A season of firsts...

I am sorry I haven't kept you all updated all that much lately, but I have been very busy. I have a loooot to catch you all up on. I thought I'd share a few of the firsts of the season around here in Missouri. The tornado sirens have gone off for the first time this summer, which is always exciting to me. (For those of you who "ain't from these parts" they turn the sirens on when there is any rotation in the clouds, tornado activity, but it doesn't necessarily mean a tornado has touched down) It's funny because the one thing one is supposed to do (which is go INSIDE to the basement) when you hear the siren, everyone does the opposite. I heard the sirens and Brady asked what it was, and I said, "The tornado sirens, come on, lets go out on the porch and look!" When we did, I saw about three neighbors doing the same thing. There's just something about that erie "calm before the storm" that comes that I just love. We did eventually go to the basement where Brady kept saying, "I think the tornado is coming down the stairs!!" and "The tornado is at the front door!" I kept trying to explain to him that the tornado didn't have eyes, or a mouth, but he just would not be fooled. Well, it turns out that there was an actual F3 tornado that came through and actually demolished much of the neighborhood we used to live in. I have high doubts that a tornado would touch the house we are in because it is nestled in trees, and is at least 30 years old.
Another first includes our first family camping trip. Yes, Nick, Brady, and I "roughed" it in my dad's enormous tent with a queen size air mattress and I should mention we got an electrical site, so we had an outlet the whole time. We really got away from civilization! Haha. I bought a cheap little kiddie raft in the swim section of Walmart for Brady that worked out awesome. It was just his size, and he was very excited to have his "own little bed." We weren't really expecting the weather of the first night, which turned out to be low 40's. We didn't bring much for blankets because it had been warm lately, so what we did have, Brady got, and Nick and I relied on body heat with a quilt. I don't think either of us slept much that night. I kept waking up to see Brady, nice and cozy, snoring, warm...he's lucky he's cute. LOL. The next day, we made a trip back to the house (we were about 30 min away) to get a space heater and more blankets. Like I said, we really roughed it. We went fishing, which was very disappointing. I've realized I love fishing, if I catch something. I did catch one "little fella" but Brady and Nick didn't catch anything. I kept having to rub it in Nick's face by saying, "Man, my hands stink like fish, do yours?" He didn't think it was near as funny as I did.
One more quick first-I found our first tick on one of our cats. Bluagh! I absolutely hate ticks. They serve no purpose, and I don't know why they are on the earth. Nick said that he found one on him too. Then I saw one crawling on one of our chairs (we live right next to some woods.) It makes me sick thinking about them. P.S. We bought Brady a T-Ball set that he loves! Here are some pics!