A few years ago in 8th grade Matthew met his now best friend Carter. They goof around and have a lot of fun together. Carter also introduced Matthew to one of his now favorite hobbies-fishing. They love to go fishing together. Matthew told his dad he was a little disappointed “he wasn’t introduced to this amazing pass time and life saving skill years ago”. Matthew has a flare for dramatics sometimes too.
Anyway, these two have spent a lot of time fishing together and they love it. This Spring when the weather started to get nice enough to start fishing they decided to up their game. Instead of just fishing from the shore, they told me they were going to split the cost of a boat so they could boat around the lake and have access to all the fish.
So one Friday afternoon they headed off to Scheels and came back beaming from ear to ear with this lovely boat.
They went with an inflatable two person canoe. I asked Matt if they were concerned about poking a hole it when they are casting. He seemed pretty confident that neither of them would have issues but just in case they both do know how to swim. They have had some fun adventures in there canoe. One of the first times they went out Carter didn’t notice that his pole slipped off the boat and sank. He refused to give up on it so he spent the next hour or two walking around feeling with his toes until he finally found it. Matthew kept him company by fishing around him in the boat while he looked. I was also told there is a rule that all fish caught in the boat have to be documented with a picture.
This is a fishing picture from Florida when he went to see my mom, not from his boat trips.
These are pictures I have that I like but didn’t really need a full post about them, or didn’t go with pictures taken at the same time that I put in other posts. So I thought I would just do a collection of them here.
This is our one and only picture from Easter 2024. As much as I love pictures and documenting events, I sometimes am horrible at taking the pictures. This was the end of the day and everyone was headed to take off their Easter clothes and I insisted on one family photo. Some of us were more willing participants than others.Sherrie and Dave came to visit us for a weekend to watch some of Matthew’s games. We had some time to pass before a game and were right by Liberty Jail. So we went to the jail and still had time to pass. There happened to be a bazaar across the street from Liberty Jail so we walked around. They had this little selfie spot so I had them hope in for a picture.
Both of these pictures are in Utah when we were staying with DeAnna for my Grandpa’s funeral. I thought 6 people brushing their teeth in the bathroom was pretty cute. DeAnna made lots of good food while we were there too, Sherri wanted to document that ‘she can cook but chooses not to’. While we were in Utah, dad took Emilee and Matthew to their softball and baseball tournaments they had going on that weekend. They love it so much they decided to go watch a Royals game one of the nights we were gone.
I am not sure where we were coming back from…maybe the eclipse, but the girls were being a little grumpy to each other but when they fell asleep they snuggled right up to each other.
This is one of the many times we have had to rent a skid loader to do some lawn stuff. It won’t be the last either. Ryan and I take turns between freaking out about why we have so much land to take care of and someday it will be awesome.
We try and do an annual amusement park day with our cousins each year. Sometimes it ends up being in Branson and Silver Dollar City, sometimes Worlds/Oceans of Fun. It was a great time this year. Everyone is tall enough for all the rides. Jovee is the biggest adrenaline junky and finally hit the tallest minimum requirement for the rides she had been waiting to go on for years. We went on July 3rd which was begging for heat stroke, but the weather was cloudy and perfect so it was a great day.
We have had typical so hot and humid days you can barely go outside this Summer for sure but there have been a lot more than usual gorgeous beautiful weather days. This hammock is one of our favorite spots to hangout on those days.
DeAnna decided we should do a sister trip again this year since the Jones reunion fell through the cracks this Summer. We picked a hot place last year in San Antonio so Sherri pushed hard for New York this time. She had never been and really wanted to go. She had a list of must do activities and sites to see.
We all flew in on a Friday morning and started the adventure off by taking a bus and then the subway and then walking the last block or four to our hotel. It took us 2 1/2 hours but it was part of the New York Adventure. Our hotel was pretty close to Time Square so it was a pretty good location for walking to most places we wanted to see. Once we were settled in the hotel we walked around and explored a little and found a local pizza place that we were told was a must try for dinner.
