Children's Kaleidoscope Museum

Two days before school started we again headed down to Tulsa to the Children's Kaleidoscope Museum and had a great time. I was suprised how long that they kids enjoyed themselves through "imaginative play."

 Austin really enjoyed being the "mailman walking around to all the mailboxes and delivering the mail.

 The kids LOVED this.....it was huge!!

 Mikayla on the rock climbing wall

Kayla LOVED the microphone....she spent a good half hour belting out her ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, and Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam!!

Final Days of Summer

With only 5 days left before school starting, we headed down to the Tulsa Zoo. I had been wanting to go before summer ended but it has just been so hot!! However, the weather on this day was perfect!!! It was cloudy and looked as if it was going to rain any minute (we did have a few sprinkles). But the temps stayed in the 70's-80's. And so we had a GREAT time.

The zoo got a new brown bear and we happened to be walking by when the bear came up close to the glass. The bear actually sat down next to the glass and stared at the kids!! The kids loved that!!

The boys were able to climb up to the top of the rock wall. They were super excited about that. Believe it or not, we actually did see a lot more animals at the zoo but I never took pictures of them.....but got plenty of pictures of some of the other things the zoo had for the kids to do. 

 On the Train at the playground.

 Hanging Out Together

 The zoo had water inflatables set up for the kids to enjoy.

 And enjoy they did!!!

 Kayla has always been scared of inflatables but for some reason she got brave and jumped right in and had a GREAT time. She slid down this one over and over again!!

 Meanwhile, the boys went down this slide over and over again. We did this for probably about an hour.

 Up they go!!!

You can tell by his face that Austin was having a GREAT time!!

 Taking the Train Ride back to the front of the Zoo

Just as we got off the train to head to the car it started raining. Klayton was lucky enough to have an umbrella that was only slightly broken but as we speedily headed back to the car it ended up looking like this. I was laughing pretty hard watching him hold this umbrella over his head while it was pouring down rain.

Good times!! 

Teka's School

 Austin has been going to mother's day out once a week since January of 2010 and has really learned a lot-- socially, emotional, and mentally. Mikayla started joining Austin this year and it has been a great thing for her too. These are picture collages I got showing the kids at play.

This is Teka, the kids main teacher. She is WONDEFUL....so full of energy and love for kids. We took this picture on Austin's last day of "Teka's school." 

My Little Brother is Getting Married

At the beginning of August I got to fly out (solo) to Utah for my brother's wedding. Although it would of been great to have Craig and the kids come too, I enjoyed being able to spend some quality time with my sisters minus Jamie who unfortunately couldn't make it (we missed you and thought of you often).

 After I landed in SLC we went down to temple square.....stopped at Deseret Book (love that place), ate dinner in the cafe at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. I love temple square!! Funny thing is....as we were walking back to our car, us girls were too busy talking about where we wanted to go shopping the next day that we walked right passed Elder Oaks and didn't even notice!! My dad (not too interested in the shopping talk) did however notice and told us about it afterwards.

On Friday, August 5th, my (little) brother Brandon married Jenna for time and all eternity in the Bountiful Temple. I actually had never met Jenna until that day in the sealing room of the temple. But she seems nice and sweet and fun and it is great to see my brother so happy.

It was wonderful being in the temple surrounded by family and remembering the promises that me and Craig made together in the OKC temple 8 years ago. I am so grateful for the wonderful family relationships that I have and for all the support and strength that we all give each other.

Welcome Jenna to our family!!!  

Cousins

One of the great things about family (especially large ones) is watching your kids have fun with their cousins.

 Austin enjoying an afternoon movie with his cousins  

 Austin and Mikayla enjoying the Splash Pad with their cousins

 And even better is that 2 of Austin's cousins live in the same town....just 5 minutes away....so Austin gets to spend lots of time with them. They even had quite a few sleepovers before the summer ended.

 In fact, one day after taking his cousins home Austin replied "But mom, we don't have 2 boys at our house." I reminded him that he has Kayla to play with to which he replied "But I don't want her. I want another boy." Austin does actually enjoy playing with Kayla but it is nice that he also has such a special bond with his cousins.

Austin calls Connor and Klayton his "best friends"

Splash Pad

This summer has been HOT!!!  I don't know the exact numbers but I do know that we went at least 30 days with temps reaching over 100 degrees. I even remember one day the high temp was 114 degrees!!!   

 Going to the Splash Pad was one of the easy (and free) ways to keep ourselves cool.

 For most of the summer our playgroup met here on wednesdays. The kids had fun playing in the water with their friends while us mom's enjoyed some social time.

 

 

I love this picture....and I LOVE THESE KIDS!!!

Frontier Pool (aka the Nemo Pool)

We LOVE this place!!! Almost every monday afternoon for the whole summer, the kids and I would meet Andrea and her boys here to swim.

Going down the Nemo slide

Kayla really suprised me this year. The first day we came she went on the yellow slide all by herself. She LOVED the slides and would go up and down for hours.

And once Kambria (my niece) was introduced to the yellow slide she constantly begged to go down it too.....whether her mommy wanted to or not.

Time to Slide Race

Kids Will Be Kids

Kambria and Kayla had a fun time playing together.

Hmmm.....practicing his front float maybe???

Dads and their Baby Girls

We also came to Frontier Pool on some saturdays so the dad's could join in on the fun.

Austin's favorite part of Frontier pool was where the water came up to his chest. I could never get a good picture of him because he was under the water so much and could never hold still long enough.

The Big Bucket Splash

I thought it was so funny how during this trip to the pool the kids were huddling underneath waiting for the down pour.

I was actually really sad when it was the last day this summer at Frontier Pool......we had SOOO much fun here.

Until next year!!