Omaha

We joined the Lane family and the Baxters for a long weekend in Omaha this summer.  The 13 of us rented a house and enjoyed a day at the zoo followed by a day at the children's museum.

Sylvia helped me make these zoo snacks filled with animal crackers.

Waiting patiently to see how close the bear would come.

I'll call it a successful family pictures since we're all looking at the camera.

It was nice to sit down and see the rest of the zoo
after walking all day and waiting in a long line for the train.

Drake spent most of the day in the stroller so he
enjoyed getting out to take a closer look at the fish.

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These two may (or may not) look innocent but they sure can get into trouble together.
The two of them went running off at one point and were missing for about 10 minutes.

We made some great memories with wonderful friends.  So thankful to be doing life with this group.

I don't know who thought it was a good idea to put a water feature
right out in the open, but both of my boys sure enjoyed.
I'm glad I packed an extra set of clothes because the hand drier was not going to cut it. 

Eric had a ball running around the ball room.

We finally caught up with Eric in the bug room after he went missing (yes again) for almost half an hour.

Sylvia loved the museum's face painting stations.  

Showing off her DIY face paint and sweat band
while in the middle of working on another project.

Johnson County Fair

Each summer my mom and I take the kids to the county fair.  This year we got to enjoy the fair with the Kacmarynski family and the Gugliuzzas.  We always make sure to visit when Grandpa and Papa are at the Gideon's booth.

Drake - 19 months

My baby turned 1.5 this summer.  He is growing up so quickly.  It's fun that he's big enough now to run around with his older siblings and attempt to keep up. 

Summer Cousin Visit

We enjoyed a week long visit from our cousin this summer.  The girls had so much fun playing together all week and did a good job of including Eric.  Margaret was here for dance camp.  At the end of the week, the dancers shared what they'd been working on.  They could also prepare something on their own if they'd like.  So, we watched on of Sylvia's old dance videos and the three of them practiced all week.

Robins

We had a robins nest out back again this summer and the kids were so excited to watch the eggs.  However, another animal must have been more interested in lunch than hatching robins because the nest was soon empty.  We were disappointed but soon found another nest under our deck.  We even got to watch as one of the robins hatched from it's shell and later as they left the nest.

Coeur d'Alene

We traveled to Idaho way back in July to celebrate aunt Ginny and uncle Stephen's wedding.  We traveled with Nana and Papa and spent the week prior to the wedding in a rental house in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.  The extra help was much appreciated on the plane and during our long layover in Denver.

Our rental house had a big front porch with a swing and was within distance to the beach and a beautiful park and playground.

In preparation for the wedding we did some alterations on Ginny's wedding dress, put the finishing touches on the wedding decorations and headed out to get our nails done.  Sylvia was a very happy to join us as the flower girl.

A Thursday morning rehearsal was followed by a brunch at the golf course overlooking the floating green.  The weather was beautiful and our evening was free to celebrate the 4th of July by watching fireworks over the lake.

The wedding site had a playground so the kids occupied themselves between family pictures and the service.  It was a little tricky to keep them clean but we weren't too worried.  Sylvia found a plastic ring from a previous wedding and wore it all evening.

Sylvia was very proud to be the flower girl.  Eric enjoyed rehearsing his role as ring bearer but could have skipped the actual service.  He got a little nervous, shed some tears and walked down the aisle with daddy.  It was a beautiful event and we are so pleased to have Stephen as a part of our family.

The highlights of the reception (at least for our kids) were the cupcakes, dancing and sparklers. 

Our family of five did some sight seeing on Saturday.  We took a mine tour and rode a gondola to the top of a mountain.  Dan took the Sylvia and Eric (separately) on a ski lift a little higher up the mountain and Sylvia got to go for a mountain hike like she'd been hoping to do.  

We were all tired out from a great week and are thankful for all the memories.