Saturday we took a New York in A Day Bus Tour. It was about 6 hours and we got a lot of things checked off Sherri’s list that she wanted to see. We would get off and walk around a bit then get back on the bus and go to the next place. We saw lots of the city and then specifically, the Empire State building, Ground Zero, Rockefeller Center (we ate lunch here), Central Park, Times Square, several of the bridges, famous movie places and took a ferry around the Statue of Liberty towards the end. The weather was cloudy but not rainy so it was perfect. On our way back from the tour we found the Cake Boss Bakery. It is a TV show that is famous for their elaborate cakes and fancy Italian pastries. We each got 3-4 things to try then came back to the hotel and had a big dessert sampling feast. I thought the cake was good. The cannoli’s were delicious and everything else was ok. It was cool to see it in person and actually get to taste stuff.
Harry Potter StoreGround Zero MemorialWall Street
Saturday night we went to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway. It was really good. We all loved it. It was very well done and had really cool magic effects. The last time I went to New York I was pregnant with Matthew and we weren’t able to get to a Broadway play. That was the one thing on my list that I wanted to do and I wasn’t disappointed.
Sunday DeAnna found us a church to go to which happened to be in the same building as the LDS temple so we got to see that too. We found a yummy place to have brunch after church and then we rented bikes and rode them around Central Park. We made it around the entire park and stopped at a few places that you see in movies a lot of that Sherri wanted to see. It is a beautiful park. I would want to spend a lot of time there if I lived in New York. It is the only place you feel like you have a little space and can see a bit of the sky.
Catholic church we went in and toured…while they still had Mass. Kind of weird.There was some cool pictures in the church building I had never seen before. Specific to this area of history from the Book of Mormon.Only tree to survive the twin tower attacks.These lovely shoes cost $1500
We walked from Central Park to our hotel by going down 5th Avenue. We went into a few of the stores like Tiffany’s, Gucci, Loui Viton, Trump Tower. We went into the Plaza Hotel and the Toy store (both from the movie Home Alone 2) We found a taco place recommended by our tour guide the day before for dinner. It was a pretty good authentic street taco. One of Sherri’s list items was to eat food from one of the corner street vendors. She said it wasn’t even though DeAnna and I both remembered it. We did get an ice cream cone and some nuts from a street vendor. When we got to the public library we found a little table and chairs and stayed there and talked for a few hours and enjoyed the good weather and pretty day.
Monday we were going to go to a building called the Edge and go to the top for a good view of the city (similar to the Empire State building). DeAnna was considering doing the adventure packet that lets you harness yourself to a staircase and walk up the OUTSIDE of the building the last 200-300 feet. Sherri and I were taking the elevator all the way to the top. However, when we woke up we quickly found out that our early evening flights had all been cancelled due to ‘weather’ and we had to figure out how to get home instead. By the time it was all figured out we had refunded my flight and changed DeAnna and Sherri’s flights to fly out of KC to their homes and we rented a car and drove from New York to KC. It took two days instead of two hours to get home but we had a fun road trip. I didn’t mind having our girls trip extended a few more days. Three drivers and no kids isn’t to bad of a road trip either. We drove through, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Several of those were new states to me that I had never been in so that was a bonus too.
Once we made it back to my house both of them flew to their next destinations from KC and the Sister Trip was officially wrapped up and in memory banks. As usual and as expected we had a great time together.
Three kids and building a house can keep a person pretty busy in the Summer. As I mentioned in the last post, the girls started their Summer off with a Girl Scout Camp. Matthew started his off with High Adventure in Colorado with the other boys in our church ward his age. They went to the sand dunes and hiked those, and the mountains. They were camped right in the middle of the two. They went white water rafting one day as well. This is his third year of going. He has had a great time each year.
