Lazy Summer Days

What better way to spend a summer afternoon than chasing bubbles?

Hilarious that I got a shot of a bubble on his tongue. :-)

Growing Our Family

6 years of marriage, 2 dogs and 2 kids later, we have decided that it's time again to add to our family.

































...Goldfish that is. ;-)

The boys named their new fish "Shark" and "Nemo" (how original). Actually, we bought the goldfish back in July and now we're on our third Nemo. Poor Nemo 1 and Nemo 2 didn't last too long. Nemo 3 is on his 4th day of living with us, which is a record for the gold ones (and that's 4 days of little tots "petting" him, and then spending a few minutes the other day flopping around on the playroom floor after the boys knocked over the fishbowl). I'm sure the poor thing is totally traumatized.

Summer Zoo Trips

What an incredibly fun, busy, amazing summer we've had! I LOVE the age the boys are - they're still so sweet, cute and cuddly, but are also totally enthralled in discovering new-found independence and are growing their wild imaginations every day. I just can't get enough of them! We've had so many fun adventures over the past few months which I'll continue to attempt to document in these next few posts. :-)

SO many trips to the zoo! We enjoyed countless visits to the Indianapolis, Columbus and Cincinnati Zoos.

Indianapolis Zoo

Petting the sharks, watching the polar bears & donkeys, and looking down a storm drain for...who knows what. Cute Matthew just had to find out what lies down that sewer. :-)

Checking out the giraffes and elephants (or, as the boys call them

"elf-a-nents").

The Indy Zoo has the coolest butterfly gardens. They had so much

fun "petting" the butterflies (poor butterflies!).

Columbus Zoo

Riding the zoo train

Watching the new baby elephant, looking for sharks and posing with Grandma. Oh, and I love little Rachel's face in this picture. Ha!

Feeding the Lorakeets. Way to go, Vickie, for not totally freaking out! ;-)

The boys thought the boat ride through the Monkey Islands with their cousins was so much fun!

For some reason I don't have pictures of the Cincinnati zoo (only video), but it's also tons of fun. It's HUGE, and among other things, they have a brand new giraffe area where you can feed the giraffes!

All I want for Christmas are my two front teeth...

Well, I didn't think I'd hear myself sing that song for about another 3 or 4 years! Poor little Matt-matt...My parents had the boys while I went to California a couple weeks ago. On my way there, I called my dad during my layover to ask how they were. Me: "So, how are the boys doing?" My Dad: "Uh...not so good." My heart sank...

Matthew had been standing on the edge of the swimming pool when the dogs ran past him. They accidentally knock him off the ledge and he smacked his face on the diving board. My mom said it was horrible and there was blood everywhere. Poor guy didn't sleep all night. Of course I was completely beside myself because I couldn't be there for him. I bawled on the plane.

When I saw Matt-matt two days later, I thought he had lost his tooth. I called up a dentist friend of mine for advice and he offered to take a look at him for free. I drove Matthew up to see him the next day. He x-rayed him and it turned out that Matthew hadn't lost his tooth - it had gotten shoved completely up into his gum! OUCH!!! My heart just broke for him. How painful!

So anyway, apparently it'll come back down on its own as his permanent tooth pushes it out. He'll probably lose that tooth a little earlier than normal, but he'll be just fine (phew!). In the meantime, he'll just continue to look like a little hick-boy for the next few months. Alas, a picture of my little hillbilly:

Colorado

In July, I got to go to Boulder, CO for work. Pretty much it was all work and no play (sorry, Aliy - I really wanted to go down to Colorado Springs to see you, but I couldn't work it out!), but I did squeeze in a little play and r&r. The best part of my trip was grabbing take-out at a nearby restaurant, taking it back to my hotel and eating dinner in bed while watching TV. Ahhh...it was pure no-children-no-noise-no-stress Heaven. As for fun, I went hiking/climbing one day and took in the amazing view of the Boulder and Denver area. It really is such a beautiful place.




Also, my super-fun, amazing friend, Micaela, actually lives in the Boulder area, so I got to stay with her for a couple nights (I miss you so much, Micaela!!). It's always nice to visit wth old friends you haven't seen for a while. It really made me reminisce a little about our Seattle days - tiny apartment, no kids, staying up late every weekend to play Settler's of Catan and sleeping in the next day...ah, such fun memories!

Run Forest, Run!

I completed my second triathlon this summer - woohoo!! It was fun to run the Muncie Endurathon with Jeremy this year. I only did the sprint (400 meter swim, 12-mile bike, 5K run), but Jeremy, my crazy, over-acheiver husband with a death wish, did the Half-Ironman which consisted of: 1.25-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13-mile run! Insane!! Here's a picture of the happy couple fresh off the course...

Faceplant

Poor Jordi had his first major fall at the Centerville 4th of July Americana Festival. Little guy saw the playground, started running for it, and the next thing he knew, he was making out with the cement. So sad! The next day, I showed him what his face looked like in the mirror and he asked, "Take it off? Take owie off?" Ouch!