Zoo trip

This was early in the trip and Abigail was already getting tired of having her picture taken.

I threw this one in just to prove that Joel was along. I couldn't find one of Amy, but she has always said that we never took pictures of her when she was growing up, so why change now.

It seems that Abigail likes being with these little gys! This is a birthing cave for polar bears.

Elijah just liked looking at all of the bears on the wall, growling and jumping up and down with excitement!

A rare moment of child captivity!

Zoo trip continued

I think Julie was enjoying herself. What do you think?

Elijah has a great smile and all you have to do is point the camera at him to get him to show it.

Julie got a great picture of this cat.

This was probably my favorite exhibit. The true blue of the water, and the size of the Sea Lion doesn't quite come out in this picture.

On the way back to their place Julie sat in the back seat with Elijah and Abigail. Elijah fell asleep and Julie and Abigail were having fun looking at all the pictures and having good grandma time.

Werdebaugh visit

Last Saturday Shawn & Christena came for a visit and to see Amy & Joel. They stayed until about noon on Monday. It was great to see them again.
They have added Alicia to their family since we saw them last. Julie was having a lot of fun with grandkids and Shawn and Christena's kids. The Werdebaughs went to Slovenia last summer to help with the English camps, and the kids didn't take long to get reaquainted. They had a ball playing together.

Hot Days

The temperatures are in the high 80s to low 90s during the day and the kids are really enjoying the octopus sprinkler they brought with them. Amy found it on line last spring but she couldn't order it because she lived out of the US, so Julie ordered it and we shipped it to them. However the hoses in Slovenia didn't connect properly and it didn't work like it was supposed to. Our hose connects good but the water pressure is so low here that it still isn't working right, but as you can see the kids don't care.
Abigail and Joel thought I should get wet too, so they poured water on my feet and legs. Boy was it cold.

Fun Center

Tuesday we took the kids to the fun center and we spent the time in the arcade section. As far as the kids were concerned this was bowling and they had a lot of fun with all the games.


While we were waiting for everyone to get ready to leave Elijah thought he would try handling a regular bowling ball. On the way home we stopped at McDonalds and the kids played in the play structure while we had some coffee and cokes.

Joel, Amy, Abigail and Elijah arrived Sun. morning around 2:30 so all day Sunday and most of Monday was spent doing nothing and getting caught up on sleep and time adjustment.


On Monday afternoon we went to see Julie at the farmers market. It was the last day of the market and it was real slow, so most of the vendors just bought from each other. More adventures to follow.

Play Area Finished

Well I got it done. Not a day too soon. Now Julie & I have to go buy a toy dump truck and tractor, and other earth moving equipment.

Getting ready for Abigail & Elijah

I ordered in 6 yards of pea gravel for the swing area and got it last Saturday.

I started spreading it and decided that I didn't want that tree there. One thing it was too close to the swing, but it also drops needles and looks ugly which I didn't want if I was going to all the work of spreading pea gravel. So down came the tree.

The swing set was also loose in the ground so I had to dig up the legs and put them in deeper and pack the dirt around them.

I'm almost done, and then I have to put the last section of fence in. We are really looking forward to having them here.