Fall at the Park

It's Fall!! This morning we played at the park in beautiful weather that even called for long sleeves and pants!

Katie's Wedding

Chris' cousin Katie got married yesterday in Salina, and we had a great time despite a downpour of rain. The rain let up at sunset, and we got to see a beautiful double rainbow!

September Swim

 This pool used to seem much bigger!

Family Pictures 2016

We love the family pictures we had taken last fall (see them here). The kids have grown up so much in the last year though, so we wanted to get some updated pictures. 

Pam does such a great job, and she worked so well with Natalie. These are some of the only truly smiley pictures of Natalie that we have. She is usually shy about getting her picture taken, but she really opened up and played with Pam. 

I thought about getting pictures of just the kids since our family will be changing soon, but I'm so glad Chris and I went ahead and got in some of the pictures too. We will only be a family of four for a bit longer, so all the more reason to document our life as it is right now. 

"Go K-State!"

We started our annual K-State football game trips when Natalie was a couple weeks shy of one year old. We always have so much fun in that huge sea of purple, and we are always so so so tired when we get home. This year's trip this last weekend was no different. 

We only stayed at the game for the first half, but it was a very full first half. We shared multiple treats, visited with friends and family, cheered for lots of touch downs, and watched our cousin Ashley lead the Classy Cats. We got to see Maria and Callen over lunch and Mark, Shawna, Jordan, and Alex over supper. It was a very full and very fun day. 

The first sign that Max was awake this morning was his little voice coming from the kids' room saying, "Go K-State!" I think we're raising them right :)

Little Free Library

Max and I found this Little Free Library at the park this morning while Natalie was at preschool. I had heard that the library was planning to put these in high-traffic areas around town, but we hadn't seen one until today. It's such a neat idea! It says, "Take a Book. Return a Book." We took home four new books and left five books that we either have duplicates of or don't read very often. We're excited to see what new books we can find through this fun local book exchange!

State Fair

We love the fair! It's getting more fun every year as the kids get older.

Here we have the train ride and the kids' twin "don't look at the camera!" faces:

The boat ride is always a favorite.

This was the first year that they were brave enough to ride the carnival rides.

We spend most of our time in the animal barns. It's like the zoo only better because you get to pet the animals and some even have babies!

Max is already asking to go back again!

Saturday morning donuts

When the donut shop is closed for the holiday weekend, you improvise with donuts at the grocery store because Saturday isn't Saturday without donuts.

Baby gorilla

The first baby gorilla born at the Sedgwick County Zoo was born at the beginning of August, and she has just recently been out for the public to view. The kids have been really excited to see the new gorilla, so we took a trip to the zoo with some friends yesterday afternoon. The mom is the gorilla sitting toward the back in this picture, and the baby is sleeping on her stomach. It was really neat to watch her mother her little one.

The weather was nice when we were at the zoo, so most of the animals were really active and a lot of fun to see!

And here is our crew: