Family Reunion and Family Traditions!

Last weekend we packed up the car (I did much better this time with Clare's shoe packing and the packing for myself!) and headed to our annual family reunion!  The reunion has been something my family has been attending since I can rememeber and has always been the last event before gearing up for back to school.  This time however and last pregnancy it acted as a mark to the final countdown until our son is born (7 weeks and counting).
The reunion has always been about traditions and the fun part is that not everyones traditions are the exact same and they do continue to change from year to year.  But there are somethings that do remain the same:
Friday night - head to Ellisnore, MO to stay at my dads cousins house (always a house full!)
Saturday - lunch at the Campbell, MO recreation center - always good food, entertainment for the kids, and good family time
Sunday - head home

Now that I have my own family we have tried making it a point to start our own traditions as well.  To start, we ALWAYS stop at McDonalds on our way from Ellisnore to Campbell.  WHY?  I believe the first year we did it because the food was a little questionable from the year prior but since then we stop even if its for a drink!
After the event on Saturday we go the the Glendale Picnic with the family who likes to let loose and have a few beers.  The beers are drank under the same tree every year.  After that we have been heading to Poplar Bluff to stay at a hotel then head home on Saturday.  Which by the way my husband has managed to leave 2 pairs of sunglasses at that hotel over the years - which add up to about $400 in lost sunglasses - hopefully this will not become a tradition : )
We always talk all the way home about what we did the previous years and what changes we want to make for next year and I think we already have some good ideas!

I didn't take a ton of pictures but what I do have is just a small glimpse into what our traditions are all about.  The rest are memories that only our family has : )

Getting a Pedi before heading to the Reunion








Clare is so funny becasue she is starting to realize how to be funny....like putting this turtle on her head and saying "daddy look!!"

Clare's favorite thing to do at any hotel we go to is play on the phone.  She picks it up and says "hello" then pauses and says "oh hiiiiiiii"  Its so cute! She has quite the imagination! (another one of her favorite imagination things right now is acting like a dog - and she goes all out - on all fours and starts panting like a dog - she showed off her skills Sunday morning when we were leaving the hotel resturant!)



Weekend Inside....

This weekend we tried staying inside as much as possible. With temperatures in the 100+ degree it was an easy decision. 
Our weekend started with surprising Daddy as he landed at the airport.  He surely was surprised to see us standing at the fence waiting for him!  With time to waste before he landed Clare and I tried having lunch...well that didn't go over well with Miss. Clare because I told her we were going to see the airplanes after lunch.  She ate about 4 bites and then wouldn't stop talking about the airplanes.  Clare's love for airplanes started about a month ago when she saw Daddy land for the first time.  Since then she can spot an airplane anywhere in the sky and even reconginzes them by sound (sometimes she thinks a loud motorcycle or car is an airplane too). 

Clare being silly in the Pilot's office

After we left the airport we headed to Clare's friends house for his 2nd birthday.  Its hard to believe these kiddos will soon be 2!

Sunday we spent the whole day inside and it was much needed because Dominic's room is officially done!  With the exception of doing a few more loads of laundry we are pretty much ready for him to arrive...except he needs to stay put for 10 more weeks.

Oddly enough when we were putting the finishing touches on his room Clare was sitting in the the nursery chair playing with my phone.  Somehow she was able to slide my phone to unlock it, get into my music app, and shuffle through to find our wedding song (she kept hitting the next button until our song came on then she let it play). It really caught Paul and I off gaurd and it took a few seconds for us to realize what she just did! I know it was just a coincendence but it was so odd!  Of course we all started dancing!  This little boy doesn't know what he is getting himself into but at least he will be loved : ) 

Next's weeks agenda is to have Clare's room officially done a photo ready.  She has been in her room for over a month but it still needs a few more pictures hung and her window cornice box painted.


 

Happy Daddy Day!

For Father's Day we (AKA the entire Malone clan) decided to take a road trip to St. James to visit the Trout Park.  We started with lunch on top of a BIG cliff overlooking the stream.  Although it was a pretty view with 2 toddlers in tow it was a bit scary!  After lunch we headed down to the stream where I captured these pictures of our stay.....



