Ragno's the Birthday Boy!

ragno turned four years old on july 27th, 2009. he had a birthday week. on sunday he had a small cake with the family. it had a train on it, he liked that.

we were going to go swimming, but with the sunburns and weather, we changed our plans. we invited one other family with ragno's best friend (noah) and went to chuck e cheese. it was so much fun for everyone!!




i have been watching food networks challenge, and i tried my hand at a cool cake. ragno wanted a train cake at the commissary (too much) so i baked it and shaped it. neko helped. it was supposed to be gordon, but his front kinda fell in. oh well, it looked good. and it was fun. .


he got some fun stuff, but his favorite was a new bike. he likes to be out on it all day, he races it up and down the driveway. it makes me hot just looking at him! happy birthday ragno, we love you.

To the Aquarium!!

Another day of our activities! We went down to Wilmington and the Fort Fisher Aquarium. We met Marcus, Mary Helen, TJ and Gavin. We spent the whole time walking around with Ragno asking where the sharks are. He wanted the cool tunnel at the Ripley's Aquarium, oh well.
Here is Luna, the albino alligator

TJ, Ragno, May Lynn and Gavin looking at Luna and May Lynn showing TJ the croc. too cute!

There was an exhibit where you could touch a ray, horseshoe crab and starfish. The kids were facinated.


The jellyfish are so beautiful! May Lynn and TJ took a break and colored a shark hat. Gavin and Ragno loved that thing you drop a quarter in and it spins and spins and spins...



We went out and the walk was beautiful, so I wanted to get a picture of the kids, but there were a lot of people walking behind us and lots of things going on, so I got just one shot. It turned out pretty good!

We also went to Kure Beach right after. I left my camera in the car, so I got the aftershock. We all had so much fun, Ragno and TJ played in the water and May Lynn helped Katrina look for shells. The rest of us just chilled. I had a great day...until I got home, ouch.

To the Park!

While my friend, Katrina, is visiting we are doing lots of activities almost every day. Today we went to the park right behind my in-laws house. It was pretty hot and Neko left us there to pick something up. The kids of course didn't notice the heat, but they are really good about getting lots of water.

Ragno and May Lynn had so much fun, we played hide and seek, and they ran around and got very sweaty. We got some great shots of my beautiful children.




When we were done there, we walked around the block to the house and played in the water to cool off and wait for a key to open the door. Varden was glad to get out of the stroller and play in some mud the kids made. They removed all their clothes, so I didn't post any pics of them, but it was cute!

My Boys

While May Lynn was asleep I spent some quality time with Ragno and Varden. Ragno has a love/hate relationship with the camera, he will cover his face with whatever is around and wants to see the picture. He is also a talented photographer.
They are too cute!


Ragno realy likes to snuggle with his Mom.
Varden's tooth


I sure love my boys!

Fireworks!!

Every year the town next to us, Stedman, does fireworks the Sunday before the fourth. This year because of sceduling conflicts, only Naomi could come with me.
We found a few friends and we all sat together. Ragno had his friend Noah, and they played the whole time. We were sitting next to a small hill and the kids just ran up and down all evening. We laid out a blanket and hauled out a few chairs to sit in. The fireworks started at 9pm and they lit up the sky until 9:20. Ragno has always been wary of the light show and sits in someone's lap until they're over, but because Noah was there, he was brave and sat on the blanket. He isn't afraid anymore, I guess peer pressure isn't all bad. I enjoy this beautiful country, I am grateful for the freedoms we have. Thanks to all those men who risked their lives to bring that about.

Hiking

One of the things I miss is being in the mountains in minutes. When we lived in Logan, Neko and I would go at least once a week on a trail or just go cook some tin foil dinners (one of my all time favorite meals). When we visited Shannon and Emily, they had a really fun activity for us to do. Shannon had a map from school of a trail in the canyon and a lot of landmarks and points of interest marked. He told the kids it was a treasure map and we followed it. Ragno and Macgyver stuck together like glue.And Shaylie kept a close eye on May LynnThere was a really cool brick oven that was huge, we all piled on for a group shot (sorry May Lynn!)
Earlier Emily had hidden a little bag of 'treasure" aka chocolate.



Of course we had to hike all over the mountain to find it! And I was carrying Varden, who is not light load and very tired, but it was well worth it.

We also got to see a beautiful waterfall that Shannon and Oma took Ragno, Shaylie and Macgyver up to see, they took the picture

I sure miss being there, but at least I don't have to spend very many mornings scraping ice/snow/frost off MY windshield!
Shaylie..Naomi..Emily..Macgyver..Ragno..May Lynn..Ilona(Oma)
Gene(Opa)..Shannon