Dinosaur Park

Last Christmas my parents gave us tickets to go to "Dinosaur Park," so we finally went there as a family this summer & had a blast!

Skyler was pretty proud of himself when he started realizing that the dinosaur sound effects came from hidden speakers, so he started hunting around to try & find them at each dinosaur.

My favorite part of the whole day was watching Kimberly climb under the guard-rails to go give each dinosaur a kiss & a hug before we moved on to the next one!  Here were these fearsome, scary, dangerous looking dinosaurs & Kimberly was kissing each one on the nose & putting her arm around them like they were best buds & that she was sad to have to leave them to go see the next one.  So precious!

Skyler loved digging for dinosaur bones & the girls loved swinging in the swings.  All in all, it was a perfect summer day, making fun family memories with the ones I love!

Bird's Nest

Well, our little baby robins have finally flown the coop.  It was a fun process for the kids to watch, although I would have preferred them build their nest a little farther away from our front door :)  It was magical to see their blue little eggs, exciting when we heard their first little chirps, fun to see how both the mommy robin & the daddy robin would search for worms for the birds all day long & kind-of sad when they started venturing off on their own at only 2 weeks old!  But their nest was getting pretty stinky, so it was probably a good think for us both.  Skyler was the lucky one who first spotted them trying to fly off.  I saw one little bird trying to just make a run for it, with his mother following him the whole way with a little worm in her mouth for him.  You could tell that he was ready to be on his own, because not even a worm was exciting enough for him to come back for.  When Skyler saw a dead baby bird on our neighbor's sidewalk a few days later, the kids all started praying that the birds would be safe.  Those bird's probably needed their prayers because we've got lots of cats around our house.  I sure hope they made it!  But what a fun process to watch!

One of the most exciting days was when the Mommy bird flew in our house one day when the front door was open.  It practically scared me to death when I walked into the family room to find a bird flying around frantically, pooping all over the place!  But luckily Laron was home to take charge of the situation & calmly suggest opening the window & taking out the screen so she could fly back out.  Exciting times!

Outside Fun

I LOVE watching the kids jump on the trampoline... They just have SO much energy & enthusiasm!  And when we've got company over for them to show off their "cool tricks" it's even better!  So thanks Robert & Jeff for playing around with the kids & allowing them to show off for you.  They loved it!

 And it's always nice when I can find someone willing to take MY picture with one of my kids... Bailey's such a sweetheart & we look forward to all the fun we'll have over the summer!

Family Pictures at Cousin Carter's Baby Blessing

This is MY side of the family...  My Grandparents: Leland Erickson, LuCene & Hugh Hougaard.  My Parents: Dennis & Lori Erickson.  My Sister's Family: Emily, Adam, Rachel Belle & Carter Nelsen.  My Brothers: Robert, Chris & Jeff (Tim's on a Mission in Chile).  And of course, our little family: Michelle, Laron, Skyler, Kimberly & Bailey Pace.  Yeah for family!

Grandma & Papa with all the grandkids!

So fun to all be together!

Happy Birthday Papa!

Thanks for all the fun memories growing up & all fun times with the grandkids now!  We love you & hope you have a fun day... Happy Birthday Papa!!!