summertime and the livin' is BUSY!

We've had a busy summer to say the least.  I have been so overwhelmed that I didn't really get my camera out. I'll sum up and do my best using the pictures other people took. We've had (intake of breath) T-ball, play group, 3 trips to the drive in, my mom visits, church history sights in Kansas City, swim lessons, mother's week, visits from Iowa friends, ER visits, dr. appointments, Father's Week, Trip to Iowa, temple in Kansas City, Nashville Trip, 4th of July camping with family friends...(end of single breath)...and now we leave for Utah in 2 days.

The boys having fun on the slip'n'slide that my mom bought for them.

 It looks like Joelle is up to no good, but I'll give you two guesses who got out the peanut butter and spoon.

 

We have about 5 pictures total of when our good friends the Doughertys visited. The men took the boys to our ward Father and Sons campout while Angela and I took the little ones shopping with us. These boys have been best buds since they were 6 months old. We all had a great time.  

 

This is Joelle after she burned her hand. Once she got her hand wrapped up she acted like there was nothing wrong. She didn't really let it slow her down.

 But it really was bad. Second degree burns on all her fingers and her hand.

 Joe took this picture after the dr visit where they pulled off all of her blisters. I couldn't be there to watch it. I couldn't be the one to changer her bandages after that for about 2 days. It makes me physically ill to think of my kids in so much pain.

 Ethan LOVES to be coloring, drawing, writing, and reading. Every day he finds time to get some paper and crayons and create something. Lots of times it's 12 sticky notes with hearts and notes saying "I love Mom" written on them.

 Summer time means a lot of skipped naps. I don't mind:)

NASHVILLE!!!

Joe has a certain number of continuing education course hours he must fill, so we called up our old friends Derek and Rachel Kerr and asked if they'd come with us to a conference in Nashville. 

 During the day the guys would be in class until about 4 so Rachel and I would pack up our (combined) 5 kids and explore. Needless to say the kids were crazy, but we still managed to have a good time.

 Each evening we'd walk from our hotel to the music district for dinner. I got to meet Elvis.

 These few city blocks were jam packed with genuine Nashville energy buzzing all around us. While we never took our kids into the bars to hear the live music, we were still able to enjoy the ambiance from the sidewalk.

 The boys embraced their inner cowboy.

 We got to go inside this candy shop several times. I think Derek had been there one time too many. 

Everywhere we went people thought we had 2 sets of twins with us, because Joelle and Brennan are so close in size and they shared the double stroller.

 We had a great time in Nashville. Thanks so much to Rachel for all the pictures since we forgot our camera!

This is getting to be a long post so I'll do part 2 later. Tune in for our 4th of July fun with the Rasmussen family!!!