A Step Back in Time

Greg's sister, Emily, is here visiting for the weekend. Just wanted to do a quick post for our family to see. Yesterday we drove by "all the old places" from when Greg and Emily (and the rest) "grew up". We've driven by their old home before. But, it's tucked away and you have to drive down a long winding private driveway to see the house. Last time we tried...there were people outside when we got down the driveway...and we hurried and drove away! We decided to try again yesterday and found the house totally vacant. It was so great to get to walk around the yard and just take time in that spot...hearing stories and "remembering". Sorry for the quantity!

I Can Do it Too!

Ice Cream...Thoroughly Enjoyed!

Playing in the Fountain

We were looking for something fun to do this last weekend and remembered an outdoor mall near our home that has a shooting fountain. We headed down with our swim suits and had a great time.

First Elizabeth just watched...

But, before long she was right in the middle of the action!  She'd just stop in between splashes to get her face wiped by Daddy's towel and then head back out.

One good-looking man!  =)

Two very happy boys!

Play Group at the Park

We had a great time going to our ward's play group this morning at a fun park.  At the end we slipped down to the river to explore. 

Joshua had just done a very brave climb.  =)

 The only problem was Elizabeth kept trying to drink from the river!

I wish I had more pictures of Elizabeth's face straight-on.  But, she's always too busy to be bothered with pausing in the action.

  

Nathan "helped" me edit the pictures today and chose this "action" because it makes them look like he and Elizabeth are "in a happy dream together".  Kind of cute.

Puppet Show

When we were in Indiana we were given a darling "Puppet Stage" from our "Grandma Rogers".  

I put it up in the doorway this last week (it is just hung with a pressure bar rod at the top).  Elizabeth was a great audience, and the boys had a great time putting on the "shows".  It was especially fun that when Greg got home from Scout Camp a couple weeks ago he taught us some skits.  On in particular, "Captain, Captain, Captain!"  we have all loved.  (Even acting it out on web cam for our family.)  I should have known that it would quickly be "adapted" into a great routine for the puppets!   

A picture-perfect moment I'll always remember!

Classic Quote

Yesterday Joshua said,

"I wish Elizabeth was a baby robot...

so if I tackled her...

we could turn the crying off."

We Love Waldo!

For our long drive from Michigan to Utah, I packed several boxes full off fun things to do with the kids.  Ironically the biggest hit that was used for an amazing number of hours on the drive (especially by Joshua) was a "Where's Waldo?" book I'd gotten at the library.  Finding and re-finding Waldo and his friends has a "magic" I hadn't expected for us!  I got thinking again about it this week and picked up a couple new books from the library. 

These are a couple cute pictures from a "play date" we had here this morning. 

A friend told me about some fun photo editing options on "The Pioneer Woman"...that I tried out a bit on these photos.  Kind of fun.  You can find the "actions" here. 

Back to Summer

We had a wonderful three week trip out west in July.  I've been hoping to get events posted from the trip...but as with all of the biggest moments in our life...they never hit the blog because I'm too overwhelmed trying to figure out where to start documenting.  So, while I sort through the "important stuff" a while longer.  I'll start posting the day to day of our last few weeks of summer here at home again.

Sprinklers

Coming up on summer I sometimes worry about what I should be doing to enrich my kid's lives.  In all my thoughts and plans I have to admit that when my kids look back on childhood summer days...it's afternoons like this I hope they remember most.

Elizabeth watching her crazy brothers.

Ring-around-the-rosies.

Thoroughly wet and thoroughly happy.

Of course, the sprinkler gets turned on and Elizabeth is the first to head directly for it.  She crawled as fast as she could through the grass and planted herself right next to the sprinkler.  (She's walking now about 50% of the time...but when she's determined and wants speed she crawls.)