Vacation, Part 2: Summer Waves Waterpark

The boys could not wait to visit the waterpark at Jekyll, and Grandpa Gene was nice enough to get us some free tickets courtesy of his job at the golf course, so we spent Tuesday at Summer Waves. Malachi was tall enough to ride three of the six big slides and also loved the wave pool. Elliott was more than happy to camp out in the kiddie area and ride the small slide over...and over...and over!

 Jonas wasn't a huge fan of the water. It was a little cloudy and the water was pretty cool so I think that was the problem. He stayed home after lunch for a nap while the rest of us came back for more!

The boys talked about the big bucket that dumped water a lot before coming. Elliott ended up being scared of it and Malachi got knocked down when he stood under it!

A huge THANK YOU to Grandpa Gene for giving us tickets and to Grandma Alice for babysitting Jonas during the afternoon! We had a great day at Summer Waves!

Vacation, Part 1: Putt-Putt

I love playing putt-putt so one of our first evening activities on vacation was to go play a round at the mini-golf course on the island. The boys loved it and were fun to watch. Thanks to Grandma Alice for pushing Jonas around in the stroller and even getting him to take a quick nap!

 The boys also liked playing around on the course.

 And a picture of the winners:

Yep! Grandpa Gene and I tied to win! Later in the week we played again because Malachi wanted to try out the other course. Unfortunately I was unable to defend my title and Erik won that night. Oh well. I guess we'll have to play again at Christmas to see who the best putt-putter in the family really is!

Jekyll Island Vacation

We just got back from our wonderful vacation on Jekyll Island. Yaya and 'Buelo came with us and we all stayed at Grandma Alice and Grandpa Gene's house. The boys were great all week and we all had a great time together and made lots of fun memories. A HUGE thank you to Grandma Alice and Grandpa Gene for opening their house to our chaos and for being such wonderful hosts. We loved spending the week with you all and are so thankful to have been able to visit!

Over the next few days I'll post pictures of what we did all week!

Kids In College

Before I get to posts about our awesome vacation that isn't even over quite yet, I thought I would get back into the swing of things with the blog and post about something from last month. In June Malachi participated in Kids in College, a summer enrichment program sponsored by Ohio University-Chillicothe and Chillicothe City Schools. He and his friend, Isaac, took two classes - Ooey, Gooey Science and Sponge Bob Science. They both loved the classes and I've heard so many stories and facts about what they learned. He's also been busy recreating all the experiments they practiced in class. He's still fascinated by this one:

Holidays, Parties, Family and Summer Fun

We have been incredibly busy over the past few weeks and I seriously cannot believe June is over! As I was looking through pictures for a post about 4th of July, I realized I hadn't even posted pictures from the last holiday - Memorial Day. Whew! I've got to get back on track so here are lots of pictures to catch you up!

Annual Memorial Day Fly-In at Haas Airport

 Elliott loved the "fly panes"

 These two are such good buddies

 Family Photo

 We had a party to celebrate our favorite state champion, Daniel.

Elliott insisted on playing with the big kids at the party. I love how he wants to be just like his daddy!

 I had a busy week in the middle of June when I, along with a friend, was in charge of a fundraiser dinner for church. We shopped for, prepared and served almost 300 servings of baked ziti, salad, rolls and desserts to hungry bicycle riders participating in the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure. It was a lot of fun and our profit will help Connection (our church) fund some fun community outreach activities.

After that was out of the way we welcomed Yaya, Aunt Cindy and Aunt Jennifer for a fun visit.

 The boys loved all the extra attention and I loved having extra hands around the house!

 While they were here we took a trip to Serpent Mound. It was really neat, in spite of the incredible heat.

 We also spent some time swimming and showing them around. Here's Malachi at the waterfalls after which our road is named. We are so glad they were able to come to Ohio and spend time with us - we're already hoping a return visit will happen soon!

In the midst of our hectic schedule, our littlest guy turned 9 months old. He's still very picky about food and doesn't sleep very well, but he's a very happy boy. He's scooting/crawling everywhere, pulling up and jabbering away (da-da and ma-ma mostly) these days.

 We also celebrated a very special little lady's birthday - Adeline is 3!

I think that mostly sums up the past month. Now on to July...it promises to be just as busy and just as fun!

Updates...Coming Soon!

I have had a few complaints about my lack of posts this month, but here's a little peak into one of the things keeping me so busy:

My baby's on the move! Whoever said, "once Jonas starts crawling things will get easier," was seriously mistaken. And crazy! He is everywhere and into everything. In fact, everytime I say his name followed by "no" he turns around and smiles at me. Another Walker in training? Hmmm...any ideas for me, Kels?

For those who noticed the mark on his forehead, it's a carpet burn from Malachi dragging him across the room by his feet when he was headed toward the Legos. My response? Get used to it, buddy, you're the youngest of three boys!

State Champ!

For the past few years Erik has been running with and coaching Daniel, now a high school graduate headed off to college soon. This past Saturday Daniel was able to run the 3200m race in the state track meet. The field was loaded with great runners, but Daniel proved that hard work pays off -

HE WON!!!

He took the lead after 4.5 laps

 Erik thought Daniel took the lead too early...and this is his reaction

 Daniel finishing, 2 miles in 9:26

 The best of the best!

 Erik and Daniel

We are so proud of Daniel and his accomplishments. He's headed to Lipscomb University this fall to run cross country and track so I'm sure this isn't the last you'll hear about what a great runner he is! Way to go, Daniel!