Summer Days Drifting Away!

Hailee and I went off on another adventure. We took Heather and Berick with us this time and had a BLAST! We took off early (around 8- which for these two 1 year olds was REALLY early!) I had thought the playgound stuff wouldn't be so hot. We had tons of fun and the kids really enjoyed the park. There are so many different things to do there. Hailee was running up and down the slides again. She even went down this big twisty one and I couldn't get her to stop going to that one. She would flop around all the way to the bottom and it scared me, but evidently not her. This picture is one on the three part slide and she always wanted to go down this end part it was funny how she would remember! Check out her "I'm focused" look. She had that the almost the whole day, just soaking it in!
The park had lots of spinning things that Berick really liked and also these musical toys that both kids enjoyed.

After about an hour at the park we headed on in to the zoo. It was perfect becaue there was almost no one there and we were just in time for the penguin feeding. The kids loved the animals and Berick esspecially had a huge smile almost the whole time. Hailee again has the "focused" look. Below is a picture of her watching the sloth bears. These two weird looking bears were pacing the fence. I think they were hungry, but I was glad they were moving so close so the kids could watch them.

The tigers and lions were cool because they were big "kitties" and the kids got to ride on a minature replica! So wonderful!

At the monkey house there was think poor little monkey guy holding his blanket. He looked like a little orphan and followed the kids everywhere. I would have brought him home for Cathy to take care of, but I don't think he needs that kind of trauma!

After the zoo we headed out to Walmart. Hailee fell asleep on the way and then slept the whole time we shopped while I held her. She was OUT!!! She woke up on the way to the Olive Garden where we had lunch. The kids did pretty good up until the last few minutes, but they were so tired. Luckily there were lots of kids in there and so ours didn't make much difference!

Berick slept on the way from the Olive Garden to the Splash Park. While he took a little nap Hailee, who had already gotten her cat-nap, ran to the water. It took her a few minutes, but then she loved it. When Ber woke up he was able to play too, but I am sure cold water and tons of kids running around isn't the best way to wake up. He did it though and was able to have tons of fun splashing in the bubbles with Hailee. She was pretty funny because she wouldn't share her bubble with anyone but Ber. She would get all mean and do the girl thing when some other kids came around. WEIRDO! To end our day of fun we put the kids on the Merry-go-Round. They both really liked it, but you could tell they were tired. Hailee did her typical horse thing and got really excited. She was kicking and yelling go almost the whole time!

Neither kid fell asleep on the way home. I don't know about Ber, but Hailee was asleep right after we dropped them off at their house. I think she might have had too many distractions on the way home, but when it was just her and me--well she gave in. After carrying her and everything else back inside we both took a little nap. That girl was tired. She slept for almost 3 hours! Now we just have to work on bedtime????? I'm a little worried what a LONG late nap might do to our nightime routine!

It was a great day and if anyone is ever interested we would do it again in a heartbeat!

OH The Things We Can Do....

Boy have we been busy the last few days! Hailee and I really haven't had time to think about slowing down, and to think that the summer is almost over and things are going so much faster!Here are SEVERAL images from the past few days. These activities have happened around several bookings at the Inn, with lots of change-overs, and breakfasts. Needless to say, after you finish reading this you too will need a nap and a day of laundry "catch-up!"
This is Hailee being her sweet happy self. She is totally in her element when she is out with the horses in the grass. If only it wasn't so darn hot she would be out there all day! Below is a picture on my mom and Jack with Hailee by one of Yellowstone's buffallos. She had a long day of fun and I really liked just relaxing and going to the candy store. I had to go in and by Cathy some comfort chocolate!!! (atleast that is my excuse!)

After the trip to West, Curt met us to get his haircut by our friend Heather. It was a short visit because he had to get back out and Ben had to work too. Heather and I decided to take the kids out to play at the park and they sure had fun. Hailee learned how to climb the stairs and go down the slides all by herself. They would just run in circles and it was kind of sad because they are just growing right up!

The next day, Hailee and I spent some time outside because of the cool weather! It was a great day! My mom and Jack came out and spent some time enjoying the horses!

I love this little outfit and her boots (courtesy of Grandpa and Grandma Stegelmeier) match perfect even if they are hard to walk in! Below is a picture of my pretty momma with Hailee trying to capture the moment, but Hailee wouldn't slow down!

That afternoon Curt was able to come home for about an hour and so back out we went. We helped Grandpa around the farm a bit, but mostly she just suckered him into giving her rides!

The next picture is SOOO cute because Hailee was on cloud nine up there. She had a hat just like her daddy and grandpa. She kept looking back at me, like, look what I am doing!

