LeaAnn the horse & Lydia the driver

video pretty much speaks for itself ;)

LeaAnn (2-3mo) is a handful ... it's painful some days. (it has gotten better in the past week) But Mimi has reminded me that they were all so strong-willed. Or at least Lindsay was and you'd never know it now!

However, when the two of them play together (like this) I remember why I had a 'master-plan' to begin with ;) (Lydia 3-7mo)

24-hr visit to the Raefield residence!

Tuesday, 6/18 we packed up and headed down to Iowa City for an over-night visit to see Aunt Jill & cousins! An absolutely gorgeous afternoon/day where the kids just played and played.. a perfect summer day with virtually no obligations.

Twins + LeaAnn (we'll call them the triplets ;) started out with bubble play... 

LeaAnn 2-3mo & Miles/Syd 2-1/2 (they are 9-weeks apart!)

Love Sydney's expression

But the bubble play quickly turned into dumping the jug and splashing in it ;)

Big kids riding the scooter down the hill

Like Evan's 'summer-uniform' :)  coon-skin hat is perfect!

Unbelievable... Owen 5-1/2, Lindsay 6-10mo, Lauren 8-2mo & Evan 8-8mo

Lindsay's peace-sign :)

And then we broke out the pool!

Syd found Lauren's American-Girl doll, Crystal :)

Love Owen's smile here :)

Ok, now there is a lot of these, but I just loved them all. Great face expressions and they were having a ball. Reminded me of a series of pictures I have of Lauren & Lindsay when they were 3 & 2.

She is GORGEOUS! :D

LOVE Miles' expression here :)

FAVORITE!

Miles as superman!

Of course I quit taking pictures... definitely should not have. We ended our day with a picnic in the park while Owen had tball practice and playing till bedtime. Oh! And watching the final results of the Voice ;) Thanks so much Aunt Jill for a fabulous visit! Can't wait to come again soon :D

2013 camping

Despite the colder temps and wet weather... we've actually done a great job at getting out and camping this June! Saturday, 6/8/13 - Here we are at Jakway Park just south of Aurora. Our family has never been here before, but would definitely go back! Our kid hike ;) how many can the Burley hold??

Lots of space and a really big fire ring in the middle. Except that it burned wood like a furnace it was great :D

Sean Baragary even made an appearance ;)

Saturday the 13th was the first time we have been camping and the. sun. came OUT! We were not really sure what to do :) We weren't freezing, the wind wasn't blowing... it was perfect :)

Took a walk down to the bird blind and got a work-out pushing the Burley with 4-kids in it :) Sara, Maggie & I took turns.

This past weekend, Friday, 6/21/13 we started out at Bailey's Ford (thanks to Fred who fixed our air conditioner on Wednesday night! :D ) but ended up here at another new campground to our family, Turtle Creek. Oh and why did we end up at a different campground the day after we started, the rain of course! In case some of you didn't know, rain around here in Iowa is just about as thick as air... one-day at a time without rain is about all you can count on :(

Despite the weather and ball games (girls finished their tournament and I had to work in the concession for 3-hours) the kids had an awesome time. We were up high on a hill and the kids had a blast riding their bikes down the hill and around the circle.  LeaAnn doing what she does best... help adults of course! ;)

Kids had a great time with the sprinklers and mud :D  Whatever it took to stay cool - it was HOT! (And I'm NOT complaining!!! ;)

Love, love, love!

This is what 12 kids + their stuff looks like ;)

'Big-baby-Kael' :) this kid never stops eating!

Chris really enjoyed that seat... all day & night! (Even fell asleep in it for an hour or so... just a slight time-out ;) but he paid the price, ate up by mosquitoes.

Not sure what kind of advice Lindsay is getting from Dustin here ;) but I'd love to know!

Levi & Dustin were being so cute! Wish I'd had a better angle...  another weekend in the books! (Can not believe it's almost July... )

Our 11th Anniversary weekend

was celebrated at Winthrop Days of course! :D 

Only THIS year they had a street dance! I was so pumped, and it was SO much fun... wish we could go back and re-play those 6-hours... so much fun that went way to fast. Chris and I did go and have pizza at Wolfey's first which was fabulous and then headed into town. 

Maggie, Sara, myself & Maria... wish I would have gotten a picture of my full outfit b/c I had my new boots on and a skirt! ;) And perfect music to dance too :)

And who knew that my camera could actually take a nice picture :) (I've been disappointed with it) but it sure did here. :) I just love this picture of us... we are at 11-years, feeling more blessed than ever. Cheers to us and many more! :D

Don Taylor (aka: bus driver, bar owner, mechanic/auto shop owner) is also a singer! Who knew? ;) He did a great job!

Another special treat for this weekend is that we were able to camp at Gary McElroy's house! He has a gorgeous backyard complete with pond, zipline, gazebo, 3-story-tree house, built-in trampoline, swings... a complete playground for adults & kids :)  Maggie took our annual 'family' photo for us - thank you Maggie!

LeaAnn's newest nickname is 'Hollywood' how perfect is that? ;)

I think this is my favorite, absolutley LOVE :D

On our way up to the parade... the built-in trampoline!

Oh yes.. notice the 'light' and fuzziness in the pictures? This is my camera phone that now has a cracked lens :( It happened sometime during the street dance or probably when I put the phone in my purse without the case on it?  Total bummer.

At the parade!

We have 'professional' candy-grabbers ;)

Kyle in the parade with Glen & Marilyn for Pioneer Seed

Inflatables for the kids, and here we are at the tractor races :)

The pink tractor is ours from Mimi & Pap! :D Great attraction for the girls.

Lydia did great!

Look at her go, hair flying and all ;)

The real bonus about camping in Winthrop is the ease at which we could all see the fireworks (or not says Kael & LeaAnn ;) but THESE kids had a blast :)

Special transportation and all as Craig came and picked them up in the ranger to take them downtown! Kris is president of C&C Club, (in charge of Winthrop Days) so they were camping too.

They had a great time :)

Sunday, 6/16/13 - Happy Father's Day! That night we had the Wilgenbusch's down for supper and the kids played until 10pm! A wonderful ending to a great weekend :D