My girls are so spoiled. Grandma Zymball takes them to Chuck E. Cheese almost everytime we get together and visit. It use to be Rachel’s favorite place and Sarah could have cared less but that is no longer the case. Sarah LOVES this place, to bad their mom isn’t nice enough to take them there!!
Sarah learned early the phrase 'more money grandma'
Sarah had fun riding the horse!
Rachel and Dad playing Air Hockey
Lightening Bugs are one of those wonderful creatures that remind me so much of my childhood. It makes me so sad that we don’t have them in New Mexico. The girls do have a fun time catching them whenever we go back to Missouri. We were sitting outside on Grandma Brown’s porch in Edina when all of a sudden the lightening bugs were everywhere!! It is so fun to see the excitement on the girls faces as they chase these glowing bugs around.
Catching lightening bugs in Great Grandma Brown's yard
showing me all the bugs she collected
Rachel got to go fishing for the first time!! She had a blast and caught 4 fish! Grandpa and Grandma Leckbee took her to a small pond just outside of Edina, MO. Both girls just had a blast. I even caught a fish! Josh didn’t have much opportunity to even get a pole in the water between baiting Rachel and my hooks and then taking the fish off once we caught them. He did get to go out with just him, his dad and little brother a couple of days later. Josh thought it was lots of fun teaching Rachel to fish. Rachel also thought it was amazing! She wanted to go back every single day! Thank you so much Grandpa and Grandma for making such a wonderful memory for the girls. Sarah even had a blast, she had a fishing pole with a toy on the end instead of a hook and had so much fun dipping it in the water and then reeling it back in.
Rachel's first fish
Rachel's second fish
Look at that smile, she was so proud of herself. I think her daddy was too!!
My first fish, Rachel's third
Sarah figuring out her fishing pole
'trying' to catch a fish
This was one of my favorite pictures. Sarah was so fearless and kept getting closer and closer to the water, I was so afraid she was going to fall in that Grandma and I took turns holding onto her shirt to keep her out of the water. She didn’t even mind us holding on to her because then she was able to do whatever she wanted. Crazy little girl!
what a cutie!
One of Rachel’s favorite things about going home to the midwest is that she gets to spend time with her cousins!! While we were in Omaha we went to the zoo. The Omaha zoo is one of my favorite zoos in the nation.
Rachel, Addie, Clint, Brandon and Sarah standing in the Rain Forest at the zoo
Rachel loves having girl cousins to play with and do girl stuff with. Addie is a very special cousin and Rachel misses her so much when we are away too long.
Rachel and Addie
The main reason for this trip was to attend my cousin Meagan’s wedding and see all of my aunts and uncles. The last time I saw my two uncles and their families I was pregnant with RACHEL, now that was a long time ago. It was wonderful to see everyone and the girls had a great time at the wedding. Rachel was infatuated with the bride, she followed Meagan around everywhere she went at the reception. It was a wonderful time and we are so grateful we were able to share this special day with Ryan and Meagan.
Me and my Aunt Kristin
Besides seeing all of my aunts and uncles, I was able to see my brother. I only get to see him once a year.
Me and my brother and sister
Rachel loved dancing with both Meagan and Ryan!!!
Rachel with the groom, Ryan
Rachel dancing with the bride
Daddy with his girls
One of my favorite things from the wedding was watching Josh dance with both of his little girls. I have the best husband in the world and he is an amazing father!!
We had the opportunity to make a couple of trips back to the midwest this summer. It was lots of fun and we got to see almost all of our extended family between the two trips. The trip we made in July started in Omaha, with a trip to Edina and then ended in Kansas City. It was a wonderful time and we were grateful we could see everyone. While in Omaha we were able to stay with my step-mom Linda and her husband Roger. It was wonderful to see them and catch up. We are very grateful for them to house us but I am sad that I didn’t get any pictures of Linda with the girls.
While there we also visited with my Dad and my Grandma Swan. It was wonderful to see them, I know Grandma really enjoyed seeing my girls. We don’t see them very often so Grandma really treasures the time she gets to spend with us.
We had such a good time on Monday that we decided to go back to Tijeras again and bring some different friends along that needed to reconnect with nature too. So Friday night Josh and I took the girls back around the mountain for hot dogs and smores with our friends the Jones.
roasting hot dogs
Rachel
Sarah and Ella eating Marshmallows
Look at the huge smile on Sarah’s face, she loves Marshmallows and got a lot of them that night!!
Rachel, Sarah, Ella, and Pierce
Sarah
If you have spent anytime with Rachel in the last month you would know that she had a permanent tooth growing in behind her baby teeth. It came in and her baby teeth were not loose at all, so we went to the dentist and he said they had to come out.
close-up of Rachel's tooth
If you look closely you can see that she has another tooth that is right under the skin next to the one that has already broke thru. The x-ray showed that they were just growing in back too far and were not dissolving the roots of her baby teeth. Rachel couldn’t wait for the dentist to pull her teeth, he planned to pull two of them. So Tuesday afternoon we headed to the dentist and out they came. The baby tooth in front of the permanent tooth that had already came in finally started to dissolve a little so the root on it was not near as long as the other tooth the dentist pulled. You will just have to look at the difference, one tooth looks normal and the other looks like a dagger. Rachel just loves having ‘two gone tooth’ and couldn’t wait for the tooth fairy to come.
toothless
look at those teeth
Rachel's teeth
My friend Amber had this wonderful idea about going to the other side of the mountain and having a Campfire BBQ and FHE Lesson with friends. We had a great time, it has been a long time since we were one with Nature. Sarah didn’t like it at first. She had decided three days before we went that she is afraid of bugs, which made for a rough evening. Every fly that came near her she would just scream. She dumped her food on the ground trying to get away from the bugs, she ended up sitting on my lap while we ate so that I could keep the flies off of her. Eventually the bugs started to leave her alone and she adventured around a little. Rachel had a great time and was even able to explore with some of her friends in the woods.
Rachel eating dinner with all of her friends
It was a great time with good friends. Well, it was a good time when Sarah decided to calm down!!
sitting by the fire listening to the lesson
Amber’s husband Scott, prepared a Family Home Evening lesson to share with the kids. They were very good and listened nicely (they had to be good during the lesson in order to get the smores afterwards). Scott had asked the kids to walk around and find something in nature that showed them that there is a God. So the kids found flowers, leaves, pine cones and much more. Sarah really liked finding the pine cones and would find one and then bring it over to Scott, she did this like 5times before we convinced her to stop giving them to Scott, then it was Daddy’s turn.
Sarah giving Scott her pine cone
After the lesson was the best part, Smores!!! I love smores and so does Rachel!! Rachel will ask to make them over the grill at home.
Roasting marshmallows
The best part of a fire is roasting marshmallows!!
Rachel, Kirra, and Daphne eating Smores
Sarah cracks me up, she wouldn’t eat a Smore and actually spit it out when I gave her a bite but she wanted all of the ingredients. So here is Sarah sitting with a marshmallow, graham cracker, and chocolate in her hand.
Rachel really enjoyed taking tennis lessons this summer. She took two, two week sessions this summer and had a great time. She has come a long way from the beginning of the summer and still loves it. I would love for her to continue with lessons in the fall but they are on Saturdays which would interfere with soccer. Oh well, there is always next summer and Josh and I will have to take her out in the evenings to play/practice!
