Oklahoma City Temple or Bust!

Today we got up super early and made the roughly 5-hour trek to the Oklahoma City Oklahoma temple. It was a wonderful experience. Elizabeth watched the kids while Ben went through first, then we swapped. Before leaving, we took some pictures of David outside. He is such a good and reverent boy. Analeigh had been rocked to sleep by one of the off-duty temple matrons, otherwise we would have gotten some pictures of her too.

All Tuckered Out

David has been known to resist taking a nap during the day and then fall asleep in his high chair at dinner. But he has never been known to fall asleep in the middle of playing, as he did this night. How one can sleep in such a position we will probably never know.

How Our Garden Grows (and How David Loves Animals)

We're sure that some of you might be curious to know how our garden is growing, so we wanted to post a picture to give you all a general idea. The zucchini and yellow squash are already producing, so it looks to be a long summer of giving away produce to our fellow church members and friends. In the meantime, we've enjoyed making meals out of our garden vegetables. We hope that the bean plants start producing soon too.

While we were out weeding and watering our garden, we stopped to see the horses that live across the road. David loves to feed them. We try to encourage him to throw the grass in the gate towards their mouths, for fear that they might inadvertently bite off his fingers. The result is that he sometimes throws the grass at their eyes and startles them - which David seems to get a kick out of.

The Heat Is On

We took this picture of a sign just down the street from us. An hour earlier, this sign read 102, not just 100. The forecast for this week is a bunch of days in the hundreds. And so it is that we are being initiated in our first Kansas summer. Word on the street is that it only gets worse in August - which really isn't good for a nearly four-month-old baby. Luckily we have modern appliances to keep our home cool. If only the A/C didn't run the electric bill so high! So, until we get around to setting up a PayPal account to let you all help us with our rising energy costs, we'll just try to make it to the city pool more often!

Analeigh and the Exer-Saucer

Analeigh is four months old today! As such, she has now graduated from relaxing in her baby swing to standing up in her exer-saucer. As seen in the picture and video below, Analeigh appears to enjoy her new toy immensely. Granted, it isn't the most action-packed video (what do you expect from a 4-month old). Nevertheless, it is fun to see her squeal with delight.

Seeing Analeigh in the contraption brings back memories of how David used to enjoy using the exer-saucer himself. For that, you may want to check out this old entry from 2007.

Story Time

As part of the local library program, we have been trying to read to David on a regular basis. It seems that this interest in sharing books is contagious, as David has taken to reading to Analeigh now.

Is That a Tornado?

On the way home from Enrichment Night at the church, Liz spotted a tornado south of town. The picture below shows what it looked like from the vantage point of our church (as the firehouse is just south of the church). This photo was taken from ksn.com, our local news website.

Alas, as the National Weather Service explains, it was not a tornado, but rather a landspout (like a waterspout in the ocean, only over land instead). The National Weather Service link provides further explanation, as well as some more photos. The main difference is that a landspout is generally far less menacing; usually much thinner; and, in some cases (according to the news station we watched) a person can walk right through a landspout without being seriously harmed (the meteorologist said landspouts usually top out at 50 mph). The one tonight had no reported damage that we are aware of.

Independence Day Sunset

After giving up on fireworks, since the children were too frightened to carry on, we walked back to the home of our friends from church. On the way, we caught this fantastic sunset and thought it would be nice to share.

Happy Traumatic Fourth of July

Welcome to Kansas, home of the all-day fireworks display. Growing up in Michigan, Liz and Ben were accustomed to night-time fireworks. But here in the heartland of America, fireworks go all day long. Our family went to Pawnee Rock, just south of Great Bend to enjoy some fireworks with our church friends. The pictures below show how many fireworks were set off at one home during the day - and we're told that they had even more later that night.










All of this firework action would have been fine except for one minor issue - David is terrified of the things and Analeigh doesn't much care for the startling noises either. You can see for yourself in the pictures below. However, we were able to get David to look forward long enough for a family photo - but he refused to leave his father's lap without breaking into tears.
























The video below pretty much summarizes the insanity of the day (and, yes, when Ben says the people across the street are drunk, he's not just making that up).