I Love My Zoo!

On Monday Enoch, Gabriel and I went to the Toledo Zoo. Gabriel's favorite was the aquarium where he got to see lots of fish. He also got to ride a turtle.



He also got to hatch out of an egg...



By the time we went home he was pretty tuckered out...


>

But not too tired to hit the pool and cool off. It hit about 95 degrees and it felt sooo nice to go for a dip...

4th of July in VA

This 4th of July we walked over to our neighborhood fireworks show. Evan got to ride his car, which he loves.

He got to watch from Dad's shoulders...
...but after a while got pretty restless.
This is the only shot I really got of the fireworks. I kept missing and taking shots of blackness.

Playing on the Freeway.

On June 23rd, we took the kids to play on the new 210 freeway.
This is something that most people don't get to do.

The county had a special event on the freeway, but there were so many people there
that we had to walk about 3 miles before we even got to the event. The kids just scooted
along on their scooter things all the way.

But, of course, Luke got honery because of the distance and heat.

One thing cool we found out is that Victoria loves to run. She said to Mike, "Daddy, can we race? I can run all the way there!" Mike was hesitant because we still had about 1 mile to go before we got there, but didn't want to discourage her, so he got on her scooter and she ran. The girl is FAST and can run like no other!! She didn't even get tired. She ran back to me and Luke afterward. Here is Victoria at the ending point at the entrance of the fair.

She always asks us if we can race with her. We never knew
that she could run like that. Girl's got endurance!

It was a good morning. The kids will never get to do anything like
this again. We are glad they had the opportunity to do so.

A Real SHOCK!!

Ok, so we totally thought that we were going to have a girl because we had that feeling like we always did with all of the other kids. Never wrong before, so when we went into the ultrasound and the tech told us that she was pretty sure that it was a boy. IT WAS A SHOCK!! We are excited and it will be good for Luke to have a buddy. The baby is still due on November 28th, but our babies always come early, so around Thanksgiving time. Hope all is well with you.

Do you want to pet my monkey?

Evan loves his monkey.
He really enjoys making him play the drum...











... taking him for a ride in his truck and
having him play the ABCs on the Phonics Bus















But most of all, he loves to give him kisses!

"I Did it!"

So last week I think I said "pee pee" and "poo poo" at least every 20 minutes. Along with some "damns". Of course, the latter was to myself for not cluing in. It seemed that every time I would be on the phone is when Kaori would decide to have an accident. One time, it was a trail of poop to the bathroom. That one was awesome. I would ask her seriously at least every 20 min., "do you need to go pee pee? are you sure? Please put pee pee in the potty." She was running around bare butt. It was so cute. You just wanted to pinch her cheeks all day! Well Lysle took her to Walmart and they came home with a tea set, since the Cinderella dress that was hanging up in the kitchen wasn't working. Well the next day, Thursday, the girl did it! She did it twice in a row. So she has her dishes and Cinderella dress. It's been pretty successful so far. No accidents. Yesterday, I was on the phone and she comes in and says, "Mom, there's a snake!" I'm like what the heck? She takes me to her potty and lifts the lid. "Look a snake! I did it!" To celebrate this miracle we had a potty party for her yesterday. It will be a celebration to remember. Rori is showing some interest as well, but I'm too lazy and love diapers. Anyway....life is okay now. Swimming lessons start up this week....yeah!

Our Big News!

Okay, so we don't really have any big news. There have been lots of exciting announcements lately (Congrats Mireille & Brett and yea for Evan walking!), but none for us. Life is happy and fun and that's good for right now. Gabriel is now learning to run, which gets a little rough when his feet get a little to far ahead of him. He loves going to Walbridge Park and playing on the jungle gym there. They have one w/ the meshy rubber floor which is nice for Gabriel's tumbles. Right now we're gearing up for fireworks on Tuesday. Gabriel was in awe of them last year, so here's hoping for no tears. Love you! Joy, Enoch & Gabriel