Vacation Time Again!

In August the kids and I headed up to Canada to visit with my parents.  Here is a quick recap:

 

The first couple of days we hung out around the house.  I took the kids to the park one morning:

One night my mom and I met up with some of my aunts and cousins and we had a girl's night out.  We went to see the play Les Miserables.  It was fantastic.  Then we went out for ice cream and headed home.  My dad was kind enough to watch the kids and put them to bed.

reading stories with Grandpa:

Brooklyn looking at her own book:

One of the days I was able to get together with my friend Deanna.  It was nice to get together and let our kids play while we visited.  I got to see her cute little baby boy, which was awesome.  I wish I would have taken my camera!
I also visited with my friend Heather.  We met at the park and let our boys play while we caught up:

Then we all went back to my parents' house and played for a bit.

My dad giving Micah and Cosmo a ride in the wheelbarrow:

We also went swimming while we were there.  Or I should say the boys went swimming with Grandma and Grandpa:

I sat on the side holding this very sick girl:

She just laid there for the entire time.  She ran a high fever for 2 or 3 days and then it suddenly broke the day after we got home.  Then she immediately broke out with a rash - baby measles!!  Not my idea of fun.

Anyway, the kids had a lot of fun playing on the floating toys...

and swinging on the ball.  Both Alan and Conner tried it, but I only got a picture of Alan

A note about our scary experience.  Micah was playing in the baby pool right in front of me while my dad and I talked for a minute about Brooklyn.  Then suddenly we looked over and he wasn't there.  My dad jumped up and looked around and saw the top of a head in the hot tub.  He started to run over there but the life guard beat him to Micah.  The lifeguard jumped in and pulled Micah up.  Luckily Micah had been holding his breath so when he came up he just took a big breath and looked around as if to say "What?"  He didn't seem upset at all.  It was kind of scary, and I felt bad afterwards, but he was fine and hopefully he will stay closer to an adult from now on. 

We headed back home on Sunday.  It was a great trip and I'm glad we went!

Conner on 2 wheels!!!

This summer Conner learned to ride his bike without training wheels.  He was pretty nervous about it at first.  We tried it on this parking lot but it had a lot of loose gravel so it didn't go well.  We tried a couple of weeks later at a better parking lot and he caught on really fast.  

And he's off!

Conner has loved riding his bike this summer!

Brooklyn

Here is a quick look at our newest one-year-old:
weight:  23 lbs. 2 oz
height:  31 1/4 inches

Brooklyn started walking when she was 12 1/2 months old.  She could walk before that but she would take a few steps and then fall over.  She stayed very tippy until she was 12 and half months old and then she suddenly seemed to get the hang of it.  She was our latest crawler and earliest walker.

Brooklyn and Micah make quite the dynamic duo.  Here Micah dumped out a box of cereal and Brooklyn is happily spreading it around and eating some of it:

I still get a lot of comments on Brooklyn's hair.  People ask it I dyed it to make the tips dark and the rest blonde - nope its all natural.  When I put her hair in pig tails it makes the pig tails dark and everything else blonde (see picture below):

Brooklyn loves to swing at the park:

I like to put her hair in pig tails but she always pulls it out - so frustrating!

She likes ice cream: 

She loves to be outside.  She loves to walk into the garden and pick tomatoes and she loves the little slide that we have.  In the picture below she is trying to eat a dirt clod and I keep saying "No, yucky"  She thought it was a such a funny game - silly goose!

At one year old she could say mama, dada and uh-oh. 

Happy Birthday Brooklyn!

 We had Brooklyn's cake and ice cream a week after her birthday, since we were camping on her actual birthday.  All of my family was at our house that weekend and we got to celebrate my brother's birthday too - party time!  We made a little doll cake:

 Brooklyn started by just poking at her cake and then she tried a piece:

 She decided she liked it and dug right in:

Eventually she got really silly and tried to get the cake in her mouth without using her hands:

 Then we added the ice cream and she really got messy:

 It looks like she enjoyed herself:

All of my family gave her presents but I didn't get any pictures.  Her presents from us were pretty late but she seemed to enjoy them anyway.  She got some new pjs and a doll.  It looks like she needs some pointers on how to feed her baby:

 A thank you snuggle for dad:

We love you Brooklyn!  We are so glad you are in our family!

Rafting

In July all of my family came to visit us.  We decided to go rafting on Saturday.  We rented a big raft and floated down part of the Missouri river.  It was so much fun!

Of course we had to have squirt guns, in case we got too hot:

The kids are ready to go.  Poor Brooklyn - we put her in her life jacket and it made it so that she couldn't really move.  She was not overly impressed:

Steph holding Brooklyn - I can't get this picture to turn right side up but I still like it:

Everyone except Brooklyn hopped in for a quick cool down at some point on the trip.  Here my brother Reed and I are holding on to the back of the raft:

We tied this little dingy behind the raft and put our cooler in it.  Conner hopped in for a while and ate ALL the strawberries - little stinker:

Reed and Steph with Mom in the background:

Kind of a group shot:

We ended the day with an icecream cake to celebrate Drew's birthday.  A few of us got sunburned but it was a great way to spend time together!