{AHHHH...Life Is Good}

I'm writing this as I'm sitting on our front porch of our cabin, looking out at the Smokey Mountains, and sipping on my coffee with my coffeemate creamer (not Starbucks, but it's very good!) I've promised myself I would treat myself to some Starbucks on our trip since we have one just down the road from us.

We are thoroughly enjoying our mountain vacation! The 10 hour ride down was actually pretty relaxing. We seem to only have two kids in our car at one time. I guess the other 2 car loads were much more entertaining then ours.

We have the most serene setting for our cabin. We have a great amount of room for 17 of us! The kids have put the game room to use and have only had a couple of pool balls come over the balcony!

Yesterday we marked off horseback riding off of our itinerary. My gluteus maximus is paying for it dearly today! It was the highlight of Conner's trip. We were a little worried at first because he began to scream as his first horse moved. I guess on the movies they never seem real to him. He did very good and had a leader with him. Of course you can't pass up a vacation without doing Go-Carts & Bumper Boats! And then off to Baskin Robbins we went! OUCH! $24 for 3 cups of ice cream, shake, and smoothie! These places really know how to take advantage of tourists!

The men are golfing as I'm typing. They were only going to take part on one day, but begged us ladies to go a second! What the heck, they are on vacation as well! Well I need to break away the breathtaking view and morning fresh air, and take a shower so we can head to the Smokey Mountain National Park and tour Gatlinburg! Sorry I had to update without pictures....believe me I will be posting millions when I return...not even thinking about that yet!

VaCaTiOn BoUnD!!!

Well we officially have the car packed and kids are sleeping away, anxiously awaiting our departure at 5am tomorrow morning to Gatlinburg, TN. The entire Palmer clan will be taking part in our fun filled week! I feel like I have put my degree to use in activity planning the entire week! The last time we took part in the entire Palmer vacation was back in 2003 to Colorado. Back then we only had 5 kids and we have since added 4 more to the mix! Our planned week goes something like this:

Sunday:
Horseback Riding
See the sights of Gatlinburg

Monday:
Traveling through Smokey Mountain National Park

Tuesday:
Whitewater Rafting (Minus my parents and Delaney & Quin)

Wednesday:
Going to be total tourist and head to Dollywood

Thursday:
Men golfing in the am while the women get to shop at the awesome outlets in the pm

Friday:
Head back to reality!

We can't wait for our fun filled week and you know me.....lots of pictures to follow upon our return home! I haven't got quite updated with owning my own laptop yet to update my blog on vacation and Heath refuses to let me use his work computer! So you will have to wait on my many posts when I return home!

Introducing Great Nephew #1~Kale!

Yep that's right in a matter of 3 days, our nieces Jessi & Gina (yes they are also sisters) gave birth to two beautiful boys!!! Jason and Gina welcomed their first child, Kale Alan last Saturday, June 20th and Jessi and Travis decided that they couldn't wait 2 weeks to have their bundle of joy, and welcomed Cooper Carl on Tuesday, June 23rd. We were very excited last night when we got to meet little Kale for the first time!

Proud Parents Jason & Gina with their new son! I think Jason was a proud daddy!

Just what we needed some more "Eckler boys" to add to the mix!

Seriously...were mine ever this little??? Quin looked like a giant up to Kale!

Gotta love my grease sunscreen hair of being at the pool all day! Ahhhh he is such a sweetie with lots of hair!

Corby and Preston were very excited to meet their newest cousin! Welcome Kale to the chaos!

Our Summer Fun.

This has been the best summer so far for the Eckler boys! See in the past years, I was running the daycare, not being able to take time off to take the boys swimming since we were tied down there till it closed. This summer as Miley Cyrus says, I have the "Best of Both Worlds"! I am able to watch my 3 little part-time kids in the morning, get my housework completed, and then off to swim, run errands, or whatever we feel the need to do, and then just a couple of nights a week off to work! The boys are absolutely loving sleeping till whenever and just being "kids" in the summer! They are not being told to be quiet during "nap time", bored playing with 2 year olds all day", or not being able to go swimming as much as they want! I have made sure that we have got ample amount of pool time in, now that the weather has finally cooperated! For the second straight year in a row, we have bought season passes to our local water park. Yesterday, I changed it up a little and took them to Hannibal to the aquatic center. This week we have had the perfect pool weather with high in the 90's!!!

