The Boone Family

The day after spending Thanksgiving with family in James's lodge we jumped into the car and drove back up to Cleveland.  We have been waiting for years to take the boys to "The Polar Express" train ride to the North Pole because I am such a cheap skate.  To our luck, Bob's work offered discount tickets and we jumped at the chance to do it before it is too late! Maw Maw and Paw Paw joined us on the trip! Since we came straight from Columbus, I didn't plan well enough to have matching pajamas for the boys so thank goodness for Costco.  I ran in like a chicken with my head cut off on Black Friday to get 3 matching sets of PJ's…SCORE!  On a side note as I was digging through the pile of pi's I overheard a man tell his wife, "Honey, we can come back to the pajama's when it's not so crazy."  Ha! Those boys sure do love their Maw Maw and Paw Paw All aboard!!!  Each child was given a golden ticket to ride the train....

Bob and Donnie jumped in the car for the weekend and headed to Pennsylvania to the Penn State/Michigan football game.  That meant to us…ROAD TRIP!!  Saturday morning we jumped into the car and headed down to Bucyrus.  The boys and I stopped through to visit Grandma and Grandpa Grocho.  At this time, Grandpa looked good.  He was a little pale and thinner but his personality still shines through.  Grandma couldn't keep her arms away from hugging the boys at any chance she gets…she loves those boys so much.  We didn't stay too long so Paw Paw suggested a quick trip to Mohican.  I was a little worried since we had just been in the car for over an hour and we were going to go some more. As we started to get into the "hills" the boys were having a blast.  Nolan would yell from the backseat…"hands up" as we would drive down the hills.  Paw Paw would give it some extra gas as we sped down the hills. Once we arrived at the covered bridge...

With the fall being a little warmer than expected we have spent as much time outdoors as we can.  Lots of nature walks, hikes, and rock throwing have transpired.  Check out this photo…the boys have been totally into putting up the peace sign or some crazy hand motions when they get their picture taken.  Days later when I was looking over these pictures I noticed that Landon is flipping the camera off twice!  So glad he doesn't know what this means yet so this wasn't done on purpose. Moments later he posed with Nolan for this picture!  Sweet on his brother! Nolan's token pose is his hands by his belly.  Not sure where he learned this but to me her looks like Bill Cosby. Little Explorers! Landon is a show off!!  Ha! Moments together are always better when we are together!

Parenting has it's struggles that is for sure.  Picking your battles is a statement that I often catch myself saying in my head daily with what is worth fighting over with the boys.  Landon is really pushing the envelope when it comes to wearing long pants.  This little boy will demand he wear shorts everyday.  When the icicles are hanging from his nose hairs and his teeth are chattering he will convince himself and others that he is not cold in shorts.  The temperatures are getting very chilly and I am getting some strange looks from others that might think child neglect due to the shorts this child wears.   This is how we compromised…under armor long underwear pants underneath his shorts…fashion ridiculousness but it works for him. Our recent approach is if he willingly puts on pants to wear to school in the morning without a meltdown we will stop and get a slushy at Taco Bell after school. The first day he put them on without hesitation or a s...

To kick off the Halloween festivities, we grabbed tickets to see Alvin and the Chipmunks at the State Theatre downtown Cleveland.  Right after school, we jumped in the car, picked up Angie who drove down from Michigan, met Bob and rushed to the theatre.  Once we got in our seats Nolan started to have a little meltdown and Landon was over tired so we were a little worried about whether they could hang in for the performance. Nolan refused to look at the camera for the picture. Once the music began, Carter was singing and dancing right along with the Chipmunks.  Landon was in a trance watching and Nolan had his hands over his ears for the majority of the play. The plot of this play was absolutely ridiculous but the kids loved it!  The Chipette's even joined them to sing and dance!  It was a lot of fun! You know I jump at the chance to dress those kids alike because I know it's only a matter of time before they won't let me do it.  Th...

We ventured out to a pumpkin patch in Columbia Station where we remembered we went to when Carter was so little.  It is a farm with pumpkins, a corn maze, a playing area for kids, and a hayride.   There were so many pumpkins to choose from. Nolan loved getting "lost" in the maze…as you can see he would look for his own path through the maze.  Don't worry the corn maze was at the furthest point from any restroom and of course Nolan had to poop…into the woods we went where not only do bears sh* in the woods but so does Nolan and we left the underpants there to prove it.  He finished the rest of the day…commando! Hayride selfie! One of my favorite parts of the trip was the pumpkin lifting contest.  For $10 you could take as many pumpkins as you could carry…Bob was up for the challenge.  He ended up with 4 large pumpkins perfect for carving later on. Nolan was the most interested in carving pumpkins.  He willi...