An early pioneer day

The third week-end in June, Jared had Friday off. He went golfing with a friend in the morning. When he got back, we decided to head to the zoo for the afternoon, even though it was in the high 90's. We picked up Jared's cousin's daughter, Megan on our way. She is the same age as Xandy and they have lots of fun together. We got to the zoo to find out it had closed at noon in prep for a special event later that night. So we decided to check out the science center instead (I love that its all free here). I'm not sure why I don't have any pictures of this. The girls had fun exploring the exhibits. Jacob stayed close by since he was terrified of the life-like T-Rex that moved and roared. Then we picked up some pizza's and headed to join Megan's family at her home. Jon and Elise watched our kids, while Jared and I headed to the temple.

The next morning the girls had a primary activity. The activity had been scheduled while I was in the presidency. Since the president and I were both going to be gone in July we decided to plan the pioneer activity a month early. The new presidency opted to keep it as scheduled. The girls took the neighbors with them. There were sack races, pie eating contests, handcart races, butter making, and clothes washing. Even though it ended up being pretty hot outside, the girls had lots of fun. They've been very interested in pioneers ever since we went to Nauvoo last year. Oh, and their cute outfits were made by my talented cousin Miranda!

Bella and the "log cabin" Xandy and Kindyl

Katy and Baylea

Katy competing in the pie eating contest

Raging Rivers

The girls earned a lot of fun rewards through their school's reading program this past year. In addition to the monthly personal pan pizza they also earned a kids meal at Subway, a kids meal at Denny's, Free six flags tickets, and free Raging River tickets. Noticing that our summer was already filling up, we decided to head to the waterpark Raging Rivers the second week-end in June. Our neighbors thought we were crazy. They said that the water would still be too cold. Obviously, they've never lived in Cleveland before. We actually preferred to go before it was 100 degrees outside and the lines were crazy long. The night before, Katy started complaining of an earache. I ran to Walgreen and bought some ear ache drops and told her we'd go to the doctor first thing in the morning. We woke up, and Katy said she felt better, so we bypassed the doctor's office and headed straight for the park. We took earplugs and a swimming cap and told her to keep her ears dry.

We had a blast. The park was not really big, but that was even better for our family. Katy was big enough to go on everything and Xandy was only too small for one ride. Everything was pretty close together which was great for little legs. Jacob and Bella loved the little kid area which was full of shallow wading pools and waterslides just their size. The older girls had a blast in the wave pool and older kid play area. Everyone, even Jacob (on his parent's lap of course) had a blast on the long winding water slides and in the lazy river. The waterpark was right along the river and it was fun to look out and watch all the boats while waiting in line. When we finally had our fill, we decided to head home. While I took the girls to change, Jared and Jacob went to the car. Jacob fell asleep while Jared moved the car to the gate. We woke him up to change him and eat a snack. He fell back asleep on the way home (about 6:30). When we got home, we again tried to wake Jacob up. Jared and I were heading to Bobby's custard for yummy treats and a free summer concert. We didn't want him waking up right when we got home and were ready for bed. We weren't successful in our attempts to awaken him but he ended up sleeping until 7:30 the next morning. He really played hard at the waterpark and was completely exhausted. The next morning Katy woke up in a lot of pain so I took her to the express care before church. She had an ear infection and a ruptured ear drum. I felt horrible, I should've taken her in instead of to the water park, but she assured me that she was fine and had a great time the day before.

There was a sign in the children's area that was probably the most effective "watch your children" sign I've ever seen. It worked for me, no way I was leaving my children unsupervised. I don't need another living creature to potty train and pick up after, nor do I need my children any more hyper than they already are!!!

Eating a picnic lunch

Potty power

Tuesday night as I was changing Jacob's diaper to put him in his PJs, he suddenly became very upset. He jumped up and ran into the bathroom. When I caught up to him he was sitting on the little potty and he was PEEING! I had nothing to do with it, and have not been working with him at all. He's only 20 months, and after training 3 other children, I was in no hurry to start the battle of wills until he was older and ready. The potty doubles as a step stool so it was down so Bella could reach the sink easier. The next morning when I went to change him he went and sat on the potty again but nothing happened. I wasn't concerned, I was not going to push this. Today, as I was changing him out of his PJs, I asked him if he wanted to sit on the potty before I put his diaper on. He said yes, ran in and peed again. I'm still not going to push him too hard, but hey, if he wants to, more power to him!