I think everyone in the entire family had a great time!  Its always nice get everyone together.  I think next time we might hold off on the fishing and just feed the trout and have lunch....the kiddo's (AKA Clare) were more concerned with getting in the stream than fishing!

I'll leave you with a saying that I found....

"I never knew how much I loved your daddy until I saw how much he Loved you" 

I think any wife who has seen the love daddy's have for their children would say this to be true!

Happy Daddy's Day!

Pickles and Cucumbers

The title of my post does not reflect in all actuality what I will be blogging about but I will explain....!We had the privilege of taking a little getaway for the last time before we become a family of 4. Its amazing that when you getaway for even a small amount of time you learn so much about each other. I for one was very proud of myself for turning my email off on my phone to allow myself some much needed family time (which Paul was completly shocked but he learned that I can do it!). For Paul he was floored when he found out that Pickles were made from CUCUMBERS!  Thats right...he had lived for almost 31 years without knowing this.  Being a major Pickle lover I couldn't believe I had never talked to him about how pickles were made - hints the name of my post! ANYWAYS.... 
Branson was always a place I went as a child and when Paul and I met I introduced him to the small town of shopping, boating, fishing, and shows.  He instantly fell in love with this town, after all, where else can a man and women be so happy in the same place...fishing, lake, and shopping???!!! 

Accommodations:


We are in LOVE with this hotel!  Its the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing and the staff are always so nice to upgrade us to a condo with a separate bedroom and living space which is a MUST when traveling with children. 
It also has a "lake/landing" view which we really enjoy along with lots of shopping and dining places.  We literally walked to dinner from our hotel.






Day 1:
We had dinner at our most favorite resturant on the landing....Texas Land and Cattle!  Its a great place, family friendly, good food, and has a lake view!

And these days since we will be adding a BOY to the family, Clare's bows seem to be getting bigger....why NOT?  If she is going to be the only girl we are going to go all out with girl stuff!


Day 2:
Because we have never been to Branson with kids before we took this chance to try out the kid things there were to do.  We headed to the water park on the 2nd day and sadly I have NO pictures because we put the camera and my phone in a locker (I stole this one from their website) : (
However I did get a picture of Daddy and Clare checking out the weather before we left for the water park.
Clare did love the water park but we wanted to keep her on schedule with her nap so we were only there for 3 hours.

Day 3:
On our third day we decided to check out the "beach".  We found a wonderful spot at Moonshine Beach and had just as much fun - more fun - than we did at the water park!

Day 4:
We spent the morning doing some shopping, looking at fish at Bass Pro Shops, and then planned to attend the Dixie Stampede for dinner and a show.  However, mommy learned a good lesson....BUY tickets ahead of time because these places sell out!  It worked out for the best becasue Daddy got some much needed fishing time in and we got to take a duck ride on the lake where Daddy got to drive the Boat!

LOOK! Fishy!

 We had changed clothes to go the dinner but when we found out the Dixie Stampede was sold out thats when we dropped Daddy at the lake and I attemped to have a Mother Daughter shopping trip...but Miss. Clare was having NOTHING to do with shopping.  I guess her mind was with her Daddy back at the stream because when she laid her eyes on him when we got back it was all over from there.  You can't really tell from these pictures how much she loves him so hopefully I explained it well enough : )

Day 5:
We left to go back home this day to start the kiddo's rooms.  Clare's new big girl room needed to be painted and Dominic's room needed his drawers filled with itsy bity clothes.  So we spend all weekend getting rooms together (which still are not done...pictures will come when everything is hung and in order)
Until then here are some random pictures from our trip.....

Referring back to lesson learned at the beginning of the post....Packing is one thing I need practice on especially with adding another child soon.  Our poor bellman was such a trooper about all of our luggage!

And Clare really didn't need ALL these SHOES....

Could she get any more beautiful?

 My FAVORITE picture yet of Daddy and Clare

The family time was one of the greatest parts about our entire trip but something even better that I will always remember is Paul saying "I was born to be a dad!"  I continue to see the bond he is creating with Clare and he's right; some dads are just born to be dads and he is 100% one of them!