading time. He nestles right up to my belly and just fits perfectly. He can sometimes feel the baby move and sometimes wants to give the baby kisses and sing to it, but mostly he's pretty into his book of the night - Bible stories for the past couple of weeks - and just hanging out on my belly. Very cute!

Building Turtles and Houses

Jasper and Adam had their creative juices flowing in the sandbox one night. They first made a big turtle, then a house, then this...umm...bridge-type thing. That sandbox has provided MANY hours of entertainment. Just tonight Jasper pretended one of his loaders (his skidloader to be exact) was stuck in the sand. So, he used a metal pan as pretend plywood to put under the tires so the skidloader could get unstuck. This experience stemming from the real-life experience of our neighbors, April and Josh, who put in some new landscaping and let Jasper ride on the skidloader a couple times. Jasper watched this whole process intently and said they were building a "bob the builder wall." One day, the real skidloader did get stuck and Adam helped put plywood under the tires to get it unstuck, hence the most recent experience in the sandbox. He is a fixer and as he sometimes calls himself, 'a worker!'

Painting

Jasper decided to help us paint our new bedroom. We had to prime it white before we got the color on, so I figured white could come out of almost anything if he made that big of a mess :) But it didn't matter because he had so much fun painting and did a really good job! Adam and I now have a much smaller room so Jasper and the baby can share our old, bigger room. I have to admit - our new room is pretty cozy and we're kind of getting used to it.

Jasper was also pretty impressed with daddy's step stool and thought it was quite fun to climb on it and paint...all the while in his Spongebob jammies :)