Happy Fourth of July

Just some happy and cute kid pictures from one of our favorite places in Wichita - the zoo.

Family Vacation

We went for a long weekend down to Tablerock Lake to test the kids tolerance for boating and all things "lake". Since I am a complete lakerat and want to buy a boat soon, we had to test the waters (literally) to make sure it didn't freak the kids out. To my complete happiness, they loved it and they passed the test with flying colors.

In fact, the first morning out on the pontoon (we rented), we pulled into a cove for the kids to jump in and swim. They were a little nervous at first, but quickly got excited and loved it. Asher was jumping in by himself and swimming over the the ladder. Giya jumped into Lance after about the third time, she jumped in to him and said "I'm so glad you are here, this is a great lake."

They actually cried to leave........

The Elder's visiting

Michelle, Aaron and Riley stopped over for a couple of days on their trek from Seattle to Virginia. To stay with tradition, we took them to the zoo and saw the tigers up sooooo close. Giya has (i think) her first crush on Riley. She wanted him to do everything with her - poor guy.

Orange Backyard Pool

Annual trip to Dexter, Missouri

I braved it again this year and took the kids by myself to Missouri. I really lucked out this time and mom and dad helped with the travel and driving ALOT. We had a great time riding the tractor, playing the trombone, playing in the sprinklers in their backyard, the Children's Museum in Malden and at Bass Pro shop on the way back in Springfield. Asher told me when we left that we would have to go back next week......hmmmmm not going to happen that soon.

My cousin's wedding - Nebraska

Luckily the kids were not in the wedding, so they got to have more fun. They met some of their second cousins for the first time and third cousins (i think this always confuses me). Also, the brother of the bride is in a local band and they played for awhile at the reception. The kids just sat there eating and bobbing their heads to the beat.

Sean and Amanda's wedding

More pics from the wedding. There were a few smiles before the meltdown occured. Asher did FANTASTIC and surprised us all - he the boy who is aprehensive about everything new. You can see from the picture walking down the aisle, that the only thing that bothered Asher was that Giya would not hold his hand, so he decided to do his job on his own.

Playing in the sprinklers

Asher thinks its the coolest thing for us to turn on the backyard sprinklers and he just runs wild. Giya prefers to watch from the deck or have daddy carry her around because the sprinklers "tickle" her too much.

Also, Asher is trying on (making fun of) my "old lady sunhat" that I wear in the backyard. Then he struck a pose when i got out the camera to take a pic.

Our cousin's wedding - Debut flower girl and ring bearer

Well, as suspected we didn't perform perfectly in our roles as flower girl and ring bearer. Although we tricked mommy and daddy and switched which one of us didn't want to do it. I (Giya) didn't sleep well in the hotel the night before, so I wasn't in the mood to walk down the aisle and I especially didn't like wearing that big white dress. I preferred to be naked (in my underpants) and used the opportunity to get as many animal cookies out of mommy and daddy as I could. I finally made it down the aisle but as soon as I walked to daddy (and I pulled mommy all the way down the aisle with me) I announced to the whole church in my loudest 2 year old voice that I wanted even more animal cookies for a job well done.

Shown above with the bride and with cousin Kelli.

Asher's field day - Last week of school

Asher's preschool had a Field Day the next to last day of school with all kinds of games to play out in the yard. He had a great time with his friends and teachers this year, it has been a GREAT school year (it went too fast) and we were very blessed. It might to be hard to tell from some of the pictures, but one of the events was a rubber chicken toss......

At the end of the day they had snow cones, and since I don't let the kids have dyes, I had been talking up the fact that they would have special white snow cones and they loved them.

River Run - Tot Trot

This was Asher's third time to run in the Wichita River Festival Tot Trot and Giya's first run. They both did great and loved getting their medals. In fact, every time that I put this t-shirt on Giya, she thinks we are going to go race again.