We Heart Visitors!

We have been so blessed to have friends come to visit two weeks in a row! Both sets of friends are some of our WIU/CSC friends. What awesome people God put in our lives while we were in college. The thought that these are life-long friends makes my heart smile! It's so awesome that we are still in touch and get to see each other a few times a year.

A few weekends ago, the Windham's ended their mini-vacation with a couple days at our house Friday, we headed off early to the zoo to beat the heat. We had a great time! One of the highlights was seeing the stingray exhibit. It is very hands-on and really cool! Even Hannah was able to reach in and got a chance to feel the stingrays. We got around most of the zoo before lunch, ate a picnic lunch and finished the last section before the real heat set in. Here is a picture of Luke, Sarah, Whit & Hannah at Caribbean Cove and the stingrays!After the zoo and a much needed naptime, we grilled out, and had a fun evening hanging out and visiting. What fabulous friends the Windham's are to us! We were so glad to have them in Mascoutah for a few days!

The end of this past week brought another set of visitors. Kristina came down with her kids for a night. We started the visit with a short naptime then headed to the pool for an hour or so of water fun. All four kids seemed to have a blast swimming! We came back to homeade pizza ready to eat. The kiddos got baths, headed off to sleepy land and the grown-ups got a chance to visit and catch up. We all headed our seperate ways the next day. Even though it was a short trip, it so refreshing to have Kristina here for a night! Before we all left, we tried to get a picture of the kids (minus Macey who was sleeping). Here is one of the better shots.Sadie was so good during the picture session! She just kept smiling so we could focus on getting Hannah and Kinnick to smile...or at least look our way. After we got the kids, we tried to get a couple with the mom's and kids. We didn't look at any of the pictures right away, so later in the car I started flipping through and came across this photo...

I thought it was hiliarious! I think this shot truly captures the current state of our lives! Hey - at least the mommy's are looking great! :-)

We are so glad that we had the opportunity to visit with some of our college friends over the summer! We are already trying to set up a visit to WIU this fall for a football game! We love all of you guys!!!

Baseball Heaven

We are big baseball fans around here and one of our favorite things to do is watch the Cardinals. Mom, Tim & I headed to Busch Stadium today for a game. We are always excited for baseball, but a little hesitant today because it was extremely hot outside. Earlier this morning, Tim had the opportunity to listen to Tony Dungey speak to a group of coaches. The event was sponsered by FCA and it was Christian Day at the ball park. He said it was amazing and he had a really good time. Mom and I met him at one of our favorite pre/post-game eatery's, Calico's, for a late lunch before the game started. As we got to the satdium, we realized it was way hotter than we thought. Our seats were in the sun, so we hung out in the concourse where there was some sort of breeze for the pre-game festivities. We then attempted our seats for a total of maybe 5 minutes. It was beyond hot! We went back to our spot on the concourse and ended up watching the game from there -- in the shade and with whatever breeze was there at the time. During the 4th inning, we decided to take off. It is the first time EVER that we left that early in the game. Both Tim & Mom were not feeling great and it was so unbearably hot. We're going to try again before the season is over...but this time in the evening!

This is where we ended up watching what little of the game we stayed for. Oh well -- always an adventure!

Fourth of July

We had a pretty low-key kind of day around here celebrating the 4th. It was a pretty typical Sunday with church, lunch with Mom, naptime, etc. In the evening, we went to a couple of different neighborhood get-togethers, but were home in time for Hannah's bath and bedtime. We are so fortunate that Mascoutah has a really great fireworks show that we can see by sitting in our backyard. It was a great way to cap off the night! Maybe next year Hannah will be awake long enough for the fireworks! Happy Birthday, America!

A Perfect Summer Day

After a long and draining couple of weeks, we had free Saturday to spend as a family (one of the awesome perks of Tim's new job!). We left at the beginning of naptime and headed down to southern Illinois to window shop, eat dinner and go to a Miners game. We went to Carbondale first and walked around the mall then headed to Marion to do the same thing. Even though we didn't buy anything, it was fun to just walk around and window shop. After shopping, we ate at a local So Il BBQ spot (Triple E) and it was very yummy! We felt like it was a "real" vacation because we love trying local eating establishments when we go somewhere else. When we were finished, we headed over to Rent One Park to watch the Southern Illinois Miners. They are an independent miner league baseball team that is in the same league that the Gateway Grizzlies are in. We always like going to baseball games and it was a great night for one. We got lawn seats, spread our blanket out and enjoyed 5 innings of baseball. It is a great atmosphere for a little one because we had some more space to roam around. I was impressed that we made it as long as we did because it was later than usual for Hannah. It wasn't much, but we had a fabulous day as a family! Hannah and Mommy before the game started.Hannah and Daddy about halfway through -- not quite as happy as noted by the crazy hair!