July

We had a lot of fun this month. I am sad to see it ending since school is coming soon. This photo is from the zoo, an excursion that the boys enjoy and I'm just along for the ride. Grandma Leslie came with so it was even better.

The boys are on the train here, but it 's such a short ride that Bennett cried when he had to get off. I wouldn't have minded staying on for another trip or two myself.

 The 4th of July was great, although I didn't get many pictures. We saw the local fireworks besides lighting some of our own.

Our lambs are growing, getting taller and fatter for sure. We are trying to manage the pasture by dividing it into two sections; one grows while they eat the other half down. It's worked so far.

These two love to drive the Gator at Grandma's house. They are both good at it, Bennett only occasionally runs into trees or other fixed structures : )

Family reunion! Thanks to a couple of Jared's sisters in particular, the whole bunch of his siblings and their spouses and kids got together for a couple days. This inflatable rental was a surprise from Gma and Gpa in the Philippines. It was really fun, it kept nearly all the kids occupied all afternoon. Here are the supervising adults. Jared sported swimming trunks and went down the slide. It caused a tidal wave in the pool at the end.

Thanks (I think?) to Jen for supplying the water guns. I did not exactly appreciate my own 6 year old soaking my back pocket but hey, I am an easy target.

Part of the inflatable was an obstacle course. The thing really is pretty safe, except for some scratches, no one was seriously hurt (not even the lawn) so I'd definitely be up for doing it again.

This turned out to be one of my favorite things, having all the kids coloring on this giant roll of paper, thanks to Machelle. This work of art may make a trip across the sea : ) Jen and I decided we need to spend more time together doodling. 

Jared was able to make our own corn hole game. It didn't take ridiculous amounts of time to do and turned out really well, maybe not quite as perfect as Grandpa D's but close. 

Paxton loves his goggles. I had to pry them out of his hands to show him it is possible to swim without them.

Bennett is not always a huge fan of the pool yet but he did start to get more brave and really didn't want to leave by the end. His favorite part was swimming with Carter.

Machelle brought this fun idea to make boats for a racing tournament.

Here we all are doing what we do best at these gatherings...feeding our faces some tasty dutch oven cobbler from made by Shane and Dennette.