Big Kids

Over the 4th of July we took a little weekend trip to see Mike's family. Besides eating lots of good food, eating lots of junk food, playing indoor games, and playing outdoor games - we decided it would be fun to take the kids (Mike's brother, sister, and her family were also visiting) to the Crayola Crayon Factory.

Turns out you don't actually get to see the factory, but you see a demonstration of how crayons are made and then spend the rest of the time walking around trying out all of Crayola's different products.

The "kids" had a great time with all of the art projects they made!

Take me to the Fair!

A few weeks ago we had our niece and nephews for the evening and decided to take them to our city's little carnival. They had so many adventures!

Flying a spaceship:

4 wheeling through the desert:


Riding on the back of a green lady bug (the landing is the hardest part and obviously takes lots of concentration):

The little one had to stay in the same ride the whole time, but he provided lots of moral support to the others.

Aren't these kids the cutest? We couldn't like them more than if they were our own (ok maybe a little bit more if they were ours, but not much)!

Summer Nights

In case any of you have been wondering why I haven't posted anything in the last month it's because we were busy working with my family and some friends on


Transforming this ...



into all of this...









(The show was Guys and Dolls)


And these pictures don't even show how all the moving doors, panels, and flaps worked together to make each new scene!

Needless to say there were hours upons hours of work (sometimes going until 3 or 4 in the morning) put into this. But, the show must go on! AND we got the stamp of approval from the toughest stage design critics in the state - Grandma and Grandpa Dodge.

We took a couple of weeks to catch up on sleep and spend some time with Mike's family back East (pitures to come soon) but ...

Planning/Construction on the next set starts Wednesday!
See you in September!