Summer Sleepover

Abby and a group of her friends were invited over to Sydney Emerson's house for their 2nd annual "Girl's Campout!" Her mom sent me pictures throughout their two days and night together and it looks like they had a great time!

They had water gun fights...

A giant slip n' slide...

Sparklers and smores...

Slept in a tent despite the heat and bugs!!

And woke up to a yummy breakfast the next day!

All in all it was a fun way for Abby to spend some time with all of these fun girls  from Paramount Elementary who all go to different middle schools now!

LEGO Maniac

Landon and Nolan have spent numerous hours this summer making all kinds of LEGO creations.

One day we were driving in the car and I heard the following conversation between the boys...
Nolan: "Would you rather break your arm or give up all your LEGOs?"
Landon (without pause): "Definitely break my arm. You can live with some pain but a life without LEGOs is no life at all!"

Spoken like a true LEGO fanatic!!

Kid's Summer Camp

Abby worked hard to put together five weeks of summer camps for kids in our neighborhood this year. She had different themes each week including cooking/baking, water/beach, science/technology, music/drama, and arts/crafts. Her siblings were always willing participants as well as some cousins and neighborhood friends.

She did one class for 3-6 year olds on Mondays and another class for 7-10 year olds on Thursdays. Each class was two hours and she worked hard to keep them entertained. The classes were exhausting at times, but she ended up making over $300 this summer!!

Smokey Mountains

We haven't been able to go to Greenbrier State Park much this summer since they had to lower the lake to repair the dam. Instead we have been going to Cunningham Falls State Park each Tuesday with my sister and some other families from our ward.

This last Tuesday it was a bit rainy and very cloudy. So cloudy that it made the area look like the Smokey Mountains!!

We pretty much had the place to ourselves with the weather. The kids enjoyed playing in the sand and catching some little fish in the lake.

Landon even found a dinosaur...at least a small green plastic one!!

Philadelphia Day #2

On Saturday morning we had breakfast at our hotel and then got on a tour bus to explore the city of Philadelphia!

All the kids loved the novelty of riding on top of the bus for this tour!

We saw and heard all about this amazing city and enjoyed all the different sights and sounds of a busy city in the summertime.

A statue of George Washington...

"Rocky" outside the Museum of Art...

We got off during the tour to visit the Independence Seaport Museum. It wasn't quite as entertaining as the Franklin Institute but we still enjoyed it.

We really enjoyed exploring Harbor Park right outside the museum too. They had this giant chess set...

And some giant LEGOs too!

Our museum membership got us into explore the WWI ship "Olympia" as well as the "Becuda" submarine.

It was a lot of fun to explore, but we all left with no desire to be sailors!!

We came back to have lunch at the Reading Terminal Market again. It was packed this time though and it was hard to fully enjoy the experience. That place is a must-try though if your are ever in Philly. Right across the street from our hotel was the "American Numismatic Convention." We hit it right at the very end but the kids were able to collect some fun coins to add to their collection and also got some pictures on the $100,000 bill!

We headed home that evening, grateful for some fun family memories in Philadelphia!

Philadelphia Day #1

We had fun visiting Philadelphia this last weekend. We had initially planned to go with Tasha and her family as well but their plans had to change last minute so we weren't able to go to the temple as we had originally planned. We still had a great time in the "City of Brotherly Love" though!

We drove up Friday morning and went to the Franklin Institute. We spent over 5 hours there and loved it. It was very educational but in a fun way that all of us enjoyed.

One of their favorite parts was this giant heart that they could go up inside and they enjoyed racing through it several times.

The aviation area was a big hit too!

Of course no visit would be complete without a visit to see Benjamin Franklin himself!

The brain area was fascinating and we ended up staying there for over an hour. They kids enjoyed practicing their neuron traveling skills in this fun play area!

We headed over to our favorite eating place "The Reading Terminal Market" for dinner that night and then crashed in our hotel that was right across the street for a nice relaxing evening before heading out to do more city exploring the next morning.

25 Weeks!

On August 14th I hit the 25 week mark. I am definitely starting to show more now and I enjoy feeling all of his little movement throughout the day and into the night. This second trimester has been pretty good overall and I'm kind of sad to see it go. The third trimester is kind of hard as I know I'll continue to get bigger and more uncomfortable, but we are all excited to meet this little man in November!

Butterfly Garden

The Cub Scouts had their August pack meeting at a local butterfly garden. The kids were rather bored during the 30 minute presentation about Monarch migration patterns, but they had a great time playing with the butterflies afterwards.

They even got the butterflies to land on their hands!!

Nolan waited a long time before one finally ventured onto his finger and then it didn't want to leave!!

Nolan was also excited that he finally lost his first tooth!! This tooth had been loose since April so it was fun to see his joy about it finally coming out! He was probably the last kid his age to lose his first tooth and he was over the moon to join the "toothless grin" club!