summer fun part 2

Our summer is just zooming by. We are having so much fun. Both Dennis and Zola are growing so fast it is hard to keep up. Though, the last couple of days I have been sick with strep and Ryan is on nights so he sleeps all day. Now Dennis is starting to get stir crazy hanging around the house so much. And, I just noticed that he is now running a fever. Poor guy is going to be housebound for a week! We are all needing to get out of this house. 

Zola loves standing in her walker. She loves to be vertical... 

 
A couple of weeks ago Randy and Chrissy stopped by on their way through St. Louis. Dennis and James had fun playing together... though they had their fair share of fighting... I think that's how we know they love each other. :)

 We took the family to Grant's farm and met up with a few of Chrissy and Randy's friends who recently moved to Keokuk.

 We love the elephant show at Grant's farm.

 Zola was so exhausted she just leaned over for a snooze afterwards in her walker. She didn't even give me a warning that she was tired... sound like somebody?

 ... just like me when I was little. I could fall asleep anywhere. Though, I think Zola normally fights it a little. She likes being awake too much.

 Then we went to the city garden to play in the fountains in our 100 deg plus weather.

 This was so funny. Ryan and Dennis were just playing around... they do this all the time and Dennis always asks for more... anyways an Indian family was sitting by and giving Ryan the evilest looks. They thought he was torturing Dennis. hahaha. They wouldn't stop staring at our family with looks of disgust the rest of the night.

 Here are the boys: Owen, James, Dennis and Grant standing in the back. These busy bodies were so exhausted that they never stopped moving... this is the best picture that we got.

Dennis has a cough and he is learning not to cough on people in their face. Zola gets a crack out of it. Check it out in this video.

Yesterday, Dennis drew a picture for me.
Then he said, "It's a man-girl".
Me: What's a man-girl?
D: It's where his hair connects with his mustache.


He was making up a song on this toy phone that makes a different noise for each button. 
D: Do you know this song?
Dad: No, what song is it?
D: I go away from Jesus. 
Dad: I go away from Jesus?
D: yea, I go away from Jesus, then I go back to Jesus. 


I am pretty sure he was talking about going away from Jesus by coming to earth and then going back to Jesus when you die. Because he talks a lot about death these days. He first brought it up when we saw a cross on the side of the road. 

San Juan trip part 5

You could say Dennis really liked the boats that we rode on. He has been taking us on make believe boats ever since. (this picture taken on the way there... hence no scab on his face)

 Here he is on the last boat that we rode. Driving the car while holding down the peddle and racing through the demo... without quarters.

When we got back to Seattle we stopped at this awesome restaurant that Buzz found on Yelp. We totally loved it and would go back again. Buzz is great to have around on trips- he is really good at decision making. 

 We saw the space needle from the car... that was good enough for me. We were exhausted and ready for a dip in our hotel pool.

 Seattle is a super cool city- even just to drive through-not like any other city I have been to. You see these huge barges with cargo for trains on it that are going accross the Pacific. Super cool.

LOVED that trip. THANK YOU to everyone who came. We had a blast and LOVE you all.

summer fun

We love summer time! There is so much to do in St. Louis. And, one HUGE benefit of being at home is being able to spend time with my friends! One day we went to the zoo... the carousel is free the first hour of operation. We met up with our friends, Summer, Aryan, and Kayan. 

 Zola chilled in her stroller the whole time.

 Then another day we went to a super cool pool. A doctor's wife out in the county lets us come and use her salt water pool. Yes, it is super cool. It feels sooo nice! It doesn't stink, it doesn't make your skin sticky and tight afterwards. It just makes your skin super soft. I totally want a pool like this one day.

 Dennis started taking swimming lessons at sunset hills pool from Anna Pyne. She is a girl in our ward. Dennis LOVES it!

San Juan trip part 4

Then we took a ferry to Sidney, BC Canada. We spent a couple of days in Victoria. Here is a picture of a petanque field- aka bocce ball- aka outdoor bowling. It was pretty fun for me to see. 

It was definitely Canada. Everything was written in english and french. They even had a french radio station that we listened to for quite a while even if I didn't follow everything that was said... I am going to blame it on the Canada dialect and the topical vocabulary that I didn't know... and not on the fact that I have lost my fluency.


There were lots of native Canadian Americans living there. They had many totem poles around the city. 

... some important building... Buzz showing off his Asian heritage...

There was this super cute band playing along the port.

Super cute little boat taxi...

All along the water there were little vendors selling different hand crafted items. I always love browsing.

We stayed in a town called Brentwood. I would highly suggest staying there. It was so beautiful and quaint. We rented a house that was a block away from this...

There were all these boats and lots of them were people's dwellings... They live there. Crazy.

Notice the native art fish sign. I just love it. I wish I had picked something like that up.

Then we went to Butchart Gardens. To help you remember how to spell it, you can say butt chart. That is how I will always think of it now. Luckily, we didn't have any rain the entire trip! Even though it was forcast to rain on this day. They had these cute umbrellas all over the park for their guests to use. Maybe we don't know just how lucky we really were.

Here we are at but chart gardens.

We took lots of pictures...

It was quite impressive.

... a series of funny photos.

Zola soaked the carrier she was in.

Beautiful Nonnie.

Here is the acclaimed tallest totem pole ever! ... or so we think.

And right there at the Brentwood bay we saw so many starfish. They were everywhere.

Kristen found this huge crab that pinched her and made her bleed!

The star fish look so fat and squishy but they are really hard as a rock.

Thomas found this oyster... so he brought it home and boiled it and ate it. It wasn't as good as he hoped. .. and I don't think he had very high expectations.

Kristen has awesome pants.

Here is my family. I love them so much.

This was the room we stayed in. That bed was so comfortable.

Here is the house.

Zola was eating Kristen's hair. 

We love Kristen!

so so fun... One more post to come.

video time