Parties, Knuckle Sandwiches, and wild animals

Continuing on with vacation recap.......

Sunday the 19th - Today we celebrated the little one's birthdays. Cainan and Finley rarely get to celebrate their birthdays with this side of the family, so this was a special treat! We did their birthday party around lunch time.


They got a lot of amazing presents - thanks guys! They have been playing non-stop with them. It was fun.


After that party, Mat, Arlington, Finley, "M", Jonathan, Jess, and Tom decided to hit a local drive through zoo. This is a place where you could feed the animals from your car, and then get out and feed the animals around the park.


The kids loved it. I think the adults did too! Arlington and Finley loved feeding the animals. Finley even petted some of them, which is a big step for her. There were animals that stuck their heads in the car:


And all kinds of fun. They were gone almost the entire afternoon. I think they all had a great time on their little adventure.


In the evening, we had a surprise retirement party for Mat's mom, Sally. She retired from teaching this year, and what better way to celebrate than a bash! It was fun surprising her. She does so much for her family that this was the least we could do. The kids made the table cloth and decorations.


Carrie (my sister in law who seriously needs to open a bakery - she is that good) made a yummy Strawberry Cake. It was so good! And we had presents for her of course.


Mat and I also gave her a framed picture of the kids with their hand/foot prints around it.


Carrie is giving her mom the same with her three kids. Just something fun to add!

Sunday was a fun day.

Monday - the 20th. This was pontoon boat day. This is a favorite day, I would say, among the family. We have the boat for the entire day. It fits about 10-12 of us at a time, so we take turns. We drive around the lake - looking at the houses, and just enjoying the scenery. We usually anchor somewhere so that we can get off and swim around. It is a really fun day. We don't do anything else this day besides ride the boat.


I have a few pictures of our boat ride below courtesy of my SILs Carrie and Teen. Since our camera had broken and we had yet to get another at this point, I only have a few! Thanks, Carrie and Teen, for sending me those.

"Knuckle Sandwich" is Finley's newest saying. Her uncle Zac taught her that. She totally doesn't understand what it means, and that is what makes it the most fun. She came to me right before nap time one day and said:

"I need to give uncle Zac a knuckle sandwich and tell him goodnight"
Huh?

It was hilarious. And she keeps saying it. She was singing yesterday saying "I'm going to give you a knuckle sandwich! Yes I am!" She is so weird. Or she will say, "Cainan, do you want a knuckle sandwich? Here you go" and hand him pretend food.

Weirdo.

So that is the recap of the next two days of vacation. At this point Mat and I were starting to feel the effects of staying up late and getting up early, but did we change our ways? No way!! We can sleep at home. :)

See you tomorrow!