Grandpa Jo and Grandma Anne's visit

We made the most of our week with Grandpa Jo and Grandma Anne. Anders still wanders around asking for Grandpa Jo and Shane never handles it well when Grandma Anne leaves. Myann insisted the day they left that they were still sleeping in the basement and would wake up and come upstairs any minute.
4th of July on the lake (actually celebrated on July 3rd) - it was pretty chilly, note the long pants and shirts. Not a lot of pictures because it was our first day home after that horrible night of flying and I had a headache.


Poor Grandma Anne fell in the kids mud pile while trying to save Anders from falling. Grandma Anne just likes getting dirty when she visits us.


Strawberry picking











Arbor Crest
After strawberry picking, we decided to do wine tasting at Arbor Crest. One problem, when we got there, there was a sign prominently stating that kids were not even allowed on the grounds. That surprised me, so we let Bob and Anne do the tasting, and Brian and I entertained the kids in the parking lot. Luckily the gravel lot is scenic and the kids found rocks to play with. So we took pictures:


Anders giving love

Anders running on the gravel and making me nervous

Shane wanting to pose for pictures with the pretty flowers

Anders pouting - what a cute pout




River Front Park
We finally took advantage of our passes and went to the park to do the rides.
Grandpa Jo took care of the spinning rides.












Not a look everyone could pull off


Shane was tall enough to ride, but could barely see over the top


Anders wants so badly to do the big kid rides



Hiking Tubbs Hill

Tina is leaving

Our beloved Tina, nanny and friend, is leaving us. While we were on our trip and in Myrtle Beach, she eloped with Robin. I will say that like everyone, I was shocked and concerned. They met on Friday night and married on the following Tuesday. In full disclosure they had been talking on the phone for months before that, but still, it was spontaneous to say the least. I am happy if she is happy and we were able to meet Robin before he flew home to Germany. I was prepared to not like him, my defensive mode was one, but I actually liked him. He was well spoken and seems to make Tina happy. So Tina is moving to Germany to be with him until he can legally live in the U.S. We will miss her and certainly can not replace her, but we pray this will be an exciting and happy adventure for her.

Anders kissing her goodbye

Family Photos at Folly Beach

http://www.redshutterstudio.com/laynorfam/

This is the link to our family photos at Folly Beach near Charleston, SC during our Myrtle Beach vacation.

When other people think your kids are great

So obviously, we think Shane is amazing and smart and cute and on and on, but it is an awesome thing when someone else tells you that and they aren't even related to you. My amazing, awesome neighbors are always inviting Shane over to play with their boys who are a few years older. Her two sons are pretty remarkable, respectful, kind and patient. They actually play really well with Myann and Anders too, but I try to let Shane play with them alone as much as possible so he gets that "big boy" time. Anyway, they had Shane over to their house Sunday at lunch time, so of course she feeds him, they feed him all the time, it is so nice to have one less lunch to prep some times. Shane never said a word about lunch, I guess to him it seemed like no big deal. Well, said awesome neighbor and I are on the phone chatting and she tells me that she and her husband absolutely love Shane and he just cracks them up all the time. Well yesterday she was prepping microwave pizzas for lunch, point is she was doing a quickie lunch like most of us do. Here is the conversation,
Neighbor, "Shane do you want a pizza?"
Shane, "No thank you."
Neighbor, "Do you want a salami sandwich, a peanut butter sandwich, any sandwich?"
Shane, "No thank you."
Neighbor, "What would you like, sure you don't want a pizza?"
Shane, "I'll take chicken cordon bleu."
Neighbor, "What did you just say? Did you say cordon bleu?"
Shane, "Yes, its my favorite."
Neighbor's husband (who is an excellent cook), "Shane buddy, if I had the ingredients to make it for you, I would."
Neighbor, "Sorry Shane I don't have that."
Shane, "Ok, I guess I'll have a pizza then."

She said they were totally cracking up and it made her day. She said Shane always says the funniest things to them. Sadly for Shane, he wasn't trying to be funny, he just wanted some cordon bleu and she asked.

Back story, flashback to Vancouver Island vacation last year and we ate at a super fancy restaurant and chicken cordon bleu was the "kids menu" item. Shane loved it and told the waitress to please tell the chef it was the greatest meal of his life. The chef was quite flattered. Since then, Shane loves it. Grandpa Jo even found a good recipe and made it for us on our Texas trip, but Shane was upset because Grandpa Jo did not cut it into rings like the restaurant. I buy it premade from Costco and I make sure to cut it into rings.

And to think it did not look that bad...

Even though the car drove, the damage was pretty bad. We got the first estimate today and the total was $7400. Ouch! All in all, everyone we have talked to has been shocked that we did not flip. The body shop owner says that Tundra's are awesome and durable and possibly saved us, that and my driving skills of course.

Hangar Warming Party

Have you ever been to a hangar warming party? Well I have and they are lots of fun!!! Our friends Chris and Jen have a 4 seater plane and just got their very own hangar to store the plane. They decided to break it in with a hangar warming party with food, cake (for our friend Michelle's birthday), beer and plane rides Chris was an amazing sport and must have done 10 separate plane rides so everyone who wanted to go could go up at least once and some got to go twice, as in my child Shane. We were escorted to the hangar in Jen's new Ford Falcon, very cool I might add. The kids loved riding in the back seat with no seat belts as she drove us from the terminal to the hangar.

We all enjoyed the plane rides. I was nervous about getting nauseous and held my barf bag securely in my lap, but I did not even get a hint of nausea. I felt great and enjoyed the ride and the view. All 3 kids enjoyed flying too, but Anders probably the most. Brian said he did not shut up the whole ride, commenting on everything he could see.

I know they don't look happy in the picture, but they were really excited once the car started moving.