Ezra learns to pedal & the fountains

On Terry's day off,  Friday June 29, Denise invited me to bike with her and then extended the invitation to her husband, Russ, and also Terry. Unfortunately Russ got sick and couldn't finish the ride with us and they both turned back.

Terry and I continued up Sunrise only to have to stop several times, like so many times. It was very hot and my heart rate went straight up to maximum in no time flat. Also, the trails were all more rocky than normal, I think due to all the heavy rain we've been having. At any rate, we made it to the top. 

Our mountain biking delayed the kids' wish to go downtown to the fountains so after dinner we rushed over there, only to arrive smack dab in the middle of a big rainstorm.

So the following morning I took them all by myself. Samuel all wet.

Evie all wet. 

Ezra all wet.

Noah not all wet.

The boys brought cups and balls to shoot into the air via the fountain water but otherwise they would pretend the water was shooting out of their butts. 😆😂

Ezra mostly copied Samuel who had done it first.

Then Samuel would block the water with his shirt...

...and Ezra would do the same.

Ezra just shot his blue ball up into the air on the right hand side of the frame.

When I was taking Ezra's picture he made me smile with the way he avoided actually looking at me. First he looked left, then right, and then almost directly at me. 

After lunch when daddy had returned from his Saturday morning meeting we all went to the park by my grandpa's old house to teach Ezra to peddle. Luna came too. 

It's the same place that Noah and Evie learned to bike although somehow we didn't take Samuel there...

Ezra had the balancing down to a science due to his years on the Strider bike, but pedals were a brand new thing to figure out.

It's a long way to reach for the rabbit ears Evie.

Daddy did the grunt work while I just took pictures.

He probably should've worn his running shoes! 

Believe it or not, he actually had balanced and pedaled a few times on his own at this point. 

I walked back and forth with them once or twice and then sat down since it was starting to rain and I had the nice camera along. Good thing I brought the umbrella. 

Just caught Samuel about to blink.

Noah taking shelter under a big cottonwood.

Rain.

The following Monday, July 2nd, we went on another training bike ride but in our neighborhood. 

He did fantastic that night. 

The first time down the hill he needed to be supported the entire time.

He did much better the second time!

As he went around the block he was going downhill and therefore mostly coasted. He knows how to coast really well and he looked fantastic. 

He looked like a pro by the time we got back up to the top of our street!

YG at the Maze

The Wednesday after VBS, June 27th, Terry had youth group at the Maze. He does this every summer but I couldn't find another post. This year I brought my camera to capture it.

Here is our young crowd of almost entirely middle schoolers listening to the rules. 

Our littles didn't really know that daddy was working so they still hung on him like usual. 

Entering the maze.

I hung out with Stephanie for the first half of our time there and all my kids just scattered everywhere. Samuel was on a bridge above us. 

Noah and Daddy across the maze.

I caught up with Noah later. Apparently he only knew how to make this face that night.  

Asher always cracks me up.

He just kept coming at me.

Yikes! Ha ha ha.

I caught up with Ezra at some point and although he was pretty confident in his independence, I wanted to make sure he didn't get so lost that he freaked out, so I joined him. 

We found Evie a short time later. 

Thought the light through the mist was pretty.

This is the ultimate silly face, boy! That's called a double chin.

Samuel joined Ezra and I at some point and they were way faster than me. 

We found all the towers, stamps, and our way out but at this point we had only found two. We would never have found the final one if not for Noah. He found everything pretty quickly and then was helping others final the last blue tower.

It was a small miracle that we all found each other at any point. 

Terry below with the typical group of students around him all yelling, "Terry! Terry! Terry!" at the same time like little birds. Ha ha.

Jaz and Katrina surrounded by girls (mostly).

We splurged a whole quarter and let the littles ride this car. Afterwards we went to Armadillos and ate too much ice cream before heading home for a late bedtime. It was a good night. 

chicken ranch visit, Noah braces update.

The weekend after VBS we decided to go out to the ranch since it had been a while since we were there, probably since branding. First we had our crazy vacation to Montana, then the bike trip, and then VBS so we were due! We had to see how big those chicks were getting...

...and they were huge! Half grown in only about a month's time.

They were a bit frightened of us. 

They're so pretty!

This one is called Brave because she is the most friendly.

Daddy caught one and Ezra wanted to hold it. And actually, watching Terry run around after hens was my favorite part of the day. It was funny, like he was a little kid.

So that's what he got. 

It was pretty cute. 

I like these ones though they're the most shy. They remind me of pheasants. 

Evie looks so pretty here!

Happy daddy. He's trying to show me fluffy footed hen he had caught for me. 

Fluffy feet!

Noah caught one too. 

We had just recently watched the new Peter Rabbit movie so I thought this old tin I found down there was cute.

It was continuing to be very wet in June, almost like the rain in Montana followed us home, so Alice's tomatoes were huge already although it was only June 24. Unfortunately a big hail storm came through a few weeks later and decimated her entire garden. 

Swollen creek.

An inch and a half of rain. It's so unusual to have all that rain! Love it!

Luna had been left at home all alone that day so when we got home we took her for a walk. We met this neighbor who has a huge and very friendly English Mastiff. He was so big. Luna was a bit frightened and threatened by him so we held her back. She's got too much miniature poodle in her so she's uptight. She wants to fight everything!

Two days later Noah had a twin block put in with his braces (put on in September of 2017) to move his jaw into alignment and fix his overbite. I can't remember if it's supposed to go forward or back but either way it needs to move 1mm a month for the next four months. It took like an hour and a half to get it right. 

It's quite a mouthful and took him a bit of time to adjust. These pieces of plastic sit on top of his teeth so he has to chew on the plastic and learn to talk through it all. He sounds better now but initially it was kind of funny. Poor guy.