Mason's Birthday Party

We enjoyed being able to go to cousin Mason's first birthday party! What a cute kid! We don't usually get to go to birthday parties to we were especially glad to be there.


Ollie enjoying the party noise makers.



Lily chillin with Grandpa Beck.



Mason wasn't sure what to make of all the people and attention. What a cute kid!

Mountains

One of the highlights every year is going to the mountains.


The kids love finding gnomes! Here's Ollie looking at a gnome house. He especially liked the little gnome toilet.



Here's Lily finding a gnome cookie on a tree. She thought it was neat to find cookies on trees!



We love building a fire and roasting hot dogs and making s'mores.



Ollie loved the hiking! He just kept wanting to take off and go explore. Grandpa was kind enough to keep an eye on him!



Lily loved throwing rocks into the river. She sat for over an hour and threw rocks. Everytime she threw one in she got so excited. Papa was nice and patient and kept finding her more rocks. We love the mountains!

Aunt Lizzy's Wedding

We had a GREAT trip to Utah! We spent a wonderful 2 1/2 weeks playing with our families. Here's some pictures of the highlights of our trip (and when I had our camera). :)



Aunt Lizzy and Uncle Don.



Aunt Lizzy's brothers singing her and Don a song at the reception.



Lily not wanting to be held down by Ollie for a picture.



Lily happy to have a picture by herself.



More Aunt Lizzy and Uncle Don. We are very happy for them!

Stockings

So, a while back I had a post about how I made some Christmas stockings for my family. I had a lot of comments about making five instead of four.... Well, we are happy to let you know that we will be needing the fifth stocking. We are expecting another little Stirland to join our family the first part of December. Just in time to use the stocking! We are very excited!

Sea World

For the three day Memorial Day weekend we went down to San Antonio. We decided to just go to Sea World. We had a great time! We had been to the regular park before but we had never been to the water park. We spent one day at the regular park and one day at the water park. Both areas are so big that we easily spent one day at each.
Here's a quote from Ollie, "I liked both days of Sea World and I liked all of it too. My most favorite part was feeding the dolphins and watching them."





Lily loved the stuffed penguins. She got really excited and ran up to them and said "hi".



Happy girl.



Ollie and Lily earned money by doing extra chores around the house. They managed to save $14 over a month. They really wanted to save up and buy some cotton candy. Here's them enjoying the fruit of their labors.



Here's Papa touching the dolphins. Ollie didn't want to touch them. Lily really wanted to touch them but her arms are too short. She just couldn't reach. We all enjoyed throwing them some fish and watching them swim.

Garden

So you always hear "grow a garden". This is the first year in several years where we have been in one place for a whole summer. So... I tried to grow a garden. We are just renting so I tried to do it in planters. Basically- not worth the effort or money. Maybe it would be different if it was in the ground??? I did get three little cherry tomatos and I think I will get a few more before it gets too hot.

Ollie's Preschool Graduation

Ollie had a GREAT preschool year! He loved every minute of it. He made great friends. He had great teachers. For the graduation everyone got an award. Ollie got the "Curious George" award. Very fitting! We were very PLEASED with the program!!!