Boondocks With Brayden......

Another birthday for Brayden Jack!

Can't believe that he is 5 years old. Time for a date with his Grandma T and Papa Howie. We went to their home to pick him up and found the boys outside playing and enjoying the beautiful spring day.

Before we left we spent a few moments playing outside with the boys. They have a LOT of energy and it was fun to watch them swing and play in their backyard. They sure are growing up fast!

Fun on the swings.....

All of our grandkids LOVE blankets and the fun rides that you can get in them. Brayden is all ready for a spinning ride from his Dad.

Short video of Tyson giving his boys a CRAZY blanket ride.... The end of the video clip is a little screwed up because Ashlee was showing me Luke's sore legs and I forgot to turn off the camera. I am too lazy to edit that part out so just ignore :)

Once it was time to go we had to take our "Traditional" group shot. It is fun to look back at them from the past years and see how much the kids have changed.

Brayden is NEVER one for a picture (especially if you want him to cooperate) He is READY to go and have a fun time with his Papa Howie and his Grandma T.

Boondocks Fun Center.... HERE WE COME!!!

We decided to take him to Boondocks because it has a huge variety of activities and we thought he would have a great time there.

Brayden can be a bit STUBBORN at times and the beginning of our adventure together was not looking good. He REFUSED to stand next to the wall so that we could measure to see if he was tall enough for the rides, so that we could determine which pass to buy.

Seriously it took at least 15 minutes for Steve to convince him that he would be okay if he just stood there for one short moment. When Jack sets his mind to NOT do something, it is NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE to convince him to change his mind. No amount of BRIBING, BEGGING, or THREATENING will make him do ANYTHING that he doesn't want to do.

Not sure what his hangup was about standing next to the wall but once he got the COURAGE to get measured the fun began! He was WONDERFUL the entire rest of the day. ROUGH START! WHEW!!!

Arcade Games.....

This place has an area CHUCK FULL of cars, motorcycles, jeeps and spaceships to play on. Brayden was definitely in his element!

Such concentration....

He can barely see over the steering wheel!

He was actually pretty good at the games that he played


He earned a LOT of tickets playing this game!

Laser Tag.....

He was really excited to go in and play laser tag. He was all geared up and ready to go.....
Last minute pointers from Papa Howie....

Taking some practice shots before the game began!

At first I really thought that Jack was way too young for this activity but he insisted. Once we put the HUGE (HEAVY) vest on him and gave him his laser gun, I knew he would be fine. He is a BOY for heaven sakes! HE LOVED IT! It was fun to watch him in the dark run around the course and then run back to the station to load up for more ammo. SO DANG CUTE! He loved it so much that we actually did it twice during the day. Long wait but WELL WORTH IT! Steve and I had as much fun as Brayden did. It was my first time ever and once I got the hang of it I had a RIOT! FUN TIMES!

Bumper Boats....

We headed outside to enjoy the fun rides and decided to do the bumper boats first.

These are like huge tubes that you sit in and they putt around a little lake area. Each boat is armed with a water gun. You basically drive these things around and get in a HUGE water fight with all of the other boats.

The lines once again were pretty long but Brayden did an awesome job of waiting for his turn.

Finally to the front of the line! It is almost our turn!

This dog is the mascott for Boondocks. Brayden squrited him with the water gun once we got on our boat. He was ALL ABOUT squirting the people who were standing in the line waiting BUT...He wanted ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the other boats driving around. Each time someone drove up to us and started squirting, Brayden would start SCREAMING! B y the way....He has a VERY high pitched scream!!! HE WAS NOT HAPPY that people got him wet! So I spent the majority of the ride dodging other boats so that Brayden would not have a MELT DOWN! He would giggle and giggle as we squirted others but HE DID NOT WANT TO GET WET himself! Poor Howie on the other hand got ambushed. He got surrounded by about 6 other boats and they attacked him. HE WAS DRENCHED. I was going to take pictures or video of him from across the lake but each time I started to pull out my camera another boat approached and I had to ESCAPE. It was fun to watch Howie and one day I want to go back without kids so that we can have a water war together! THAT WILL BE FUN :) Anyone who knows me knows how much I love a good water fight! Your going down Howie!!!

Just after the boat ride.

Jack wouldn't smile because his shirt was WET!

Race Cars.....

We also enjoyed some fun with the race cars....

They have two race tracks at Boondocks. We decided to go on the BIG one. As we waited in line and watched the track I was amazed at how fast the cars were going.

Brayden told me that he wanted the car with the number two and the zero on it. I did a LOT of explaining as we waited that he might NOT get the one he wanted. Pretty soon he was convinced that they were ALL cool cars.

When it was our turn Jack-Jack chose a really cool GREEN car. We are all strapped in and ready to go

I tried to video tape a short portion because I wanted to show how fast we were buzzing around but I don't think you can really tell. Howie was in the yellow car and Jack wanted us to pass him. He laughed soooo hard when we buzzed past Steve and we were AHEAD! He kept saying that we were going to WIN!!! This is another thing I want to do again when Steve and I come back. Those cars can really pick up speed and I had to be cautious with my "precious cargo."

