We haven't been up to a whole lot of blog worthy things lately. I have been feeding my new addiction of canning and that is about it. 
Last week I made two batches of salsa, a batch of spaghetti sauce, and Fisherman helped me do some peaches.
This may not look like much, but there were lots of hours put into those cans. I hope to do some apple sauce and possibly some pears yet.
Tonight it was a bit rainy so the boys were playing in the puddles and the mud. Bebo's clothes were filthy so I took them off revealing this cuteness. Don't you just want to reach into the computer screen and pinch that chunky goodness?
I am marking this on the calender as the day when the love affair with frog boots has started for Bebo. Monk loved them, but they no longer fit him. 
This was the trip that almost didn't happen, but ended up to be a great one. We have been planning to go to the Toledo Zoo since early summer because we could get in free with our zoo pass from our local zoo. This was our third weekend away in a row and I wasn't sure if I wanted to re-pack everything just to unpack and do lots of laundry again. Last minute we decided to go so we pulled our little trailer down to Stony Ridge and stayed at the KOA there. 
The boys LOVED the zoo. There were so many cool animals that we don't have at the zoo nearby us.
The "firsh" were by far Bebo's favorite part of the zoo.
Hippos are crazy animals man! Have you ever seen one up close?
We spent all morning at the zoo and then headed on back to camp for a little snooze.
Here is where I admit that I like to put my boys in something cute when I am going to be taking their picture all day. I forgot to change Bebo out of his outfit when we got back to camp. Sadly this is what happened to that outfit. There is a reason for camping clothes.
Rough life!
This was our first experience at a KOA. You camp close together, but they have a lot of fun things for the kids. They some swings for the kids, a hay ride, and bikes to rent.
The boys got some sand toys from their Papa and Nana so they had lots of fun in the sand. On the way home we hit up Cabela's and had an all around great weekend as a family. 
Fisherman and I got a new bed. His stipulation was that it was better on his back than the last one and mine was it had to be a KING! I have wanted a king size since we had Monk. While I don't let me kids sleep in my bed every night, I do love the occasional snuggle here and there. Since I got a different size bed that meant new bedding.
The old paint in the room which was a sage green didn't match my new duvet cover SO we had to change the paint color too. The stripe in the room is a dark brown. It kind of looks black in the picture. I LOVE everything about the change. It made our room more cheery.
Those who know me well know I love me some sweet corn! Last week my in-laws got us over 100 ears of yummy sweet corn so that we could enjoy it all winter long.
We husked 83 ears of corn, boiled it, cut it off the cob, and bagged it for the freezer.
You can't even imagine how wonderful it tastes when you are not suppose to be enjoying it. I would love to invite you all over to have some with us, but I'm not sure if I am willing to share.
We went camping at Diamond Lake right next to Love's Resort :). It wasn't the nicest part of the state, but the second day we fell in love with the campground and wanted to return with our two boys. I say the second because the first night we arrived it was dark and we were camping on top of our neighbors fire pit. We were also right next to the camp host. That's like having your dorm room right next to the RA. The second day we walked around and found there were some bigger sites and a nice beach. The boys went to Grandpa and Grandma's and we were left with the two of us for the weekend. It was a fabulous time doing what we wanted, staying up late because we could sleep in the next day, and enjoying dinners out with no children involved. We sat at a GREAT little restaurant on a little inland lake for over an hour. Those of you who have kids know this is hard to do. Thanks Fisherman for spending some good time with me and thanks to my in-laws for taking such great care of our boys while we were away. 
The Monk had his first day of preschool on Tuesday. He is in a Spanish Immersion program. I went with him for an hour on Tuesday. He is going by himself for the whole time tomorrow so I may shed some tears when I have to leave. It is so amazing that in just one hour he learned three commands for the classroom in Spanish. My hope for Monk in the El Puente program is to give him something that challenges him and also to provide him with the knowledge of another language and culture. 
