Fair Time

We had a really great time at the fair this year, we went with our friends: Jeff, Chris and Sammie.
I think they county went all out this year. They hired face painters, caricature artists and a clown that juggles and makes balloon animals. And the best part is the county paid their fees so they didn't charge anybody for their service. We were too late for the face painting...and Berti had no interest in it anyways which made mommy very upset, you know I would have loved those photos :) But the kids both got balloon animals and Eric and I got our picture drawn. The caricature artists was really cool. He talked to Eric about radio and football. It turns out he owns a haunted house in Omaha and it sounds fun so I plan on going this year.
After getting our photo drawn, we went out and walked around the fairgrounds. It was actually really nice out, like the first non 100 degree day all week. Liberty in the bouncy castle and then went on her elephants although this year she decided her favorite one was pink, not orange. "Orange is old" she told me :) We ate funnel cake and cotton candy and Logan got his favorite corn dog :) We watched the Juggler. He told funny jokes and made faces at Berti and Lolo to make them laugh. He was also the clown that made balloon animals. He was really good! Oh and he' didn't dress like a clown. I just knew he was one because I grabbed his business card. If this photo looks familiar it's because Jeff looks the exact same in every photo I take of him. Same pose, same smile, same glasses. I'm not sure how he does it but it creeps me out. Eric won us all posters playing the dart game and then he got balloon bats for the kids which they used to attack Chris with. Eric and Chris went up into the fun house. Eric pulled Chris's pants down as he tried to go up the stairs but I didn't get a photo. You could hear them laughing the whole time they were up there and I'm glad the only little kids around were mine since they are both pretty immature. I have a very funny video of them but it was getting dark and my battery was low so my photos didn't turn out too great. Even though Eric had to get up early the next morning, we ended up staying until way past ten. It was really really fun!

Random Farm Photos

Logan has learned to place fetch with Sophie. They both love it and would play for hours if I'd let them :)

Both of my babies have now grown to love the four wheeler. Berti has loved it for a long time... she learned to drive it when she was 2 :) but Logan was always scared by it. I think being sandwiched between his big sister and his grandpa makes it feel safe and more fun for him.

Poolside Fun

Now that we have our pop up tent in place, we have actually been able to go out into the pool without getting overheated or sunburned... well the kids have, I still turn red like a lobster. I swear I wear the strongest sunblock I can find and I still burn...Ouch!
Anyways, in the afternoons the sun in in the perfect spot so the tent puts shade over the pool and we can spend an hour or two splashing around. Berti loves it. Logan is still a little scared of the water but he slowly gets in, especially when daddy is in there too, otherwise he just stays under the tent at the table with me.

Liberty has also started a new fascination with flies. She calls them her tickle bugs and gets excited and happy when they land on her because it means that they like her... I think it's a little weird but I had to include photos of that too.

Oh and can someone please explain why it is that I can't get a single shot of me with both of my kids together but I can get all of these with them and their daddy... It's just not fair! I think he may be secretly bribing them. That's the only way it makes any sense to me.

Our Gazebo

So for a long long long long long time... probably as long as we've been living here, I've been complaining about our lack of shade. We have two big beautiful trees in our front yard right on the edge of the road, but the rest of my huge lawn is bare. This makes summer unbearable at our house. The kids can't play outside, I can't garden, it's just too hot. So this year Lowell went out and got us a Gazebo for our backyard. And it was beautiful. It took 2 days for the boys to get all the parts together and put it up... and ONE SHORT HOUR, barely forty five minutes, after it was finished, a surprise storm blew through and destroyed it. It stripped out all the screws and snapped off a couple bars so it was totaled :( Eric got a cheap little pop up tent as a replacement, not as pretty but it gets the job done.

The weekend of the fourth

We were planning a trip up to see my cousin get married but at the last minute one of Eric's jobs decided he couldn't have those days off so we ended up staying home. I was bummed out but we had a pretty nice time at home. One of our good friends (Mike) was home on leave from the Army and it was really nice to get to spend time with him and his family, they are my favorite people :) On Thursday Mike went to get some more work done on his tattoos. I tagged along and met his artist. I liked him a lot.

We had dinner with Mike and his friends and family Sunday night before heading out to the farm to watch the fireworks... At the request of the soldier, I have only posted the family friendly photos I took... The other ones aren't actually bad, just him and my husband being funny and since you all know my crazy husband, they would be no shocker here, but still he asked me not to post so I'm just going to print them out for his family instead :)

The fireworks this year were really short and you could tell the town had cut their budget. Logan loved them anyways. He watched for everyone and oohed and awed the whole time. It was really cute.

The next night we had our own fireworks at our house. Again Logan loved it but Berti wasn't a fan of all the noise. She stayed outside with grandpa to watch the fireworks but she kept her ears plugged most of the time.