The Circus!

Pictures:

* Kyle and I with the clown (he would only take a picture with me included as it kind of freaked him out!)
* Ed, Kyle and I at the circus

* Matt, Denise, Jackson and Drew at the circus

* The center ring at the circus...a crazy family from Venezuela was performing. The dad juggles his two daughters while the mom spots. And I thought my life was crazy?!?!

What a busy, fun weekend! Our friends, Matt & Denise (along with Jackson - 2.5 & Drew - 1.5) had moved back to Michigan from Florida this Fall and it was our first opportunity to go up to Saginaw for a visit. With four kids now, packing is the biggest chore of the whole trip (well, ONE of the biggest!). We left on Friday afternoon and had the evening for the boys to play (did they ever!) and hang out. It was so fun to watch them play. Kyle loves baseball and hasn't been exposed to hockey, which is Jackson's favorite. Kyle was using the mini hockey stick and hitting the ball into the net, then running the bases. Jackson checked Kyle a few times and he wasn't so sure about that. I think Kyle should stick to baseball :-) We hadn't seen the boys since last May so it was great to see how they had grown and changed. Drewbee got so big and is now running with the older boys. We all said it will be crazy one year from now when there are FIVE boys three and under running around the house. We'll have to bring ear plugs or lots of alcohol...or BOTH :-) We're trying to convince the Blasy's to try for baby #3 but I'm not sure bringing our babies to their house for the night helped much, although they slept well!

My Uncle Denny, Aunt Sharon, cousin Lynette and her two girls, Julia and Jenna graciously watched the triplets while we went to the circus. My cousin is usually late for every family gathering but was on time to arrive at my aunt/uncle's to watch the babies as she loves them so much! My grandma joined them for the morning so she could see the babies too. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful family who love the babies so much. I don't think any of the babies were set down the entire day :-)

Matt is the General Manager of the Dow event center in Saginaw where the circus was held so we got the "red carpet treatment"! The circus was a blast. Kyle or I had never been to the circus and we talked about it to him for the past week so he was very excited. From the time the lights went out he was in awe. From the tigers and elephants to the trapeze and clowns, he loved it all. When my grandma asked him what his favorite part of the circus was he said "the elephant pooped and the car went boom!". Now to explain...the poor elephants (three of them) did a lot of pooping during their act. And when an elephant poops, let's just say they need a LARGE garbage can to pick it all up. There was a poor man following them around with a big shovel picking it up. I thank God every day now that I don't have that job! The other memorable part for him was when the clown was driving a beat up car that made a really loud boom (backfiring sound). We all jumped but Kyle and Jackson were freaked out by it! Jackson hated it so much that he would only peek at the rest of the show! Hopefully it didn't taint future circus visits because we had so much fun!

We had a great visit but a long drive home. Normally a 90 minute drive, our trip turned into two hours because of the 6 inches of snow that were falling. I heard on the news this morning that we've already had 42 inches of snow so far this winter which is exactly double the norm. Ugh...WHY do we live in Michigan again?!?!

Yesterday, my girlfriend Becky (high school friend/college roommate) and her family came to meet the babies. Her dad, Mr. C came too...it was so great to see everyone! They brought lunch and her boys hung out with the kids. Nick and Matt were so good with Kyle and the babies, they'll be great babysitters one of these days!

I've attached a few pictures, more to come!