Cade's Year in Review

Today is Cade's 9th birthday!!! Can't believe it's been a year since we were coping with, I mean, celebrating his 8th birthday. Here's a snippet of what it was like to be Cade this past year.

Goofing off at a friend's son's wedding reception in August.

Getting held up by a goat in Wichita last September.
(You gotta watch out for those goats in Wichita.)

Pumpkin guts in October.

And this. THIS is Cade rubbing the bronze Phog Allen in front of Allen Fieldhouse last November.

Like a kid at Christmas. Wait....

Snow day!
Looking through a chunk of ice that fell off our gutter in January.

Upwards basketball in February.

Easter in Salina.

Hamming it up with his den at Gage Park in April.

Dancing to 'YMCA' at the school's Spring Fling.

Even when school's out, this kid loves to read.

LOVING the slide at Kenwood Cove in Salina in July.


Happy Birthday Cade!! We love you so much! You're such a great kid and it's so awesome to be your parents.

We're starting to become the 'regulars'

If you're thinking that there isn't much else we did this summer, you would probably be right. But the thing is, it's just so much fun! And it's right here in our own back yard. Well, not really. But you know what I mean.

Causing a traffic jam. Can we just talk about this for a minute? This is the child who will go down the big slide hundreds of times on her own, yet yells at me to 'catch me' at the bottom of this itty bitty slide. I don't get it.

I mean, this is how big the slide is. (Yes, this is an old photo from last year. It's the only one I could find that showed the entire slide.) She can see me from start to finish. How does this one scare her and not the big one that pushes her along on a big gush of water? This one ends in ankle-deep water. The other one is right up to her armpits.

The beach is still over there.

Cade scoring some cool points by hanging with the lil sis.

Cooling the ol' noggin off.

Once again, doing her favorite thing at SNAC.

Over and over.

It boggles the mind.

Happy Birthday Aunt Gigi!!!

Heeby Jeeby City

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/fisherman-makes-world-record-catch-20984569

THIS is why I refuse to swim in fresh water lakes, ponds, rivers, whatever. I can't tell you how much my toes curled and face tensed up when I saw this. Just KNOWING that something that big and ugly is swimming around is enough to freak the cuss out of me. And you know there are plenty more just like him (or her) out there. I'll stick to chlorinated pools and clear saltwater bodies of water, thankyouverymuch.
And don't you just love how the fisherman couldn't be bothered to remove the cigarette out of his mouth when he was moving this behemoth out of it's holding tank? Must be a Missouri fan.

The SNAC

Or more correctly the SNFAC, but it's just easier to say SNAC without the F than with it. It stands for Shawnee North Family Aquatic Center, by the way. It's one of our favorite places to hang out this summer. Here are some pics of one of our visits.

Lydia and her 'water goggles'. And yes, she has to wear them. The whole time.

Nothing feels better than running through these fountains on a haaawwwwt day in Tooooopeeeeeekaaahh.

The beach is over there.

For those of my friends out there who have ever considered wearing a speedo out in public (and yes, I do have some out there) THIS is why I begged and pleaded that you didn't.
Not pretty. Noooooot pretty. Unfortunately for this guy, he doesn't have a friend like me to warn him of this fashion faux pas and the potential harm he caused to the eyes of any innocent bystanders.

Doing a tuck (AKA 'canonball') jump. This was before he started his diving lessons.

Chillin' in the shade.

This is Lydia's favorite thing to do at SNAC. And she'll do it over and over and over...

By Jove!

I think I finally got it! Aaarrgghh! It's all in the details, Dawn. Aaaaalll in the details. Seems that I forgot to flip the little switch on my lens from manual to autofocus.
{mental head slap}
Cut to the rescheduled fireworks display in Salina last weekend. After a great day of hanging out at the new waterpark with our beautiful nieces and awesome bro/sis-in-law, lunch with my parents and another beautiful niece for my dad's birthday and dinner at La Hacienda (YUMMMM!) with my in-laws for my mom-in-law's birthday, I wasn' t sure I, or anybody else for that matter, had anything left in the tanks to go out and brave the crowds again to watch the display. My sis-in-law and oldest niece were troopers and humored me enough to join me so I wouldn't be alone. (Thanks, guys. It was a blast!) We ended up at a softball complex parking lot (the site of which will be host to a long-awaited, much anticipated reunion of sorts. More info and pics to come, but I digress.) to view not one, but two, TWO fireworks display. The city and the country club had the whole dueling fireworks things going on. Quite impressive, really. And can I just take the time right now to tell you how impressed I have been lately with my little home town of Salina? I remember the minute I graduated from HS I hit the ground running away from this town, unable to wait to move to the big town of Topeka (ha!) and all it's more sophisticated and much more exciting things to do.
{Huge eyeroll}
Fast forward 16 years (OMG! Has it really been that long??) and I find myself yearning to get back to good ol' Salina. My how things have changed!
Anyway, here are the photos I've longed to capture for years now. I could have taken the time to lighten or tweak them in photoshop, but I didn't. So here they are. Just a little bit proud of them. Enjoy!

These starburst ones are my favorites!

Yes, I meant to have this one look like this. This time. Wanted to watch the firework explosion grow and fall with the exposure.

Ditto on this one, too.

Oooooo! Aaaahhhh!