Funny faces

My two favorite pictures from the week-end:

Reception and boat pics

Jacob and Daddy driving the boat

Bella's turn

Xandy takes a drive

All the kids got to drive the boat, but Jenni's Uncle let Katy drive it for a long time since she's the oldest

Me and Grams

Bella and Pop Pop

Bella and Weston dancing

The frog Jared caught. I'm sure Jenni just loved the fact that people kept catching frogs at her recption. After Jared caught the first one, several more were caught.
We were posing for a normal pic and last minute Jared dipped me for the kiss
The picture we were supposed to have taken
The happy couple again

The wedding

Two weeks ago my brother Martin got married. He was married in the Columbia South Carolina Temple. The drive there was interesting- I had the flu and we discovered Jacob had an ear infection. He was screaming a lot of the time. Fortunately, our pediatrician called in a prescription to the CVS near the hotel and we picked it up on our way in. The hotel was actually in North Carolina near Jenni's home (and the location of the reception). The kids had fun swimming in the hotel everyday we were there. The flower lady cancelled last minute so I helped Jenni's aunt with the flowers. She did the corsages and boutonnieres and I did the 2 bouquets. I was nervous since they had misunderstood Martin and thought I was a real florist. Jenni wanted her bouquet to look like she had picked wildflowers so it wasn't as hard as it could've been. I had a lot of fun making it even if I was nervous. The wedding was, of course, beautiful. After pictures we went to the park next to the temple and had dinner there. We left early so we could stop and visit our friends, the Croke's, who had recently moved to South Carolina. We had fun visiting with them and eating yummy cookies (Thanks Shyann!) The next morning Jenni's family hosted a pancake breakfast at their house. Afterwards we went for a pontoon boat ride. Jenni's family live near a lake and rented the boat for the day so people could explore the lake. It was a lot of fun. It would've been even more fun if the kids had been old enough jump off the boat and swim around. We still have a few years before we reach that point with little Jacob though. The reception was outdoors in a friend's yard. They had a big gazebo for the dance floor and a pond area for the receiving line. The trees trunks were wrapped with little lights and it looked amazing. I was also impressed they had special areas just for the kids. There was a special table of "kid food" and picnic tables for the kids to sit at. It was nice to eat separate from them, and even nicer that Katy is so good with Jacob that we felt confident leaving him in her care. There was also a playground for them to play on, though my kids LOVE to dance. We were a little worried about rain, but it held off. The morning after the reception my grandma took us all to breakfast. I thought the staff was going to have a heart attack when a party of 20 walked in. If Miranda and her family hadn't needed to leave before the sleepy heads woke up we would've been a party of 25! Congratulations Martin and Jenni! It was a beautiful week-end!!

The girls at the temple

The boys at the temple

My cutie pie


The happy couple

This picture shoot probably made them want to wait a long time before starting their own family

Jenni and the girls (interesting note: the brand tag in the dresses read "Jenny and Me)

The 5 silbings

The Bride's bouquet

Put- In- Bay

After Martin's wedding we spent the week in Ohio. (I still need to post about the wedding, but I'm going out of order so the next few posts will all be random). It rained almost everyday we where there, but we still managed to squeeze in some fun. On Wednesday we caught the ferry to go over to Put-In-Bay. I love being on the islands. There is a laid back, easy going, "I'm on vacation" feel to it, even if you're only an hour from home. The highlight of Bella's trip was the taxi schoolbus that took us from the ferry to the main tourist area. She was thrilled we got to ride it twice and is bummed she has a whole nother year before kindergarten. We went up Perry's Monument (commerates the battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812). We showed Xandy Pelee's Island and told her it was part of Canada. Her response was "thats nice but which one is Hawaii?" If only honey! I wish we had been that close. When it started raining we rented golf carts and explored the island. Even though it really rained hard we had a good time

View from Perry's Monument (sorry its crooked)

Perry's Monument

The gang on the ferry