I didn't want to do it!

But I HAD to!

I had to delete the guestbook! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

I apologize to all of you who have taken the time to post a message, picture, or both to the guestbook and show us some love!

The last 2 times I have clicked on it, I have gotten a trojan/virus/fatal error warning and while it has seemed to be just an ad for antivirus software (since our real antivirus program says we are all clear), I decided I should delete it to prevent future problems.

But please continue to leave comments after the posts, so we know you're out there! Oh, and thanks for reading, we hit 20,000 visits over the weekend. :)

First Family Camping Trip!

Last fall, we bought a pop-up camper so that we could take a family camping trip. Of course, we had to wait until the summer due to school, work, and the weather, but we finally picked a weekend and went for it!!!

Gee-off made many lists and so we spent all week preparing to go, packing everything we would need and more. Of course with all of Emily's equipment plus the regular items we needed to pack for each of us, plus all of the actual bodies we had to fit in the van to get there, it had to be well thought out and carefully packed. Surprisingly, we didn't forget anything!

We went to Ocean View Resort Campground in Ocean View so Grandmom and Grandpop could spend the day with us on Saturday and so they'd be close by if we needed help. Luckily, they only needed to come for fun! Though it was pretty necessary to have the extra hands at the pool.

We arrived around dinner time Friday night, and immediately set up the playard with multiple extensions on the site so Carter and Brenna could play without running away! Drew played in there too, though we could also let him roam a bit which he enjoyed. We got everything unloaded, had a quick dinner and went for a walk around the campground. We got Carter and Brenna to bed around 9:30pm and at first they were crying, but soon they were laughing and playing and eventually fell asleep around 10:30!!! The air conditioner in the pop up made great white noise so we were able to go in and out without waking them up later too. Drew stayed up for our first campfire and roasted his first marshmallows.

On Saturday, the babies woke us up around 6:15am (thank you sunshine!) and we got going for the day by 7 or so. Gee-off had brought along the griddle and made bacon, sausage, and eggs, for breakfast. Yum! The little ones had Pop Tarts and bagels. :) We played at the site until Grandmom and Grandpop arrived. Then we went to the pool, had lunch, and all the kids took nice looooong naps while the grown ups played cards. We went to the game room and then we had pizza with Grandmom and went to play at the lake playground. Drew and I went for a ride on the tram and had ice cream. And we spent another late night by the campfire.

Sunday morning we got up and got to packing up right away. We really had fun, and although it was a lot of work, we plan to go probably 2 more times before the summer is over.

I apologize for these pictures being so out of order, but for some reason I can't reaarrange them like I usually do. (These are mostly in backwards order - from Saturday evening and back to Friday night)

Daddy and Emily (LOVE this pic!!)

Carter

Brenna


Drew

Drew 2


Skee Ball!!!!!


The shock of the trip - Brenna HATED this train ride, and Carter liked it!

Saturday nap time

(Brenna and Drew slept from 12:45 - 4PM, and Carted slept until 5PM!!)

Practicing with the new camera :)

Frito . . .

. . . meet Gee-off!

Grandmom and Mr. Blue Eyes

Mommy and Brenna

I told her this was a "princess chair" so I could get her to stay still for a second. Notice she's still moving!

Drew getting chilly

Carter - splashing in the baby pool

Our site (I got a few pics of the camper - but they're on the other camera!)

Friday night campfire

Emily says, "I love camping!!"

Good job everyone! You're all right. :)

Carter Jackson arrived first, then Brenna Lynn, and then Emily Christine.

(just like this picture from left to right - about 8 weeks old!!!)

I think I'll consider this the first question for July and at the end of the month I will draw a winner from all of the correct comments.

Thanks for playing, that was fun! Of course, I'm not going to make it that easy next week! ;)

Triplet Trivia Tuesday

In an effort to keep me blogging and get some feedback, I'm going to start Triplet Trivia Tuesday. Leave a comment with your answer, and there just might be prizes involved!!!

I'll keep it simple for the first week. And, of course, this is an "open blog" quiz. You can find all the answers in the archives! :)

ETA:
*You do not have to be the first to post the correct answer. All correct answers posted in the comment section through 11:59 EST on Tuesday will be accepted.*

Which triplet was born first?

Happy Father's Day

To my hubby, the best Dad ever!!

I am so thankful everyday, but especially today, that you are my husband and the father of our children!

Not just anyone could do what you do. You do it all, and you're really good at it too! You have always changed diapers, rocked screaming babies, got up in the middle of the night even though you had to go to work in the morning, made formula, laundry, dishes, food shopping, making dinner, I could really go on and on, but I don't want to brag. (Too much!)

You are the best provider. You work so hard to make it possible for me to stay home with the kids, and possibly for longer than we had ever expected. For those who don't know, not only does he teach 6th grade Math - a job that would kill most men on a good day - he also works for the afterschool program 5 days a week. He doesn't get to take off for the summer either. He is a camp counselor from June - August and has been for the past 13 years. And in the past year, he has developed his own business -providing workshops for afterschool programs and camps on how to use positive discipline. I know, you're tired just reading all that! ;)

It fills my heart to see how you interact with the kids everyday. They know how much you love them because you make time to play with them everyday, and you tell them you love them everyday.

And you still find time to show me you love me too. It's not just the gifts (like the Canon Rebel DSLR camera I just got for no reason at all, and the three stone diamond anniversary ring you got for me early), but those times when you can just tell I need some words of comfort or encouragement or a big hug and kiss after a trying day.

Your love is truly the best gift I have ever gotten.

I love you.

Things have been happening here.

Last days of school
Speech and physical therapy evals for Carter
Planning to go camping
Brenna starting to potty train
Emily having trouble eating her one oral feeding and having some mild spasms last night :(

So little time and energy to post

I'll be back as soon as I can to elaborate . . .

Drew's Surgery - Wednesday, June 3rd

Drew has had ongoing problems with his ears, mostly frequent ear infections, since he was a baby. He has previously had 2 other sets of ear tubes placed, one set at 15 months, and the second set at 3 1/2 yrs. old. When he is "in between" tubes, he gets ear infections back to back to back. Most recently, he had four ear infections from March through May leading up to the surgery! And, at his last ENT appointment, he had a hearing test which showed some mild hearing loss. This is most likely caused by the fluid sitting in his ears that can't drain when his tubes are out.

This time, because the doctor said he shouldn't still be having such problems at his age, he has to get a new set of tubes and his adenoids removed. Removing the adenoids is supposed to help with the constant runny nose. Whenever the nose starts, I know the ear infection is coming! So, hopefully, no runny nose, no ear infection!

Here are some pictures from the big day!

In the prep area

Getting the "giggle juice"

feeling good . . .


feeling really good . . .


gone!

He was just being silly and wanted to hide under the warmed blanket. :)

The surgery went very well. He did not like the IV that they had in his hand when he woke up, and he let us know about that! He was coughing a lot from the tube that had been down his throat, and was disoriented from the anesthesia. But, after I rocked him and sang to him, he got a few doses of pain meds, took a rest, and finally felt ok enough to head home after about an hour and half recovery.

Once we were home, he rested for awhile and surprisingly wanted to eat. We were told to encourage eating as tolerated to help keep his jaw active so it wouldn't get sore from being held open during the adenoid procedure. He also wanted to drink and did not complain of pain in his ears or throat. He was prescribed pain medicine, ear drops, and an antibiotic.

By Saturday morning he seemed to be feeling much better, though he did have a slight temp of 99. We had made plans for Uncle Mark and Aunt Beki to take him out for the day since he had been cooped up and to help me out too since Gee-off was at a workshop in the morning and was going out that night. Well he had a great time, but didn't want to eat when he got home. Unusual.

At first, I was sure he was just exhausted. But then I noticed his eyes were pink and he was warm. Turns out he had a temp of 102!! So I had instructions to call the CHOP ENT if he got a temp over 101.3. The ENT seemed to think he had a virus not related to the surgery. I called the pediatrician and he agreed. So we treated the temp with Tylenol and it came down slowly by Monday.

He is feeling fine today, no fever, and got to go back to school today too. He was so happy to get back!

Me too! :)

Bounce U Party

Drew was invited to the birthday party of a classmate at Bounce U. He had so much fun!!

They could barely lift the super sized boxing gloves! You had to navigate through the obstacle course to get to this slide.

This basketball game was Drew's favorite.

The T-Ball was supported by a flow of air, so it floated until he hit it! Very cool!

Storybook Land

I was so excited that I was able to go along on Drew's Pre-K class trip!! We all rode the school bus down to the park and were free to play as we wished! After Bubbles the Coaster, however, Drew was not up for any "spinny" rides. That left only a few rides, but there was a lot to see, so we ate, skipped around with his friends and had a great time!

Public service announcement

DON'T FORGET TO USE SUNSCREEN!!!!!

This is what happened to me after sitting outside for just one hour watching Drew's TBall game.