One of Allison’s favorite things to do is shop. She has been doing a little more babysitting lately. She is a really fun babysitter. Way better than I ever was. She always comes up with fun games and scavenger hunts and the kids she watch always have a great time. She watched Emilee and her friend Ethan a lot this Summer. This is a giant gumball machine she found on one of her shopping adventures spending her hard earned money.
Ryan and I had a few adventures in June too. We went to Las Vegas with our friends Dani and RJ. We had a pool day, exploring day and ate at some fun restaurants while we visited and enjoyed our quick weekend getaway together.
Emilee’s one wish for her Summer was to go to a horse camp. She did that at the end of June. She has been doing her regular riding lesson each week still but she wanted to have a full week of riding everyday. The last day they did a horse show for the parents to show what they learned. She had a great time. She still loves horses and hopes to get her own someday.
Another activity Emilee loves and looks forward to each and every Summer is sleeping in. She loves to sleep and would sleep until noon everyday if we let her. Dad had to wake her up one morning “early” which means before 9AM and he thought it was hilarious getting her to wake up. She wanted nothing to do with it.
Matthew kept busy with work and baseball and weight lifting after he got back from High Adventure. He went to FSY towards the end of June. It was in Warrensburg MO at the college there. He was able to room with his cousin Ethan and several of his other good friends were there. He said it was a fun time and one of his favorite parts was the testimony meeting the last night they were there. That makes me happy that he went and had a good experience.
Matthew and Carter making cooking to entertain themselves one afternoon.
Allison went to another girls camp at the end of June with two of her friends from school that are also in her troop. It was in Tulsa Oklahoma. I picked them up and they told me all about it on the way home. They had a mean counselor, it was ridiculously hot and the food was awful but they still had a great time together. Allison wore a swim suit that had the American flag on it and got the nick name Ms America for it. She came home with an American flag cowgirl had covered in sequence do go along with her nick name. She loved it.
Here are some random other pictures I have from this month that I’ll add to the end of this post.
Birthday party for Ethan Huntsman at Main EventJaNeil decorated my room at work for me.Someone taking pictures instead of listening at church.Emi loves doing her dad’s hair.Crafts with dadEthan’s bday party.Emilee teaching Ethan how to climb trees.
It has been to long since Sherri, DeAnna and I had one of our Sister Trips. We met in Florida a year or so ago but before that it was San Francisco. We try and pick a place that none of us have been before so we can expand our travel. We had one planned in April of 2020 to New York but COVID ruined that one. It has been tricky between one of us being pregnant or nursing but 2 of 3 of us are done with that phase of our lives for sure, so our trips should be able to get a little more regular.
We all flew to San Antonio on a Friday. My plane actually went to Tampa for a layover so Sherri and I flew the last part of my flight together. DeAnna got there first and picked us up. Sherri had found a nice hotel on the River Walk so we headed there first and checked in. We chatted for a few hours in our hotel then headed out to find dinner and explore. It was a great weekend. It always goes by to fast
We ate lots of yummy food and between relaxing at the pool, pedicures and visiting in our hotel we got a lot of fun activities in.
River Walk. As I mentioned, our hotel was right on the River Walk so we wandered around and explored that in the evenings. We did a boat tour, sampled lots of the ice cream, and ate at some great restaurants. Every trip we go on someone ends up having the same shoes or shirt or something as another person. You can see that DeAnna and I ended up bringing the same shirt this time.
We all have the pants Sherri is wearing but she is the only one that wore them on the trip.
We went to the Natural Bridge Caverns. It was probably one of the biggest caves I have ever been in. It was the hottest cave I have ever been in too. Texas is just a different level of hot. Later this same night we went to Chicken and Pickle per DeAnna’s request. Of course their indoor courts were booked so we had the privilege of playing pickle ball outside for 30 minutes. Sherri and I played on a team against DeAnna. She still beat us. We were all drenched in sweat when we were done.
