Goodbye Party

Our friends the Beck's moved in July. Steve graduated and got a job in North Dakota. Chad decided that we need to have a little goodbye party for them. He made BBQ beef and homemade rootbeer. It was great to have everyone come and say goodbye. We will miss Sarah, Steve, Joshua and Whitney! We wish them the best of luck!

Chad making the homemade rootbeer, while Emily supervised!

Sarah and Steve

Steve, Sarah, Amy and Chad


Food, Folks and Fun!

All the kids really enjoyed taking a turn on Emily's little slide.

Emily being the life of the party.

Emily and Whitney having a great time!

Sleeping Through The Night = One Happy Baby!

Since returning from our travels, Emily has started to sleep all night long again! Hooray! She woke up one morning in such a happy mood. She was so cute, I had to take some pictures...excuse the "bed head" please. Sleeping through the night = one happy baby and 2 very grateful parents! HA!

Good Eats!

We had a great St. Louis tour. We saw the Arch, and the downtown area. We ate some St. Louis BBQ and topped it off with some great frozen custard.

The St. Louis Zoo

Tyler and April were so nice to show us some of the sights in St. Louis. Emily loves animals. We had been wanting to take her to the zoo, so we decided to go with our friends while in St. Louis. The kids had a great time! Emily was really excited about seeing all the animals.

Emily liked the penguins. She now waddles from side to side
with a huge smile on her face saying, "walk like a penguin".
She usually does this while in the bathtub. It's too cute!

Emily and Preston really liked the giraffes.
As you can see, Emily had was all smiles.

Emily was on-the-go the whole time.
We had a lot of fun!

Happy 4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July. We started off our celebration with our ward pancake breakfast. It was fun to see our friends that we hadn't seen in a while and catch up on what had been going on while we were gone.

Chad, Emily and Amy

Cute huh?

After the breakfast we got in the car and headed for St. Louis. We had plans to spend the 4th with the Farmers (some of Chad's college friends). They had invited some friends over. We had a BBQ, complete with water games for the kids. Then we went to a nearby park to watch fireworks. We had a great time!

April and her American flag cake

Emily

Preston

Chad, Emily, Amy, Preston, Tyler, April and Lincoln

Our little family

Festivities at the park

Preston

Lincoln

Emily really enjoyed herself at the park. She made friends
with this little girl (daughter of one of Tyler and April's friends).

Birthday Fun

Given all the event we had going, we celebrated my birthday over the time we were there. Chad's mom made me some yummy chocolate waffles for breakfast on my birthday. Then she and Emily made my birthday cake a couple of days before Micah and Shannon's wedding (she said it taste better if it sits for a couple of days). We had a wonderful birthday dinner of steak and shrimp and this to-die-for chocolate cake before we made the trip home. Thanks for such a fun time!

"The Cousins"
Emily, Patrick, Kennedy and Ella

"The Girls"

Nana and Grandpa
(Chad's mom and dad)

My birthday cake.
It was a chocolate lover's dream!
(Mom, you would have been in HEAVEN!)

Make a wish!