I took the training wheels of Linc's bike today - Carter said he didn't want to learn to ride without them but Linc did so off they went, he couldn't quite get it, although, with the size of his bike I think with some practice he could totally do it (he can put his feet down so easily!).

This afternoon Carter decided he'd try and after 20 minutes he had it! He looks a bit big for the bike and he is, but I'm afraid his bike will be really hard to manage & lead to a little more injury so we are going to practice on L's bike for a while. Lots of fun milestones this summer, swimming & biking - exciting and sad at the same time!

Mimi got to witness this milestone & forgot I had the camera when she was playing around with the boys -she looks pretty good on the bike too!

For Father's day the boys made Sean a bed for the living room floor - they were really proud of their creation - it wasn't so bad, I even took a little cat nap on the floor on Sunday. They spent the rest of the day fishing & playing hair salon (something I never thought would happen in my house!).

This might be one of my favorite pictures of all time - he said "hey, mom, take a picture of

me" and stuck his finger up his nose. It just makes me laugh! I hope it does the same for you.

We did lots of swimming with friends this week & Carter is swimming! He needs lots of practice and we might do another set of lessons to work on the fundamentals but he can swim! Linc can too with help from the puddlejumper (that thing he is wearing!) and is doing great at the pool! Fun in the sun for us this summer - let's just hope my hair doesn't turn green like it used to!

Marah's Visit

We had a great visit with M-cat! She sure is a great big cousin! We all learned a lot last week - I learned about Justin Bieber (thanks to Never Say Never) and she learned that her aunt can be a cry baby at movies (Soul Surfer was good!). Thanks for coming Marah, we love you!

Katie, me, Kara (baby Sieben) & Nat

Grandma's 2nd Annual Sleepover

not sure if she planned on the sleepover being an annual tradition but pretty sure the kids do!

Omaha!

The penguins were by far the favorite at the Henry Doorly

My grandma dancing with my uncle, Dan

Dear Vince, the tortured most-likely to be the next family member (boyfriend of Bethany)

Carter, Rome, Mimi & Linc

I LOVE OMAHA! Man, I forgot what a great city it is...

Whew...summer

We've had a few CRAZY, CRAZY weeks! We hit the path to Iowa immediately following school being out. We first stopped in Omaha for Julia and Geoff's wedding - great wedding, great number of Grafs and Pauls to be seen - great catching up with them - I love having the boys see the large, insane family I grew up in and seeing them fall in love with the craziness of it too! Many of my cousins are about 10 years older than my boys and the kids think they are so cool (and they are - they are a group of great kids who humor the boys and play with them so nicely - I know we were not that nice to the "little kids" when we were the big kids!).

Our next stop was Grandma and Grandpa's house (as in Donna and Richard) and we got lots of play time in with the cousins & got to meet the "baby cousin" Elin. I wonder if they will call her baby cousin forever...I think she's the last cousin they will get so maybe so! The boys were too busy to do much but glance her way but I got some snuggle time with her - will hope to have much more in August at the Ozarks with the Hogan family.

We then relocated to Mimi and Papa's house to play on all the toys - my mom says Linc is going to be a race car driver the way he was driving the go-kart (lucky for us he can't reach the pedals so he can't make it go on his own!). Carter swam in my parent's pond - YUCK is all I can say, but he loved it and the inflatable boat Papa bought for the pond.

We got to see the Goff's, friends of ours from Texas which was a treat - they've moved back to Iowa - ah, lucky ones.

I then hit the road to Muscatine, Iowa - home of Nat Kay - lovely visit with the Melrose girls. I so look forward to this annual event and hope we do it until we are old and gray! We had a tour (Muscatine is a great town - of course we had a really good tour guide) and then on to Iowa City (where I accidentally wore black & gold - eek!!!). A lovely dinner of tapas followed and some cocktails with tons of laughs! Ah, food for the soul!

Next was a long day of driving to Corning with a connection back to Edmond, OK with a stow-away, Ms. Marah (cousin #1, and our niece) came for a week and we kept her busy. We swam, bounced, zoo-ed, bowled, toured the fire station, had 3 t-ball games - whew, a busy, busy week! She did so well and although slightly tortured by her 3-year old cousin in particular, I think she had a good time.

This week Carter's been at VBS, we've seen an old friend who is in town, swam with friends and Linc had a play date with his BFF, Molly...yep another busy week, no wonder I haven't blogged (that and the computer with the pictures is shall I say slow). Pictures to come...not as many as I'd like due to me forgetting to charge my battery before take-off and being only able to take a few on our trip. Happy Summer everyone!