July 2010

OK... don't laugh too hard at me :-)  But we have a pet ant :-)

Yes... it was just one ant... well come to find out she laid eggs and we have been getting more ants.  I can't get a very good picture but I tried... if you've never kept ants in one of these fun ant habitats that have all the food and water they need in the blue gel we highly recommend it!  They have been so fun to watch.  Our big ant was one we just found on our back porch!

Speaking of the back porch... here is Colin showing yet again something he is similar in with his Papa.  He is out on the back porch "praying" I thought it was so sweet!  It is something his Papa does when he comes to visit.  Thank you Papa for laying a good foundation for our sweet boy.

We have been having a fun filled summer so far!  Now that Colin and Alexander can ride 2 wheelers the LOVE to go on bike rides... here are Emma and Harrison after one of our rides when daddy decided to ride around the little splash park across from our house at the end of one of our rides.  As he rode under the dumping buckets and sees one just miss his head and is thinking... whew... just made it... he hears .... AAAAaaahhhh!!!!!!! from behind him.  Then it dawns on him... oh yeah Emma and Harrison didn't "just make it" :-)  The picture doesn't show it very well but Harrisons hair shows where the water hit him square in the top of the head!  After the initial shock wore off they thought it was pretty fun to have their trailer FILLED with water to play in :-)

All of our little ones have used and enjoyed the little Bob The Builder computer Emma is playing on in the above picture.  Harrison though has a HUGE facination with computers!!!  I think we may have a future computer geek on our hands (I say that with love all of you computer people out there! :-) The next picture is his flying leap to get to a friends computer when we were visiting them!

Speaking of visiting a friends house we were able to go and visit with our friends the Scarbroughs again this summer!  I just can't say in words what a blessing to us all our time spent with them in their sweet home is!

Not quite sure why the picture post sideways... but are these two of the cutest thumb suckers you've ever seen!!!!!! Sweet Emma and Sarah having a cuddle moment.

A picture of our crew :-)

This is our 3rd summer in a row we've gotten to visit with these sweet friends and I pray it will be a tradition that we will be able to continue!  One of these days in a few years I'll have to post a group picture from each year... so far either one or both of our families have been able to add yet another little person to each picture!

And of course what trip to Oregon is ever complete without a visit to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum :-)

So far they have a bunch of aircraft outside to walk around and look at as well as a building FILLED with aircraft and another FILLED with everything space related... it really is quite amazing!  They also have their own vineyard and tasting areas.. and now... they are putting in a waterpark!  The aircraft above on top of this building will have a slide coming out of it to ride down into an indoor waterpark!  We are so excited for this to open as well!

We went and visit Shady Dell with my mom and my sister and her family.  It is this great place with miniature trains to ride that some guy's put together as a hobby.  They build and take care of their trains and have built these miniature tracks all around on a couple of acres and put in water tanks to fill their steam engines and little train barns to store them in.. it's great!

Above on the front of the train are Danny my sisters son, my sister, JoEllen trying to hide from the camera ;-) and her husband Levi just behind her.  Note the little train barn in the left of the picture.

I just LOVE Danny's expression in this one he was having a wonderful time!

Every now and then you have to stop all of your summer fun and come inside to smell the rising bread :-) here are my 4 baking helpers!

Some other summer fun we had was getting to have our sweet friends Thea and Jackson over once a week!  Here is sweet Thea giving one of her melt your heart smiles!  Love this little one!

And her handsome big brother Jackson. 

I know their mommy is a wonderfully gifted photographer.. but I have to say it sure makes the job alot easier when you have such cute little ones to photograph.  Even I can't take a bad one of these two!

One of the final fun adventures for us in the month of July was a trip to a Hawk's baseball game from the great kindness of our wonderful realtor Scott Swan.  This look between daddy and daughter says it all!

We discovered something new about our sweet little girl at this baseball game... she GREATLY dislikes mascots!!!!  Her expression is the reason behind this picture not the goofy grin of the strange guy the mascot was rubbing the head of :-) Note Emma's serious expression.  She would NOT get off of Uncle Troy's (our pastor Troy) lap until the mascot was FAR away :-) Emma thanks you for protecting her Uncle Troy :-)