More Cousin Fun

My brother and family came to town this past weekend.  We had a blast!

Matching shirts!  (Of course!  It's tradition)

 Fashion shows in fancy clothes are also a tradion

 We went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity again.  Our original plan was Cowabunga Bay, but the weather was not cooperating!  Low 70s and scattered rain.  But the museum was fun to go to with cousins!

 Ethan and Lucas were the stars of the show at Kidopolis

 And look…behold the floating head!

READY TO GET DIZZY???!?!?

They went off to Yellowstone without us for the week, but will be back for another weekend of fun starting on the 4th!  It turns out to be okay for us though, since we still have THREE MORE DAYS OF SCHOOL!  Can't wait for the school year to finally end!

Slip-n-slide turns Water slide

Slip-n-slides are just plain fun! Especially when Cooper is near the end swinging a baseball bat.  Gotta keep things exciting...

 But what is even better is when you enjoy popsicles during the break!  These two were quite the buddies!

But what is EVEN BETTER than that is when you turn the slip-in-slide into the best homemade water slide ever!  (and then have one more popsicle at the end for good measure).

Oh yes, and end the day with pizza! 

The Beginning of Cousin Fun

It's really weird that my kids are still in school.  But summer has definitely begun for us anyway, because we have already started the summer of cousin parties!  My three nephews came to stay with us for a few days and we had a marvelous time with them.  They left yesterday and my brother and his family are arriving today.  The fun will just continue on, despite the school days smashed in there too!

Tucked in for the night

 Reading books together

 Monday night we went to the park.  Cooper was amazingly daring and LOVED the huge slides

 The others kids spent most of their time on the zip line

 trying to impress each other with tricks...

 more steep slides for Cooper

 more zip lining too

 we even launched a little rocket to add to the fun, though it was rather lame and not too impressive…haha.  It was worth the try!

 COUSIN PARTY!!

June's Ten Things

Looking back, I'm not sure how we ended up doing so much this June.  I don't feel like I did much of anything!  June is a complete blur.  May was too.  I guess that's why it's nice to look back and realize we did end up having some fun days and times this month.

Ten things that made me smile in June.

1.  I finally caught up on my blog posts I've been wanting to write.  You can scroll down if you'd like and read two or three new ones besides this one.

2.  Cooper's haircut and how well he always does while it's getting done.

 3.  Lagoon Day!

 4.  Spending time with Madeline and all her jewels and fancy things.

 5.  Ethan's piano playing.

 6.  Watching my kids be delighted at the Museum of Natural Curiosity.

 7.  Celebrating Father's Day.

8.  Cooper being Cooper:

9.  Cousin parties!  I have three of my nephews here and we've been having tons of fun.  Pictures of all our adventures to come…

10.  And last, but not least, one thing that makes me smile very much is the little flutter swirl I felt deep within myself.  After 15 weeks, it's nice to feel something other than nausea.  Number four, we are all so excited to meet you this December!

Father's Day Weekend

The night before Father's Day, we enjoyed an evening outside at our Stake's second annual Riverwalk Carnival.  The kids had so much fun.  We played games and ate a lot of yummy free food.  Pizza, treats, lemonade, and candy...

 On a hay ride with our dear friends

 Todd even entered the hotdog eating contest, with the help of Cooper as his sidekick.  It was hilarious!  All the men that entered were from our ward and it was funny to see it play out.  I can't say I ever thought I'd see Todd in any food eating contest…he had no intention of winning and so enjoyed another lovely free meal - he ate three slowly and enjoyed himself (well, maybe not by the third one!).  My friend's husband won, eating ten, and got a restaurant gift card.  Though I have to say, Todd didn't eat the least.  lol!

 The next day was Father's Day.  What a blessing it is to have such a man in my life and such a father in my children's.  Todd is the best man.  Best.  I love you!!

 Cooper was quite sick that day…but we managed to have some fun anyway.

 It wouldn't be a special day in our house without a sign:

It turned out to be such a great day.  We had breakfast with my parents and dinner with Todd's and got to see all the Father's in one day!  I'm a lucky girl to be surrounded by so many great Fathers.

Museum of Natural Curiosity

This year for Ethan's half birthday, we decided to have a little fun.  We headed to The Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point and had a fabulous time together as a family there.  We are excited to go back sometime.

I remember taking so many pictures there, but turns out I actually didn't.  Here are a few though:

Experimenting with sound and music

 Feeling tornado speed winds

 playing in the little kiddie pool area (and yes, he's sitting on Todd's hand to keep him bum dry!)

 More water experiments

 Family tornado time

 Balls down the tunnel tubes - Cooper loved this!

There were jungle areas and science rooms and a huge outdoor playground and tons of other things we enjoyed.  I guess for a moment there, I was having too much fun to remember to take pictures.  Sometimes that's nice too.

Lagoon Day

Ethan and Madeline think that the best part of Todd's job is that his summer company party is at Lagoon every year!  This year it was June 6th, and we had a marvelous time.  My mom was nice enough to keep Cooper with her so we could have a little more fun!

First time on the swings for the kids.  They were nervous but loved them.

 Feeling HOT on the zoo train

 They went on the Space Scrambler three times in a row without even having to wait in line and Madeline declared it, "our favorite ride in the whole universe!"

 What a fun summer tradition!