Heileson Family Campout

We had our big campout this past weekend at Flat Rock in Island Park. I was a little nervous only because Friday morning on the news they said that some parts of Island Park had been closed due to bears. Oh Great-how I love bears. At least we had a trailer to stay in as we had borrowed Justin's parents trailer. We left town Friday afternoon and got there about 4:30. My parents and Nicole's fam was already up there. We don't really do much once we get there besides hang out.

Saturday our family made breakfast which ended up being very tasty despite all of the bugs that infested it. I guess it just added a little extra protein-yuck! Grandpa and Uncle Kent took the kids on a 4 wheel ride that morning. We thought that they might be gone for an hour at the most-3 hours later they roll in. Rylee was buck naked from teh waist down because she had a litttle accident. They were done with their ride and she told Grandpa that she had to go pee. He told her to go. So he thinks that she knows how to go pee standing up-silly grandpa. Needless to say Rylee got pee all over her pants. Poor kid! Andrew-the kid that can sleep anywhere fell asleep on the 4-wheeler. He is so funny-you get Rylee who never wants to sleep and then Andrew who asks if he can go take a nap. Later on in the day Mom and I took the kids to float the buffalo. They had fun looking for alligators and fish and helping Meemaw row the boat. After dinner that night Mindy had brought finger paints for all of the kids. Rylee made a picture of Africa adn Andrew made a picture of an ice cream cone. Mindy is always such a thinker. She also brought sand toys for the kids to play with. What would we do without her. What would I do without Stockton and Taylor. These kids always keep the other little kids entertained. They are so good with Rylee too-she loves them.
Sunday we had breakfast courtesy of the Stacey Family and then we all packed up and left. I never like that part. You have so much work to do when you get home-you have to unpack everything and wash everything as it all smells like campfire whether you had it outside or not. But it is worth the work. I always enjoy myself.

Another Disappointment

So I had my 3rd and definetly final IUI on July 10th. When we found out the 2nd one didn't take Justin said let's try 1 more time. And I was so hopeful this time because I knew it would be the last and I kept thinking 3rd time's the charm. Even though you really shouldn't get your hopes up because if it doesn't take you just set yourself up for more heartbreak. It doesn't help when they tell you at the doctors office that they have a good feeling about this one. They ended up doing the procedure late in the afternoon instead of the morning this time too. So in combination of all those factors I got my hopes up only to be sorely disappointed. After the crying and feeling sorry for myself I am now back to being hopeful. I guess that is really the only thing you can do is to try to stay positive. If I don't, I start thinking that maybe I am just not going to get pregnant again and that just makes me a boob all over again. I also have to remember that I already have one blessing when some people don't have any and they are struggling to get pregnant. It still doesn't make it easier when all you see around you is pregnant women-and they are EVERYWHERE! Anyway, I am going to keep trying the old fashioned way (with a little help from my friend Clomid) and one day-hopefully sooner than later I'll get lucky.

Good Times

So yesterday I returned home from a fun filled visit with my sister. Rylee and I left the house Saturday morning and arrived in Syracuse at about 12. We spent the rest of Saturday shopping which is always a pleasure. Got a little shopping in for Rylee as it was Gymbucks time at Gymboree and even though I really wasn't supposed to be shopping this weekend I did happen to find myself some things. But sometimes you just can't pass up a good deal and I found some at Mervyns. It was a buy one get one off certain racks and they were already marked down items so it really was a no brainer. Nicole at this time still had not found "the shirt" for the John Mayer concert but no panicking yet. We took a break and had Kent watch the kids for us so we could go see Mama Mia which we really enjoyed. I think I would see it again. I was a little worried about all the singing because I am not usually a huge musical fan but it didn't bother me. I also liked it because Mr. Darcy was in it(for all those P&P fans-you know who I am talking about). After the movie we ate and then continued on our search for "the shirt" which we did finally find and the trinkets to go with "the shirt". We could finally relax-we both had our outfits for the concert.





Sunday we were planning on going the The Farm but apparently it isn't open on Sunday's which is too bad because it is free adn we like things that are free. So we tried to find something that the kids would enjoy since they had to endure us shopping. We ended up taking them bowling. That was definitley not cheap. I was thinking it would be like $20 for the 4 of us adn it ended up being twice that much. Nobody's cheap these days. It was quite the experience. I think I will wait to do that again until Rylee is a little older. She didn't like it at first because the ball was too heavy and her or Andrew couldn't throw it they had to roll teh ball and then it took it an hour (I am being serious here) to get to the pins. So Nicole and I ended up "helping" them throw their balls down the lane just so we wouldn't be there all day. And then our lane kept breaking down so we would have to wait for someone to come and fix it before we could resume the game. I have never been really great at bowling and almost at the end of the game both kids were ahead of me but I pulled into 2nd (Nicole being 1st of course) in the 10th frame. Ya Hoo!! I am not humilated-maybe it helped not to have people laughing at me like Justin always does when we bowl.

Later that night I had my first experience in scrapbooking. At first I felt like my sister was forcing me to work-I did not want to work-I am on a little vacation so leave me alone(this was what I thought in my head). But once I got going I found I really enjoyed it (this is where my sister is thinking I told you so!) and that maybe I can do this. My 1st page really turned out quite cute but then Nicole made it that way.

I woke up the Monday morning (the day of the concert) and it was RAINING! We were so upset. But I tried to think positivley-that it had all day to clear up. So we decided to do another scrapbook page and Nicole had a great idea-that we should stay in our pajamas until the kids took a nap and then get ready in the afternoon so we would look our best for John. So we did another scrapbook page which again turned out way cute and gets me really excited to start doing it on my own. Then we put the kids down and got ready for the concert which was at USANA Ampitheater. By the way, it was beautiful and sunshiney outside-no more rain! We got there kind of early so instead of eating nachos or hotdogs there we drove through the town looking for some place decent to eat. My sister is making me laugh the whole way as she likes to dance in the car. I find this very amusing and then she is telling me not to look people in the eye or hang my hand out of the car and accidentally flashing a gang sign as it is kind of a tough neighborhood. We finally see a Spaghetti Factory which we both like- I really like there mushroom sauce there-very tasty. We got back on the road and headed back towards USANA. We get there and parked clear up on a hill thinking we would maybe get out better this way since we weren't in the main parking area. By the time we got to the gates both our makeup was sweated off-so much for getting ready late in the day to stay beautiful! We were both kicking ourselves in the buttocks too as neither one of us had our cameras. I had forgotten mine at home like usual and Nicole brought hers but we weren't sure if it would be allowed so we left it in the car and neither one of us wanted to climb back up the hill in 100° weather for a camera once we found out you could bring them in. This was a picture Nicole self took after Spaghetti Factory.
Brett Dennen was the 1st act-which neither one of us wanted to hear as we had no clue as to who he was but we ended up liking his songs. They were kind of fun to listen to. Colbie Caillat was next and I knew of her 2 songs on the radio but really enjoyed all the songs that she sang. Enough that I had Nicole burn me a copy of her CD that she had. Then John Mayer was up. It was great. He did a lot of guitar solos (a little too long for our liking) but that is what he does and he does it very well. It was really a lot of fun-I just wish I could loosen up a little bit and dance and not worry about how I look or what other people are thinking of me. It was either stand there and do nothing and look stupid or dance and have fun and look stupid-I chose standing there and looking stupid. Nicole danced the night away and had a blast. I envy that freedom! When the concert was over we made our treck up the hill to go home. Trying to get out took us awhile but once we got on the road traffic wasn't so bad-of course it was a Monday night @ 11:30 p.m.-not a whole lot of people out except for all the drunks driving home from teh concert!

Tuesday was my day to leave. I was pretty bummed 1) because I never like to leave my sister or Andrew-I always have fun and 2) I was leaving Rylee and having to drive home all by myself. Boo Hoo! Before going home we grabbed some lunch and took the kids to the park. It was too hot and they were tired and Rylee was whiney so we took them home. I put Rylee down and I left. It is always a downer for me to leave-I wish I lived closer to my sister and Andrew so we could spend more time together-but then we would probably get sick of each other.

Well, I am looking forward to this Thursday as Nicole is bringing Rylee home Thursday night but also because we are going for our Heileson Family Campout this weekend. More fun to look forward to.

The Outfit

Really there hasn't been too much going on in my life right at this minute but I figured I needed to write something. I have things in the near future that I am looking forward to like John Mayer, visiting my sister and camping which I will write all about later. Speaking of John Mayer I had a really weird dream about him last night. Well it wasn't about him but he was in it and so was Jennifer Aniston. I think I am just too worried that I will forget something I need or won't have anything to wear which is just stupid. I actually went out and bought a brand new outfit just for the occasion yesterday and in my dream I forgot that outfit and I was so upset. My sister and i have been all worried about what we are going to wear and now I no longer have to worry. I even called her yesterday just to brag. She said she was happy for me but not really. She is just jealous because she doesn't have anything to wear yet. This is the outfit by the way. I just thought it would be fun to put it on since I don't have any pictures to go with this blog.
How dumb is that but now I will always remember what I wore to the concert. How crazy am I. When I look back I will probably think it is the most hideous thing ever but don't we all do that when we look at older pictures and think now why did I wear that. Anyway, I am really excited and you will hear all about it later.

Backyard BBQ

This last Saturday Justin and I had a BBQ in the backyard. We had my sister and her family, my parents, Justin's parents and Brett and Cheryl come over. It was really hot that day and we had the BBQ right in the afternoon. My parents had brought over a couple of umbrellas for shade and so that helped out a lot. My parents actually had to bring over a ton of stuff like the table and more chairs because we weren't quite prepared this year. Hopefully by next year we will be all set. It was really fun though. My sister brought over her famous 7 layer dip (one side without onions for her favorite sister) and we had hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. Justin's mom Bette also brought her famous potato salad (with a little bowl minus the onions for you know who) and everybody loves her potato salad. I don't know what she does to it but it just tastes extra good.

Justin had The Plunge set up and the kids had a blast with that. Andrew was a little nervous at first but once uncle Justin had pushed him down the slide he was ready to go. Even some of us adults got into it. Sometimes it is nice not worrying about what you look like and just having fun-just like we used to when we were kids. After playing on the plunge for a bit we broke out the water guns. We had one each for the kids and of course the adults got into that one too. That was a blast-the kids had fun chasing after all the adults trying to get them wet. Cheryl got my dad with a bottle of water while he was filling up a bottle for the kids so of course my dad had to get Cheryl triple what she got him. He had filled up the trash can full of water and then dumped it on Cheryl-she was soaked. None of us even noticed him getting this big trash can full of water. After that my dad hid inside because he knew Cheryl would try to get revenge.

Everything was hunky dory until uncle Brett threw a ball and it hit Andrews water gun which hit him in the face and made his lip bleed. That upset him and he wanted to go home so they left at about 2:30. Then Rylee got hurt (of course) and after that everybody left. She can't go one day without getting hurt-she is very accident prone which makes me very nervous! The kids were way tired though and I think getting hurt just broke the straw.

I will defintley do this again though. It was a good ending to a good weekend. For more pictures go to this link http://picasaweb.google.com/justin.chipp.

4th of July Celebration

This weekend even though it was a long weekend went by super fast. I had a great time but I hate how short it seemed. My sister came up for the holiday with her family Thursday night so we could get to the parade Friday morning. Luckily Justin's boss lives on 4th street and he offered to let us sit on his lawn. We had good seats and it was great because we were at the start of the parade.

The kids had a lot of fun at the parade and they got tons of candy. Nicole and I kept making them go out in the street to get the candy that landed on the street. We put all of our goodies in a backpack that we had. We were supposed to divide it up before Nicole left but that didn't happen. So I have this huge backpack full of tootsie rolls, suckers, smarties etc. Rylee thinks she has to have one in the morning and after school. Nicole thinks she got away scott free but little does she know that I will be seeing her in a couple of weeks and I will have a gift for her.

Rylee loved the horses and there seemed to be a lot of them this year but she didn't like what they left behind. We are all very grateful for the street sweepers who were following behind.

It was a great parade and we had a lot of fun. We are already looking forward to next year especially Rylee. She is already asking me when we can go to the parade.

We had dinner at Carinos and then went to Freeman Park to watch the fireworks. We had a little time to kill so we got the kids an ice cream and after that they dog piled each one of us thanks to the suggestion of my dad who we all know loves to dog pile. Rylee didn't choke on lifesavers this year. She will never forget that and brings it up all the time. Last year she was given a lifesaver and somehow she swallowed it and started choking. We all started freaking out and then this guy comes over and helps her. She always asks about him and I will never forget him either and will be forever grateful. Luckily all went well besides Rylee almost peeing her pants-twice! There was this huge line (of course) at the girls bathroom and Rylee is holding herself and all the nice ladies tell us to go ahead-both times and I was so embarrased but very grateful we didn't have any accidents.

It seemed like we waited forever but once the fireworks started they were amazing. I think they were better this year than last year because I didn't end up falling asleep like last year. Rylee ended up falling asleep though because she had missed her nap. And of course she is already asking me when we can go to the fireworks again. She did this last year. She loves the parade and fireworks. I am also already looking forward to next year as I always enjoy the time spent with my family.

Too Much Fun

Because of the water toy at Quinlan's birthday party Justin and I wanted to get a water toy for Rylee. So we got online Sunday and ordered one. It's called The Plunge-sounds exciting doesn't it. It looks like fun and the plus side is that Justin and I can go on it too. We had it overnighted so we could have it for the 4th of July so Andrew and Rylee could play on it.

I thought it would be fun to have some of Rylee's friends from school over to test it out. So on Thursday we had Kiersten over after school to play on the plunge and to have hotdogs. We had also asked Katie, another one of Rylee's friends but she ended up getting a really bad sore throat and so she wasn't able to come over. Rylee and Kiersten had a really good time though. It was the first time she had gotten to go on the slide and she had a blast. It is a pain in the butt to take down but you want to get as much use of it as you can because of the money you spend on it. We will definitley have her friends over to do that again (as long as they can be outside). Last time Kiersten was over the kids played a lot inside because it hadn't gotten nice yet and I am not used to having 2 girls running around my house. They wore me out!!! These kids have so much energy and Justin and I were just dying. But as much as they ran and played outside on the slide I think they actually wore themselves out this time.