A Day At The Beach

Well, it didn't get into the 90's, or even the 70's, but we still had a great time at the 

beach with some awesome friends!

I love beach pictures- especially the kiddos in contrast to the vast ocean. Here is Audra dipping 

her toes in the water. She insisted it wasn't cold, but it really was a cold day.

 That is a smile, folks!

 I told you it was cold!

Here's the best picture I could get of all four kiddos:

One of the great blessings of my life has been wonderful friends. I have always had amazing friends, and friends who I have had for decades who I am still close to. I am hoping our kids will get

married so we can be family as well! Time will tell...

Museum

We went to the Littleton Museum again, and it was HOT but a lot of fun. And, of course, there were great photo-ops!

They went into the old school house, and there was somebody there role playing as the teacher. It was really neat. She had the students pretend to be real students from 1865. She even made the gentlemen (boys) take off their hats. But the girls got to keep theirs on. Of course, I had to put the pictures in black and white.

 Here they are with their good friend Ava. We sure love her!!! She's about the only girl Claire's age. Notice that huge smile on Claire's face?!? I finally captured it!

 But then, not 30 seconds later, this is what she was doing:

Poor Ava didn't know what to do while Claire tantrumed. Claire has been doing SO MUCH better, but today she wanted me to carry her the entire time. I knew I had to nip that in the bud and she needed to learn that she has her own two feet and she can walk on her own. So she tantrumed. And tantrumed. But, eventually she would walk while I held her two hands above her head- you know, where she kind of drags her feet while I half carry her? Then she would put all her weight on her feet, but still insisted I hold her hands. I don't know if she learned her lesson, but at least my arms didn't get too terribly worn out.

Afterwards we had a picnic lunch at the park nearby. A homeless man came up to us and said, "I don't know if I should tell you this or not, but right here is where I buried my wife." My friend Kathy calmly said, "I hope legally." I thought it was the perfect response.

Summer Fun!

The summer is here in full force, and we are taking full advantage. Perhaps too much of an advantage. Everyday we are doing something- the beach, the park, visiting friends. It has been quite busy around here, but in a good way. I think next week will slow down a little bit. Whew!

Today we went to a fantastic spray park, one of my absolute favorite parks.

Weekly Update

My mom has been in town the past week and has been such a HUGE help! I keep telling her she can't go back home. Here is what we have been up to:

Audra pushing Claire in the swing- she LOVED it when Claire came up and would "kick" her:

Claire's Monkey Pose- my all time favorite! She is such a cutie!!!

Fun at the park #1:

OK, this picture isn't too exciting, but I think Ben looks way super HOT, so I put it on:

Monkey Buisness- where Audra got shoved in the face TWICE and I had to yell at a kid to defent my little girl (she had a great time anyway!):

Audra takes care of Dolly:

We went to the Littleton Historical Museum:

Park Day #2:

What a great week!

Last Days of Summer

Last week was SUPER HOT and Ben kept complaining that he wanted to go bike riding before the summer ended, but we didn't have a way to go with Audra. So, after weeks of discussion, we decided to splurge and buy a bike carrier.

This is Ben putting it together- he is becoming such the handyman! Audra ready to go- we can't decide if she liked this or not, she never cried, but she never smiled either. Ready to go! We rode to the park, and it was so much fun! It was a great park, so we will definitely be going back. Ben is really excited to have this and now all he wants to do is go bike riding!

A brief update on Audra, as she is everyone's favorite (including ours!):

She is scared of heights. We learned this when we were out on the deck for the 100th time and Aud realized that if you looked between the slats you could see down 15 feet, and then all of a sudden she froze and started crying, refusing to move at all.

She loves to give kisses- but this consists of her coming at you with mouth totally open and her tongue hanging out, so they are very slobbery (we love them anyway)

She loves hugs and gives the best hugs. Often I will be making dinner or doing laundry and she will run up to me and hug both of my legs super tight so I can not move. Makes it difficult to get things done, but I don't care, I love the hugs!

She enjoys playing the drum set that we have in our basement

She loves taking out all of the diapers in her diaper holder, handing them to me, and then putting them all back in.

She likes making Indian noises with her hand over her mouth to test her voice (I know that is totally politically incorrect, but I wasn't sure how else to describe that, so I apologize, and if you have a better way to say it, let me know and I will edit my post!!!)

Today she kept pointing at her small stuffed giraffe and saying "dada". I am not sure what that means, as I am sure she knows her daddy isn't a giraffe, but perhaps I am wrong.

Her new favorite food is cheese toast (or cheese-its as we called them growing up)

She likes her rocking horse, and is very cute when she is on it as she tries to get it to go back and forth

She really is just the greatest thing that happened to Ben and I, and we are so grateful to have her in our lives!!!!! We love you, Audra!!!

Taking the Plunge

I finally decided to get my haircut- much to Ben's dismay. He likes long hair, but he is not the one who has Audra pulling it all the time, so he lost that battle!

Here Jeanine and I are at her house getting ready- men wouldn't understand, but all you ladies know what this is like! The bonus is that we had a showing on our townhome inbetweeen when I had to process and when I could take everything out, so I drove home like this to quickly clean the house! I got some strange looks!


Here is Audra getting into the action

The finished product

You can't see it real well, but I took off almost 6 inches, and I LOVE it! A new hair cut just feels great- fresh and new, and this is perfect for the summer time!

And here are Jeanine's glamor shots- I think she looks GREAT- she has such fantastic hair! She is just so beautiful- Dan is a lucky guy!

This next picture has nothing to do with getting hair done, but I wanted to show you what Audra does now every time we put her in her booster seat to eat:

Isn't that so cute?