In 2013 we took a little trip

 We got an early start on the morning of June 27 and made it to this rest stop in Missouri by 9:00am.  My heart was quite glad as I like to stick to my schedule.  :)  The kiddos had fun playing on the playground at the rest stop and looking at all the license plates on the wall.

 My type A personality is not liking the fact that my pictures are out of order and I don't know how to rearrange.  Let's move on.  The photo below is me smiling because we are on solid ground!  I do not like heights.  My palms are sweating just thinking about being up in the St. Louis Arch.

 Matt is not scared of being up high.  And let the kids look out of these tiny windows that slanted out!!  I felt sure their body weight on the window sill was gonna knock that thing over.

 Under the arch is a lovely museum.  We wish now we had sprung for the IMAX movie on Lewis and Clark, but oh well. 

 A great carving on the wall of the museum.  It showed all the monuments and how tall they were.

 Yowsers!

 Since I am not blogging from my notes, but only my memory...something really important in US history happened in this building.  I can't remember what...something like a freed slave sued his master.

 See that teeny-tiny smidge of a walkway.  We walked across it.

 A pretty fountain in the lobby of our hotel.  I highly recommend this hotel if you are ever staying in St. Louis!!  Drury Inn at the arch.  Fantastic!  And I am somewhat of a hotel snob, so says my husband.  Popcorn and cokes from 3-10 in the lobby.  Appetizers from 5-7.  Breakfast, like a big, delicious breakfast made by chefs not a warmed over pastry from 6:30-10.  All included in the price.  Will stay with them again!

 This photo is for Pops:  Katie with Sacagawea.

 Fitting a family of 5 in a hotel room can be challenging.  Jackson was really excited that they had a "perfect size for me" bed AKA a chair and ottoman.  He slept there all night.

 You see how these photos are out of order and I tried to move this one and it attached itself to the above photo.  Here are kiddos are the rest stop playground.

 

And here they are at the playground in somewhere, Missouri.  Yay for picnicking along the way.  Very fun!

 I like to find and eat at local restaurants while we are traveling.  1) we don't eat out much because of food allergies and 2) it's fun and a bit risky.  I like to live on the edge.  Here we are at Charlie Gitto's.  Supposedly this guy made up the fried ravioli!  So we had some for appetizers.  Along with some pretty pricey pizza.  (packed in J's dinner, don't you worry about him).  Don't believe we will return to this place.  A plus...it was close to arch and hotel.  A minus...I make a better homemade pizza.

 Door number 5 for the 5 McCooks held our pod to take us up to the top of the arch.

 The joyous faces and Katie with her "safety stick".  I was the only nervous one!  And I tried to hide it and be brave.  Matt said it was obvious to all that being up high is not my forte'.

 Becoming a Jr. Ranger at the Arch.

 Katie and Collin, with help from dad, found Jesse Chisholm's picture in the museum.  Their elementary school is named after him.

All in all a very fun day 1.  

Science Museum Oklahoma

I am a much better scrapbooker when I blog.  So I'll begin where I am and not try to catch you up on the last year.

 

Summer has arrived!  I love summer!  And I love taking my kids to fun places.  One of our favorite places is the Science Museum!  Collin loves the "Mind Benders" section.

 

 And he really likes to play chess.  I personally dislike chess...it's such a long game and you don't get to talk much, just get to think.  I need a more social game.  But he loves it and beat his sister and her friend at large chess easily.

 Jackson was amazed at the wind tunnel.  He could have stared up at it all day.

 Our Kate loves the legos in the "tinkering garage" section.  She built a car and raced it down the ramp.

 Collin loves to ride the segways.  And on our next mom/son date he wants to do the Segway tour of OKC.  I am a little scared of it as I don't have quite the balance of a 10 year old.  But I'm willing to do it!  :)

 See the "shirt" Katie has on?  That is a size 7 dress I bought her in February.  I think it might have shrank some too, but it is no longer a shirt!!  Her legs are getting SO long!!

 My boys!

And as we settle into our summer routine it looks like this: 

*work on speed with math facts

*read, read, read:  concentrating on American history, Washington DC, etc

*complete "Around the World in 60 days" geography/Bible study

 

kiddos are also completing daily chores and helping me purge the house of clutter.  We also have a few things to paint and build this summer.  But that will come after big trip.

 

This blog post dedicated specifically to my mom, a dedicated reader and my friend Laura, I hope you still read.  :)  And all my previous readers - if I type it they will read, right?

 



List Making Monday

I am back.  I've wanted to be back for a while.  This is what we have been up to...

