Week Thirty-seven

Naomi brought home this Dragon Tongue plant from school. We put it in the garden and forgot about it until we harvested these crazy looking beans. Which are apparently Dutch in origin. Mom, have you heard of this?

Ready for the pool.

Jumping on our neighbor's trampoline.

The girls love to jump

and miraculously haven't injured themselves yet

By the way, jumping and not dying is much harder as an adult than I remember it being as a child.

Naomi's last summer ballet class. Naomi's about a second late. Or her friends are both a second early.

Oh, there she goes.

This is her cat jump. I think it has a fancy french name, but that's all I remember now.

Here's her sassy curtsy.

And the stamp she gets from her teacher at the end of class. Amazing what kids will do for a stamp.

On Friday morning we headed to Rochester, NY to spend a week with some of our very awesome friends. Because it was *much* cheaper, we got a 5:50am flight out of Denver. We left our house at 3:20am. And that still didn't keep us from literally running to our gate after boarding was complete. It was nauseatingly stressful, but we made it. And these girls don't seem any worse for the wear.

Not so sure about these two though.

At the Browns Annnika strummed a tune and Weston sang along.

Meanwhile Harper and Naomi had a dance party that Weston had just crashed when I took this photo.

For dinner we went to the Ramoses where we ate declicious pizza, drank wine, and watched the kids run around after these very cute and patient puggles.

And Sarah watched from a distance.

Naomi couldn't quite get enough of the dogs.

Saturday we went to Niagra Falls and rode a boat like this...

...dressed in rain ponchos like this...

...to look at waterfalls like this...

...and get wet like this.

I definitely got the most soaked, but see that little hand reaching up and grabbing my neck? That's not me. That's Sarah, and it's hard to stay dry and not suffocate your baby in the process.

The girls loved the riding the boat and getting all wet. 

Naomi and Weston sharing a laugh.

A different view of the falls with Harper and Weston.

Followed by some ice cream.

Delicious, delicious ice cream.

One apparently wasn't enough for Harper.

Weston seems pretty happy with it.

And Sarah Mae seems pretty happy with Matt.

This might be Harper teaching Sarah the tricks of childhood, like how to act surprised when you get caught doing something naughty.

Nine kids eight and under in one picture at the end of a tiring day? This is as good as you're getting.

Reading on the drive home.