Kenan's

At the beginning of May, my dad had meetings in Phoenix, AZ, and had a companion ticket to use.  Hooray for me, I got a trip to see Kenan out of the deal!  It was really good.  Mark kept the boys and I took George to visit for a quick 3 days.   It was fun to have some time with my dad on the travel side and great to have 3 days with Kenan and her family.  

The skies were beautiful and there was some really great scenery from the bird's eye view.

 Emsleigh wanted to hold George.  His floppy body was a little more than she could handle.

 One morning we got up early and left the kids sleeping with Jeremiah so we could go on a hike at a nearby Casa Grande mountain.  It was a beautiful morning.

 Some of the scenery from our hike.

Fortunately this rattle snake was dead when we came upon it, but it hadn't been that way for very long!

 Kesed and George

 I love this picture.  He's such a little cutie.

 Kesed loves to eat and she's not worried about getting dirty to do it.  I had a fabulous time watching her at meal times.  It was also her 1st birthday while I was there.  Happy Birthday Kesed!

Chichasaw National Park

We met my friend Dara with her three kiddos at Chickasaw National Park in Oklahoma back in the spring.  We had a great time catching up and letting all the boys play.  A boys' heaven... water, mud and sticks.  Can't get much better than that!

 Elliot had just dug his shoe out of the mud in this picture.  He'd slipped into the creek before he was quite ready and lost his shoe.  It's the classic, "Could it get any worse" face.  I was thinking I should submit this picture to a greeting card company.  

(And yes, I took the picture BEFORE I went to help him.)

Normal Happenings Around Our House

Our very own Picassos.

 Hudson helping Mark hang something on the wall.

 Superheros playing Angry Birds

 Rock-n-roll baby!

 Mountain climbers

 Does this need a description?

Now you know who's behind the mask. 

Nate falling asleep.

 And again.

 Nate tied up.

 Happy George.

My Chalk Children

They actually remind me of my real children.  

Nate had to do his a couple of times.

Nathanael's 3rd Birthday

This is from Nathanael's birthday way back in February.  It had been so long when I finally got on my computer to post stuff that I had given up trying to go back to this, but yesterday Nathanael told me this was his favorite birthday ever and proceeded to tell me all about it, detail by detail.  I felt bad and decided it didn't matter how late I was, I need to recognize it for the special day it was and is!

My parents brought my grandparents and Owen down.  Two of my cousins and their family and our friends the Crouches and the Curtises joined us for the celebration.

Gift time.

Owen was REALLY happy with the chainsaw. Maybe we should be afraid.

We attempted a balloon relay race.

Party animals... please take both words literally.  This wasn't a great pic.  I should have tried a group shot at the beginning instead of the end. This wasn't even the whole group, but it was as many as I could get together at one time!  I couldn't get them to look at me for anything and smile?!?!  Fat chance.  It was a little chaotic... (okay, so a lot chaotic...so what the whole party was chaotic) are you surprised with this many small children in one place?

Eight of the sixteen (as of yesterday!) great grandkids were all together which doesn't happen very often so we took a picture.