The Playground

We took it easy at home this weekend, so Sunday afternoon we went to the playground. Bruce is getting big enough to really play and climb now. He's playing more like a kid and less and less like a toddler. It won't be long before he's climbing the rock wall with Jane. Here are a bunch of pictures of the kids playing...

Father's Day Weekend

We all had a great Father's Day weekend. Friday night the kids and I shocked Bret with a new camera. Bret never expects anything good because we can't keep secrets and I usually get the $20 gift. He needed to open the gift Friday so he would have time to play with it the rest of the weekend and take it to the lake. Then Jane, Bret and I went to see the new Incredible Hulk movie. It was a lot of fun -- Jane loved it, it was her first grown up, late night movie -- and she loves the Hulk. Frank and Perineau stayed with Bruce. Someday he'll get to go to the movies...

The weather was great at the lake, although the water level at Jocassee was really low. The kids got "tickets" from the lake ranger for wearing their life jackets for free frosties -- Jane thought that was really cool. She kept asking all day to hold her ticket. We cooked out on a little beach, drove around the lake, and took a little hike. After the lake, we went back to Grandma and Grandaddy's for hamburgers.

Jane and Bruce on our little hike through the woods to the top of the waterfall. Bruce left his pants in the boat.

This is the little beach we stopped at to grill hotdogs. We did a little swimming and Jane got to play with her sand toys a little. There was no shade and it was unbelievably hot here.

This is near the big waterfall at the base of the trail -- normally this area is rocky and the boat cannot pullup onto the shore. Bret went to take pictures of the waterfall, Jane was feeding the fish chips and Bruce is driving the boat.

Bret and Jane looking at the fish swimming around them.

Butterflies and Rainbow at the waterfall

Water Fun

Just a few pictures from this weekend. We are having a heatwave so swimming in the lake felt really good. Bret and Bruce thought it was a lot of fun to splash Jane and me. We didn't like the splashes so much.

We also had a little fun in the Sprinklers.

Bruce and Jane really like the slide when it is wet. They go flying! Last time we tried this Jane went down without a catcher and things didn't work out so well. Now she is careful to have someone at the bottom waiting for her.

Puerto Rico

I'm going to start a Puerto Rico post... I'm sure I'll have more to add and modify, but here is a start.

It seems like we spent the weeks leading up to the trip preparing... work, everyone was sick (lots of strep throat and ear infections), packing, etc... had a great trip... and now a week later still trying to recover (at least I am.)

Some of the pictures below are from friends, so thank you guys.

Golf

Here are pictures from the golf trip that the men took pre-wedding and the remains of the feast that followed.

Wedding
The wedding was beautiful. I'll have to add some pictures of Susan and Alvin.

Fishing

We had a great time fishing, but did not catch anything.

...more to come. I'm tired.

Before School

Bruce and Jane wanted to go out and check out the yard one morning last week before we left for school. Bruce heard a dog barking across the street (woof woof) and the sprinklers were on. We had a few minutes so we went out and I took a few pictures. Bret got home from the gym as we were getting ready to leave. I was able to get a couple of good pictures of him and the kids.

Bubbles...

Tonight we went out and played with the bubbles after supper. It was finally nice again after days of cold and rain. Before we went out, Bruce starting saying, "whooo, whooo" just like Bret. I got a little of it on video.

Bubbles were Jane's idea and she had a lot of fun with them.

It was her job to blow all of the bubbles. Bruce chased them for a while. Then Jane started catching them on the bubble wand and Bruce popped them for her. This worked well for a while.

Then there was a small disagreement...

Then they went their own way. Jane continued to blow bubbles and Bruce got occupied by the hill. He heard a noise and was convinced it was Daddy. He stood there and kept yelling, "Bret, Bret, Bret..." like I do when I'm looking for Bret.

After a while he decided Daddy wasn't going to answer and took off down the driveway. He is very motivated to leave home.

and then for no particular reason --

Fishin'

Last weekend we went up to Mom and Dad's (Grandma and Grandaddy's) for the weekend. We got to visit with our 'aunts' and 'uncles' Chere and Gary and Kathryn and Jim. We all had a good time and Jane's new favorite place to sleep is on her little bed at Granny's (the couch.)

Jane got a little time to visit her horse, Star, and do a little fishing.

Here she is with her first catch of the season down at the pond:

Bruce had fun. He was the baby of the group so he was the center of attention.