June Vacations

In June we visited both sets of Grandparents, first to Spokane to play with the Kunkel's. The kids traveled very well. Twice on different flights Maren started dozing off, but we were never so lucky as for her to actually fall asleep. She'd quickly realize she was falling asleep and get this tiny smirk on her face then she'd wake up.

We had a lot of fun in Spokane, however we documented it very poorly, I guess. Jeff's sisters were there too! It was surprisingly cold, 60 degree weather and lots of rain. But we managed to get out on a sunny day to go to the park. A few other highlights were playing train with Grandpa (always a big deal for Ryan), going to a bounce house, and just hanging out.

From Spokane I traveled with the kids to Salt Lake City to visit the Smith's, while sadly Jeff headed back to Memphis for school. I've never had trouble going through security with the kids, but I got the pat down at the Spokane airport. I'm sure I must have looked very threatening with Maren's epi pen, 6 months pregnant, and with 2 small children. Maren made sure that the security lady knew our disgust! She threw quite a tantrum for the lady.

Again, I didn't do a very good job taking pictures in Salt Lake City. But we had another fun visit!

We spent some time at Wheeler Farm with the van Dijk cousin's and our friends the Davidson's.

My brother Mike's daughter, Milee was up for a visit too! She loved the horses!

We went to the "West Fest Parade," which no matter how small or weak the parade was, it was a lot of fun. The kids collected a good amount of candy, below you can see Maren sharing her spoils with Aunt Sarah and cousin Cicily.

Two little "candy heads."

The kids spent a lot of time helping grandma & grandpa break-in their new back yard play ground!

Swimming with cousin's!

One day we went to Liberty Park to play in the fountains. It was maybe not my best idea, but it was fun. (About noon the park was really getting full with a lot of "riff-raff.")

The girls having a snack.

Swinging with Grandma.

Ryan & Ziek, & Kalli looking on.

Thanks Kunkel's and Smith's for GREAT visits, we love you!!

July swimming

In July Ryan took 2 weeks of swim lessons. I wasn't sure if there would be any water left in the pool when he was done. It was really hard to watch him sink so much and take in so much water through his nose and mouth. I finally had to ask his teacher to help him a little more. Regardless of my struggle with swim lessons, Ryan loved it and his teacher!

Maren had to wear her swimming suite everyday to the pool too! And lucky her, the supervising lady asked if she wanted to go in for a dip. Of course she did, but maybe not with a strange lady. But her little tantrum turned into happiness soon enough as you can see!

Maren making friends with another "little sister tag-a-long!" Turns out they're birthdays are only 5 days apart.

This is a random shot of Maren showing us how much she LOVES (soy) cream cheese and being silly.

Ryan's soccer game

Fallen off the blog bus!!

Without making any excuses for our absence, I will just do another picture update. Well, one excuse: EARLY PREGNANCY! I'm officially about 4 months along and feeling much better!

Maren turned 2 (the end of January)!

I realize now that I made that dairy free flourless chocolate cake more for me that her, but she enjoyed it too. I'll try something more cutesy next year.

She loves playing with baby dolls.

Maren's favorite perch!

The last few months:

Ryan can write his name all by himself! Good job, buddy!

I attempted to do something different with Maren's hair, and she let me! Haven't done it again since then, a lot of work for not much curl.

Dress up!

Naps with Maren.

couch potatoes

Cinderella working hard

actually her idea

Freezing 5K the middle of March

2nd place in my age group! But much slower than my best time! Ryan asked why the baby in my tummy makes me run slow? I did come in behind all these amazing ladies, but someone did tell me that 30min is still a good time for a 5K. Right!?

Easter Church activity

Easter

giant easter eggs

egg hunt

Merry Christmas!

1st Day of Preschool!

How did Preschool sneak up on me?? Didn't I just bring him home from the hospital? I guess that was Maren. . . a year and half ago. Hm. After struggling a little with the decision to put Ryan into preschool I finally did. His October birthday means he'll be in preschool for two years, which I realize now isn't a big deal, definately a bonus for him.

Lucky for me a great preschool landed in our lap, without much of any attempt to research one. We sent him off to become a "big boy." Maren took it the hardest, as you can see, she wanted to go to! I was a close second. He loves preschool! He's learned so much, so far. And much better than when I try to do preschool stuff with him. We so proud of him!