Alcazars & Gilpatricks visit MO

Our cousin Alicia usually comes to visit Grandma Delores each year, but this time she convinced her sister Rachel to join in too. 

We saw them more when we were all children, but not very often as we got older. It's even more fun now as adults. Both Alicia and Rachel getting married in recent years gave us reason to go to California, but it was nice to see them all in Missouri for the first time since Drew and I got married. Rachel and Dan have the cutest little girl named Emma, who took to rural farm life really quickly. 

First, they spent a day at our house. We did a tiny bit of horseback riding and went down to the river to skip rocks after lunch. We all had dinner in town before they hit the road back to Springfield. Pictures are in random, jumbled order. 

 

 We were able to have a little more time together the day before they flew back to California. The boys and I went to Springfield for the afternoon and we all went to "America's Only Ride Through Cave"...... Fantastic Caverns. I think they really enjoyed it. There are only 2 places on the planet that you can experience "absolute darkness", deep in a cave or at the bottom of the ocean. I never want to experience it via the latter. 

After our cave tour, we had dinner at Lambert's. Too bad it was a school night or we would have gotten to hang out a little longer. I don't think the boys were ready to say goodbye. 

 

 

Next time we see them, we'll be going to Disneyland!! 
(I better clarify for when Drew reads this, there are no plans in the works, but theoretically, that would be a great trip to California for us to visit and mark Disney off the boys' list)

June, so far.....

We leave for vacation in 2 days. I thought I might catch up with random photos that I have so far for the month of June before we go.

Cooper and the daycare director's little girl, Holly are the best of friends!

Howell County Relay for Life with a few of my co-workers
In Memory of our dear friend, Jeff West

We have badly needed a date night. So our group of friends coordinated a kid-free dinner and romp around the farm one Saturday evening. Very enjoyable and a nice breath of fresh air!

Many hours were spent in the hay fields........Griffin could probably drive a tractor himself if he could reach the pedals.

Cooper has been loving life as usual.....

Rocky carried this snake up to the house, dangling from his mouth one evening.

Drew took a couple work trips in the last few weeks. The weather has been so hot, so we've enjoyed the creek behind the house quite a bit.

I signed Griffin up to be in the "Chef for a week" rotation at daycare. The older aged kids take turns helping with breakfast, lunch, and snack. He also got to do dishes during naptime and I could tell because he was TIRED every night and fell asleep early. 

Play Date with our friends one evening!

Jimi made a baby bale and dropped it off for the boys to play with. They have a future in log rolling.

Landrie came to visit for a day and we had so much fun that this is the only photo we got!

little goober boy

Have you heard of the Cheerio Challenge? If not, google it. 
I can get 8 on Griffin.  

Cooper is much harder. I could only get 6 on his forehead, and the flash caused him to flinch every time. So I gave up and let him snooze. Both hands behind his head is one of his favorite positions.

Griffin is a master frog catcher. AND lightning bugs. I love to watch him run around to catch them when it's almost dark. 

 

Mimi's pool is open, and Griffin tested it out one afternoon. 
 

When we celebrated Tammy's birthday, the boys got to put their hands on 2 new animals. Bucky the goat, and some baby pigeons. 
 

More evening shenanigans.
 

 

For Father's Day, the boys and I took Grandpa Don to the blackberry patch south of West Plains. I don't think it could get any easier to pick than this. We ate and ate, and gave them away, and froze more. 

Maybe before the season is over, we can make it to the blueberry farm in Dora. That would be 3 different pickings this year!

The length of this post is another reminder as to why I should make blog entries more often!! Things will settle down a little someday!

On more sweet video of little brother: