The New Deck

before

demolition...

rotten wood - the reason for this project

half-way done

The children found their own use for the old rails of the deck - a cage!

The finished deck!

Much Better!

Labor Day weekend, Keith decided it was time to tackle our rotting deck. We had an usually rainy July and we found mushrooms growing in the railing of our deck and realized we couldn't wait much longer to fix it. So, on the hottest weekend we had in a while, Keith started demo-ing the deck. The three-day weekend flew by and he wasn't able to get it quite all done. But by the next weekend, it was finished! It looks amazing and Keith did a fantastic job. I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical about the plan, but it turned out great and we are all enjoying his hard work!

Family Pictures

On Hannah's birthday, we took family pictures. Thank you to Vance Frick for capturing us, even when certain little people didn't want to cooperate!

Air Show

 

This was an acrobatic stunt pilot who performed all sorts of scary tricks in his little plane. Here he is flying sideways and upside down, and barely moving, all at the same time.

Watching the sky for cool air planes.

Army parachuters

The Thunderbirds were the main attraction!

We were close enough to the runway and with a little help from the zoom, you could see the pilots wave as they began their take-off.

It was VERY loud. Fortunately, we had noise-cancellation headphones for the boys.

The boys sat in a blackhawk, but I couldn't get Hannah to join them.

Trying to take a family photo isn't as easy as you might think...

The last weekend in September, we went to the Air Show at McConnell. The boys only sort of remembered going a couple years ago and they were excited to go again to the "Air Force" as Jonathan kept saying. It was very confusing to him that we were going to an air show on the air force base, so he just combined and shortened. We were fortunate to get a visitor pass from Keith's work again and so parking was a breeze! We spent the afternoon checking out the inside of giant airplanes and helicopters and watching the amazing pilots in the sky. The weather was perfect and everyone had a great time. We were exhausted by the time we go home and had an early dinner and kids in bed by 7. We call that a successful day!

CoCo Key Water Resort

Hannah wasn't too sure what to think about all the water and noise at first!

But then we took a float down the lazy river and she was all about the water!

She's laughing, not crying!

 

Andrew had a little fear at first and wore a life jacket.

But when he realized the water was only a couple inches deep, he got a lot braver!

Jonathan practiced swimming in the shallow water.

Hannah watched Jonathan and Andrew go down this slide and decided she would try it too.

This girl has NO FEAR! It also helped that I caught her each time before she landed in the water!

The best big brother helping his little sister up the slide steps.

Andrew is at the top trying to decide which big slide he would go down.

He also showed no fear after an hour or so and went down every slide!

Keith catching Jonathan as he came down the slide.

Keith trying to show Andrew that it's OK to get a little water splashed in your face. Andrew wasn't sure at first, but by the end of it, when the big bucket dumped on him, he just wiped his eyes and kept going!

The flash didn't work on this picture like I had hoped, but I still like it!

Time to go to our room and get ready for bed.

After baths, we went back to the entrance to take this picture and get some ice cream!

Hannah thought she could have a slumber party with the boys. She was very disappointed when we told her she had to sleep in her crib.

For one last quick trip before school started, we went to Coco Key Water Resort in KC. We had never been, but had heard that it was lots of fun and all indoor. So, Keith took off Friday, and we drove up and played in the water until we were exhausted and pruney.  Then we attempted to get everyone to sleep in one room. After the boys settled down and stopped being silly they went right to sleep, until 6 am when Jonathan fell out of bed. Hannah and I managed to go back to sleep for a couple hours after that happened, but the boys did not. After a yummy brunch at the hotel, we packed up and came home, exhausted and happy. And ready for school to begin on Monday!