A beautiful afternoon at the farm

John is learning his way around the farm. He says "tractor", "cow" and "moo."

Johnny helped Tim cut the grass. You can see he likes the steering wheel :).

Elly & Brielle were checking on the Jersey calf.

The one-year-olds: Karley (18 1/2 months), John (14 1/2 months), & Lincoln (18 months).

Brielle's favorite pal at the farm, Amy. As soon as we get out of our car at the farm, if Amy hasn't come to greet us, Brielle will call for her.

Brielle likes to follow Amy all over the farm. If Amy gets too far ahead, Brielle likes to call her back "Amy, come here, Amy, come here!" Brielle has even started to hang onto Amy's collar as they are walking around... Brielle has figured out how to keep her close by :).

Hugs for Amy!

Taking after Grandpa John

On Sunday, Brielle & John were playing outside with Tim. Our neighbor, Ted, offered us a fresh red tomato from his garden. It would have made perfect BLT sandwiches, one of our favorite summertime meals. Ted gave it to Brielle, who carried it around for a little while, brought it inside, and then passed it off to John who had followed her in the house.

Kristen was in the kitchen when she turned around to see John munching on the tomato like it was an apple, just like Grandpa John does.

After a few bites, he tried to share it :)

Then he tried to turn it into tomato juice:

The result:

Then he tried to scale the refrigerator saying "more, more".

Tea Party

On the tea party menu today: water, crackers & clementines.

John used this orange block as his cup:)

Brielle & John really enjoy playing together. It's neat to watch them interact and entertain each other!

"The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades"

Brielle chose this outfit today, including her accessories :)

Brielle's shades are right out of the 80's, literally!

Recognize these glasses, Jenny?

They used to be yours!

While we were eating dinner tonight, without any prompting, Brielle was telling us about Jenny's glasses. I grabbed the camera and asked her to tell me again. :)

Happy Birthday Tim!

Tim had plenty of helpers for blowing out his candles:)

Emma & Josie playing with bubbles.

At one point there were 9 kids in this pool! The water was very warm and the kids were calling it their "hot tub", thanks to Ted for getting a hose hookup to the outdoor shower.

Becky & Kristen taking Pierce for his own canoe ride, while the girl cousins were out on a boat ride with Ted.

Becky and Bob and... no kids! :) (They have 6 kids)

Kristen, Willa, Brielle, & Ellen.

Wilson, Sam, & Carter taking a quick break from playing in the sand.

Ted returning the boy cousins-- Pierce, Sam, Carter, Connor & Max-- from their boat ride.

John & Brielle

I love these new photos of the kids... as you can see by the new blog header :)

Photography by Alexia

Alexia captured this cute view of John when we were on a trolley tour of Key West.

This pelican was hoping to catch some of the baitfish intended for the tarpons.

The sea lion show at Theater of the Sea.

Look closely, just above the dolphin and to the right you'll see one of the dolphin trainers up in the air getting ready to dive into the water. The dolphin pushed her up and out of the water with its bottlenose.

John chilling with Ross on the hammock.

A boat ride

Grandpa Ted took us for a nice little boat cruise a couple of weeks ago. We saw a lot of geese and ducks, which the kids loved.

John stood right here for most of the boat ride (with Grandma Carol close behind).

As we were cruising by Schumacher's Island, Brielle kept asking to go there. So we stopped for a little while. We didn't bring swimsuits, but that didn't stop these 2 :)

John loves to drop down into the water like this. He'll do it over and over and over.

Brielle's favorite shoes at "Gamma's"

Brielle & "Gamma" spotted a mother duck & her ducklings:

Here's a little history about the shoes...

Kristen wore these heels when she was a bridesmaid in her aunt Nancy's wedding!

Look what 4 teeth can do!

Around here, everyone eagerly awaits the arrival of Fincel's corn, fresh picked every day by the Fincel family. When we started bringing home Fincel's corn in early July, we cut it off the cob for John. He enjoyed it because who doesn't love Fincel's corn, but he was very interested in how we were eating it off the cob and kept "asking"--- the way a 1 year old can ask, pointing and saying "eh, eh, eh"---for the cob. We didn't know how he would do with just 4 teeth- 2 on top and 2 on the bottom. Well, he does pretty well, and he wouldn't choose to eat it any other way:)

Theater of the Sea

We had a wonderful time at Theater of the Sea, a beautiful marine animal park in the Florida Keys.

These water pools contained large fish and sea turtles, and the kids were able to get so close, they had a great view.

We saw a parrot show,

a dolphin show, and a sea lion show. Brielle is still talking about how the girl was swimming with the dolphins and how the sea lion put a ball up on its nose.

"Turtle" is one of the newest additions to John's vocabulary, after getting a look at these sea turtles.

The whole gang in Florida

What a great timed photo! There were 4 cameras set up on a table, and Anna (far left) and Dan (far right) were in charge of 2 apiece. They'd push the buttons at the same time and run. Nice work everyone!

I saw this "bent" tree

while we were in the Keys, and I took a picture of it. Just below the tree there is a small cliff of rocks that go down to the shoreline.

A little while later, I saw this:

Jenny & Jef walked Brielle up and down this tree several times. She shouted, "Look Mom, I'm walking on the tree." Brielle was loving it :)