2 DAYS

I feel like I am bit of a blog hoarder. I basically binge on a ton of pics and cram them all into one purge session with a terrible title. This often happens late at night when I am borderline delirious and totally distracted by a million things such as making lunches and going to bed. This will probably keep happening because blogging all of the ins and outs of my kids' lives makes me happy and lessens the mom guilt of a full time job like nobody's business. Because, who has time to feel guilt when we are clearly having the time of our lives, right??

Anyway, I am trying to capture more moments and really remember those instead of cramming 58 pictures of every thing we ever do. Well, for this post anyway.

Day 1: I took off work on a Thursday to hang out with these guys because the grandparents were all out of town, couldn't take them to daycare and Brandon just got back in town and could not get off of work. It turned out to be pretty epic. A THURSDAY!! I loved it.

First up, Anderson had his teeth cleaned and Max got a bunch of balloons because he is so cute people can't stand it. Actually, this was not first because by our 9am appt we had already dropped Chloe off at the vet, returned library books, dropped off  a box of donation stuff, hit up CVS (I love that they open at 7am!), etc.

After the dentist, it was flu shot, haircut, random errands, etc. time because I WAS OFF WORK ON A THURSDAY! This day will truly live in infamy. As a fun break, the boys played at the mall and I realized this was Max's first visit there and I felt a little bad, but he definitely made up for it that day. (Also, whose kid has been to Dollywood on at least 6 occasions and has never been to the mall play area? I mean, really)

And, to truly live it up, we stopped to play on a "ro-er" as Max calls steam rollers. I love this pic. The clouds, the 2 cuties about 10 feet high, Anderson sort of sharing the wheel with Max, the fact that Max is old enough and a person enough to be so excited about construction. It was all so much.

Then, we hit up Chickfila for dinner and I realized sort of early on that the play area designed for "3-12" year olds had someone's baby in it. I mean, he is 16 months old, which basically rounds up to almost 3 if you are looking at it from my limited math skills. The boy thinks he is at least 8 and is not, by any means, going to sit and watch something like this.

It was such a fun day with my boys and the fact that it was basically a bonus day was the best part.

Day 2: Brandon has to work basically every Saturday and I am determined to entertain these little people as much as possible. Mostly, because the alternative is being trapped at our house, but it is also clearly because I love them.

We spent over 4 hours at Ijams Nature Center, which as Shannon said, is clearly meant for us since it starts with I. We did a little kid hike, saw a few snakes, turtles, a ton of bugs and an owl. The owl was the best part because we have been practicing with Max on saying "Hoo-Hoo" (or is it whoo?) to get ready for his awesome Halloween costume. Then, we did our own hike, which lasted about 2 hours. I am not sure of the distance covered because there was a lot of stopping and touching every single piece of grass/stick/rock/bug that we saw because we chose to travel with a small child, but surely it was at least a mile?

There is a little playground that Max loved, which was right next to a giant field where we had to play football. Yes, we had to bring a football with us, just in case. 

 It was such a perfect day with them. The weather was nice, they were both SO excited about everything, they just love each other and I love that they are at an age where they think I am the most awesome mom ever for taking them hiking/bug hunting/football playing/snake finding at Ijams.

 Anderson is truly in his element when he is outside in any capacity.

I might, just a teensy bit, miss this time. I mean, LOOK AT THAT FACE!!!

And, the next time I go to the grocery store with them, I will slap myself for even thinking this.