Summer Vacation--Part II

After visiting relatives in Colorado, we drove down to Socorro, New Mexico to visit Emily's brother Dave and his family along with her cousin Bridget and her husband Jimmy. One of the highlights was to do a little rock climbing in a local canyon. Abigail did not love the climbing but she did love playing with her cousins:

Emily and her cousin Bridget

Abigail and her cousins Josh and Esther

Dave setting up the climbing gear...in his flip-flops

Kids playing while the climbing gear is getting set up

Mary Grow

Abby and her cousins with a lizard

Benson and his cousin Calvin playing in the dirt

Check out Dave's chiseled climbing arms!

Here is a video of Abigail telling us all about a lizard she found...

Small victory

Emily showing her skills

Having lunch in the canyon

Summer Vacation--Part I

We took a long 5 week, 5000 mile Summer vacation out west to visit family in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Washington. Rather than putting it all in one posting we've decided to break it up into a number of smaller descriptions.

The first place we went to was at our friends the Bourne's in Omaha. They live about 4.5 hours away so it allowed us to leave on the first day at a leisurely pace and to get there right at dinner time. We took no pictures of our friends (which we'll have to correct next time we visit!) but that's likely because we were so busy stuffing our faces eating the most amazing chicken dish I have ever had in my life. I don't remember what Karen Bourne called it, but I call it Karen's-some-kind-of-wonderful-chicken. We will miss stopping at the Bournes when they leave Omaha for adventures in the wide world.

The next day we travelled to Emily's Aunt and Uncle Coleman in Greeley, Colorado. We had some potential A/C problems, so we stuck around a little longer than expected and had a nice relaxing visit. Emily's Aunt Julie painted some ceramic masks with Abigail and she loved it. Here are some of the pictures:

Brian Julie and Emily Coleman with Benson

Eating popsicles on a hot Colorado day

Emily and her Aunt Julie

Emily (Emily's cousin) with Benson

Abby mimicking the masks she painted

They almost look like the masks the painted!

Final School Days--Spring 2012

This last Spring time near the end of school was filled with pleasant weather and fun memories. Here are a few pictures and videos of some memories we were able to record...

Our ward had a "day of service" where we set up birdhouses and raised garden boxes for a local retirement home. While the men and boys did construction, the kids and ladies entertained the residents with art and dancing.

A neighbor of ours offered to us their backyard playground because their kids had outgrown it. Abigail and Benson have LOVED it! It's also been nice to have when Emily has play groups at our house. The first picture is what part of our backyard looked like before the playground was put in...

Emily explains in the video below quite well, but suffice it to say, Benson loves construction toys and especially dump trucks so Emily made him a little box of beans to use when he plays with his trucks. Below the video is a picture of Benson with a hat he received from some construction workers who noticed Benson was a big fan of their work. Notice the shirt he's wearing to match the hat. It's one of his favorites.

Emily made a sign for Abigail and her friend Daniel on the last day of school.

These last pictures come from a trip we took to the Wisconsin Dells for a wedding along with a good picture of our house from last May and a video of Abigail and Benson playing with a rocking horse we got from a neighbor...

Benson's Two-Year Birthday

Benson turned two back in May! On his birthday Emily made him a "Cookie Monster" cake. He blew the stubborn candles out like a pro. A week and a half later, Benson's good friend Hyrum came over to have some cake and give him a present. Both the boys were SUPER excited about the present. Here's a couple videos of him blowing the candles out and opening the present with his friend along with a couple of extra pictures in between You'll notice how much the boys LOVED the seeing the smoke from the candles:

Kansas City Temple Open House

Before they become operational, LDS temples have an "open house" period where anyone can go through the building. The newly built Kansas City Temple had its open house this last April and we all decided to go see it as a family. It was a double bonus trip because we got to see our friends the Bellistons! Here are some pictures of the temple and our family: 

Dancing Kiddos!

One night we put on some upbeat music and just let the kids dance. Abigail leaped and Benson twisted himself silly. Here's the video...

Easter 2012

This last spring in Iowa was unusually warm and very pleasant and it made for a beautiful Easter day. We opened gifts and dyed eggs and had an easter egg hunt in our back yard. The lighting that day allowed us to take some great pictures of the kids. Before getting to those pictures though I wanted to share a video of the gifts that I got. In my family, Easter gifts tend to be chocolates and hygiene products like toothbrushes and combs. Perhaps this video is only comical to me, but I love how Emily got me what I would say were exactly the kind of things I got growing up in my Easter basket (not to mention Benson spitting out his jelly beans in the background)...

Okay, now for the rest of the pictures...

The kids had tons of fun dying the eggs

I think these next four pictures do a good job of showing Abigail and Benson's true personalities...

Happy Easter, Dad!

Emily looking fantastic, as always.