On Saturday we went to the parade with Lorelei's crazy, fun family! Hailee had a blast and slept A LOT that day because it was so hot! She stole this balloon from some younger cousins and pranced around the street showing it off.

After the parade was a big chow down at Grandma Belva's. It was a lot of fun and Hailee got to play with lots of little kids.

She also fell in love with hanging from the clothes line. She is such a strong chick, but grandpa Layne was still nervous!

After the parade we were waiting for guests and Hailee ran around in her diaper with her BACKPACK on. She even says backpack! So smart.

On Sunday we went to a fairwell, moved my mom's camper back, and saddled horses for Tadd's cutie Taylor. She was only here for a short while and wanted to ride a pony so bad, neither Curt nor Hailee was going to turn that offer down.

My dad finally convinced Roni to get on and I think she looks good on ol' Sabastian

Greentimber Block Party

I am a crazy person and love to have people around me ALL the time. When I married Curt I loved and still do love where we live and what we can do. I do not like being all the way out from town, the store, and people. We have tons of really cool neighbors, but we never get together and many of them I only knew about. For these reasons I decided we should get everyone together and have a barbeque. I sent out invites last week, many hand delivered with todays date for the party. I had thought Curt would be finished with hay and be able to help me. Well I was wrong and so I did it on my own. And a lot of people helped. I actually just provided the place and some of the eating stuff and people helped cook and we hung out. It was a great night and hopefully we can do this a lot more in the future. Sorry I only have Hailee pictures, but the few I got of people just didn't turn out right!??!!!! Hailee has a new obsession with ICE. She loves it and has it all of the time. Her aunt Christinia and aunt Cathy got her hooked a couple of weeks ago and now it is all the rave. She figured out the ice was in the cooler keeping the drinks cold and she wouldn't leave it alone.

She often got really big pieces because that is what happens with bagged ice. She didn't care and she would even carry a huge chunk around in her hands and just suck on it. I would have froze my fingers off, but she didn't even care!

This is Hailee and Aunt Cathy making the ROOTBEER! yummy..... The neighbor's boy really liked it and I told him it was because Hailee kept putting the mustard bottle in it, which she really did, but I am pretty sure it didn't effect the flavor!

I had a great night, but missed Curt a ton! I can't wait to do it again soon! Thanks to everyone that came and helped.

Future Cowgirl!

Hailee is running these days. She is pretty darn fast and she always knows where to go. I take her outside whenever we go somewhere and let her roam while I load the car, unload the car, get barbeque stuff ready, whatever! She never used to get very far and mostly hung out with the dogs under the truck in the shade. Well this girl is getting big and she wants the horses bad. She loves these things and is always trying to feed them, pet them, and honk their noses. This is our horse named Cherry. Cherry is almost as loveable as Hailee and I get worried about what troubles they might get into as they get older.This is Hailee picking only the best daisies to feed to the horses. Cherry actually pretended to eat the darn things, such a good horse!

These photos were from two days ago. Two days ago Hailee understood to stay on the outside of the fence. As of today she has figured out how to get under it. I am setting up for our neighborhood party and turn around for a minute only to turn back to find Hailee walking in the middle of 7 full grown-some more than overly grown- horses! FREAK OUT!!! I wasn't actually too nervous because I was literally right there and everyone was pretty happy and content with their little visitor. I am freaking out because now she knows how to get in there and you just never know about next time....

Making a mess...I mean BROWNIES!

Hailee woke up so happy from her nap the other day that I let her help me make brownies. She had a blast holding onto the mixer and she definately loved cleaning up the bowl and beaters!

Grandpa Layne came just in the nic of time to get in on the action and he showed her how to really get the goods by using the spatula. She thought that was a great idea!

Overall the mess was definately worth it and she had blast. The finished brownies turned out pretty good as well!

Our first Cherry Experience!

We had Brittany and Mitch's kids last week too, but I never posted the pictures but here are a few. That day was equally long because we had cows come in and we opted to take the kids to the pizza place....mmm it was interesting.

The girls were sitting on the top rail of the corral and Hailee puts her arm around Harley! SO CUTE, and so then we say something and Harley decides to put her arm around Hailee! It was pretty funny! OFCOURSE I captured the moment while Cathy held them up there!

These next few shots came when we were about to leave. Both girls wanted on the fourwheeler, but they were fighting over who got to sit in front. Of course Hailee reaches out to me to put her in front, and I tell her to be nice to Harley. I tell her not to hit and to love Harley. Hailee is VERY good and loving and so she gives Harley a big hug. Harley is a little upset and so I tell Harley to be nice and that Hailee is just giving her some love. Well Harley turns around and plants a kiss on Hailee. I have to admit I missed the first one so I asked the girls to kiss again and they did so I got it! It is such a cute shot and they were really nice to each other for a while after that!

