A Short Visit

We recently took a trip to Michigan to spend a few days with the in-laws. Our first stop was to my father-in-law for a day. As soon as I got out of work on Monday, I picked up the kids and off we went. I thank my lucky stars every time we take a trip because the kids are such good travelers. But how backwards is this first pic? I was sure Noah would fall asleep right away but instead, he stayed up most of the trip and Alena and Christian got a 2 hour nap!

 The following day, after breakfast and cleaning up, my FIL treated us to some fun at a mini golf/arcade joint. To the shock of us all, we each got a hole in one! After finishing up with mini golf, we headed inside to use up the 100 tokens my FIL had gotten for us to play games.

Watching grandpa shave.

We could not get him off this thing.

That evening, we said goodbye to my FIL and headed to my MIL's house. She was already in bed when we arrived so we got on our pj's and hopped into bed.

The next several days were spent enjoying our visit. The kids spent much of the time outside with my MIL's chickens and jumping on the trampoline.

Grandma teaching the girls to bake bread.

Boarding with his uncle.

 Being that Alena is always around boys (with 2 brothers and my sister's 3 boys), she was in heaven hanging out with my SIL's kids (they have 4 girls!). I got these cute pics of Alena and her cousin close in age doing a puzzle book together and sharing secrets. :)

All in all, a good visit. The kids are excited about the fact that we can now see everyone more than once a year. That means more cousin time!

One Last Outing

A couple of weeks ago, the kids and I spent a great day at the beach with my sister and her boys. I knew it was probably our last chance to enjoy the warm beach-like weather. We packed lunches, drinks, snacks, and headed out.

 Noah was quite content to spend most of the time sitting at the picnic table or in the wagon with his snacks. He barely touched the water but still had a great time off on his own watching everyone else.

Older cousin teasing Alena with some seaweed.

Did anyone else take one last chance to enjoy summer?

Fun at the Fair

For the first time in six months, I have my desktop back. I can now blog on the regular again. Praise the Lord Hallelujah!

The kids and I hit up the county fair and had such a good time. We spent the first 2+ hours just wandering through the barns and looking at all the animals. There were SO many! Cow, horses, pigs, chickens, turkeys, alpacas, goats, rabbits. You name it, they had it. And to top it off, we stayed for the demolition derby. The kids thought that was just the bees knees!

We didn't even get to the rides which was fine and we didn't care. There was so much to see and do. Horses getting baths and new horse shoes, 4-H shows, the milking station, demo derby, and more.

 The kids were mesmerized watching the cows being milked. Alena put two and two together and comments, "Mommy, that cow is being pumped like you did." (I pumped and donated my milk to a baby in need.)

This mama goat was being shown with her cute baby kid!

 I thought this next picture was just adorable. I spotted a local girl taking a nap with her show cow. :)

The grandstand was packed for the derby.

Did anyone else hit up their county fair this year?

Dog Days of Summer

With summer winding down and the weather turning fast, excuse me while I flood you with posts from our final beach weather days. We've been so busy playing outside while we can, getting into home schooling (more on that in another post), and thoroughly enjoying our time together that I had put a hold on blogging.

This was from back in August when the kids and I headed to Lake Erie, or the "sea" as the kids called it. Can you tell they're Arizona born and bred?



A little nurse and nap time.