Donovan's 9th Birthday

We were in Virginia on Donovan's birthday and it was fun to celebrate it with all the family he only gets to see once a year. Donovan isn't a fan of cake and ice cream so he opted for a giant cookie with sherbet. He enjoyed the family, food and presents.







We didn't get any pictures of his "party" in Colorado. He invited some friends over for a night at Lakeside Amusement park followed by a sleepover. I appreciate how easy Donovan is to please!

Happy Birthday Donovan!

Donovan has been such a wonderful 8 year old, I just know he'll be the best 9 year old. I love how lovable and genuine Donovan is. I love his forgiving and innocent nature. He is caring, thoughtful, and a smart boy who really loves life. As I looked through pictures of Donovan to use on this post, I realized that I don't take a lot of pictures of just Donovan. But, I also realized that he is always playing with others and involved in group settings. That's very fitting with his social personality. I sure love you Donovan! Have a great year!

Busch Gardens

We went to Busch Gardens with all our Virginia cousins minus Ella and Isaac. Even though it was so stinking hot, the kids had a great time. I'm not a big fan of displaying pictures from amusement parks since it can get pretty repetitive: here are our kids on this ride, here they are on this ride, here they are on another, and hey, look at them on this one. Despite that, I'm doing it anyway. Forgive me or get over it.

River part I

The first stay at Matt's parents river house proved to be quite eventful.

There was an intense game of Wipe Out.





After the kids caught minnows in the minnow trap, they set them free.....in the swimming pool (nasty) where they tried to catch them again.



We cracked up several times.



The boys battled on the slip-n-slide



We hung out on the tube. Less people seemed to fall out when it was on dry land.



We went on a boat ride.



And of course we fished, even in the dark.

The Olympic Training Facility

This place is pretty cool. After we dropped Brooke off at the airport, we took the kids to check out the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Our plan is to inspire them to become amazing athletes and earn us lots of money. Real people live and train there to try to make it to the Olympics. Seriously. I know everyone else knew that, but I didn't. Glad we went. Go USA!






And that's what my belly looks like 14 weeks pregnant. I'm real excited to see how much the next 26 weeks add.

Scheels

Scheels is this huge sporting goods store and it was our first time there. It is by far the biggest store of it's kind I've seen! I am pretty sure it has stuff for every single sport you can imagine, like pet training for example. And I didn't even imagine that one. So logically our pictures from Scheels have nothing to do with sports, except maybe the first one.

Artown - Reno

My parents planned several activities for us during our visit. Artown was a fun one. The kids got to do a lot of artsy things like:

Help paint a mural




Decorate shirts


Play games



And their favorite, get their faces painted