guess who went blackberry picking

That's right. Mae did.

fun times with friends

Just about every Thursday we get together with our friends and play. We do all kind of fun things. Here is a slideshow of some of our recent exploits!

Benton County Fair & Rodeo

Last weekend was the Benton County Fair & Rodeo and we had a BLAST! This was Maeby's first fair ever and we lived it up!

We rode ponies!

We rode on rides - most of which she was too small for, but there were a few, and of those she only liked two.

She liked the airplane ride (I think my bomber sound effects helped)

Her FAVORITE was the giant slide (go figure!)

She liked the hot air balloon ride until it started moving, and spinning and then she declaired "all done".

Same with the Ferris Wheel - was really NOT a fan.

She liked the car ride okay, I think because she had another little boy driving with her. She refused to go on it again though.

Her LEAST favorite ride was also her first ever fair ride, the dragons. She hated everything about this ride.

What she really loved was the animals! We had to say "hi" to literally every animal we came across.

She needed to take a nap with the pig.

And apparently LOVES goats - yes, she really is kissing it. Over and over again *sigh*

She got excited about the horses although she insisted they were cows.

We missed most of the rodeo, but we got to watch a few events and she had a lot of fun seeing everyone riding around the arena.

Swimming with the folks from Salem

This last weekend we were invited to go swimming with our family in Salem. Maeby was a tropper - she'd already been in the pool for almost 2 1/2 hours earlier that day and still had a ton of fun in the pool for another 2 hours that evening with this crew. It was beautiful, warm weather and fun to get to swim with cousins!

Sara & Hayliegh.

Me, working with Alec on his kicking. He had been down at our house a few weeks ago and we worked on stuff there, glad to see he's been practicing. He's made some HUGE improvements.

Jayna was throwing all kinds of dives off the board. She's got a knack for it (even if some of those were unintentional belly flops!)

Alec needed either uncle Jeremy or daddy to go with him off the board.

Maeby, as you can tell, was exhausted by the end, but still happy.

Maeby going off the diving board. She didn't like that we "helped" her at all - she wanted to do it on her own. Daredevil.

Mae under the sea with Papa.

I think this might be my new favorite picture of Maeby.

Jayna being a goofball. She was not up for letting me help her learn to swim better like her brother, but she was MUCH more into letting me take lots of underwater pictures of her!

Hayliegh didn't last long, but she had fun watching everyone swim and was a huge help giving us all towels when it was time for us all to go home for dinner.

The kids weren't really done once we left - in fact they went out back and played in Chris and Sara's backyard pool for a while longer. They slept well that night though.

Hi Karen, Hi Christian, Hi Katie and HI MYSarah!

Karen, Christian, Sarah & Katie came and visited with us towards the end of July. It was a really fun time! We were so busy while they were here.....

We went camping out at Beverly Beach state park on the coast. It was cold and foggy most of the time, but we still had a lot of fun.

Christian climbing the tree in our campground.

Katy & Maeby walking back from the beach together.

Hanging out on the sand. We played a fair amount on the actual beach - where oddly enough it was warmer than at our campsite. One night we roasted hot dogs for dinner on the beach. It was really fun especially when, after a grain of sand got on her hot dog, Katie started to cry about it. Jeremy told her "come on, you can do it. Maeby eats stuff from the ground all the time, it won't hurt you!" To which she replied, "yeah but she's a baby and they like stuff!" Yeah, you probably had to be there.

We were out there on the day that the tide was going to be the lowest all season. We had fun, even though Jeremy fell and landed hard on the rock while carrying Maeby. He still has the bruise two weeks later.

She's discovered she liked to poke anemones.

We also met up with some friends and went blueberry picking.

Here it is - proof that even though they may beat each other up mercilessly, Isaac and Maeby do really love each other!

Katie is a pro.

Not sure if Maeby is helping Karen fill her bucket or taking blueberries out.

Nope, she's taking them out. I'm fairly certain she ate enough to fill another bucket.

Mostly we went swimming at the pool I work at, Osborn Aquatic Center. They had a blast. I think we were there like three times. The first two days they were here they spent almost 8 hours in the pool.

Katie and Maeby had a lot of fun playing together.

This slide is her favorite of the three at the pool.

Maeby and her Sarah - two peas in a pod.

When in doubt, Maeby always went to her aunt Karen.

We had a really good week that went by super fast! There are literally hundreds of more pictures, all on our flickr.