End of Summer Fun!

School started yesterday and Max did great. On the morning of school he did not shed one tear, which is absolutely amazing. We went to the zoo last week and had a great time. Dad and the kids rode the zoo train and the kids played the drums too. Mixed in with the two zoo pictures are just some photos Max took recently - enjoy!!!!!

Hiking to Alberta Falls

Yesterday we went on our very first family hike. We hiked from Bear Lake to Alberta Falls. Overall, we had a fabulous time and we definately want to do it again. Kieran kept slipping on the dirt trail and falling. Rowan did great in the backpack and we could never go fast enough for Max. He even found it necessary to walk in the stream instead of on the rocks. Oh well. Enjoy the pictures.

Max's videos

Max's videography is a bit jumpy but he got very cute videos.

Holy Cow!

We went to the Cozy Cow Dairy this morning. It was fun, we got to watch cows being milked. Some of the cows were huge and some of them had quite an attitude. The man milking the cows even squirted milk from the utter at the kids. Fortunately there was a glass wall. They loved it. Kieran just sat in amazement while Max commented on everything and Rowan was pretty bored. The dairy even had fresh made ice cream. It was delicious - we even brought some home for Dad. Kieran was scared of the baby goats but liked the baby rabbits. Everybody loved the tractor. Hope you guys enjoy the pictures!

Watch the video!!!!

We are still having a great summer. The first picture is of Max, one evening while we were all playing outside. The second id of Rowan after he pulled the tupperware and the Jello out of the cupboard. The third is from Nathan's graduation party, where Kieran and I were swinging together.

Rowan is getting so big. He is blabbering and crawling all over the house and getting into everything. He pulls pots out of the cupboards and bangs bread pans on the floor. He even turns the DVD player off when we are watching out reading show. In the video we are trying to get him to wave which he does all of the time, except when we want him to.

Big Boy!

Of all the things we have done in the last few weeks I think that the boys getting their new bed was the most important and exciting. Kieran now sleeps in a big boy bed and he loves it. So far we haven't had any issues with him and bed time - let's hope it stays that way. Max loves sleeping on the top bunk and they both love having more room in their room. On July 4th we did our usual morning run, pancake breakfast and parade. We all had a good time. Kieran watched the parade intently and Max had fun playing with his cousins.

I am so proud of myself for letting the kids play in the gutter, (for anyone who knows me that is a big deal). Kurtis even joined in the fun. We love it when it rains.

Rowan makes the goofiest faces and Kurtis decided to capture it on camera. He now has 4 teeth, pulls himself to standing and is super attached to his mama.

Our trip to Kansas

This is a very long post but it is worth looking at, I promise. We rarely go on any trips but, this past week we went to Kansas (not the part of Kansas that is close to home - the very south eastern part that is 700 miles away from home). Well, all in all, we had a great time and now we know that the kids can sit in the car for 12 hours in one day. The very first thing Kieran did in the first hotel was climb straight into bed - it was pretty cute.
Kieran and Max had a great time with Dad and the luggage cart when we stopped in Salina the first night.

Uncle Kenny and Aunt Kim came to visit us in Parsons. They brought some of Kenny's world famous BBQ (it might not be world famous but it should be). The boys always have fun with them and we wish we could see them more often. I think they may be ready for some grandkids - but I don't know.

So I broke down and let Kurtis get a used iphone from friend and all he and Uncle Kenny could do was play with it. At least they had a good time, right?

Aunt Kim was zany as ever when she had Kieran fishing for lint in her belly button. He thought it was great fun and even tried to get the lint out of Aunt Peachie's bellybutton too.

We had a pretty good time hanging out at Grandma Shirley's. Kieran and Rowan always looked forward to loading the dishwasher.

Kieran even pounded out a few tunes on Grandma's keyboard - that boy needs lessons!

Kurtis and Max played a lot of football in the backyard. I don't know how they did it. It was very muggy and very hot. Kieran played outside too. He loved it, mostly he just looked for bugs to squish.

I know I am so mean - I made Max read and do other school year tasks while were on vacation, but Grandma Shirley loved listening to him read.

Yes, I went outside too!

Kieran found a little caterpillar on his shoe - he was in heaven. The next day we found a slug in the grass and at Grandma's suggestion we gave it a good salt bath. Hee hee

Somehow an open and full bag of Goldfish crackers were left on the floor and Rowan found it. He dumped it out almost immediately. It was pretty Funny!

Kieran had fun just chillin'. Max was the biggest helper. He played with Rowan a whole bunch. They both loved it!

One of the cool things to do in south east Kansas is to go and see Big Brutus. He is a giant and old coal mining beast. His job was to remove overburden, he didn't actually mine the coal - he just helped. Well, the little people standing on the bottom right side of the beast is Kurtis, Max, Kieran and Rowan. We even got to go inside of Brutus and see all of the things it took to make him work. The boys thought this was really cool!!!

Here I am with the boys in the giant scoop.

Our last day was pretty fun! We went to the Parsons city pool which was really neat, I wish we had a pool like that here. Anyway, Rowan actually went in the pool for the first time and clung to me the entire time. Kieran loved that it was shallow enough for him and Max had blast jumping in and going down one of the slides many times.

Directly after swimming we walked on over to the train in the park across the street. Rowan liked the breeze in his hair, Kieran was done after the first lap and Max as always had a good time.