BUT LOOK OUT when I return. I LOVE SPEED!!!!

Guns,Guns, & MORE Guns

We headed back in to play some more in the arcade center. Talk about "Sensory OVERLOAD!" With all the lights, people and noise from the games I was about to go back outside. It was so quiet and peaceful out there. But Brayden really enjoyed these different games. Anything with a GUN made him so happy!

It is such a "BOY THING!"

This Jeep was one of his favorite games.....

This is by far the funniest thing he did that day. He LOVED this one "shooting game" and we let him play it for about 30 minutes. NO MONEY REQUIRED! He sat here in this booth shooting a gun and was completely entertained. Little did he know that it was just the sample games which he was shooting at! There were about 6 different games that you could play and it would give a 5 second overview of the game to show you how to play before you inserted your coin. Well, Brayden would sit there and shoot at the different objects and say..."I am really good at this one, Grandma T" or "This is a LONG game huh!" I could have saved a LOT of money if we would have taken him here first! He had NO IDEA how cheap we were being! LOL

He even got another kid to come in and join him. So funny to see them both pop up every few seconds to switch screens.

We got a TON of ticket to buy prizes with.....

I got pretty lucky on a few games and we SCORED big time!

Brayden with a few of his prizes

The COVE Playground.....

Boondocks has a really fun play area for the little kids that visit. We spent a lot of time playing over here. It is a great place for the kids to play while the adult rest and just watch. Howie almost fell asleep several times as we sat and watched Brayden running up and down and all around!

He also spent a HUGE amount of time on this Tarzan swing. Seriously, WHERE DO KIDS GET ALL OF THEIR ENERGY? I WAS BEAT!

He also loved the slides...



Up and down....up and down....up and down!

I think Brayden REALLY enjoyed his day spent with his Grandma and Papa. I know we sure did. It was finally time to head home to go to bed. He looks like he could go for another few hours! NOT US! We are WAY too old!

Time for Bed......

He was all smiles even when it was time to go to sleep.

He would close his eyes and try to pretend to be asleep but then he would bust out giggling. No way was he ready to go to sleep. Then we decided to take turns telling bedtime stories. He was in the cutest mood that night. I really cherish those quiet, one on one times that we get to share with our grandkids. Ahhhhh they are the BEST!!!

Here is Brayden Jack telling us his bedtime story. "Jack and the Beanstalk" or as he says "Me and the Beanstalk" (because his name is Jack)

He kept trying to say FE FI FO FUM.....and kept messing up. So cute. By the way did you know that the giant grinds up the bones to make our BED??? Now it is time to SLEEP in your BED! GOODNIGHT big guy! We love you!

Present Time....

The next morning we had a lot of time before church so we had him open up his birthday presents.

He got a Magic Sand Ocean Adventure which is EXTREMELY COOL! Seriously I want to have one for myself to play with. The sand is in the water but when it is pulled out of the water the sand is all dry. SOOO COOL!

He also got an Erector set. Both of Ashlee's boys LOVE to build things. We thought this would be the PERFECT gift for Jack-Jack!

He instantly wanted to begin a project.

He really wanted to build a ROBOT!

It was fun to watch him work so hard at collecting the parts and following the directions as he made his new robot friend.

Hard at work....

Almost done.....

Cheezin' it with his new ROBOT!
All finished and ready for a test drive....

Look at him go!!!

It was pretty fun to see his robot buzz around the kitchen floor. We really were not sure it would even work. BUT IT DID! YEAH!!!!

Jack was so proud of his new creation!

Time For Church.....

Every time we have the kids over to celebrate their birthday we have them attend church with us. We had the 1:00 session and so there was plenty of time to eat, play a little and then get ready. WELL.....by the time we decided to get Jack dressed he was DETERMINED NOT TO GO! Papa did a LOT of COAXING, and BRIBING but Jack SERIOUSLY refused to let us get him ready.

All of the grandkids absolutely LOVE Papa's CRAZY piggy back rides around the house. Steve even said that if Jack would agree to come with us then he would get THREE rides when he got home. He even gave him a practice ride so that he knew just what he would be rewarded with. NO LUCK!

We had to basically tackle him and it took BOTH of us to dress him. We just figured that once he was dressed then he would calm down and give in to our wishes. NOPE!!! At one point Howie actually held him upside down and I tucked in his shirt and put on his belt. He was HOWLING and putting up a HUGE FIT! After we had him pretty worked up we finally decided that it was NOT worth it. He kept saying that he wanted to go home. I hate to see the grandkids sad so we gave in and took him home. BUMMER! I probably could have FORCED him to come with us but I want the memories of our SPECIAL time together to be HAPPY ones. NEXT time we have Jack-Jack we will make sure that the toys are NOT pulled out until AFTER church.

We had a WONDERFUL time with our five year old grandson. Happy memories that's for sure. Happy 5th Birthday Brayden!!!

We love you!