lions and hippos and stingrays, oh my!

Lauren came home for a visit, so me and the boys took her and Matt to the zoo and art museum yesterday. We went to the zoo's stingray exhibit and it was amazing! It is so worth going to see...you actually get to touch the stingrays, and the boys got to feed them...there is a video of Austin feeding at the end of this blog...









The hippos were playing/fighting right in front of us...

It's summer!

Summer is finally here... which is a good thing because I get my boys for the next few months, and I somehow survived Austin's kindergarden graduation! We had vacation bible school and boyscout camp this week, so we've been really busy, but here's some stuff from the last week or so....

This is Austin's class...they dressed in a cowboy theme for graduation

Austin getting his "diploma"

Austin and the best kindergarden teacher in the world!

The other weekend we decided to go to the museum of transportation...the boys loved it (all 3!) Here they are riding a train...

looking at the snowplow engine...

In front of another engine

Walking trough a caboose...

Happy adoption day Chevy! I got Chevy on the Memorial Day weekend 11 years ago! I hope she's around for many more!

One of MANY bowls of strawberries we have picked the last few weeks! This is our 3rd year of growing them, and they have spread like weeds. We have picked so many I have not had to buy ANY from the store... for my boys that is saying something! And they've actually been big and pretty, too...

is it summer yet?

This weekend felt like it should be summer already... but we still have school this week.... the boys got to get some water fun in this weekend, and we also went to the salute to veterans air show, which was awesome. The boys got to help one of the Canadian Skyhawks put his parachute back in after jumping out to the C-31!



The c-31 the Skyhawks jumped out of...

helping with the parachute...

With Captain Nobrega...

the Super Hornet pilots waving to us before takeoff...


The Harrier hovering ....

Andrew's Tornado Book

Andrew loves writing books....tonight he made one so cute
I had to scan it and share it.... I hope you enjoy it as much
as I did! (oh, a steak tornado is from the steam of a steak...)

First Communion

I'm late getting these up, but here are pictures from Andrew's first communion...he was so excited, and it made it even better that we had so much of our family come up for it!
It's a day he will always remember...

Trucks!!!

So a few weeks ago, Dad asked me if Uncle Mike could borrow the boys... he had heard about this truck show...
So Papa O and Uncle Mike took the boys....and a good time was had by all! Thanks Uncle Mike for finding this and inviting the boys! And thanks dad, for picking them up....


The boys were strapped onto this lift,and then the guy looked at the boys and said "take us up", and the boys actually got to do the controls to lift themselves up and down...















Dad didn't get a picture of the hot dogs, which I was told were the biggest they had ever seen (and tasted great)...