The Last Nine Months. (I know it's long, but worth it.)

Here it is again! The moment in your lives that you've all been waiting for! It's... another blog post. Whoo hoo! I will try to get only the important highlights otherwise my patience at uploaded pictures will wear thin. You know how it is.

So to start here is the reason why I am even posting. Kairi and Kate were in the Nutcracker on December 22nd and we got the DVD back of their performance. This is a recording of the recording so the quality is not that super, but you get the idea. You can view it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmX3r9xcY7U

I tried to get it only in the blog post but my free video editor that used to save things small enough is no longer supported, and my other one won't save the file small enough so it has to go on YouTube instead. (It's a conspiracy!)

And case you actually wanted to know what we did for the last 9 months you can keep scanning the blog below. I had to split it up into two parts so you may need to scroll for a while....

May and the end of June 2018

 Amanda had a Birthday and would you look at that? Her hair was shorter back then. 

 Wesley had  Birthday and turned 9. He wanted a Spyro Cake from Skylanders.

 Wesley at his birthday party.

 We attended Epicnic (Chris's company picnic) for the next year in a row. 

 Kate grew a mustache

 We went hiking someplace cool 

 Kairi built a bug catcher and caught a lightning bug/ firefly.

July

We went on another hike.

 We visited Olbrich Garden

And took our (mostly) yearly elephant picture

 We went to Little Amerricka for the 4th of July with Michelle, Allen, Lewis and...

 Gemma

 We saw some zebra's

 We rode the spin rides

 Later we ate a picnic with the gang

Michelle and her family went home and we drove up to some place and watched fireworks at a park. (I know you love my descriptions.)

 Some cuteness of Wesley and Lewis

 Swim lessons (Kate and Kairi)

 Wesley on the right

 Kairi, Kate and Wesley earned personal pizzas for reading at the library.

 We went camping

 We had thunder and lightning while we were camping. Yes, it scared the kids.

But it looked cool!

August

 Grew some flowers

 Amanda held a baby kangaroo

 We had a family reunion

 Reunion at the beach

 Reunion at a historical site: Stonefield

 Pinata fun

 Double birthday of Gemma and Marisa

 All the cousins in one spot

 Magic show by Grandpa

 Who knew that we had ventriloquism skills in our family?!

 The guys: Rick, Allen, Chris, Greg, Jeff

Everybody

 Cousins on a chair

 The zoo where a camel and giraffe are friends

 Wesley had a scout day and they made zucchini boats

 We also went fishing and caught nothing

September

 First day of school. Kate (2nd grade), Wesley (4th grade), Kairi (2nd grade)