Venture Outdoors, Birthday Party and Post-Church Playground...

...Just a few highlights from our weekend.  I feel so blessed when I get to recount so much fun in this great city, so many moments with the community we are surrounded by here and the family I get to enjoy it all with.  

On Saturday Doug took the big boys to Venture Outdoors at the Allegheny Commons.  We've never made it to this event before, but it's now going on the family calendar for the future.  Doug said it was fantastic and I have the pictures and video to prove it!  First off, Awesome Daddy took the bikes and they parked in the Strip and biked down to the Point.  

After they biked over to Allegheny Commons they inhaled their lunch before the festivities started.

First they went kayaking.  So cool!  Koen sort of got the knack for it.  Don't worry, they are just on a little pond, not the big river!

Here's some video...

Koen also got to do the climbing wall.

There were all sorts of other hands-on, kids-oriented activities.  There was one place where you had to stick your hands into a box and guess what was inside.  There were 12 boxes.  Koen did all 12 and amazingly got all 12 right.  Doug was amazed that he did it.  Some of it was intense, odd-feeling stuff like a bear claw, a snake skin, a stuffed bird.  Pretty impressive in several respects.  Go Koen!  And a big thanks to Daddy for a super fun morning experiencing something new!

In the evening we got to go to "Dr. Megan's Birthday Party."  I didn't get many pictures as dinnertime at a party with all 3 boys and my husband manning the grill doesn't afford for a lot of photo-snapping, but thankfully I did grab this great picture of Koen reading Penn his books.  Koen was so proud of himself when he discovered he could totally read Penn some of his favorite stories.  And Penn was intrigued to hear his brother reading the familiar words.  How special!

The boys loved being a part of Megan's birthday celebration as they love her dearly (and her wonderful husband Sky too of course).  Doug and I were thrilled to be there too.  It's going to be an exciting year...turning 30 and welcoming Baby Boy Speakman into the world.  We are so excited for you guys.  So happy to rejoice with you!

Sunday was off to a rough start from well, the absolute start.  Koen must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed or been super over-tired still or something because...OH MY GOODNESS, was he a treat upon wake-up, breakfast and heading out the door to church.  Thankfully he settled for church and did OK in Kidz Church.  It rained when we were at church, but afterwards the rain held off and I was able to get the boys to the playground and run out some of the angst, energy and whatever else was Koen's beef today.  Ugh!  Koen did a great job with a slider/monkey bar type thing.  Here he is hanging on by a thread (much like my nerves at this point due to his morning temperament).

 Tavin was tackling the spider web climb over and over.  He was so proud of himself.  He's such an agile little guy and has a lot of athletic giftedness.

Here's a less happy face as he played in this clear globe that was all wet (and therefore super fun to wipe his hands all over).  Looks like he's bummed out by big brother as much as I was.

So what does Penn do the whole time that his brothers are playing on a wet playground?  He sits on a blanket and tears apart my diaper bag, that's what.  And he looks super cute doing it.

That sums up the pictorial review of the weekend.  Yes, yes I survived the day with moody Koen.  Thankfully he rebounded as soon as his little bros were napping in the afternoon and our evening went pretty well too (until some ridiculous initial behavior at bedtime).  I think tomorrow will be a lot better after a good night's rest and of course with Daddy home for Labor Day.