Of course we went to the Alamo while we were there too.
We always finish our trip with a selfie at the airport.
This picture showed up on my camera from somewhere. It must be a memory stored somewhere on my phone. It made me smile. I love these sweet girls.
These next two pictures got me to laugh pretty good when I saw them. Sherri sent me the popcorn one while we were in San Antonio Texas. We all could relate. It was hot! The other one I saw on the wall at my kids doctor office when we were there for their annual checkups.
We started our Summer off with a Friday night Royals game. The Royals didn’t win but the night was still fun. We had cotton candy and peanuts. Allison was determined to get on the jumbotron and danced crazy enough that she caught their attention and her wish came true. When she saw herself she was a little panicked and froze but she was on it. She said she is more prepared for next time and won’t freeze up. They had a cool fireworks show after the game and the kids fell asleep on the way home in the car. A night of fun and a sugar crash made it to hard to keep their eyelids open.
On our way to the game we were jamming out to some careoke. Sweet Baby James came on and it reminded me of the time I filmed Allison and Matthew singing it in the car when they were younger (Emilee was to young to sing with them). I decided to recreate it so I had the kids sing it again, Emilee joined in this time.
Original video 2018:
2022 version:
The first weekend of Summer (Memorial Day weekend) we went to Lake of the Ozarks. A friend of dad’s from work had been inviting us to come stay at their cabin for quite awhile. We made the most of it but it was a little bit of an awkward weekend. They are really nice but what was discussed as far as activities and expectations was not what happened. They told us not to bring anything, I brought some food anyways because I felt bad for adding 5 mouths to feed for two days. It was good that I did though because they didn’t have any food. His wife disappeared most of the time and I was left to make the food. Ryan offered to rent a tube or two to pull the kids behind the boat, he said he had one he could borrow so not to worry about it. There never was a tube or anything else. We just drove around the lake for hours at a time looking at houses. We were all bored to death but the kids did a good job at staying positive. All the beds were well used and no sheets were washed between people sleeping on them. Not the greatest weekend. Matthew did do a little fishing and had some success. They swam in the lake a bit, and there was a pool they played in a bit but not to much because the water was only 60 degrees. We have a family trip to Table Rock lake planned in August, there will be lots of tubing, snacks, swimming and fun to be had.
When we got back from the lake the girls had Girl Scout camp and Matthew had Youth Conference in Nauvoo Illinois. Great experiences for them all. After that Emilee had horse camp and two volleyball camps. Allison had a kayak trip with her Girl Scout Troop and her first Young Women camp with church. Matthew had High Adventure in South Dakota with church and a Regional Flag football tournament in Wisconsin at the Green Bay Packers practice stadium. Add swimming at the pool, play dates, sleepovers, baseball games, gymnastics, riding lessons, and a fun day at Lake Olathe swim beach with the cousins and we have had some busy first weeks of Summer. July will be a little slower.
Emilee’s Girl Scout TroopAnother picture of Emilee playing herself to sleep.Mount Rushmore-High Adventure 2022 with Jake and Carter.Green Bay Packer’s Practice StadiumYouth Conference 2022, Nauvoo Illinois-Adam, Parker, Matt.Jake, Carter, Matt, youth Conference 2022Girl’s CampGirls Camp 2022Girl’s CampAllison’s Group at Girl’s Camp
Father’s Day was on Ryan’s birthday this year. We had a yummy dinner at Grandpa and Grandma’s house with Ross and Lauren’s family. Usually Lauren and I let them play a game on their own but since it was a special day we played too. Emilee and Jovee made a scavenger hunt/game/competition up for their dad’s and grandpa. They had to throw a ball as far as they could with their left hand, fold a bird with origami, draw a picture, do the most pushups (they all tied with one on that one) and race around the house. It was pretty cute.
Father’s Day 2022 (Notice the bow ties for dad’s and crown for Grandpa)Happy 43rd Birthday Dad!
