Father's Day

We had a great time celebrating Father's Day all weekend. Here's a few pictures and videos of our fun family times together.



Love, love, love this picture and these people!



Breakfast in bed--check out all those crazy curls for all three of them!



And a sweet one of Drew just because I like it!

Here's a video of the girls singing "Happy Daddy's Day!"

Oregon and California

From Colorado, we set off on our wild trip to the west coast. Knowing this was our last long stretch of vacation time for a while, AJ dreamed up a big vacation for us. Overall, we had a great time together and have lots of neat memories and pictures. AJ was super Dad the whole trip...serving us all so tirelessly. It was fun to have so much time together as a family. Here's some of my favorite pictures from the trip.



Taking a break from the car. The kids and I drove just under 6000 miles during these four weeks, and they all were amazing travelers! This was one of the first times Drew laughed at the girls.



Crater Lake National Park in Oregon


Redwoods National Park in California
Notice that AJ has Drew in the front pack and Jenna in the backpack.


Lydia does the traditional "hug the huge tree" pose


Sister love on the beautiful northern California coast


Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco


Lydia's tired enough to sleep in the back pack


AJ hiked up a pretty steep mountain with Jenna on his back and pushing Drew in the stroller. He says it was worth it for lunch at a beautiful waterfall.


I love this one! Drew's all bundled up for the night.


Yosemite Falls at Yosemite National Park (California)



This was on our way out of Yosemite. The coldest it got on the nights we were camping was the high 40s, but they were predicting 29 for the night that we left. I couldn't stop mentioning how glad I was to not be camping another night.

Sitting up!

Drew started sitting up last week! Good job, buddy!



And this is the closest we've gotten to coordinating outfits for all the kids, so I had to do a photo shoot! Drew's adorable outfit is from Ben and Maggie (thanks guys!), and AJ bought the girls' dresses on his trip. I think it's cute how much he likes to shop for his girls!







Jenna (L) , Drew , Lydia (R)

Colorado and Wyoming

After our week in Kansas, we spent a week in Colorado with my parents. My mom took the entire week off work, so we had lots of time to play. We invited a few high school friends to my parents' to catch up, had pictures taken at Target, went to parks, swam, went to the zoo, and just played at their house. It is so relaxing to be at my mom and dad's. It's the place where I feel the least amount of responsibilities. Thanks for being so good to us, Mom and Dad!

Thursday I drove to Denver to pick up AJ. It was great to have Daddy back! We all were so glad to see him. Then, Saturday we drove to Cheyenne to visit AJ's extended family. Here's a few pictures of some highlights.


My mom hosted a mother-daughter brunch for two of my high school friends and their kids and moms (some good friends of my mom's). Here's the grandmas with the grandbabies.


Some other high school friends came out for dinner: Lindsay, Melissa, and Jaci


Lydia loved having Grandma tickle her!


Lydia (L) and Jenna (R) pose in their new outfits from my parents.


Drew's first time to swim, and he loved it!


It was a rainy day at the zoo, but we still had a good time!


Aunt Patsy manning the kids' table. These are some of AJ's cousins' kids.


Gabrielle was our flower girl at our wedding. Now I just wish she lived in Midland so she could be our babysitter. She was so sweet with Drew.

Kansas

AJ left last Sunday on the MCA American History trip, so I decided to take my kids to see family. My brother flew to Midland for a job then helped me drive to Kansas. We had a great time with grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and cousins!

My brother who definitely wins "Uncle of the Century" for spending an entire week helping me with my kids

Lydia rides the "tractor" with Great Grandma. They were too scared to ride the big tractor with Uncle Jack.

Jenna and Great Grandma

AJ's grandpa meets Drew

AJ's grandma meets Drew. Thanks for driving all the way from Nebraska to see us!

Grandma Doris reads the girls a story

Grandpa Tony and Drew

Grandma Doris meets Drew

Aunt Connie got lots of smiles out of Drew

Lydia wanted to sit with Uncle Paul too!


Uncle Jack had all the kids' attention



Aunt Jan came to meet Drew too



I thought the girls would be shy with Uncle Ken, but they loved sitting on his lap and laughed a lot!



Great Grandma and Drew at the park


The girls with my cousin Elyssa, who we got to go watch graduate.


Aunt Cindy and Uncle Mike came for graduation too



My cousin Naasha was a great help with my kids. I only wish she could come babysit in Midland!



Shade and Chance



It was a fabulous surprise to see Aunt Kathleen and my cousin Carlos walk in with the kids!

Sorry for the forever long post. I'm so thankful for the chance we had to catch up with so much of my family and wanted to document it here.

Cute

We're having a much better week this week than last. Drew is getting past his cold, Jenna's pooping in the potty again, so I'm a pretty happy mom. I'm also uploading a video of Drew in his bouncy seat and the girls playing "mommy" with each other, complete with an offer to nurse! If you're interested, click here.


After almost a month, I think the girls may be potty trained!


Jenna (the baby) sitting on Lydia (the mommy's) lap. They nurse, burp, change diapers, rock, sing...just call if you'd like them to babysit!


Feeling better after a hard week of major congestion


Drew's beginning to like his Bumbo seat!


Jenna loves to hold Drew and is getting much better at it.


Thanks for the cute outfit, Ben and Maggie!