It was a fun day and I think the kids had fun because of course you will read... they asked to come out again!

Hailee and I like visitors and there is always something fun to do out here and all you have to do is call!!!!

What we did YESterday!

I have a really good friend named Brittany and she has two super cute kids, Daxton (4) and Harley(almost 2). The two of them came out yesterday to spend some time with Hailee and I on the farm. I love having other kids around Hailee so she is comfortable with them and so she learns to how to share and take turns.

It was a really fun day and we went on a four-wheeler ride to the canal and checked out the bat house. Dax thought it was pretty cool and was looking for more bat houses all over the farm. We walked down to our pond to look for frogs and snakes, but it had already gotten too hot and I was sure they had dug a mud hole to wait out the heat. During this endeavor I had to hold Hailee to keep her out of the mud and yucky pond water. I also had to hold Harley because she didn't like the grass on her legs! Funny how these two girls are so different. Later we filled the pool to warm while we went in and had lunch. After lunch I put on a movie and ALL 3 fell asleep. It was the plan for them to fall asleep because I needed to get a room done upstairs for guests. They slept for about TWO hours! When they woke up it was time to go out and swim. They had fun even though the water didn't heat up quite enough. Daxton was definately the entertainment for the girls. We played and then went inside to get dressed. We headed in to town to go to the park and eat ice cream while we waited for Mitch (their dad) to pick them up. It was a really fun day, but VERY exhausting. It was pretty difficult chasing 3 kids around, taking 8 reservations, and getting rooms ready for the day's guests. I am glad we did it and can't wait to have them out again. Hopefully, Curt, Mitch, and Brittany will be here and we can ride horses, and roast marshmellows (these were the things I told Dax he would have to wait for!)

This is a really cute picture I got of the girls. They had been fighting over the ball for a while and before that it was the pink princess chair. While I was talking with Daxton about the bats I turned to see them holding hands!!! HOW SWEET!!!! Harley is very motherly with Hailee and I think it is just precious because they are only 7 months apart!

This was funny because Dax is all about staging the photo. He tipped the chair over and had me take a picture. Then he jumps up and wants to look at it. Future model???? I doubt his dad would go for that!This picture is of Harley when she finally got ahold of the ball. She didn't like the idea of playing catch like Dax and Hailee did. When they would throw her the ball she would take off and run with it! So FUNNY.... except Hailee didn't thinks so and would throw a little fit, then when she got the ball she wouldn't let Harley play with it! Girls!!!!!

This is Hailee girl splashing about in the pool. She was pretty brave even though it was a little cold. She has been using a lot of her swimming lesson skills lately and I am really suprised. She blows bubbles, lays on her back and kicks, and even lays on her belly and kicks. Such a big girl!

Thanks Britt for the fun day and I can't wait to watch our kids grow up together!

Splash Park and a Picnic!

Christina and I took the kids down to meet Des with her kids at the Splash Park. It was a lot of fun and the kids had fun playing together. We brought over some Subways and a Pizza and enjoyed the pretty decent weather. It wasn't too warm so swimming didn't last long for the little ones, but they had fun while they played. Logan and Hailee enjoying the rest of their lunch. Logan is so nice to love Hailee and give her lots of hugs and kisses, such a sweet kid!

Hailee and Addision playing in some of the fountains. These were really cool, but Hailee liked the slides better. They have really cute swimming suits on! They got them from their Aunt Cheri and were great! It is a lot easier to sunscreeen in these babies!

Nic was again such a great cousin. He took Hailee down the big slide several times. I am pretty sure this yellow slide was his favorite as well. He couldn't go up and down fast enough!

This is a cool picture even though it is a little tight on his head. Porter was so fun and played really well with Nic. This little guy could have gone a lot longer if he could just keep his chin from chattering.

Thanks for a great day! This is a great bunch of cousins don't you think??? If only the older half were able to make it??!!!!

Workin Hard on the Farm!

Nic and Hailee spent an afternnon helping their Grandpa fix a pump house that had blown over during one of the crazy wind storms we have had. They both had a bunch of fun. Nic has been having a blast hanging out with the dogs, esspecially Duke. He has also been a great help with Hailee. He is preparing himself for his little sister and Hailee is definately a handful! Duke, Nic, and Daisy hanging out in the back of Roy's famous purple truck!

The grass along the ditch is SOOOO tall. Hailee felt pretty overwhelmed and I don't blame her because most of the time it was well over her head!

This is Nic taking care of our crazy Hailee. He was always chasing her down and she loved playing with him!

Aunt Christina, Hailee, and Nic hanging out on the truck. They all had their gloves and were ready to work. In all actuality only Christina worked with Grandpa, and the rest of us played or took pictures.