A little side story. Matthew has been playing on a team with some boys for flag football. The coach for this team is Chad. He and his family are friend of ours. His son Tyson is also on the team. The event they went to in Wisconsin was a regional event, if they won they would go to the National event (last year they actually went to Nationals and won). So Matthew has been playing with them for a few months and they qualified for Regionals. Ryan said Matthew was to old for his team so he wouldn’t be able to play. A few weeks later, he tells me that Chad got it figured out and Matthew could now play. Plans were made and Ryan, Matthew, Chad, and Tyson head up to Wisconsin together. When they get there and it is time to check in, Ryan and Chad tell Matthew that he is going to go by Trey Something and his birthday is August 9, 2008. Apparently when they said they had worked it out, Chad and Ryan meant they had signed Matthew up as a kid from their team that couldn’t come and is almost two years younger.😒 Liar One and Liar Two justified this to themselves because even though Matthew is older than the cut of date, he is by far the smallest on the field. 🤦♀️ By the time they get to the front and the lady asks Matthew his name and bday. He says his name but can not remember the birthday so he says August then starts stammering trying to remember. Ryan had gone to the car to get something and was no where to be found. Chad sees Matthew struggling so he goes up to the lady and pulls Matthew aside and proceeds to whisper to her that Matthew is ‘a little slow’ and looks up his info on his list. He calls him over and tells him his bday, the lady smiles at Matthew and says, “Can you repeat that to me honey?” Matthew (who unlike Ryan and Chad is not a liar and if he tries to lie you can spot it a mile away) awkwardly repeats the date. The lady who takes his lying awkwardness as ‘slowness’ says, “Thank you sweetheart, you are all checked in.” while patting him on the shoulder. 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Our much anticipated adults only vacation finally happened! We had a cruise scheduled for last December that was cancelled due to COVID. We rescheduled it for April this year and is was cancelled again for the same reason. We decided to push the cruise to next year for our 20th anniversary. Hopefully in a year cruises will be back and running. In the mean time we decided to go to an all inclusive resort and see if we liked it verses a cruise better. We went to Playa del Carmen and stayed in the Fairmont Mayakoba Resort. It was pretty swanky. In my head I pictured it like a fancy hotel room but we had our own little apartment and traveled around the resort by walking or golf cart to do the different things we wanted. There were lots of lizards. Tiny ones and big iguanas that we saw. We had a family of them that we saw around our bathroom. I told myself that they liked to stay in the bathroom where it was the most humid and wouldn’t crawl in my bed at night. We named them Larry, baby Larry, and Lizzy. When we were home and showing the kids pictures and talking to them about our trip they were the most jealous about our mini bar/fridge that was stocked daily with sodas, candy, chips, and a bunch of other snacks.
Eating breakfast at one of the restaurants before heading to the pool.
This little guy sat by me at the pool one afternoon. There were a lot of pretty birds, butterflies, and flowers.
I took this picture from the restaurant. It is the infinity pool we spent a lot of time swimming in.
View from the gold cart on our way to some place.
There was lots of little rivers like this through out the resort. We had one that went along the back of our little apartment.
Every morning they had someone walking around with this hawk. It was his job to keep the other birds away. As soon as he went around a corner there was always some brave/stupid bird that would dive in and try and grab some food.
In the US we have to stay 6 feet apart. In Mexico it is safer I guess so 5 feet is good enough. Stupid COVID.
We don’t know what these are but they were common to see around the resort. There was a family of them at one of the holes Ryan was trying to putt into. They were in no hurry to get out of his way.
Ryan golfed one afternoon with his new clubs. It was beautiful weather.
