Jacksonville

We made the trek to Jacksonville on Friday afternoon to pay a visit to Steven's folks. Matt did great on our 3.5 hour drive. I think the stop at Dairy Queen for a chicken basket kept him entertained in the car for well over an hour. We pulled up to the drive through window and Steven asked if we should get a 4 piece or a 6 piece basket, and before I could answer Matt chimed in from the backseat, "6!!!" Good thing he spoke up, because that kid polished off all that food and then had snacks that I had packed for him. Crazy.

Tim & Pam arrived in Jville on Saturday, and the boys spent hours cleaning out closets and attic space and clearing that house of 20+ years of collected stuff. I couldn't believe all of the things that had been kept all those years. And the best part is that Steven always claims that he never had much growing up as the third child....but after I saw the ridiculous, massive amount of toys that he had stashed in his closet I didn't feel so sorry for him. He claimed that they weren't necessarily HIS things and those that were his things he paid for with his own money as a kid. Wow, Steven.

Matt definitely benefited from the resurfacing of all those toys. The kid was in toy heaven all weekend. More cars and blocks and army men and plastic animals than he knew what to do with. Steven, Tim and Ken loaded up an entire trailer full of stuff to take to the dump on Monday morning. It was impressive.
Matt got to go over and play with Mason on Saturday afternoon and he was again aghast at all the cool toys. I think his favorite was Mason's Thomas the train table with all the cool trains. He also had this ball popper toy that Matt has always been fond of. It was funny though because Matt kept trying to collect the balls to put back in the machine and Mason kept trying to sequester the balls and labeled them as his "squash". They had a good time. Matt keeps talking about how he'll see Mason again at the beach. Just a few more weeks!

Joyce pulled out this crazy two-sided story book doll that Matt fell in love with. On side was little red riding hood, and then you flip her skirt over and there's the big, bad wolf--but then you flip the wolf's cap over and there's little red riding hood's sweet grandmother. And Joyce of course did a great job telling the story every time Matt asked to hear it. It was kinda creepy, but it engaged Matt for those 3 days.
We had a nice time and a productive time as well. We got back yesterday and Matt and Steven had some pool time in the backyard. Matt was enjoying being "juggled" by his daddy. Matt is definitely taking a liking to a little rougher type of play than I am used to. His poor little growing sibling has taken a few good jabs. Speaking of which, I've been feeling the baby move lately and it's the coolest, freakiest, most amazing feeling. I can't believe I'm getting to do this all over again! So fun.