Our Family Vacation {day one of summer trip 2011}

I've been looking forward to this summer's vacation since I found out (in December) the Hershberger reunion was going to be held in Alberta where Grandpa H was raised during his early years.

Our family made into an extended vacation and here is our journey, starting on June 30...

This was when we left KS, we were going to stop for a picnic lunch, but decided that maybe 109 degrees was just a touch on the toasty side. So, we "had" to sacrifice and eat at Freddy's (my favorite!) in Hays.

Christian started out being a good little traveler. We knew we were going to have some time to kill before getting to our first destination, so we stopped at a rest area in CO to eat a snack. It was no longer 109 degrees outside!

We arrived to Pete and Kira Von Ploeg's house in Denver around 5 or so. Ben went to HC with Kira, and the last time we saw them we had drove to CO for their wedding in 2008. They invited the Shue's (Nathaneal and Audra) over for supper and we had a very enjoyable evening with all of them. Christian did not have a problem socializing one bit! He was slightly intimidated by Tucker (one of their dogs), but it didn't take long for him to warm up to both Tucker and Layla. The picture below was of the boys assessing the damage of a tree that had randomly fallen in their backyard that day..it hadn't even been that stormy or windy! The weather was cloudy and cool with some thunderstorms that evening..wonderful!

Kira and Christian with the dogs. Christian got good at saying "no, Tucker". He was also a big fan of saying Audra's name, Pete, Kira..he couldn't quite master Nathanael..so we just called him "shoe".

By morning, Christian was all about the dogs...

Thanks to Pete and Kira for letting us stay with you in your nice house! Hopefully you can come see us sometime :)

Christian meets Ruby

We went up to Topeka for the day..to see Ben's family, including Ruby, his cousin visiting from Germany! She had only "met" Christian from the outside two summers ago, a couple weeks before he was born.

Ruby and Christian

Ben,Sam, and Ruby 

We just sat outside since it was such a nice day.

Christian got a new dump truck of his very own from Gpa and Gma H. He loved it...and it entertained him for quite some time.

Then, we went over to see the finished product of the house that Phil and Sam were working on. It is under contract..so July 5th is the final closing date. It turned out really nice!! We came back and Christian read some books with Ruby and Gma H. to prevent himself from falling asleep!

We finished the day by going out to eat pizza..and drove home :) It was a full day..but a very good day!

Daddy's Day

Christian loves his daddy...

and his daddy loves him.

For Father's Day we went over to Mom and Dad's for dinner after church. Alyssa and I brought salads and Mom made the rest of the meal (LOTS of food..no shocker there). The boys played some bocce ball..and then we ate dessert.

Dad with his boys..not sure why I didn't get a picture..I am still a daughter :)

The "Dads"

The "boys"

The "men"

 

"We will, we will ROCK you"...the known dessert song at the Sweigart household

I am thankful for my Dad.

He's a man I respect and love very much.

I am also thankful for Ben.

He makes a wonderful Daddy to Christian, and good team member in parenthood!

thanks to Tia C

My birthday present from Carissa....I love it!

I've always wanted a hammock chair...its very relaxing.

The shirt Tia C gave Christian. He is a fan. Whenever we get it out..he starts saying "docto". 

Who knows...maybe he will be??

Thank you Tia C..we sure wish you could be a little closer more often so you could see these things being used! I suppose these pictures will have to do :)

Camp out

Camp out at Aunt Jessica and Uncle Ben's!

 We had Maddox, Ava, and Kade overnight and oh man, did we have fun. 

we played...

we set up the tent and got firewood...

we played some more...

we roasted hotdogs...

we ate outside...

we ate s'mores and demonstrated how to "go" behind a tree...

we read bedtime stories...

and these three troopers stayed the WHOLE night in the tent with Uncle Ben!!! 

**We all attempted to go to bed in the tent. Christian was more than slightly distracted. Not only did he have his favorite cousins with him, but he also was very aware of the night life outside. He had a running commentary between, "Kade...BUGS....Kade....Mama...BUGS....Kade", you get the picture. So I took him inside, and he immediately fell asleep. **

wheat {2011}

                                            

Curtains

Here are some "before" and "after" pictures of my curtain project :) These were the only before pictures I could find.

And here are my curtains for the dining room/kitchen...

...and these were "technically" shower curtains, but does that really matter?? nah.

And here is our bedroom... 

...and these were technically tablecloths, but it worked (sort of, don't look too close).

One...going on 2 1/2

I have to put some of these pictures on here...because it shows how silly our little boy is becoming!

Sometimes, it goes beyond silly into very ornery with no sense of fear. It seems over the last couple months he has grown up so much. He has a mind of his own, and is able to verbalize what he's thinking/needing/wanting very well...sometimes TOO well. He will mock both words and actions...so beware!

This is what we call the Christian taco..he thinks he's hilarious when he does this :)

 A little dare devil..this is part of the no fear...yikes!

 He LOVES to climb! 

Ladders, couches, lamps, people...you name it if he can hoist his little legs up it he's there. Not always the best outcome (aka the couch and lamp), but it doesn't stop him from climbing on something else.

 His boots...a big time favorite of his. He knows what he wants..and he wanted to wear his BOOTS.

It might be close to the end of their days, as his feet are getting bigger and the boots are not.

 Pretty sure he knocked this chair down, "uh-oh", and then decided he may as well sit on it while its at his level.

Quite the little helper. He makes it known VERY well when he needs to be involved!

 Part mexican?? It might be debatable. He says "pina" (spanish for pineapple) when he wants more pineapple (a favorite), "tee-a" for tortillas, and "saz-sa" for salsa which he loves to put on top of the food he doesn't want so he can scoop the salsa off and eat it plain.

Here I was making enchiladas and he was "helping" by sitting there. Next thing I know he snatched two tortillas and starting stuffing them in his mouth.

A silly picture of him. But lately this is what he does when I get my camera out. He comes RIGHT up to it and looks in the lens.

This is a very fun stage of his life. It may be a bit trying sometimes..I'm sure there's more of that...but it really is entertaining to watch him grow up!