Corby trying to go across the moving monkey bars in the water....easier said then done!

I look at these pictures in amazement and can't believe how grown up he is looking lately! Also I swear next year he is going to be taller than me, oh and did I mention that he is wearing a 5 1/2 shoe size!!! Pretty soon he will pass me up in that also!

Just about ready to lose it, but he made it all the way to the end!

Preston's determination was not going to let him fall no matter what!

Here is one of Preston's many looks of determination!

They have several sprayers to cool off! Conner had fun throwing his goggles through and then running through the water! Pretty impressive when I was editing this picture that I actually caught the goggles mid-air!

Gotta cool off the backside as well!

Quin would giggle very loud when Corby would run through the sprayers with him!

Ahhhh we love summer!

So needless to say, if we aren't at home during the day you will find us at one of the local pools!

{Six Flags}.

What a great day yesterday for Six Flags! I think we picked the hottest day of the summer so far to go....only 100 degrees!!! We had originally planned on going last Tuesday, but the same ole' story for the beginning of June...RAIN! Our friend's, the Yager's also tagged along and we were also smart and took our babysitter, Danielle to help ride the rides!

We made sure that we started out with a water ride to cool us off! Here the kids are anxiously awaiting one of Six Flags all time classics, Thunder River!

Let me just say Conner and I sat in the seats that recieved the most drenching! We could have cared less of being wet on this hot day! The boys were a little bummed in that the Tidal Wave had closed down for the day by the time we were going to ride it! (Us moms on the other hand were relieved because I really didn't want them soaked riding all the way home).

We hit the misters too cool off when we got a chance....can you tell they are being smarty pants trying to act like they are FREEZING!!!

Oh No...Mary wasn't tall enough to ride the Scooby Doo Ride....luckily she passed for an adult and they let her on!

The good thing about going later in the afternoon is that the crowd cleared out and the kids got to ride the rides as many times as they wanted. I can't count how many times Conner rode the airplanes!

We ended the day up with the all time Six Flags Roller Coaster, Screaming Eagle. ( Sorry for the fuzziness, I took the point and click camera). Preston rode all the major roller coasters without a bit of fear and he even ended the day with the Superman Drop...which goes up almost 300 ft. and drops fast like an elevator....he takes after his mom of riding the rides! The kids had a super day and were so well behaved for it being over 100 degrees!

{Little Slugger}.

Tonight was Preston's turn for me to take pictures of him in action at his ballgame. And did I pick a great night to do so!

No it was not hazy tonight before we left for our 6 o'clock game...this is how humid it was and it was fogging up my lens!!! When we started the game it was a whopping 95 degrees with a heat index of over 100!

Conner never seems to be left out of my picture opportunities! He had to show me his batting stance. We also have to make sure he has his bat boy shirt on to root on his brothers!

Preston has been in a batting "slump" lately and has had many strike outs. I'm not bragging on my kid or anything but this is highly unusual for him. He lives and breathes this game! Well tonight he got up to bat and had 2 strikes on him and I was praying to the "Baseball God" (if there ever is one) to please let him make contact! Well he made more than contact....HE HIT A HOME RUN OVER THE FENCE!!!!!! I have never been so excited or jumping for joy! It was a little disappointing though in that Heath was on the other field coaching Corby's game at the same time and missed it! Oh well I'm sure he heard all the whoop and hollering on the adjacent field!

Needless to say he got up to bat again...only to strike out. I think we have ruined him this summer by taking him golfing and playing baseball all in the same season! He seems to be wanting to swing a golf club instead of swinging steady with a bat.

He almost had an impressive catch of a fly ball here, but just barely missed it!

We are so proud of Preston and all of his accomplishments, on and off the field! He was a little slugger tonight and they ended up beating the other team by 1 run!

14th Annual Palmer Father's Day Celebration.

Hard to believe we started this tradition 14 years ago (is what we are thinking), of the annual Father's Day Golf Tournament. Each year it is rotated to a new house and a new course. This year we were honored to have it at Matt & Quinn's house in Iowa. It is also the tradition that while the men are golfing, the women get the joy of soaking up the sun while taking the kids swimming. The kids were super excited that the town that Matt & Quinn live in had a brand new aquatic center, and boy was it nice! We also seem to be blessed with hot weather on this day...this day was no different in that it was in the mid 90's with extremely high humidity! You didn't hear us women complain about the hot temps...but I think the men whined a little when they returned from their 5 hour golf excursion.

This was a bittersweet Father's Day Tournament. My Granddad took part in this tournament many years! It was hard not having him around for the 1st time on Father's Day. Quinn honored each golfer with a remembrance of my Granddad with a personalized golf ball. This brought a few tears and will be placed in a special place. Now onto lots of pictures of our fun filled day!

Maggie has no fear when it comes to water! She has been raised on the lake since she was born and the high dive did not scare her one bit! She climbed the stairs like it was nothing and then even posed for me as she took her jump. She was the only brave one of the day. Preston climbed the ladder twice, made it to the edge, and then frantically looked at me shaking his head "No"....he then made it back down the steps.

I took so many pictures of the day that I had to combine them into several collages.

Did I mention how hot it was and how good the water felt...yes even I got in!

Sydney taking time to pose for me.

What a great Father's Day tradition! We then went back to Matt & Quinn's house for a delicious meal....and some cold adult beverages!

Grandy with his 3 grown up kids on Father's Day. We blessed him with a gift certificate to one of his favorite golf courses....we hope he can fit time in between running to all the grand kids events to get some tee time in. ( I don't think it will be a problem)! Heath was also blessed on Father's Day to Cardinal Baseball tickets to Wrigley Field to see the Cardinals take on the Cubs. We are taking the Amtrak up in July and staying on Michigan Ave. and can't wait to see the game!

Chris decided he needed to celebrate his win over the other men. He and my dad took the honors this year. I'm not for sure what Matt was celebrating....maybe just being a good father! Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day!

A Great Father on Father's Day.

Happy Father's Day to all you "dads" out there! Here is to wishing my husband a great Father's Day! He is such a wonderful dad, husband, coach, companion, and my best friend! Hope everyone has a wonderful day with their kids....that's what its all about! I will post more pics of our wonderful day we spent celebrating Father's Day at my sister's yesterday later!

~Happy Father's Day 2009~

Something to Smile About.

Conner has such an imagination it blows my mind. This morning while putting the laundry away...which in our house is a never ending job, this is what I came across. He had lined all of his stuffed animals up and placed his ball hats on them, along with the YMCA medals the boys have received over the years and baby trophy. He had told me yesterday that he put all of his ball hats on his animals, and I nodded and went on with what I was doing. Guess I should have taken the time yesterday to see what he was talking about. It's hard for me to believe that he will only be home with me one more year and then off to the big school. We are getting some bonding time in this morning as the older two boys are at 4-H camp all day. I'm thinking since it is going to reach the high 90's the two little ones and I will venture off to the pool by ourselves! I'm not for sure what I will do with just watching two....enjoy maybe???

{Curb Appeal}.

Wow has it really been almost 3 years the end of July since we moved in our house! It seems like yesterday that we were driving by, hoping we would be living in the country. Well a fast 3 years it has been....and lots of work. It seems like when you own a home, the projects never end! We have several more projects in the works that we are hoping get accomplished by the end of the summer, but I didn't want to hold my breath and then not get this posted. This was a picture the very first night we were able to get a tour of the house. The house was only a year and half old. We knew that possibly once our house sold in town, that we were possibly going to build our own "dream" home. Well when I was approached by this house, I knew I could make it my "dream" home. It had exactly what we wanted if we were going to build. 1. In the country 2. 4 bedrooms 3. Finished Basement 4. And Lots of room and STORAGE!!!

Well this is 3 years later!!! It has taken a lot of work but we are very proud to call it "home". We have since added sidewalks and driveway, a front porch, shutters, and landscaping. Hopefully by the end of the summer I will have my antique lamp posts at the end of the driveway, front door painted black to match shutters, and a new play set for the kids in the backyard. Of course our main priority next spring is a DECK!!!

We sit out and rock on swing on the front porch many of nights!

Oh I forgot to add the solar lights in front as well!!!

My lilies are now in full bloom...I'm not much of a green thumb, but hopefully in the next few years I can add a little more color with flowers.

As I was walking up the driveway from taking these pictures...a crab (please tell me that is what it is) was making it's way too. I'm sure we have lots of these with the massive amounts of rain we have received! Well hopefully our projects will stay on task and we will continue to make it our "dream home".

A New Video Camera! YaY!

Well I've finally got with with 21st century and purchased a video camera that can posts videos to my blog!!! I know it's about time right. Anyway, our previous video camera did not have the capability of saving videos and posting them, and it was also giving us trouble. Heath had given me an Apple IPOD for Christmas that had never been put to use, and I graciously asked him permission to exchange it for a new video camera (since it would get lots more use)! Not that I wouldn't listen to an IPOD, but I don't have time to download songs to it since I am constantly downloading games and songs to Corbin's I-Touch. So...here is my first video post! Hopefully I can capture a lot more memories to post to my blog! Enjoy my Quinners beginning to really talk!

It's So Hard To Say Goodbye....

to Yesterday. (One of my favorite Songs). My Grandad Palmer gave up his fight last Friday night, June 5th at the age of 85. Each and everyone of us have fond memories and will always remember him for the great father, grandfather, and great-grandfather he was.

This was one of the last good pictures I captured. Too bad Quin wasn't in the picture since it was his namesake.

The only good thing to come out of funerals is getting to see family near and far. My cousin Danielle and I spent many summers growing up together while she visited from California visiting my grandparents.

My grandma with her children, My dad in back, Meredith, and her youngest Jim.

We also got to see our newest cousin, Dylan. (My cousin Tony's son). It was great seeing him and Quin interact with one another.

Although a very sad time, we were glad we got to celebrate Dylan's 2nd birthday with him on June 8th.

After the funeral services I tried to capture a family picture since we were all dressed up....this will have to do.

My brother Chris and my cousin Tony from San Diego.

My grandma with her California Grandchildren.

Corby had lots of fun playing with Dylan.

Quin trying to feed Dylan an Oreo.

All the children and their spouses with my grandma.

5 out of the 7 cousins were able to attend the services. Going from left to right, My brother Chris, Tony, Myself, Danielle, and Joe (from Minnesota). My sister and her family had already taken off for their Maine vacation and my grandmother was insistent that they go and my cousin Tim, serving in Afghanistan.

My Uncle Jim playing a game of Checkers with the kids.

My Grandad is going to be deeply missed by all. He was such a loving and caring man, not having any enemies. May he rest in peace and rest high on that Mountain.

Oops..We Did It Again.

Got a new puppy that is! If you remember last spring, the boys talked me into an inside Maltipoo that last only one month. Well I gave in again, not for an inside dog, but outside. Preston has always felt left out that Corby received his dog Maisy, at the age of 18 months and that it wasn't "his". We have went over the list of "to do's" in order for him to receive his own dog. Well basically you can say we got a "mut". #1 it was free and #2 I rescued it! I have never been a huge animal lover, but this one was one of "a lot" left over from a house fire. Preston got to pick it out and he decided to name it "Maclin", yes after Jeremy Maclin who played for Mizzou. We now have, Maisy and Maclin.

Can you see the pure joy of giddiness on Preston's face.

They tell us it is part Lab and part Beagle. Preston wanted to know if that makes it a Legal?? Pretty clever huh???