The weather was about 50/50 rainy and sunny while we were there. The day we had a tour around some of the places in Mexico, including the Mayan ruins was overcast and cloudy but no rain. It was still hot but no where near what it would have been if the sun was out. It was perfect. Some friends that were there a few months ago recommended we do an LDS tour with a family that has been running their own little business for group or personal tours. There is 8 kids if I remember right and all of them have a middle name from the Book of Mormon. The youngest is named Lemuel. His mom told him it was his job to make a new path for his name from his name sake. 🤣 Our friends tour guide was Helaman. My parents actually did a tour with them years ago on their cruise, their guides name was Alma. Our guide was Mosiah. It was a pretty awesome tour. He picked us up at our hotel and took us to Chichen-Itza, a cenote, and Ek Balam. He had lots of information about the ruins and pointed out ways that indicate the original religion was in God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost and then over time when they became wicked turned them into multiple other Gods.
Inside the arena. You can’t see in this picture but up on the second level wall there is a small circle with a hole in the middle attached to the side. The players had to bounce a rubber ball through the hole using any part of their bodies, except their hands. The WINNERS were given the honor of being sacrificed.
We saw two arenas that they used to watch teams compete in with a rubber ball. This was the smaller one. We are standing up where people would watch.
This is considered a smaller temple but it is still massive. It is 107 steps to the top from the ground.
This is part of a temple that is being restored. When they were built they were all white and smooth because they were covered with plaster.
107 steps. They are very steep and narrow. Mosiah taught us to walk diagonally to save our knees. It made a huge difference.
This tree is called a Tree of Life. The trunk is hollow and the bottom 4-5 feet is full of water. People could drill a small hole in the trunk and clean drinking water would come out. Pretty amazing.
Another Tree of Life. Once you knew what to look for, every now and then one would just appear in the middle of all the other trees.
These pillars represented the warriors. Mosiah said possible a memorial to the stripling warriors
The pillars all lead to this temple. The top has a statue in the middle that represents the leader of the soldiers. Mosiah thought possibly Helaman.
They built one tier on the temple every 50 years. They have discovered their are NINE more tiers under the ground that are not seen.
There are three Gods in the top of this building. They say it was the rain, sun, and I don’t remember the third one. Mosiah said it could also be God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost.
The corners of the building make shadows on the sides of the stair pillars that start in March and are at their fullest on April 6th. The shadows make it look like the snake is slithering down the temple.
Mosiah said other tour guides tell people these small circles were probably baths, or aroma therapy/steam areas. If the leaves were cleaned out you would see four stone steps in the side area that lead into the circle that is about 4 feet deep. There are several spots at the bottom that would drain water out too. Possibly for baptisms.
Mosiah told us what a lot of the ruins on these building meant but of course I can’t remember it all now.
This was the observatory. Like many other buildings and temples it was built so that on April 6th the sun would shine through the windows perfectly.
Between the two ruins we went and saw, Mosiah took us to a small little town and we ate lunch at a very authentic Mexican store/restaurant. Ryan thought it was pretty awesome. It reminded him of Bolivia. The food was really good. We had black bean soup and tacos with various kinds of pork and sauces. After lunch he took us to a cenote. They are really common there. It is basically a giant hole or cavern underground that gets filled with water from under ground rivers. They come in all different sizes. He took us to a smaller town with one that is pretty quiet and for most of the time we were the only ones there.
This is where we ate lunch.
I was a little nervous about going into a hole in the ground. Ryan said it wouldn’t even really feel like that. When I got there and looked down the spiral stair case I started to doubt him.
…still going…
…it feels like I am going pretty far down.
Then we go through this tunnel for a while that you can’t stand up straight in.
It did open up into a big area with beautiful water.
You can see the ceiling and were the hole that you can look straight down into the cenote from the street in this picture.
The water wasn’t as cold as we thought it would be. It was refreshing.
I struggled with swimming out in the open. It felt like some cave monster would come grab me.
Ryan didn’t have any issues though.
He guessed it was about 12 feet deep right here.
