Brookslanding

This is one of the boys favorite things to do! Most days I do wish we had two hoses so that I wouldn’t have to play referee!!

Well, I love reading a bunch of blogs and seeing everyone’s pictures, but I just can’t seem to get our pictures up here!

A couple weeks ago we headed to the lake to spend time with Grandma and Gramps! Grandma and Gramps gave us the day off while they spent time with Davis and Isaac. It was a much needed date and Dan and I had a blast. Thank you SO much to my mommy and daddy! It is wonderful to be reminded that you can actually have fun together apart from kids!!

SO, what did we do? Well, we are signed up for an adventure race with some good friends of ours. Wives are teamed up and husbands are teamed up. It is the Coosa River Challenge and it is mountain biking, trail running, canoeing, and a few other adventures in between.  So Dan and I headed out to test the course and see what we’d be up against. I was happy to be able to say that we’ll be able to do it. We didn’t have to do any obstacle courses or do a couple of the other “surprises” like jumping off the lock or repelling like will be at the challenge, but at the end of the day weren’t totally beat. Speaking for the girl team here, we are looking at it as a retreat and just excited to complete the race. I don’t consider myself very adventurous, but I’m excited about this challenge!

So, there’s a haiku-based photo scavenger hunt going on in Huntsville right now, so we thought we’d give it a try.  First are the haiku clues, and then the pictures.

Seven arches wide
A rainbow of salvation
Ready to beat eggs

The locals refer to this 60's era mosaic as "Eggbeater Jesus".

Two presidents split
A place of remembrance
Hides in space between

Veterans Park in Huntsville is located between Madison and Monroe streets. And Isaac is holding sticks.

Right-of-ways join, part
History learned, forgotten
These are old men’s toys

We thought we had this one nailed--we've been to the Huntsville Train Depot a bunch of times. But we got it wrong. They were referring to the "other" train museum, the North Alabama Train Museum. Sheesh--these guys are picky.

A shuttle, perched high
Not the one that comes to mind.
This one is branded

The Huntsville Hospital Tram is an elevated shuttle that connects the complex of buildings. Kids love it. But, it's not the right answer. The correct answer was a replica of the Space Shuttle, sitting outside of the Coke Bottling Co. That's no fun.

So, we were 2 of 4, but for a family that hasn’t been in this town for too long, I think we did alright!  We’ll see about next week!

We’ve been working on Davis going potty by himself. He is trained, he just always wants us in there with him, especially at night. Last night we started a new reward chart for him, where he can choose something fun if he succeeds in going potty in the night  by himself. (or stays dry) He did it last night, so he chose to build a fort in the living room as his reward. It was a good time!

Cheeeese! Davis did not want to pose for any pictures this morning, but Isaac was more then happy too!!

Reading some books.

Brothers playing peek a boo!

Relaxing in the fort. This Mommy had fun too! If you have any ideas for fun rewards let me know! We plan to keep this chart going for awhile!

Dan posted Davis’s excellent diving  board jumping the other day. Here are a couple cute action shots from the week at the pool! Davis had such a fabulous time and is now very proud to be able to swim a few feet to us without water wings.

Davis has no fear as long as he has his goggles on! Which, if anyone is looking for goggles that really work, don’t let water in, are comfortable and stay on the kiddos heads these Baby Banz have worked great for us. (maybe I should write a commercial!!)

And, here is our patient little Isaac. We spent all of the mornings in the teachers front yard while Davis had lessons in the back. We blew bubbles, kicked a ball, and read a lot of books. He really wished he could have been in the pool, but in a couple years he’ll get lessons too.

Brother pics from Isaac’s first actual day as a 2 year old!

Dan’s Father’s Day request each year is to have a night away with his family! We held Isaac’s bday celebration over actual Father’s Day, so last weekend we had a getaway to Chattanooga! We visited the Children’s museum, swam in the hotel pool, rode a train at the Tennessee Valley Railroad, and ate yummy food. Here are some pics! I can’t figure out at this moment in time how to switch the order so they are where they are!

Brooks Family at the Tennessee Valley Railroad!

Davis wanted to climb aboard this “steamy” (steam engine) but this was a close as he could get. Both of our boys are obsessed with trains and Isaac still says “go ride train” just about everyday since we’ve been back.

Isaac loves play kitchens, so I spent a bit of time with him at the Creative Discovery Museum in the tots part where they have a play kitchen/house area. Here he is checking on his cookies!

They also had a great water table area and many other exhibits! Most of our other pics are on Dan’s phone, so maybe one day I’ll get some up into this post!!

The train ride was perfect for our kiddos. It lasted about 1 hour. A 20 minute ride down the track and then we all got out to watch the train turn on the turntable. (Fun to see a REAL one!) and then we got back on the train and “chugged” back to the station! Most of the time Davis kept his hands over his ears in case a whistle blew. We think he is going to keep perfect hearing since he covers them even if there is only a chance of a loud noise!

Our steam engine on the turntable!

Happy Father’s Day 2010! It was a wonderful trip, with way more memories then pictured in this post!

Davis just finished up his swim class, and he proves his fearlessness by jumping off the diving board.

Davis Takes a Dive