The Pool

It's been crazy hot here, so we went to the pool this weekend to enjoy some fun in the cool water. We love this pool and had a great time. Collin loves to splash!

What a cutie, this guy is!

Anna and Benjamin love the freedom they get to have with these awesome floaties that make it so they can swim, swim, swim all over the place by themselves.

It was such a great day for a swim!

Collin is so brave in the pool and will get his face all wet! Here he is blowing bubbles....

Benjamin thought it was cool that he could float like this...

Collin's turn to float!

I'm gonna splash you, Daddy!

More 4th of July Pictures

Here are more pictures from our fun lake house trip. We enjoyed so many great boat rides!

Collin got to drive the boat for the first time and he loved it! He still tells me all the "boat ride! Anpa's (Grandpa's) boat."

We took Benjamin and Anna for (nice and slow) tube rides in the lake for the first time and they LOVED it! Benjamin had Anna go first of course as she's our brave little adventurer!

After he saw his sister do it, Benjamin was excited to give it a try and he laughed and had so much fun! He especially loved it when the water would splash us.

Then we let them swim in the lake for the first time.....

Benjamin had a great time swimming all over......

and Anna loved spending more time with her Kathy!

We all had fun splish-splashing around!

All the grand kids ready to celebrate the 4th!

One evening the whole family went out for boat rides so we took both boats out and Benjamin and Anna were really excited to get to go on the sail boat!

I love this picture.....it shows how sick the kids get of us sticking the camera in their faces!

We had a great ride on the sailboat, though.

The kids loved the inside of the sailboat which they called the boat's basement. Here they are giving their pirate faces. Arrgh!

The next day was picture day!

Grandma got them matching outfits, but the kids just weren't into having a picture with their cousins/siblings that day.......

That afternoon we went on another tube ride and this time Dave really wanted to try going with both kids......

Then Dave had some fun/silly brother time.......

That evening we went on one final boat ride.......

Poor Collin wasn't feeling good so he enjoyed a snuggle with his Daddy.....

County Fair 2011

We live really close to the fairgrounds and the kids have been so excited to check out the fair this year. We waited until there was a little bit cooler of a day and then went off for a fun fair evening. Here's Benjamin with some of our favorites....the cows.

Another favorite, goats!! I think they were getting hungry for their supper, so they were all so excited to see us which made it fun for the kids.

Anna was a little too intimidated to pet them, so she just smiled and talked to the goats....

Collin was so cute excitedly pointing and declaring "ook! ook!" (look) as he saw each animal.

This was a neat competition that we checked out. The bunnies were all dressed in cute costumes......

and they got to pet this adorable little one month old baby bunny!

This was so cool, Benjamin got to hold a chicken!! Afterwards he was so tickled when I told him that I've never even held a chicken before!

The kids got to get into an army truck for the first time....

Collin got so into it! The soldier even turned it on so he could honk the horn.

I'm so happy for Dave that he finally has a little one who likes riding on his shoulders!

Even though we saw tons of cool things, one of their favorites was climbing in all these tractors!

Then we ended the evening with a highlight, their beloved pony rides!

My sweet cowgirl!

Trip Recovering

Our new cat, Max (on the left), has food allergies and has to be fed twice a day his special food. So we dropped him off with my parents while we were on our trip. He was really happy to be back with Pepper (on the right) but she has a different opinion.....she got up two seconds after I took this picture. She's just not interested in being buddies!

Benjamin's cut is healing up really nicely!

Collin and I had colds at the end of our trip and didn't sleep hardly at all for two nights straight. We were exhausted by the time we got home. I was impressed with how quickly I felt better and rested after getting a good night sleep in my bed and Collin in his crib, but he took a little longer to recover and the poor guy kept falling asleep during lunch!

He's doing just fine now, though! He has such a sweet smile, but if he sees you with a camera or you ask him to smile, this is what you get.... Check out all the teeth! He now has three molars and I think he's starting to get some more front teeth.

I got the kids some water guns the other day since they were on sale. This is big for me as I really am not a gun person and haven't allowed them to have any form of toy guns until now. Benjamin has played with water guns with our neighbor and in my parents' pool and clearly loves them, so I gave in to give him joy. (I'm a sucker!) What I didn't realize was how much Collin would get into it! Look at that face!

He gets really intense and silly and then just smiles and laughs at himself, tickled with how goofy he is!