Wednesday, July 18, 2012

July 18, 2012

Too many pictures for words.  A great trip back East followed by an appreciation of home.

Love!

And happiness

Mimi and O.  Two absolutely beautiful ladies.

Sulli with Great Aunt Jennifer and Loisee




Auntie Taylor and O

Brian and his red-headed cuties





I could take pictures of Emily forever!



We wish Tate lived here so she could be Sulli's babysitter

Mimi and Alex


Look at those lips!



Call me Maybe

Sibling tubbie!!

My handsome daddy.  Happy birthday!

First bowling trip!

Badasses!


Sulli's new girlfriend

Science museum


We went to the marine science museum at VA beach and I was really sad to see how much it had changed from when I was a kid.  It's so much bigger and was so crowded.  Sulli loved it though and it isn't about me anymore so it was a good time.



This was my favorite part of the museum when I was a kid and thank goodness it is still there


I have a beautiful bike ride to work.  My work will be changing locations so I won't be doing this ride for much longer. I thought I would document it.  This is the start of the river trail coming home from work.

The California St bridge


Clark Fork river

These seating areas were part of a design competition at a timber framing workshop. There are several of them on the trail and they are all different but equally cool.

Osprey Stadium

This cool climbing/obstacle course thing that I had no idea existed until I started doing this ride. 

MOBASH skate park

Weirdly bad grizzly statue

Downtown

Back to the tree-lined streets


Bonner Park

And back home.  This ride makes me realize how much I love this town.  If you don't look around where you live and think "damn I love this place" on a regular basis, you should really move to Missoula


Working on their fitness





Sunday, July 1, 2012

July 1, 2012

Well, it had to happen eventually.  Carter, Ken, and Olivia have left us to return to their own home.  What an experience this last year has been. We shared our lives, our home, and our genes with some pretty amazing people and, in turn, have been able to watch Carter and Ken become parents, Sulli and Olivia become siblings, and family grow closer than I ever imagined possible.  I really had no idea how profound this experience would be.  What a great risk and what an amazing reward.

Sulli and Olivia made Father's Day ties for Ben and Ken

Sulli turned 4!  We had a wild circus themed birthday party. Sulli had about 15 meltdowns and spent a large percentage of his party in his bedroom to chill out.  Even so, when I asked him if he liked his party or not he said that it was sooooooooooo fun!  So I guess it was a success even though he seemed pretty miserable and I was about to pull my hair out.  

We had tickets to win that the kids redeemed for prizes and everything

Ben painted this creepy clown on a homemade corn-hole game.

Can game

I found this background for the kids to take pictures of themselves in and this is the only picture taken of it.  All the other kids just threw bean bags through the holes.

Ben manned a temporary tattoo booth

Sweet ice cream cake from "deskin robbins"

Teeter totter airplane from Gma and Gpa!  


Heather, Sage's mom, was loving on Olivia


Trying to organize a group of 3-5 year olds is a daunting task

Happy 4th bubba!  
We walked in the March for Babies this month.  It was a great event.  Thank you so much again to everyone who donated money for our walk.  

Right before we left the Dezios at the train station we finally got a picture of me, Carter, and lil O all together.  This one makes my heart ache a little.  We miss these guys tons!

Autie Sue got Sulli this bed tent. It is pretty awesome!

We made it to the lake this weekend

It was Cooper's first lake trip.  He had a blast.

We found a toad by the cabin

Hey toady
I love this cabin

4 year olds still like throwing rocks





The water wasn't even that cold!

Super soaker, Sulli, Gus, and duck family

We drove over to Lakeside for lunch and passed these boats on the way.  Sailing on Flathead must be amazing.


Cousins!

One of my favorite pictures of all time

No cabin trip is complete without a good outdoor pee