It's Starting

Ethan's feet are now as big as mine, and he's only 10. I have a feeling that by next summer we may be eye to eye.

Found in Ethan's Room...

You gotta love this kid's self confidence though!

Summer Playtime

I love when the boys do some creative play. Lincoln was so proud of his creation.

A Whole Lot of Love

I have never met another kid that loves like my Lincoln loves. He constantly tells me he loves me, and always wants to hug, kiss, or cuddle me. This summer I made each of the the boys their own checklist for all their chores. Lincoln went a step further by adding one more thing to do- Love Mom. And of course it is already checked off! It's a pretty easy one for him, but I'll take it!

The boys always talk about their next birthday party and what theme they will choose for it. As I was tucking Lincoln in bed last night he told me he wants a "Mommy Party" for his next birthday, and went on to tell me that he wants a cake with my face on it, and a heart pinata because he loves me. He seriously melts my heart.

Father's Day

For Father's Day all the boys made a special card for Rob. Lincoln chose "Dad, Yoda Best" and insisted that he wear his Yoda shirt to present it to him.

These boys love their Dad, and we are so grateful for all he does for us. He really is the best!

Awesomely Gross

Ethan refuses to throw gum away. Instead, he'll just add a fresh piece to it. His wad of gum is huge and disgusting, but it makes for some awesomely big bubbles.

That face!

A hot day calls for some popsicles. 

The Case of the Missing Suitcase

Since we've been home from our trip, I haven't been able to find one of our suitcases. I've been going crazy trying to figure out what happened to it. Porter, of course, suggested that we say a prayer. Within minutes, I see him run outside, and comes back rolling the suitcase behind him. He says he had the thought to look outside, and found it on the side of the house where we never go. Had he not got that prompting, it would have been there for who knows how long. I'm guessing a cute 3 year old had a little too much fun rolling it around and left it there. I'm so proud of Porter and how quick he is to pray, and the faith he has to receive an answer. This kid's pretty special. 

A Big Improvement

Lincoln had his end of the year kindergarten performance today. It was so cute to see all the kindergartners sing. He did such a great job. It was a huge improvement from his Christmas performance!

The Gold Rush

Ethan had his class play today. It was on the California gold rush and he played a wealthy merchant. He loved the character and the props they gave him. He did a great job! 

East Coast Trip- Pennsylvania- Day 11

Even though it was the last day of our trip, we squeezed in as much as we could before we needed to be at the airport. We started at Hershey's Chocolate World. 

They have a little ride that you can take that shows how some of the candy is made. It was a Disneyland type  production with singing characters and we all had the jingle in our heads the rest of the day.

 Of course there was plenty of shopping at the end of the tour and the boys found the biggest candies they could find. 

We then went to the National Civil War Museum.

 They had tons of Lincoln memorabilia including the hat box he used on his campaign trail,

and a lithograph of the emancipation proclamation from 1864.

There was a computer that you could search for soldiers in the civil war. We found three Krepps names. Pretty cool.

 Last stop was Gettysburg. 

We did a self guided tour and drove ourselves to the sights. 

It was pretty surreal to look out on those fields and imagine what took place here. In a 3 day battle there were over 50,000 casualties.

We found the spot where President Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg address.

He was there to dedicate the Gettysburg National Cemetery after the war. Half of the deaths were unknown soldiers. They were each represented here.

We left Gettysburg and headed for the airport. It was time to go home. It was an amazing trip. So many things fell into place and we were able to see and do so much. I'm so glad that we were able to share this experience as a family.

East Coast Trip- Great Wolf Lodge- Day 9 and 10

Thursday we left early and drove to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge. We took the scenic route on the way there to avoid all the toll roads. I loved driving through all the quaint towns. The boys had been looking forward to this stop the whole trip. At check in each of the boys received their own wolf ears. 

We got settled in our room and then went straight to the water park.

All the boys loved these floating lily pads. It was a lot harder to go across than it looks. Porter and Ethan were determined to be able to run across without holding the rope. We spent a lot of time there, but they eventually got it.

The big slides were fun too. Bryson could go on all but two slides as long as Rob or I were with him. With a night stay we were able to use the water park the day we checked in and the day we were leaving, and we made the most of it. It was a great couple of family fun days.

East Coast Trip- NYC- Day 8

Wednesday we tackled lower Manhattan. We took the earliest ferry from New Jersey to the Statue of Liberty. We had a pretty good view of the city skyline while we waited.

The ferry stopped at Ellis Island first, but we opted to go straight to Lady Liberty. 

When we got there, they were unloading a pretty awesome motorcycle to put on display.

Inside the pedestal we got to see a former torch that she used to hold. Apparently she's had a few different ones. Who knew?!

There was also a replica of her feet so you could see the size.

The boys loved seeing the statue up close and in person.

We took the ferry over to Battery Park and got the kids their own souvenir hat to commemorate our day. 

 We walked through Wall street and took our picture with the famous bull,

and then made our way to the 9/11 memorial.

It was so surreal to be there. The thing that hit me hardest was when Rob pointed out a name that included, "and her unborn child". Just heartbreaking.

Next we went over to the One World Observatory in the new world trade center.

It had only been open since the Thursday before so we had to wait for a while in line. The whole experience was fantastic. As our line moved inside and made our way to the elevator, there were videos about the construction of the building and how NYC came back from such tragedy. The elevator ride itself was pretty awesome too. The walls are digital and as you rise to the top they show the landscape of Manhattan change from the beginning until current day. We went up 102 floors in about 45 seconds. We were then ushered out of the elevator to a dark room. The wall in front of us showed a short film of scenes of the city and then at the end the wall lifted up to reveal our view of the city.

It was the first clear day since it had opened, and we were so grateful for that.

The observatory has a 360 degree view, so you can see everything.

Looking down on the footprint of the twin towers was hard. It reminded me that what I was seeing was the same view so many people had as they were trapped.

We spent a lot of time up there soaking it in. They boys couldn't believe how small everything looked.

After we were done there we went to St. Paul's Chapel. It is the oldest surviving church in Manhattan. This chapel miraculously survived the terrorist attack without even a broken window. It served as a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers at the WTC site. There were several exhibits set up inside including a table set up with some of the memorials that people placed on the outside fence after the attack,

and a policeman's uniform covered with police and firefighter patches sent from all over the world. It was pretty neat to see the support.

Two days of walking started catching up with us, so we called it a day, and hopped on the ferry to head back to New Jersey.  I loved that the ferry had an American flag off the back.

Back in New Jersey we found the Empty Sky Memorial with the names of the residents of New Jersey that died in the attacks on 9/11. 

We got back to our hotel early enough to let the boys get in the pool and have some fun. It was a nice way to unwind from our day.