State Fair!!

 Animal Learning Center. This is my favorite part of State Fair!

 This is how Natalie rode in her stroller all day.

 A cone dedicated to a special 10 year old boy who lost his battle with brain cancer this spring. TJ you have touched so many lives in your short time here on earth. You are very missed!

 Bungie jumping. Wow they got great air!

 Butterfly Gardens. Definitely worth the $!

 Little Hands on The Farm

 Food on a stick!

 The big kids got to see this guy from the History channel talk about alligators. Larry the Cable Guy was there too!

 Ice cream break!

The end of a very fun day! Thank you VA family for all the fun and for inviting us! We saw more today at the fair than we have all the other years put together. What a wonderful, fun day!

Adventureland

 A friend of ours got my Mom some cheap tickets to Adventureland so we headed out one morning to see how many rides we could go on with a 2 year old a 9 month old and a 6 year old with a broken arm.

 We all got to ride the ferris wheel.

I was pleasantly surprised how many rides that both John with a cast and Addi could ride. I feel like we definitely got our moneys worth.

I did not take pictures of the water park for fear of ruining my camera and also it was CRAZY busy! I recommend one adult or older child per small child. I was pretty overwhelmed and I just had Addi, Natalie and John under my care. It was packed with people and the lines were terribly long for all the water slides and rides. But otherwise the day was a wonderful experience for all and we all slept very well that night!

Colorado Trip

 Right after fair we all loaded up and headed to Colorado for a few days. It was so beautiful and it was really nice to have some cool weather and a break from watching the corn die in the horrible heat!

 We strapped Adalli's seat in the back of the Ranger and she loved it. It was very dusty the first day of riding so she did very well at wearing her sunglasses to keep the dust out. The second day we got a nice afternoon sprinkle and it really made the dust go down.

 All the big kiddos got a chance to drive Ranger for a little while. They all did pretty good and learned a lot.

 Natalie was a trooper too and enjoyed being outside on the Ranger!

 This sign says narrow rough road. No Kidding!

 When we weren't riding rangers the boys enjoyed many games of Rook. The girls enjoyed a couple games of Settlers, visiting and just relaxing. In this particular picture we were going to go for a ride but then the boys started a game and they played so long Natalie fell asleep in her seat waiting to go.

 The beautiful horses on the ranch.

 We visited with some very special friends a couple of the nights we were there and Gideon and John really enjoyed learning how to rope. Mark is a wonderful teacher!

 All loaded up and ready to head home.

It is so beautiful. It was a little hard to leave the mountains and the crisp cool air to head back into the heat and reality of no rain at home, it was very nice to get away and have some wonderful family time! God is so faithful and good and has richly provided for us even in this year of not much rain and it was nice to get back home and start in the fields.

Summer 2012

 Johnathon broke his arm on June 4 falling off the monkey bars. After a month of hoping it would grow together good we realized it wasn't.  He ended up having surgery July 11th. It went good even with 2 big screws in it. The Dr. said at the last check up it healed up good now we just have to wait and see if it is going to grow the right way. 

 Gideon helped BJ bale hay this summer again and he did a wonderful job and baled around 50 bales, I think.

 Grammy and Grandpa L took us to the balloon glow at the lake. It was really neat to watch the balloons get taken down and folded up to fit into the back of a van or truck.

 Natalie refuses to sit in her chair the normal way. If she isn't standing up she is sitting backwards. Busy, busy!

 We were not able to get a very good crop of squash or cucumbers because of the nasty squash beetles.  Here is Addi showing off one of the only cucumbers.

 Natalie has to stay in her exer saucer or she sticks everything in her mouth.

 It was a horrible HOT summer, with the fair being no exception! Gideon still did an amazing job and got a purple ribbon with Moon his bottle calf.

 This is the only picture of the original ribbon. Gid hung it on her pin and Moon ate it. oops.                  
                               
 The little girls did a wonderful job at "living" at the fair for the week!

Summer Fun

 Rachel played softball for the first time this year and really enjoyed it. She loved the social time and really learned a lot.  She did not enjoy being the catcher because it was hot!

 This is a bull frog Adalli spotted on a Ranger ride while checking cows. She did not want to touch it but she liked looking at it. It was HUGE!

Gideon has worked hard all year raising a bucket bottle calf "Moon" she has grown so much and he has learned tons throughout  the past few months. This week is fair and he is loving every minute of it. He shows her on Thursday so hopefully she will lead in the 100 degree temps. Fair time pictures to come!