Playing with friends and family!

Playing with our friends , the Bealers:Playing with Nana's chickens:

Camping with Nana B. and Papa Joe up Beaver Mountain:
Kenzie's new cousin: Carter Christian Chappell! This is my half-sister, Rebecca's, new little one.Visiting "GG"

My brother, the Helicopter Pilot!

My brother currently lives in Las Vegas and flies helicopter tours over the city and to the Grand Canyon. My family got to do the tour a few months ago, and I was so bummed that I couldn't be there. I was able to go on a tour when we flew in to go home. It was the coolest thing to do! Thanks bro for not crashing! I'm still amazed that he is capable of flying these machines! He's got talent.

Hoover Dam

Our summer is finally over!!

Summer vacation is always fun! We missed having Tyler around for most of it, but we snuck in a visit with him over the fourth of July. Tyler got home late last night... just in time for class this morning at 8am! Here is a recap of all that we've done this month:

San Antonio , TX: Kenzie chasing the pigeons! She had so fun with that!
On the riverwalk...
Having dinner on the riverwalk with Tyler's platoon. They all cleaned up nice! They were all use to seeing each other in their Army Combat Uniforms. I was glad to meet everyone.
It started raining, and we were eating on the patio. They tried to cover us with these huge umbrellas, but some of us weren't as lucky. Makenzie loved getting wet. The food was good, but getting wet wasn't.


Sea World: (We got in free because of the military!)
Beautiful San Antonio Temple.

Celebrate!!

I got some fireworks for the kids and we lit them off last night. I don't think we will be able to fireworks in Texas???


Makenzie wasn't so sure of them first....


Then she loved them and wanted more, more, more...


Jordan didn't like the sparklers, but was hooked on everything else.


Happy Day! We head out tomorrow to see Tyler for the weekend and then we will be in Cedar on Tuesday! Hope to see many of you soon!


Ha.... I just found this pic of me doing some fireworks when I was a child! What do you think of the clothes? I believe I was 6 in this picture.

Typical Mid-West Storm

Here is some video of the storm we are having tonight. These are pretty common- lots of rain and constant thunder and lightening. It sure is something to get use to. I'm amazed that the kids have always slept through the storms.

Day-by-Day

I have been "single" now for 11 days... Oh how we miss Tyler! It's one thing not to see him, but as of last Thursday we can't even talk to him for 10 days. That's rough. We are doing OK. The Lord is blessing my days to be busy- thanks to many friends that have been keeping us company! Also instead of a 7 o'clock bedtime for the kids, they have both been staying up way too late (and not to my liking either). Somehow in the morning this is what I have in bed...
Makenzie is guaranteed to be there every morning and Jordan is hit and miss. He's been teething, so I have pity on him. As you can tell, I don't usually have much room left over for myself. I might as well go sleep in Makenzie's bed!

The other day we went grocery shopping and Makenzie found a "Princess" umbrella. She carried it around the store the whole time thinking we was going to get it... nope. I was one of those mean mom's who ended up having a daughter throw a complete tantrum, all the while trying to take a shopping cart full of groceries out to the car. Luckily when we got home, I found an umbrella and she forgave me! This has been her new toy and she even got to play with it outside in the rain today.

We're Back....

Well we are back from our family vacay! We had a very enjoyable time! I will save you from many of the details, but we made many memories. Tyler and I also re-lived our own childhood as we watched our children enjoy the many things that make a vacation- going out to eat (more specifically, eating at McDonalds and playing), swimming at the motels, camping, playing in the dirt, staying up late, etc.

We toured 5 hospitals and the surrounding areas in Michigan and Ohio. We were highly impressed with what we saw. We are not favoring one area over another yet. I'm glad we have until October to make the decision on where we must go next summer. Until then... we are home doing laundry and Tyler is repacking to head off to Army Officer Training on Saturday until the end of July. (sniff... sniff... We already miss you!)