Fourth of Nebraska - Poore style

We picked a nearly perfect day to head out to Ginger Cove for the day with the girls...

 

 

 Natalie LOVED playing in the water with the doggies.

The weather was nice enough to just sit outside and enjoy the day without melting.

 

 

 

Natalie made friends with Miss Bobbi right away.

And even warmed up to Uncle Chuck enough to sit on his lap a few times and shower him with kisses.

A few days later, we made a trip back to Omaha for a SURPRISE 50th Wedding Anniversary party for Chuck and Kathy.

Grandpa Huxter and his lovely date for the night.

Selfies with the big camera always end up with the photographer looking silly...

 

Elvis made an appearance...

Natalie and Jonathan were best buddies by the end of the night

Photos of various groupings with Gigi...

Gigi and almost all her great-grandkids.  I made an appearance because Nat wouldn't go solo.

Gigi with almost all her great-grandkids and almost all her grandkids. 
Also I'm not sure who took this photo, but we only got half of Bobbi and none of Pat.

Gigi with almost all the beautiful women she's tied together through the Poore family.

End of the night sillies...

 

The next day, Aunt Holly and Uncle Roger stopped by for a brief visit...

Fourth of Nebraska - Schwisow style

We flew to Nebraska for the Fourth of July again this year.  There's just something magical about celebrating a holiday punctuated with fireworks in the heart of the Midwest.  We managed to see just about everyone in one trip, but this post is dedicated specifically to time with the Schwisow side.

One of my Top 10 favorite places in the world.

Grandpa's yard: where you're never too young to learn to drive...

 

We ate 9,000,000 of Grandma's "crack" cookies.

We played lots of piano, we went to the Lincoln Zoo and saw the flamingoes...

 ...Natalie learned that she LOVES fresh cherries (Katie does not)...

...we pulled weeds with Grandma...

...we flew kites in the backyard...

...and we ate lots of popsicles.

Natalie and Grandpa ran security detail while we prepped to throw Katie a lil surprise birthday party.

We built an extra large slip-and-slide in the yard with painters drop cloth, a ton of sprinklers and baby oil (which had to be moved every 2-hours, so as not to kill the grass).

We kicked back, enjoyed the beautiful (and unseasonably cool) weather and had a few beers on the Fourth of July...

 

 

 

 

Katie and Adrienne made and decorated yummy watermelon cakes...

June recap

So June seemed to disappear quite quickly.  Here's a recap of things...

"Helen" got lost while flying and came to live in our waterfall.

Gus babysits the dishes on steak night.

Natalie got her carseat all washed and ready to take to Nebraska

We went to McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale...

 

 

 

Gus went to the doctor and decided he was a couch dog

Natalie took Grandma Becky's toast with cottage cheese to the next level by adding chunky peanut butter.

We took weekly trips to the library to get new books to read at home.

We ate popcorn and watched a few World Cup games.

We got a new dress from one of mommy's friends.

Gus babysat my bowl of popcorn without so much as touching it.

It got hot.  Really hot.  So we played in the water.

We had a bad dream at naptime and crawled in daddy's big black chair with mommy.

Katie went to Musical Theater Camp and put on a show.

Daddy manned the grill at a family BBQ.

Aunt Wendy played pirates with Natalie.

Daddy and Natalie went to get the mail and had smoothies on the floor while reading the mail.

Daddy continued giving horsey rides around the living room.