Connor's swimming lessons at Oakhill day school

Connor's really enjoyed his summer camp at Oakhill. Each day he's got swimming lessons in the morning and he has done a great job with it. They go next door to the Gladstone Community Center which has a really nice outdoor and indoor pool. Most days they went outside, but one day when it rained they went inside. Mommy was able to join him one day and got some pictures.

Connor's snoring

A few nights ago the kids were in bed and Andrea heard a weird sound while we were watching TV. After muting the TV, we realized it was Connor snoring and we could hear it all the way downstairs.

I took the camera upstairs and took a brief video while trying to illuminate him with my phone.

500th post! (501 actually...)

After I posted the post on Connor's summer camp, Andrea went in to fix some text as she often does and noticed that it was post #500! We're pretty proud that we've kept this going for four and a half years now, but had no idea we'd posted that many times already.

To celebrate, I decided to post a video of me playing with my Paige.

Oakhill Day School Summer Camp

Today was Connor's first day at the Oakhill Day School Summer Camp. It's all day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and includes classroom time, play time, swimming lessons and all kinds of fun. Connor's buddy Logan's been in summer school lately, and Connor was already getting a little restless and mentioned that he wanted to go to school, so Mommy was sweet enough to plan some fun summer activities for our little man.

The swimming lessons were first thing in the morning, so we got Connor dressed for the day in his swim trunks and sandals. Mommy stuffed his backpack full of gear, clothes, and his lunch. She decided to also include a special treat in his lunch, 3 chocolate chip cookies! We took a quick pic of him before he left for the day.

Mommy drove him to the school and on the way she coached him on having a good attitude and trying to be friendly. Connor said "Mommy, I not be shy". Mommy dropped him off without any fuss, and then we wondered all day how he was doing.

When I went to pick him up, I stopped in to ask his teacher Mrs. Ralph how he did. She told me that Connor did wonderfully and was very good, wasn't sad, played well and was a good listener. I asked for more details and she said that Connor had done some painting, coloring, played with a bunch of toys and was a little shy and quiet. That sounded about right.

I took a quick picture of Connor in the classroom before we left.


On the way home I asked Connor if he liked summer camp and he said he did. I asked what he did and he said "Nothing". I asked if he played with any of the kids and he said he didn't because nobody likes him. Connor said that he thought they were all 2 years old and he is 4, so that's why they didn't play with him. We talked about how he had to be nice and try to play with the other kids so they'd play with him. I know it was a big accomplishment for him to be so positive and have a good attitude in a strange place with strange people all day. He did great, all things considered. I asked if he had fun swimming and he said he was afraid that he'd sink under water, but it wasn't too deep, just medium.

When we got home, Mommy unpacked his backpack and saw that Connor hadn't eaten any of his cookies. She asked him why he didn't and he said "Because I almost eat all my food". It took us a minute and then we realized that he knew he needed to eat all his healthy food before his treats and since he hadn't finished everything else, he didn't eat the cookies. We were a little amazed by that, but that's Connor! If any child would be so responsible, we knew it would be our Bubba Brown.



Good job Connor boy!

Alli and Drew visit

This weekend we had Allison and Drew over for a summer visit. Andrea took Connor, Drew and Alli down to the pool while Paigie Pie napped, and they swam at the neighborhood pool for an hour. Once they got home, we blew up the kiddie shark pool and Paige got to join everyone for some water fun.


Alli, as usual, was a big help with little Paige and they had a lot of fun together.


Paige loved to spin!


The boys played some fun computer and iPad games.

We ate some Minsky's pizza and then went out for snow cones, only to find that our local snow cone stand was closed! We "settled" for Lemon Tree frozen yogurt, which is always one of Connor's favorites.

Hospital Hill race

Today we got up early for the Hospital Hill race. Andrea ran the 10k and Shawn did the half marathon. It was an early wakeup for a Saturday, and Andrea's cousin Teresa was over at 6:00am to watch the kids. The race was downtown KC and the name hints at the course. It was hilly. And hot!

Andrea struggled mightily in the heat. She has been doing strength training lately and has logged some very impressive 6 mile times that were in the 53 minute range. Today wasn't her finest hour. She worked her booty off, but her official finish time was 58:42.


Shawn started off way too fast, taken by the excitement of the moment, and a little grossed out by the smells of all the people packed way too tight at the start line. Morning breath and Coffee breath... yuck.

I was running with the 1:45 pacer for a while and as I settled in to my pace I realized I was crazy for starting so fast. I slowed down and after a few miles the 1:50 pacer caught up. I briefly kept pace with them, but it was a rough course and I knew I'd be lucky to finish near my Oz time. With about 4 miles to go, the 1:55 pacer caught me and I was determined not to let him pass me. I struggled, but kept him at bay and eventually finished the race in 1:54:13. My official Oz time was 1:54:47. The Oz race was MUCH flatter and was on a cold day.



We had a great time, it was our first race together and we can't wait to run again!

Random shots of the kids

We had a number of random pictures we'd taken lately and no real theme to them but wanted to post them since some were pretty darn cute.


Connor and his Yertle the Turtle puzzle. He worked on most of it with Mommy, but Mommy needed to change out the laundry before they finished. She had worked out most of the outline and told him to try and finish it. When she came downstairs, she found a very proud Connor who was excited he'd finished the puzzle all by himself. She didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't quite right. It's a little puzzling that it all fit together improperly.


Connor and a "cape" that Mommy made for him.

New PJ's

We brought Connor's old chair up from the basement. It's all scraped up from when he sat in it with his cast, but it's functional and the perfect height for Paige.



Paige snacking on some of Uncle Nate's famous Jello dessert.


Her hair in that video is typical by the end of the day. The hair above her left ear always wants to flip out and it's getting long, so it looks pretty atrocious at times. It's all growing, albeit slowly.