He has fit right in and hopefully this will take this "want" off of Preston's list!

A Little Taste of Baseball....

and that is exactly what it is "a little"! Since the end of May the boys have only got in a handful of games due to Miss Mother Nature. We are hoping some of them get rescheduled so we can get our fill in for the summer.

This is the first year that we have both boys on different teams. Heath decided that he would only coach Corby's team this year....yeah right! He got suckered into the first game and was thrown a coaching shirt for Preston's team. This is also the first year for Corbin's league for a "real" pitcher. The first three years they learn through the pitching machine. This league is a lot tougher in that they have to train a pitcher and catcher since most of them it is their first time. Corby decided that catching was for him. I never thought I would see Corb as a catcher. I picture a catcher as someone with a little more meat on their bones. He has done an excellent job and has made us very proud!
Going after a wild pitch.

He has also done a tremendous job hitting of a pitcher.

Rounding second after he stole a base.

Once again our games were rained out tonight so looks like another one for the books.

Movie, McDonald's, Sleepover..Oh My! Happy 9th Birthday!

Well I made it....or should I say Heath made it! We officially are "Birthday'd" out at our household! Every year it seems like Corby wants to do something bigger and better for his birthday. Well I have come to the conclusion, that this might be the end to the "friend" birthday parties. I am one of those moms who says....if you are going to invite 5 of your friends you have to invite all of them so no one gets left out. (In the back of my head I'm thinking...yeah not all of them will show up)! Boy was I wrong...all 9 of Corby's classmates accepted the invitation for a fun filled birthday! It went very well for the most part. You know there is going to be a squabble here and there (I can't imagine have 9 girls spend the night!).

We started off by taking all of them to see the Night Of the Museum movie at the brand new theater. I am proud to say that I paid for a $6 nap for myself! I was living on a mere 4 hours of sleep as I had worked Friday night and then had to be back at work at 6am so the birthday party could take place. So needless to say, I have no remarks as to whether or not this is a good movie.

Then off to McDonald's. I gave the boys 3 choices; Cheeseburger, Hamburger, Chicken Nuggets, and they also got a choice of Sprite or Coke. Pretty Simple right??? Well easier said then done. We had several questions like "Can I get a Chicken Sandwich", "What about a Happy Meal", Can I get Fries"....once they finally figured out that I wasn't going to budge they all made their decision. And of course I made the mistake of only ketchup on the sandwiches and one boy had the nerve to tell me that I didn't get pickles on his. Oh well I survived that battle.

They weren't too happy when the all ran for the trampoline right when we arrived back home to come back and take a group shot. I knew once the night progressed, I wouldn't be able to get them all back in one spot.

They will loves these at their high school graduation! We have captured one each year!

Corby received some really great gifts from all of his friends! He was more excited that he received enough $$$ and gift cards from friends and family that he purchased his new Apple I-Touch. I will say the thing is pretty neat and he has already downloaded movies and games on it to keep him occupied.....like he needed something else.

The boys had a blast playing football, jumping on the trampoline, and just being "boys" in the outdoors! I will say it was pretty funny when the boys settled down in one of the tents the other boys had placed a toad in the other tent. Let's say there was a little chaos going on at bedtime! Heath slept with them out in the tents so in case one of them had problems or needed something during the night. At 11:30 he came in and gave me the "DON'T EVER DO THIS TO ME AGAIN" Speech, as he had to work the next day. He said most of them settled down for the night but they all rose at 5am with the sun and asked him if they could get out and go play! Let's say that was the earliest I think Heath has ever left for work! All the boys played and were picked up by 10 so we all were in recovery mode.

Corby's St. Louis Cardinals Cake.

Corby let Quin help him blow out the candles.

Quin liked the fact of sitting in the chair by the fire and Heath roasting marshmallows for him.

We let the boys roast marshmallows and make their own Smores.

It was a great successful birthday party, but boy am I glad it's over with! I guess you do it for your kids. Looking back I wonder how I managed to survive! Corby said "mom next year I think I want to..." WHAT???? I told him next year is a LONG WAYS AWAY@

Soccer Birthday Bash.

