Water, Water, Everywhere!

To say our kids have grown by leaps and bounds this summer...is an understatement.

And I've probably already said that.

But they amaze me.

2nd time on the river?  Connor tubes with Dad.

You can barely see her little hand waving....

And Jace tubes with Dad.  Jace has always been afraid of tubing with Dad, because he thought Jay would drive super fast if he did...

Tired waterbug...

But oh my goodness...she has found her sea legs.  She wouldn't stand at all last week, this week, she walks all over the place and it doesn't bother her.

This is from earlier in the summer at Grable's...

Where she was a very tired water baby...

And then this happened.  We thought it was important to teach Jace how to doggy paddle.

(Because last weekend he randomly jumped from the boat to the tube that was really right next to the boat, without a life jacket, and it freaked his mama out.)

So, he did some swimming lessons with Jed at Jena and Carl's pool.

Wow.

He goes from being afraid to jump in, to jumping in, at the deep end, and swimming all the way to the shallow end with not help.

Amazing.

Just another reason it has been a GREAT summer.

Bottles, BBQ, and Beer

Saturday night we went to a couples baby shower for Aaron, Melissa, and Baby Girl Powell!

Looks like everyone is growing right on schedule...

Aaron got some helpful tools for baby...

Including a cute Peterbilt onesie with matching leggings and bow!

His facial expressions....

The Boos girls!

Yep, that's a baby bump!

Can't wait for September!

A "Slow" Week...

Ha.  That doesn't happen around here.  I just didn't take many pictures...

Took the kids to the Aquarium.  Also known as Hiawatha Wal-Mart.....

This was an experience.  Was sitting on the couch with Connor after her nap.  Jace was gone (he got to spend the night with Jay and Morgan and was still with Jay I think...).  I'm a little sleepy myself, but I look towards the entertainment center...and see something that looks like a small snake.  As I'm staring at it, trying to convince myself it's just trash...it moves.  It was a salamander!  It crawls over to where the kids' toy box is and hides in there.  I freak out.  (No surprise there...)  

I end up chasing it with a broom, towards an open door, Connor standing on the chair in the dining room.  She tells me it went outside, and I couldn't find it, so I was hoping she was right.  Later that night I had some people up for pictures, and as we are standing in the living room I see it go from under one couch to another.  EEEEEK! 

In his infinite wisdom, Jed tells me to set out a sticky trap.  Jace is home by then and assures me he will hunt it in the morning.  I was SO excited to see the next morning that he was sunk down in the glue on the sticky trap.  WOOHOO!!  

I tell Jace, and tell him we will have to leave it until Dad comes home, and he proceeds to call me a scaredy cat, gets his pliers, and takes care of it for me.

Middle of this week marked 9 years with this handsome fella.  Sounds like a long time, but it has flown by!  Fun fact:  We have been dating 15 years ago.  That's almost half of my life! 

Thursday was an exciting day for Jace.  His friend Cooper Albers got to come over for the day.  They had SO much fun.  The day started with the boys finding a cow out in our driveway...

Played some Mario...

And a little finger painting.  Aunt Debi was there that day too, so we had all sorts of fun going on!  So much fun that 5 minutes after Cooper leaves his mom sends me a picture of him asleep on the way home, and I find Jace crying on the couch.  "I didn't want Cooper to leave!"

She reminds me of the dog on 101 Dalmations...

Friday night we went to the RODEO!  These kids LOVE their popcorn.  LOVE IT.  And turns out Connor LOVES the rodeo.  Horses, cows, it was so exciting!  We tried to get Jace to Mutton bust...but he wasn't interested.  He was very excited for the boot scramble though!  He was the first kid to get his boot....but they took both boots off (usually it's just one), and he only got back with one boot!  He had to go back, and actually yanked his boot off another kid that was trying to put it on!

And a little Saturday morning cleaning...everyone gets a vacuum!  Seriously, these kids can be a lot of help sometimes!  Better enjoy it while they don't complain!

A Water Rat...

To finish off our milestone week...Connor got her first trip on Jay and Morgan's boat to the river!

She was unsure at first of course...but once I got in the water and she got in with me she was all about it!  Loved it!

And this little water rat has really changed!  No fear in getting away from the boat and swimming!  (He was really holding onto a rope...so he wasn't really "free")

And....another milestone!  Jace went skiing with Jay!  This was a first for both of them.  Jay put Jace inside his life jacket, and away they went.  Took 3 tries, and Jace didn't want to try the third time, but he wasn't kicking and screaming, and we knew they could get it on the third try, so he did it one more time and up they went!

And they skied a long ways too!  I bet they both slept good that night!

The boat ride back to the dock, Connor was in a daze.  She had a nap on the boat, but not overly long, so she was really just chillin' on the ride back to the dock....

It was a super fun day and so exciting for our kids!

Hay Season...

Seems to be never ending this year....

But...this was Connor's first time riding in the baler!

While Jace patiently waited his turn he was all over the field..."supervising" I guess!

The Hay Crew!

I wanna be a Cowboy...

So, Jace gets his picture taken all the time.  He's a good sport about it, and is sometimes squirrely, but doesn't complain.

I told him I wanted to take "Cowboy" pictures....and he was unbelievably excited!

(It helped that it was a great evening for the end of July!)

I. LOVE. THIS. PICTURE.

Gonna try it again to make it just right...but I love it.

Show me your muscles!

Next time, replace pliers with his pistol...

And yes, Connor was there too, in a tutu...would have been adorable if she would have been into it....

Maybe next time.

Add the cows in the background....ta-da!