Our Rain/Mud Adventure

The other day it started raining. The kids wanted to play in it and I, thinking back to when I was kid, playing in the rain, said, ok.
A nice, large puddle formed in the middle of our driveway and things seemed pretty calm. At least Savannah had shorts on at this point.
I ran inside to get the camera and Savannah had removed her shorts and undies. I decided it was ok. We really don't have too many close neighbors and at some age it should be ok to run around naked at least for a few minutes. Are you with me?

Then they found some red mud in the driveway and that is when things started to get downright dirty. Literally.


The mud painting continued and so did the removing of clothes. But, they were having a blast!

Ry painting Jonah's back

Savannah inspecting the mud

playing some sort of game
Bans was ready to go inside. I enjoyed watching them have so much fun outside. I made them wash off their hands and feet and then they all went straight to the tub. After quite a bit of scrubbing, they looked fairly normal.
The next morning the girls noticed a butterfly in their room. Jonah had found what he thought was a dried up bug, but it was actually a chrysalis. It had been in his room for a week and they butterfly was ready to come out. Pretty exciting.
We caught the pretty little thing and let it go.

Swimming

Found- Turtle in the Driveway

He was scared

Swimming

is
Super

Fun

I wish Matt and I had thought of this

Washington DC and the 4th of July

I drove up with the kids on a Monday to visit Audrey in DC. I haven't seen her much since we lived on the west side of the US for the past two years, so it was really super great to spend a whole week with her. We did all kinds of fun stuff. Museums, parks, the zoo, sight seeing, playing swimming and we ate at a great little place that Jonah can't stop talking about- The Cactus Cantina. I highly recommend their fish tacos.
Anyway- Matt flew up to meet us for the weekend on Thursday night and Laura Dawn flew in on Friday morning. We hiked the Billy Goat Trail that day and visited Great Falls. We were having so much fun all week that I didn't take any pictures until saturday.
Audrey really wanted to watch the fireworks from the National Mall. I thought for a second that she meant a great big shopping center, but soon realized that is actually the name of the large area that contains the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, WW 2 memorial, Viet Nam Memorial, etc. So, we headed downtown and actually got a really great spot just below the Washington Monument. Clouds were looming all day, but thank goodness it never actually rained.



Audrey packed lots of snacks and we just enjoyed the music from the US Army Concert Band and Mark Wills until it got dark enough for the fireworks.

Will, Bans, and Ry "making fire"- their new favorite game.
Me and Matt- scary! me that is.

Enjoying the wonderful fireworks

I got a couple of good pictures
I thought it was cool that you could see Savannah's little shadow here
Jonah by the Capitol Building.

Audrey is a great hostess. The cousins had a blast and after driving across the country, 10 hours there and back really doesn't seem that bad.

Ry's Frog Adventure

When we were staying at Grandma Beckys, we went swimming every single day.
One day, Ryanne saw a frog at the bottom of the pool, at the deep end. I prodded it with a scoop and it came up to the surface. Ryanne caught it with her bare hands and was very excited about her discovery.
The frog does look a little freaked out.




Ry let Savannah hold the frog for a second, but she let go and it got back in the pool. This time in the shallow end. Ry caught it again and I told her to let it go in the woods.

Meanwhile, Jonah was just having a great time jumping in. Savannah was back in the pool too.

Ry was just worried about her frog.