My nephew Kohler turned the big 6 last Friday! We ended up being able to celebrate with him after all, by attending his morning soccer game on early Saturday morning. That meant we had to leave our house at 6:15am! We were a little worried on our way to his game that he wouldn't get it in, because like a broken record this spring, it was raining once again. Luckily as soon as the game started, the rain had stopped!

He was quite the soccer player and did an excellent job!

At this age, they really could care less who is on the field playing when they are on the bench. Here he is just hanging out with his buddies.

Of course Quin was full of it during the game. There were several times we had to escort him off of the field!

Thinking it's funny that he is sitting in the chair and nobody else can.

Afterwards we then went to Cracker Barrel and had breakfast and Kohler got to open his presents.

Corby and Maggie are always up for a good game of checkers!

We were glad we got to spend the morning with Kohler to celebrate his 6th birthday!

The Early Birthday Present.

Since we knew that we would be hosting a big sleepover for Corbin's 9th birthday, we let him have one of his presents a couple of days early. A NEW trampoline. This is not our first trampoline however. When we first moved to the country almost 3 years ago...gosh has it been that long already, we purchased one since we finally had a big enough backyard. Well in a matter of 2 months the trampoline was no longer. It took off with one of the massive wind storms we have incurred while living on the wide open prairie. This time we however wised up and spent the extra $23 to purchase the anchors, so hopefully we won't see this one blow away and wrap itself around the tree in the woods.

We started this project at approximately 6:30pm and I thought there was no way looking at all the pieces that it could be accomplished before dark hit.

Preston enjoyed it in the fact that we were all outside and we could watch his tricks on the monkey bars.

Making progress. You know how thrilled Heath was when all of them kept asking how much longer!

Oh no, at this point Heath had put all the springs on and realized he hadn't lined up the door correctly with the beams. Oops! Guess that will teach him to read the directions before he starts the project instead making the project longer than needed to be!

Conner was thrilled to help, in his boots and all!

Corby is such a big helper and I can't even count how many times he took Quin down the slide to keep him out of all the pieces.

Up goes the must needed net!

As you can tell we had just enough daylight left when we (Heath) finished the project for them to jump.

The project was completed at 9 pm! Can you believe it only took 2 1/2 hours! The very next day the boys jumped from 8am-3pm only coming in for lunch. They had a great time taking turns on it for the birthday party and hopefully the new won't wear off too soon!

In a Blink of an Eye {I have a 9 Year Old}!

And that is truly how fast these past {9} years have went! I swear I remember like it was just yesterday, riding around on a gravel road with Heath, having a Sonic Cherry Vanilla Coke and order of cheddar peppers not realizing that at 2:30am the morning of June 2nd, 2000 my life would be changed forever! My baby is 9 years old! He is still as mild mannered and laid back as he was that day he was born and blessed our lives! It was also a special day in that he was born on my mom's birthday and it was also my parents 1st grandchild!


As I sit here putting this together for my fellow blog followers, I want you to know that I am living on a mere 4 hours of sleep due to the massive birthday sleepover we accompanied at our house last night. {That post will come later.} I took Corby out tonight for a fun photo shoot for his 9th birthday. It looked like it could storm, all of our eyes are bloodshot due to sleep deprivation, but it went perfect and couldn't wait to share it!

Since I took {a BAZILLION} pictures, I couldn't decide which ones to posts...so I thought the best option would be to put them into one of my famous slide shows. Now let me forewarn you, that it is very hard to find a sentimental song relating to a {son}. There are several father/daughter songs, but can someone let the music industry know that we need to step it up with a mother/son song. Well I came across two songs that I think fit the way I want to see Corby someday...or Corbin as he wants to be referred to these days. I am so proud of his accomplishments in his 9 young years of life and have so many "wishes" and "mountains" he still has to climb. I love you and Happy 9th Birthday!

~A Fast Nine Years~