Congrats LaTesa.

Shane's sister is getting married in August and Anna and Ian are in the wedding. Anna is so excited and LOVES her "Princess" dress and now sparkly shoes to go with. Tesa had a bridal shower last week that we got to attend. It was a very nice shower and the food was great. Anna and Tesa took some pictures together and I threw one in of our gift to her. Mostly because I want to toot my own horn.

I love Duck Duck(s)

It has been 2 years since Miss Anna J's surgery and her relationship with Duck Duck began. She is so attached/in love with him that I don't see an end in sight. So much so that the constant washing and dragging every where has begun to take its toll on Duck Duck.....or should I say Duck Ducks. Yes plural. We are now on Duck Duck #6. I swear she will be walking down the isle with Duck Duck as her something old.

Good Bye Training Wheels!

Ian Scott has learned to ride his bike without training wheels. The first day he mastered down and back in the parking lot. Yesterday, he mastered the turns and starting/stopping on his own.

Look at him concentrating. He is biting his own lip. I think this was more to keep from bursting out in giggles - which he did very frequently. I think he amazes himself at times.

Although he mastered it all, Mom and Dad still ran beside him - Just in case. I think this was more to comfort us than Ian.

Anna wanted to learn to ride her bike to and did very well.

There is a really cool Spiderman bike that Ian has been asking for. I told him - not thinking it would be any time soon - that once he learned to ride his bike we would get him a bigger one. He proved me wrong. Guess where we will be going soon.

VACATION!!!!

I love vacations. This year we took a longer weekend vacation to the lake. We invited our good friends - the Schackow's - to go along and we all had the time of our lives. On Friday some more friends/family came up for the 4th and some relaxation. This was the first time we got to use our camper we got last summer. It was a hit.

Jen and I took the kids up Wednesday night and the boys followed Thursday afternoon. Wednesday was a very stormy night and what better to do on a stormy night then tell ghost stories. The kids had so much fun telling funny stories and sleeping in the pull out couch together. Jen and I were not so worried about the stories as there was a tornado brewing outside. We could not see across the lake it was raining so hard and we had no idea on the weather map where we were. I guess that may have been for the best.

All Ian wanted to do the whole time was fish. He loves it. He would follow boats down the shoreline talking to them about fishing and what he caught and so forth. He cracked us up. Anna had to take a turn since Ian was. She sat for about......30 seconds and then was off.

Instead of dragging the kids out to the middle of the lake with 300 other boats for fireworks, we did some of our own over the lake. I think we should fire the operators as a few of them came awfully close to the crowd.

One of the days we took the pontoon out and threw the anchor down. The kids jumped right in and swam around enjoying the water with no weeds. We packed a lunch and drinks and ate on the boat enjoying the nice sunny weather.

There was corn hole, pudgy pies, smores, drinks, late night talks and fun fun fun. We had a blast and think we need to take a whole week next summer. The kids all agreed.