Parky's Farm

Some friends of ours invited us to go to Parky's Farm on Tuesday to go fishing. The boys were so excited when I told them. They've been asking a lot to go fishing, but I've haven't really wanted to try taking them by myself yet. This was a perfect place for it.

When we first got there it was raining, so they brought us inside and showed the kids some animal skins, a snake and a turtle, and talked about the animals. This guy holding the bear skin was hilarious, and was really good with the kids.

Luckily the sun did come out, and they took us down to the pond. It's a catch-and-release pond, and it's really well stocked, so every kid caught a fish within minutes. It was so nice to have the men there to help put bait on and to take the fish off the hook after they were caught.



The boys all had a similar reaction when they caught the fish- they were so excited to reel the fish in, and then when they saw the wiggly fish up close, they weren't so sure. :)

I couldn't even get him to look at me. He's actually shaking his head, not wanting to take his eye off the fish. He loved holding the rod, pushing the button and reeling it in, but wasn't so sure about having the fish up close.
Nathan actually reeled in the first one, and here the kids are- looking at it and touching it.

The had an area where you could pet the kids (baby goats). Isaac wanted to pet every single one. Everytime he would turn around and yell, "I did it!"

Nathan thought it was pretty cool too.

Can I pet another one?

They had a great playground area too, with a huge indoor play barn and an outside playground.

Not a bad deal for $7 total for me and the three boys.

Father's Day

I took these pictures of the boys for part of the gifts we made for Sean and our dads this year. Didn't they turn out great? I'm always so excited when I can get all three of them to smile at the same time. It's nearly impossible! :)

It's always wonderful to be able to celebrate the wonderful dads in our lives. I am so grateful for my dad, and what a wonderful father he has been to my brothers and I. When I was looking for the man I wanted to marry, I wanted someone like my dad. (And I found him!) I am so grateful for his great example and for always treating me like a princess. The older I get, the more I see how his influence has helped me in my life.

I am also SO grateful for Sean, our wonderful husband and father. Could a girl be any more blessed? He's always doings things to serve me, like staying up past midnight to fix the car, so I could take the boys on a fun outing to a farm the next day. He also treats me like a princess and is the perfect father for our boys.

Pioneer Trek/ Family Campout

We got to have a family camping trip at Caesar Creek last Friday, because Sean was helping with our Stake Pioneer Trek for the YM and YW. (He was called into the Stake YM presidency a couple of months ago.) It was a lot of fun even though it rained a bit on Saturday morning.

Here we are walking aroud the reservoir. The sweatshirts are deceiving- we only grabbed them because it was raining, and we quickly threw them off after because it was so warm.

It was a really pretty area.

We squeezed into our smaller tent because we got there later in the evening and didn't want to take the time to set up our big one. It was a warm night! Definitely not like the cooler Oregon campouts we grew up with.
Do you see the blue sky in the background? That's the way the rainstorms work. It's perfectly sunny one minute, and pouring down rain the next. I was still in the tent letting Nathan and Isaac sleep, when Sean came running up, telling me we had to hurry and get everything in to the van because a storm was coming. I had Josh take this picture quickly as I was deflating the air mattress. This was about three minutes before it started pouring, and it was all over an hour later.

Summer Fun

We let the boys stay up the other night til it got dark and the fireflies (lightning bugs) came out so they could catch them with their friends. Josh caught over 20 in his bug house! He was so excited. It's a fun game because the bugs are so easy to catch. Even Isaac caught a couple.

Having fun at a neighborhood pool with some friends.

Annual Trip

Sean had some friends that are fellow BYU MBA Alum come visit the last few days. Last year was their first year and they went to Arizona to watch Spring Ball. This year they came here to Cincinnati, watched some Reds games, went golfing, and had a home run derby, which they let the boys and I join. I think it was the first time I've ever hit a baseball and not a softball. Lots of fun!! I should have had Sean take the camera more, but we got a few pictures from the second game.

One of the friends couldn't make it, so Sean took Josh to the first game and Nathan to the second. They had awesome seats- second row up in right field.

Ryan and Chris.

Sean caught a ball! Nathan was soooo excited. Sean caught the last ball of batting practice. When they got home late last night, Nathan came in and woke me up to tell me.

School's Out!

Soooooo, I started this post the other day and accidentally posted it before it was finished, and then my computer froze up. Then we had a busy few days, so I'm just getting back to it.

We had a great Memorial Day weekend after school got out on Thursday. That afternoon, I got out the little kiddie pool and slide, and let the boys make a waterslide. In the muggy 80's we've been having, it was perfect. On Friday I took the boys to the Cincinnati zoo. On Saturday, we worked in the yard, went to a friends' house for a bar-be-que. We enjoyed a ward picnic/softball game and swimming with some more friends for FHE on Monday. It was all a lot of fun and involved some competitive cornhole games. We really do need to get a set now. If you don't know what cornhole is, come visit us and see!

Getting ready to make a big splash!

Nathan's turn!

Can you see the red on Josh's face? He woke up on the last day of school with Poison Ivy all over his face! I finally took him to the doctor yesterday (Tuesday) because it got so bad. He looks a lot better today. The boys are now totally banned from the woods behind our house, and I've declared war on anything green with three leaves.

Can you see the baby peacocks by their feet?

The boys were really excited to see manatees again. The zoo released the older ones they used to have last winter into the ocean and now have some new babies!

It's always fun to see one of the three polar bears swimming around.

It's Timon!