September Photo Update

Here's a little of what we've been up to this month.

Going to the park as a family before Jason starts school, Noah trying out his new helmet, and Dylan's push bike, Camp Menno Haven fun, Champaign fun with Jeanie at the mall and Curtis Orchard with Grandma Cindy, Dylan's first day of school, Noah pretending he was going to school too (needed his own bag).

from rock star to rock climber

Noah tried rock climbing this weekend at the church retreat.
I put him up on the wall and he took a few steps up...actually doing it...and then got a little stuck and started freaking/crying. Of course I took him down immediately.

Here's from the few moments before he cried:

Kiddieland is fun for whole family

We went to Kiddieland back in August, and took our niece, Michaela, along for the fun. The kids had a blast, and so did Jason and I! Kiddieland is a wonderful, clean park. Actually, make that WAS a great park. It closed it's doors for good this month. Something about a family dispute over land and leasing or something.

We will miss you Kiddieland. We only went once, but that time was a special one, and we wish we could go back!



Noah and I try out the Roto-Whip. I think my legs were bruised afterward.

Dylan and Noah's first real roller coaster experience. They didn't like it much...something about the dips.

Noah takes daddy on an old-fashioned car ride. Meanwhile, Michaela, Dylan and I were on the very scary log ride. Dylan did not like that one either - BIG dip. "I am glad that is over," she sad.

My big boy riding his motorcycle. He thought he was such hot stuff on all the rides.

Noah loved this boat ride in real water - he went several times. The joy of no lines.

The drop ride was by far my favorite. I laughed so hard I cried crazy tears. It was hysterical. It wasn't a huge drop, but just kept going up and dropping you, up and dropping you like 15-20 times. I was almost peeing my pants. Thank goodness for kegels. Dylan was a rockstar and LOVED it too - she went on twice - once with Jason and Michaela and once with me and Michaela.

They all four crammed in this teacup - and wow, Jason looked real uncomfortable. Not made for 6 foot, 1 inch men.

Holding hands by choice, waiting in line for the kiddie ferris wheel.

Enjoying a brother/sister kiddie ferris wheel ride. So glad they have each other!

everyday at our house.

My Little Rock Star

Afternoon at the farm

I can't go back and do things chronologically or I fear I'll never catch up, so I'll just go with what JUST happened, to keep things current.

We visited Dale and Charlene Rhodes' farm yesterday (Dale is Jason's dad's cousin). - Their daughter, Sara, is a friend from Goshen, and she and her husband Dave have two girls around the ages of our kids. We saw them at the reunion, and she said we could come visit and see her dad feed the sheep! Well, as you can imagine, us city folk jumped at the chance to do that!

Dale and Charlene were so welcoming to us, and gave us the 4-star farm treatment. They showed us around and gave us some really interesting facts about their life there and the history of the farm itself.

This is Dale feeding the sheep as we watched.

My little city kids watching on in amazement...

Aunt Jeanette, Uncle Eddie, Auntie Mo-Mo and Eli also were along for the fun.

They had a llama who watched over the sheep and kept the coyotes and dogs away.

We got to see several pregnant cows too!

And they ended the tour with a ride on the 4-wheeler! Thanks so much Dale and Charlene! It was a perfect Iowa field trip.

Independent goof balls.

Wow I finally found my camera cord - I put it on top of our office armoire so I wouldn't lose it - and then I lost it for many weeks. Duh.

So, I uploaded 492 pictures and I'm now totally overwhelmed where to even start. So, I'm going to now just post this one silly picture of the kids on 4th of July. They are just being their fun selves, playing together, being goofy, and being 4 and 2.

I love these moments, and I love them. I'm so savoring this time in our life right now. It's a really precious time.

Back to the Beach

I love Pebble Beach. It is the most wonderful place in the summer for me. I feel in an entirely different world, emotionally, mentally and physically when I'm there. We took our first walk to pebble beach this week. And it was marvelous as always. We had the place to ourselves.

Noah eating a snack on the rocks.

Everyone is just so happy at the beach.

Noah spent pretty much all two hours we were there throwing rocks into the lake.

Dylan loves climbing on the rocks.



Hear the waves crashing and how peaceful it is there - in the middle of the city! Come join us sometime!

Recital

Dylan had her first ballet recital today. It was so darn cute. I couldn't keep the tears from flowing pretty much the whole time - halfway from laughing hysterically, halfway from not even believing she could possibly be doing this on stage. She's so old!!! :(

Here are the three best pics from the recital that I took - uggghh. Can you tell I was trying to watch first and photograph second? The rest you could not even tell where she was - so blurry. So, here are three terrible shots, but it will give you the gist. And you would be seeing the video, but we can't find the firewire cable...so no-go on that.

She's the red bird second from the right (of the little ones)

This is when they all do their own "free dance" and Dylan's (that she is very proud of and showed us at home) is to jump around in circles with her feet together and arms out. Looks a little more like a cross between a bunny and a penguin than a bird, but it was real cute.

The final bow. Everyone is supposed to put their hands up like a picture frame for the bow. Dylan, instead, was fervishly looking into the audience for us. She did not find us, and did not believe at first that we were actually there when I told her later.

Dress Up

Dylan dressed up and ready to take on the world.

Gorilla day

I found my cord to my camera in the closet and am catching up now on some fun pics.

Here's a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo we did with our good friends the Cunninghams. Dylan, Noah, Caroline and Case had a blast together.

And the main event was this amazing gorilla that came up close and personal to say hello to the kids. The glare on the glass is terrible in this photo but you can see if you look hard how he's glaring at the kids!! He was SO close. Sooo cool.

This gorilla was cracking me up lounging in his habitat. He looked like a real man laying there...eyes open, legs and arms crossed. So funny.

Caroline put a dollar in this guy's violin case so he stood up and serenaded us! It was hilarious - the kids all started dancing and it was a festive event - he wouldn't stop playing we finally just had to walk away!

Caroline and Dylan digging in the rubber dirt gardens inside the barn at the zoo. They were make believing that they were cooking up vegetables to serve.

Class Photo

Dylan's Creative Movement class photo came out today. It's so cute. I love how their little bellies stick out over the top of the tights. And aren't the posing well? There's the beloved Miss Allison...and Anya, the pianist who plays with class. Dylan loves that the pianist is the same name as her cousin. :)

Ferris Wheel

Dylan has wanted to go on a ferris wheel for a long time. So for her birthday (the night before), the weather was fabulous and we decided to head up to Navy Pier to do it up right - on the 150-foot Ferris Wheel at Pier Park. She was ecstatic and excited and scared at the same time (but yet still wanted to do it!).

Waiting in line (only about 5 minutes!). See the excitement on the birthday girl's face?

See how freaking high this is? I admit I was a little frightened...okay a lot frightened when I thought of falling...

Dylan thoroughly enjoying herself.

Thanks Navy Pier for a fun family evening. Sometimes it's fun to be tourists in your own city.