Fishing at the farm

While we were up in St. Louis, we decided to take the kids fishing with Grandma Joyce, Papa Butch and Aunt Ali.  The kids had a blast and caught a lot of fish - they provided our dinner that night!  Preston caught the biggest fish of the day - a bass! 
There are a ton of pictures from this event, so go here if you want to see more!

 Preston wanted to be just like Papa before going fishing, but he wouldn't leave the dew rag on .

 Chloe and Aunt Ali

 Chloe and Daddy

 First fish!

 Preston needed a potty break!

Chloe decided to take a walk by herself

 Chloe and Grandma

 Oh! It's a big one!

 PULL!!

 He didn't want to touch it!

 Drink break

 Snack break

 Family pic - the only evidence I was there! :)

 Good day of fishing with Papa!

Our yummy dinner!

AJ turned 30!!

In July, AJ said good bye to his 20's and joined a lot of us already in our 30's!  He was surprised by family and friends the weekend before his birthday - we started the evening at Mother's Brewery and did their tour of the facility and tasting of several beers!  We then went down the street to the Springfield Cardinal game and sat in the Redbird Roost where we had unlimited food and soft drinks through the game.  The Cardinals won which made the game even better!  We then headed off to Andy's Frozen Custard to finish the night off right!  I unfortunately have no pictures of the night :(  I do believe he had a fantastic time and was surprised by all the people involved - Butch, Joyce, Ali, Brian and Adrienne came in from Ste. Genevieve, his aunt and uncle came up from Kimberling City, and we were joined by lots of friends from Springfield!  Thanks to all who came out!
AJ had one more surprise to come - we went to St. Louis before our trip to Tennessee and went to the Gateway Grizzlies game with a lot of our Maryville friends.  To his amazement he was to throw out a first pitch!  He was a little upset with me that I hadn't been making him toss a ball in the previous weeks and let him go to the game in flip-flops!  He did great though :)

We had a great time hanging out with our friends at the game and letting the kids run amok at the big playground.  We didn't really get to watch much of the game, but I think everyone had fun!

 Waiting to throw out the ball!

 Watching Daddy!

 Big slide!

 Concentrating hard to get that big hit!!

 Chloe's turn

 Our kids are not afraid of the mascots

 Look at all of our kids playing on the hill, oh and the 2 daddys

Me and the birthday boy!!

Tan-tar-a

Early July, we went on our 2nd annual trip with many of our Maryville friends and all of our kids...for awhile the kids out numbered the adults!  We spent 4 days and 3 nights at Tan-Tar-A at Lake of the Ozarks and had a fabulous time.  The weather was hot but we spent a lot of our time at the pool and playing inside our big house!  The kids loved riding the bus to the pool, which we completely filled and then commonly over took the pool.  Next year there may be even more of us!!

 We couldn't get all the kids together for one picture - this was as close as we got

Swim suits...what are those?

When the pools out, Chloe doesn't really care if she has a swim suit on or not, and Preston follows suit!

Independence Day

This year 4th of July was quite different for us.  We didn't do a darn thing - it was very strange.  We stayed home all day and the kids got to play outside and swim all day.  We did go down to Branson landing on July 3rd for their fireworks, they didn't start until 10:10 and Chloe hated them, even though we were really far away from them, so we saw about 3-5 minutes total while walking to the car basically.  Preston on the other hand loves fireworks and wanted to watch them every time he heard them. 
Thank you to all the brave men and women who have put their lives in danger and to the families who have lost a family member fighting to keep our freedom, so that we can have this day to celebrate our freedom.
Here are a few pictures from our 4th, here are some more:

Preston is quite the dare devil!

Our kids love the garden fresh tomatoes

We have tomatoes (and squash) galore growing in our (AJ's) garden this year!  Which is a little surprising since it has been so hot and dry here.  Chloe really likes to pick the tomatoes and eat them straight out of the garden - we try not to let her do that b/c usually she picks the green ones!  They both really like to eat them just like an apple and this makes for some cute pictures usually.