Us and theTiger cubs: July 3-9, Vol. I

My husband is deployed for those of you who missed that. Gone for the whole summer, leaving me and the boys to our own devices. Now, I generally love my life as a military spouse. When Scott finally separates/retires from the military, I will likely look at him after 3 years & ask, "Isn't it time for us to move?" The moving & making new friends every few years is usually exciting. That being said, the main thing I absolutely cannot stand is the short-notice stuff. When you find out mere weeks ahead of time that you're moving or deploying. That is what happened to us this summer. Scott was supposed to deploy in August, so we made lots of summer plans. BIG mistake. We found out on the 10th of May that he was leaving on the 28th for four months. So, my options for the summer were to 1) scrap all of our plans and sit home with 3 crazy boys by myself, or 2) pack everyone up & take the trips by myself. Option 2 was much more appealing, so off we went. See the posts from June 8-12 for our Kentucky trip, & the second "mini-vacation" was supposed to be to see our friends the Bakazans at their new cottage on the lake in Wisconsin. Dawn & I met here & quickly became friends and we were lucky enough to have the husbands hit it off, too. That is pretty rare in the military. Usually, either the wives or the husbands really hit it off & the other set just "tolerates" each other. Ryan and Scott were very disappointed when Scott was unable to come, but such is our life. So, when I had to make the trip alone, I decided to head to Wisconsin by way of Chicago & stop over at Robin's house for a few nights. Robin & I went to college together & have remained friends for over 15 years (wow, that makes us sound old!). We took off on July 3rd to make the 4.5 hour trip to Chicago. I can honestly say it went well. The boys were very well-behaved & we only had to make one stop. The first thing we did at Ms. Robin's was head across the street to the cookie shop that makes vegan cookies. Since vegans refuse to eat any animal products, William is good with vegan stuff as long as it excludes peanuts. It was a very retro-mod store with these adorable orange chairs my boys LOVED!!

From Chicago

My sweet pea was very excited to find a yummy cookie he could eat without getting itchy!!

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And, then the "neat" eater. He truly is my neater eater, although you'd never know it from most of the pics on this blog!!

From Chicago

After tummies were full, it was off to the park around the corner from Ms. Robin's. My boys were very excited to get a glimpse of city life. They couldn't believe we got to walk everywhere & were fascinated by all of the sights. Both of them insisted on holding Ms. Robin's hands on the way, so C-man and I totally got ditched ;)

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This one is blurry, but it's too cute not to post!!

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The park had a water station, which we were unaware of when leaving Robin's house, so the boys got to play in their shorts. Made for a loong, wet walk home, but they were happy :)

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Look at those smiling faces!!

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The next morning, we got up, fed the kiddos breakfast & headed out into the city to ride the "L". If you know my kiddos, you know William's fascination with anything with wheels!! He was super-excited about riding the "L" and wanted to see if it was cooler than the Metro we have here in St. Louis. Colin seems to be taking after William, and he was a complete hit on the train. Lots of the commuters thought he was a hoot as he held onto the rail, jumped on my lap, and giggled his little heart out in delight! A few quick snaps of us riding the Brown line around the city. It goes in a circle, so we got to see the sights & didn't have to exit & enter again with three crazy kiddos. Bonus!!

Look at the complete joy on that little face!!!!

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Robin has a gated patio just in front of her condo that was perfect for the Colin man. We rolled out her rug, threw some toys down, and closed the gate. We got to sit in the sun & visit while he crawled/walked around & played.

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Then, since she's on the first floor, the big boys had access to the stairs leading up to her building & the little walkway in front. It's gated also & they were amazingly excited to run along her little path & play hide & seek with each other. Don't think it would have lasted more than a few days, but the little stone path kept them entertained for HOURS while we visited & Colin played. Yay for city life!!

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And, this one just because it's cute! Colin LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Robin's husband Nick. I think we might've thrown a wrench into their "let's have kiddos" plan just by our sheer craziness, but the baby and Nick at least hit it off!!

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And, then it was back to the park on the afternoon of the 4th. This time, we were smart & put the boys in their swimsuits--WAYYYY more comfy for them!!

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(That is one of my all-time favorite pics of William, BTW!!)

And, the C-man was just worn out after a couple of days of not sleeping too well!

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And, on the way home, we "caught an L"!! If you look closely, you can see the train on the elevated track. This portion of the tracks is a mere block away from Robin's house. Every time we walked under it, the boys ran ahead to stand there & look WAYYYY up to see if they'd "catch an L". You could hear the train from Robin's house & every time one rumbled by, all three of my boys would freeze & shout "EEEELLLLL"!!!! Needless to say, when we managed to "catch" one, it was humongously exciting.