"Is the vessel sea worthy?"

After Austin left today, we tried to keep ourselves busy to keep our minds off it. We did a big project in the yard and these boys were hard workers, with the dirty faces to prove it. 3 hours in the morning plus 3 hours in the afternoon=No more rock bed!

Looks like he smeared ash all over his face. The bathtub had to be scrubbed after they were done.

We bought a boat! Austin grew up in FL, his parents live on the water and have two boats so when we moved to Des Moines and he saw that they had a few "lakes" nearby, Austin wanted one of these little boats right away. He finally found a great deal on the day that Ashley and Ben came to visit us! We bought it, our neighbor gave us some ores and it's been a blast! We are the first on my side of the family to have a boat. Eat your heart out, Joel.

The captain of our "boat"

While out on the water, we saw a few turtles swimming around. Austin reached in and pulled one out of the water. It was much bigger than we anticipated. It even scratched him and we could hear it hissing. It tried to escape, the boys got a little scared of it - and put their feet up, etc. Luke ended up liking it and naming it Hiccup. We let it go after Ashley wasn't startled at all by it.

Jensen loved the boat, our boys are hooked. Austin almost took them out at 5 this morning so they could go before he had to board his airplane.

Mister Hiccup

Two sailors

Luke LOVES being on his baseball/t-ball team. He's got a pretty good swing too. Austin gets to help coach. There are about 9 kids in his team and he has loved every minute of it.

Luke's love for the letter "O" meets Cheetos

You can't tell at all that Ashley is pregnant. We had so much fun when they came to visit, and Ben and Austin got the patio doors fixed!!! We hope they'll include us on their agenda every year when they visit Ben's family. Thanks for coming guys!!!

This is what Jensen does at Luke's baseball games. He loves his little friend, Lilly. He's a real lady's man though, he flirts like this with every little girl at church.

A real baller


Coach Austin Kramer - we miss him!!!

Aunt Shawna's Visit

Jensen's new favorite way to play "peek-a-boo"

Luke and Jensen are generally best friends though recently Jensen has been going through a growth spurt and has been grouchy for the past week which leaves Luke saying things like, "I don't think we can have another baby, Jensen is too naughty. Well, maybe we just shouldn't have another Jensen."

Austin was so proud of this piece of artwork. Go Cougars! Gotta love sidewalk chalk

Shawna and Jensen renewed their friendship pretty quickly.

He followed her around...

and shared his food with her!

Luke was not so charitable

Cute little devil

It's not possible to get a good picture of Austin and his sister Shawna so I guess this one will have to do. The others looked like awkward engagement photos. I guess they do look like brother and sister afterall. Thanks for coming Shawna!