The Adventures of The Williams Family

Never a dull moment in the Williams house...Austen and Jessie are in Illinios with their Mom visiting family, so it was just the three of us today. Reese had some yummy Plum Bread we had baked together earlier in the week. The little loaves were thank-you gifts for his Martial Arts coaches, and the big loaves were for us! We made Zucchini Bread too, but Reese's favorite was the Plum Bread.

On Friday, Reese had his last Martial Arts class of the summer, and he completed his first belt test. How cute is this picture? Reese is the shorty yelling "Ki-ya!" top, right.

Today, the three of us ventured to IKEA. Reese and I went a few years ago on opening day, which pretty much certified me as insane. Luckily, Reese was still a babe in a stroller, so he happily munched on Cheerios while Mommy shopped to my heart's content. I think we were there that day for about four hours...no kidding...

Today, it wasn't quite as crowded, but it was more than we could handle after a short while. Reese was hoping for some good "toys", and he wanted to know why IKEA didn't have any Power Rangers or Transformers. He did love all the room set-ups they have, and had much fun opening drawers & doors of all sorts of storage units!

There was one display of an entire house, created with all IKEA items, that you could fit into 240 square feet! I was amazed at how comfortable it was, and how all of one's basic needs could be taken care of in that amount of space...even a TV, computer station, full size fridge. It was really a neat concept. Jeff & I are just starting our planning for a new, much smaller home on a much larger plot of land! We aren't moving for good until Jessie graduates, which is in 2012, but we are beginning the process of searching for a ranch...that perfect piece of land with live water creeks, beautiful views, & all sorts of other fun desires. The more we live in our current home, the more it feels WAYYYY to big for a family of 5 (really 4 since Austen is moving to college on THURSDAY!), and downsizing to a smaller house is so very appealing to me. I thought having a huge kitchen would be great. It just means more space to get dirty!

I had put some kitchen cannisters in our shopping cart, but before we even got close to the check out line, we were all getting hungry, & waiting in a long line just to buy three plastic containers seemed awfully silly...even if they were IKEA cheap! So we put them back & headed out with no purchases.

The rest of the day was for napping & swimming. Without swim lessons, Reese is really becoming a good swimmer. He still won't pop his head up for a breath while he swims, but he's able go get from point A to point B quite fast. He'll push himself to his level of competence, and every once in a while he'll go just a little too far, and Daddy saves the day!

Around 6:00 nightly, Reese gets a major second wind and wants to wrestle, have tickle fights, swim...anything that's physical. Jeff was still recovering from our big Italian lunch, and Mommy's favorite thing is absolutely NOT wrestling (Reese is strong!), so I offered to take him on a bike ride instead.

He chose his old, little bike instead of his new big bike that he got for his bday. Fine by me. Whatever floats his boat! It was hot, hot, hot. Mommy had on flip-flops, which wasn't my brightest idea of the day. I should have worn sneakers so I could keep up with Reese, and next time I will be sure to do so!

The last time I took Reese out on our streets to ride his bike, it lasted for a few minutes, then he wanted to walk the rest of the way so I had to push this little bike, all hunched over to the side. No fun. But today, he really surprised me! He rode the entire way through the neighborhood (which has some serious hills for little legs), we stopped at a house being built at our half-way point and went inside to check it out. Wasn't much of a relief from the heat since the house was all closed up and seemed to create it's own heat! But after we left the house, he hopped back on his bike and rode it ALL the way home. Right before we reached our house, he was done riding, and Mommy pushed his bike the last hundred feet to our driveway.

We both came in with red cheeks & thirsty bodies! Next time, Mommy will wear shoes!