Monk, I keep asking myself when I am going to give up these monthly posts. It seems to me like you are getting a bit old for me to talk about your age monthly. There are not near as many changes as when you were a baby/toddler. You had a BIG change as of today though. You are going to three school and you are in the Spanish Immersion program. I am so excited for you and you are excited as well and LOVE your backpack.
You are a helper. You like to help at any chance you get. Making dinner with Daddy is one of your favorites. I love when our projects end with this saying, "we sure did a great job mom."
As many have probably gathered from the blog, you LOVE fishing with your Dad. You talk about it all the time, love touching the worms, and are so proud of your catch.
Your Dad and I went away this past weekend while you and your brother went to Grandpa and Grandma's. We talked about you lots while we were gone and one of the things that I love about you is when you crawl up into my bed, give me a little kiss, sigh, and say, "I love you!" Can you do that forever? Monk I love you too, more than you could ever imagine. Love, Mama.Well Bebo you are 19 months old today. I have been trying to upload some picture to this post, but for some reason it is not working. Mc Donald's wifi can't handle too much I guess. In the last month your little personality has blossomed even more. You are such a goofy little kid. You make the whole family laugh daily. When sitting in your high chair while we are eating dinner you come up with these funny little antics that make us all laugh. Your three favorite words are fish, water, and hot. While you say a lot of other words these three make up a lot of your conversation. They sound a little bit more like firrshhhh, awter, and ott when you say them though.
While we were camping last weekend you just started asking to hold my hand when we walk some where. Your little voice says "and" and your cute little arm extends out up to mine. Oh this warms my heart. I want to remember moments like these forever.
You LOVE playing in all things that annoy me. The bathroom is a big one. You take the deodorant out and get it all over the place by opening and closing the lid. Another favorite place to play is the lazy susan and eat the baking powder. I thought we were over the whole playing in the toilet thing, but recently you have found some fun in that again too.
You don't like when anyone goes out the door and you can't come. You don't like when your brother sits on you, which unfortunately he does more often that you would think. Diaper changes are still not a favorite and being put in your car seat when you would rather play outside is not high on your list either.
Bebo you are a sweet little man. This weekend your Dad and I are celebrating eight years of being married and one of the best moments of those eight years was when I met you. I love you kid, with everything that I have. Love, Mama
Last weekend we took our third annual camping trip with friends from church. We went to Mitchell, we LOVE it there! In true Tripp fashion I forgot about a million things. Our first day camping almost always includes a trip to the local store. This camping trip was no different. I forgot shoes for Bebo. So off to the store we went and we found these guys pictured above. Now usually I try to shy away from character shoes that light up, it's just not my thing, although I KNOW I will have to get these sometime when one of my children will insist on that kind, but for now I try to deter that decision. Anyway they were $5, DONE! Bebo has warm feet and giggle when they light up.
Bebo LOVED the swings. It was a good thing and a bad thing that we were right near the swings. Good because I didn't have to walk very far to get there, bad because Bebo could see them and ran over there with no looking back at all times.
In case you forgot what the weather was like last weekend, let me remind you, COLD and WET! The boys didn't let the rain get to them. We were so glad we had our trailer at a time like this.
Monk takes right after his dad. While Bebo was constantly on the swings, Monk was begging to go fishing every second of the day. It suits him I would say and I can't say his Dad minds doing all that fishing.
If you have ever met Bebo, you will know that the child has no fear, this very high slide was no challenge to him.
Monk spent a lot of time in the fire pit when we went camping with him at Bebo's age. Bebo hung out there a lot too. I am trying to figure out what is the big draw to this area.
Our clothes came home wet and Monk got a nice little shiner on his left eye, but we had a good time with some good friends and we hope to do it again next year.
Eight years ago today at 5:30 pm the music started playing and I walked down this isle to meet you at the end to become your wife. Eight years has brought us many places. There is a song that I just love by Caedmon's Call called Love Grows Love. It sums up how I feel about the last eight years: