Arkansas 2008

We just got back from visiting my grandparents in Hot Springs Arkansas. This year it was very different from the past trips:) It's usually a very relaxing vacation. This year, however, was pretty much the opposite of relaxing. Even with all the craziness we had a great time. I called it the "team building" vacation. Brooklyn learned to toughen up a little bit with Luke. By the end of the trip she rarely cried when Luke would touch her. He loves her so much that sometimes it includes grabbing her head and taking her down to the floor. By the last day they even shared a mutual kiss out of the blue. Very cute:) Brooklyn's love and admiration of Kate grew. She loved to follow her around and mimic her to the best of her ability. If Kate had a pair of grown-up shoes on, Brook would be in the corner trying her hardest to get a pair on herself. If Kate was dancing Brook would be right behind her spinning away. Brooklyn loves her cousins!

The trip started off with a long day of travel. The kids did great. Brooklyn and Luke enjoyed running around the airport and playing on the ground:)



Brook didn't dig her life jacket at first. She preferred to watch from the dock. After a couple of days she didn't mind her life jacket and she couldn't get enough time in the water.




We enjoyed a lot of time on the boat. Brook liked wearing Curt's sunglasses to protect her eyes from the wind so we decided to buy her a pair of her own:)





The kids loved swinging in the hammock especially after a long day of swimming.





We took a day off from the sun and took the kids to Little Bitty City. They had a blast.





Curt and John enjoyed themselves too.


As always there were great times in the bath. Most times Kate and Luke would serenade us while Brooklyn looked on in amazement.



There was a lot of down time for just playing around the house. They had a great time playing on the blow up mattress the day we were leaving. In case you're wondering, Kate is pretending she's a mermaid in the following pictures. Brooklyn is pretending that she's Kate;)




The 3 of us took a couple hours away for some site seeing and lunch at an old favorite.

Thanks Grandma and Grampa for letting us invade your house!!

Big Bear 2008

This past weekend we went to Big Bear Lake to celebrate Curt's parent's 30 year anniversary. We stayed in a gigantic "cabin" right on the lake. We had a lovely time.

Brook was helpful packing as always......

She slept almost the whole way there. It made for a relaxing car trip.

We enjoyed 1 ride on the boat. Brooklyn wasn't havin' the life jacket. Every couple of minutes she would let out a very vocal protest just so we wouldn't forget that she wasn't happy.

There was ample bonding time for the cousins. Ava taught Brook a new word, "why." Something we heard often throughout the weekend.
 

Curt and I took Brooklyn to the park while everyone else went on the boat. **Note the bow Brook is wearing**

Danelle taught me how to make some cute head bows. I like to put them on Brook almost any time we're in public. I get sick of people saying "He's so cute," or "what's his name," or "hey little guy!"

Here are some pictures of the huge house. Plenty of room for us to all spread out.

Palm Desert

Last week we went to Palm Desert and stayed in the Jacob's condo. We had a blast. Curt had some work to do around the condo changing all the plugs and switches. He finished pretty fast with the help of Brooklyn.

Once he was done we enjoyed riding around on their golf cart and relaxing at the pool.


Brooklyn loved the water. Her favorite thing to do was to just lay back and relax on her floaty thing. She thought sitting in it the correct way was over rated.





At the end of the week our good friends the Van Duyns came to stay a night. Their son Wyatt is a week older than Brook. They're still a little young to play together and Wyatt is a little scared of Brooklyn. But they do enjoy following each other around.