We headed to the beach to spend one of our days. We had heard there was a bit of a seaweed issue. We were fine with that. We thought we would go and sit in a chair and enjoy the view and eat lunch. When we wanted to swim we could come back to the pools. It turns out a ‘bit of a seaweed problem’ means ten foot tall mounds as far as you can see in either direction and crews of people netting and raking it up out of the ocean and not even making a dent. The smell was what we couldn’t handle. We had dinner reservations on the beach one night but after our visit we decided to cancel them and eat at a different restaurant.
Boardwalk out to the beach.
The sand was beautiful, white powdered sugar feeling. There was dozens of little huts to sit under and sleep, read, visit, and eat.
This is after a giant tractor came by and removed the top of the mound. So sad that this is ruining their beaches.
One of the days we went into Playa Del Carmen and walked 5th avenue. Right after we got there a guy came up to us and said he was our waiter from the hotel and he wanted to show us his shop. He totally swindled us. We both thought he was an actual waiter from the hotel. We bought a few things from him and left. About ten seconds later, another shop owner came up to us and said he was our waiter. That is when we realized we had fallen for the number one tourist trick on the whole street. Amazingly we ran into 40 waiters that happened to work at our hotel. We figured out the umbrella we were carrying from the hotel was drawing all the attention. Despite that we got some good souvenirs and had fun walking around and seeing everything. The beach by the shopping area was covered in seaweed too.
We had a wonderful vacation and enjoyed ourselves very much. I got my first stamp on my pass port. We both decided that the resort was awesome and we had a great time but all things considered we like cruising a little more. There is a bigger variety of activities to do and you see more places with out having to do the traveling yourself once you are on the ship. We had fun and made some great memories together that will get us fueled and relaxed until our next trip together.
Allison went home with Grandma Jana for a few weeks after she came to watch the kids while Ryan and I were in Mexico. She loves going to visit Grandma and Grandpa and had a great time. They went swimming a lot, watched lots of movies, did art projects, she played with Aubry and she met her cousin KJ for the first time and held him for a bit while they lit of fire works for the 4th of July. She loves the one on one attention and enjoys getting to be an only child for a bit.
Matthew had a lot more baseball. They won several tournaments and came close to winning in several as well. He and Campbell like to go and watch each others games when they don’t have their own to play in. Towards the end of the season he finally started getting some of his speed back that he lost when he broke his leg.
This is some more random Summer pictures.
We helped watch Margarita’s dogs one weekend. They are more of the lounge and relax type then the play and move type. Emilee was trying to convince them to do something with her. She was not successful.
Not our usual July 4th now that Grandma and Grandpa are here. We all ate a yummy dinner together and there were a lot of fireworks to watch. Next year we will make better plans to be somewhere that we can light our own fireworks off.
Allison was quite pleased with how high she was able to stack her free ice cream cone at Jason’s Deli.
Emilee watched her friend Natalie’s hamster for her while they went on vacation. Between her and help from Allison, she was able to keep it alive and remembered to feed it. I think it also clarified for her that she might not really want the full time responsibility of a pet.
This is Matthew and Ethan’s idea of hanging out together. I think they are at least playing the same game as a team.
Allison’s chalk art.
The last two pictures are to help Allison remember that we love her and this is why she isn’t always in the pictures with us.
Allison was being a little grumpy and we were giving her a hard time about refusing to be in pictures or not showing her face or smiling. We told her when she gets older she is going to wonder why she isn’t in any of the pictures with everyone else.
This is why Allison. When we try to take a picture we have to take what we can get or we would never get a picture. We still love you, and we love the back of your head!
Dad wanted to have a family dinner and game night with all the KC Terry families for his birthday. He smoked some meat and Ross and him played several games. I played one too, since it was his birthday and Father’s Day he said I had to. He spent most of the day on Saturday golfing with his new clubs. He stuck with his traditional birthday cake request of “mom’s chocolate cake”. It was a great weekend. We are all very happy that he is in our family.