*I turned 39, am loving it, embracing it, crossing things off my list.
*Collin turned 10.  I was in denial about that.  Accepting the fact that he is 10...daily.
*Got another part time job.  This one at OC, working with old ladies who love the school.  I love them.
*Hosted a mom and girlfriend from Montana, my kiddos loved them...us too.
*Took a trip to Lawton, OK to check out the National Cherokee Museum.
*Took a trip to Post, Texas to visit the McCooks.  Ate at Holly's...delish!  Took kiddos and Jarre to the Science Spectrum.  Fun!
*Jackson was retested for food allergies - typical kids grow out of them at age 3.  He is not typical and still has ALL 14!!
*Went with Collin to Dallas to participate in LTC.  Oh so proud of that boy.  Cried through his sign language event.
*Went with Jackson to Dallas to meet with his dietician.  Love her.  We have a plan...again.
*Canceled food challenge scheduled for tomorrow due to Jackson's double ear infection.  Hopefully will get this one rescheduled along with a few more challenges this year.


Things to do:
1.  Investigate ways to get insurance to pay for necessary formula...take 3.
2.  See a food therapist with Jackson.  The boy won't really eat, prefers the liquid diet.  Praying for success.
3.  Blog more often because I am a way better scrapbooker when I can look back at my blog.
4.  Read my Bible and pray every day, pray every day, pray every day.
5.  Practice what I preach.

To Alyssa on her 39th birthday:

 My mom was in the middle of telling me what a great daughter I was and how she can't believe that 39 years ago she and my dad were having me at Hendrick Hospital in Abilene, TX at 11:44pm.  I was out of it with the flu.  Thankfully my dear boy Collin documented this portion of my day in pictures!

 Katie carried her present to me at the table.

 Here is a gift from Jackson to me.  I love him.

 My gift from Collin.

I managed to shower today and walk to the table!!  I also blew out my 39 candles and ate a piece of cake and ice cream.  It was delish.  After that I went straight back to bed to sleep off my busy day.

I'm back again....I think.

This is proof that I am still blogging.  Been having lots and lots of trouble with blogger.  But have recently discovered it is trouble with my work laptop, not blogger!  So I shall resume!  Matt is at church this morning with Collin and Katie and I am home with a sick Jackson, 102 fever but breathing just fine!!  :)  This is a photo of him in November eating a WHEAT THIN!!!  Did you know that we have incorporated wheat and soy (when mixed with other ingredients) into his diet?  It's not all the time and it's not much, but we are excited. Although he is not officially free of the allergy to those two - some food items seem to be ok for him.  He will be tested again in March!  :)

 

So now I will blog from Matt's work laptop.  I know he will be thrilled!  :)

 

I'm back.  Again.

Blogger and I are done!

So friends, after my restart of blogging, blogger has decided to not let me ever upload a picture.  So we are through.  I'm moving over to wordpress because my dear friend at Let's Go Carrolling does wordpress.  I'll keep you posted on the new blog.  I have the cutest snaggle tooth picture of Katie that I have to upload soon!
Alyssa

Ice Skating

Today I laughed so hard I cried. 

 

I was nervous to take all 3 kids ice skating without Matt as my helper.  But I did it anyway.  Collin and Katie went ice skating last winter and loved it.

 

And this year Jackson joined them!!  My phone pictures are pretty horrible of them and I can't get them to upload right now anyway.

 

Today was fun!

Today was hilarious!

 

Collin has greatly improved since last year.  This year he moved away from the wall.  He fell a few times, but he was doing it!

 

Katie still is not a strong skater and has her dad's feet.  But she decided after today that she wanted to take ice skating lessons after basketball was over.

 

Jackson was awesome!!!  I was so nervous to let him on the ice without me right beside him.  The owner said he could push a chair around the rink.  And he did.  And he looked like a bulldozer.  He would get going so fast and then turn and kind of slide to the side, like he planned it!

 

The owner took Jackson on the rink by himself and had Jackson skate to him a bit.  He could do it!  Without a chair!!  I was shocked!  The owner is a professional ice skater from Russia.  He has an OC connection and he told me that Jackson needs to play hockey!

 

This news just shocked me and made me laugh!  Hockey?  What will a sports-loving-football-playing-every-male-is-a-quarterback-and-number-11-for-that-matter family do with an actor and a hockey player for grandsons?  Cheer them on I'm sure!  :)

 

Today was glorious!  Just what I needed to start this year.  A year of no "owie places" for Jackson.  A year of good health and breathing deeply and praying and not taking things for granted.

 

This is what I hope for you in 2013 as well.