Welcome to this world baby Miles

Cousin Miles was born 8-15-12. We can't wait to head east next month to meet him. We can tell Zachary loves him already.

Friday night lights (on a Saturday)

	Josh & Jeremy recently played in an Alumni Football game. Josh was also coaching and calling the plays. The weather was perfect, reminded us of many of Friday night games sitting in the stands bundled in sweatshirts, now with the addition of the kids.
	We managed to find shirts to root on both 89
	and 18 for both Nate’s Godfathers.
	Annabelle was thrilled to sit with the girls and be the cheering section.

Idlewild - Visit 7 - Spur of the Moment

Seems like the best times we have had at Idlewild are when we go spur of the moment.  It's nice that we live so close and can do that. 

On this Saturday we woke to a *perfect* morning.  Cool but not cold, sunny and dry.  Daddy had yard work to do and we just decided to go for a bit.  We packed a lunch in the wagon and headed over.  We stayed about 5 hours, rode all our favorite rides plus the addition of the Scrambler. Annabelle had her first cotton candy and of course Nate & I had to share a cyclone. 

I love these kind of days. Chores forgotten, afternoon sugar treat, and plenty of giggles to go around. These are the days I look to the heavens and simply say "Thank you".

Upgrade

	We had a kiddie pool, a splash pool, for cooling off  the heat. It suited us fine and we thought we would get a whole summer use out of it.
	But then we went to this big lovely pool in June and discovered 1 thing, both kids were scared of the water. Splash pools are fine but forget swimming, forget getting face wet, forget anything deeper than their ankles.
	Daddy & I  talked about it. “How did this happen?”  We realized we both grew up with pools, fear of water wasn’t something we ever thought about. We decided to purchase a 3 foot pool and try to work with them on getting comfortable. After about 6 weeks of practice Annabelle is swimming underwater from one side to the other, floating unassisted and wants to be referred to as “the mermaid”.  Nate is still hesitant but does swim holding on to a kick board, puts his face in the water and is looks forward to daily swims.

Parade

	We attended the annual Fireman’s parade with our neighbor/friend Avery. How fortunate we are to have such a lovely tradition less than 1 block away. We can watch the firetrucks lining up outside our dining room window.
	Aside from the massive amounts of candy literally thrown at them, I think the kids favorite part was dancing to the music.

Idlewild visit 6 - Christmas in July

Aunt Karen, Uncle Kurt & Nana took the kids to see Santa for Christmas in July at Idlewild. This expression is Nate's "I can't believe you interrupted me" look. He had a lot to tell the jolly old elf  though only requesting 1 item, King Pig. Annabelle told him "I'll have to get back to you on that" when he asked what was on her list this year.

They were very excited to see him, especially when he waved as he was speeding though the park on a golf cart.

Mighty Winds

A microburst touched town on our street in late July. We sustained heavy tree damage and the loss of our beloved trampoline, which was picked up, folded in half and deposited in our Dogwood tree. We were much more fortunate than our neighbors who lost their roof, had trees uprooted and fences ruined. We were without power for a day, while inconvenient not nearly as bad as it could have been.

Idlewild visit 5 - July 16 with Alexa & Bryson

	We had an Idlewild outing with our good friends Alexa & Bryson. They do not live close and do not get to go as often as we do.
	As usual Nate had to fight with his wristband.
	“Teacher Randy” lead the class. I suspect Annabelle will always be the attentive, front row student.
	It’s like trying to herd squirrels.
	A little help from my friends.
	If there is no stage show going on, make your own.
	Boys in cars.
	They sat right in front for the Thomas train show.
	They were all chosen to participate in the show.
	We finished up the day on the boats. Fun day was had by all.

Princess Camp

	Annabelle attended dance camp again this year the week of July 13.
	Although heartbroken he couldn’t attend, Nate got to go to the playground with Nana while Annabelle was at class, then wait patiently in the lobby for her to finish.
	Annabelle loved it. The next to last evening before camp she had a complete meltdown stating “I’ll never get to go to Princess Camp again”. I tried to console her to no avail. Until we had an idea, maybe when she is older she can be the teachers assistant at camp. She hit Miss Angela up for a job first thing the next morning.

Bikes

Daddy worked some overtime, we decided to use the money to purchase the kids new bikes.  It was getting pathetic them both sharing one 12 inch bike. After a long evening at Toys R Us with the most helpful, patient sales associate I have ever known we left with 2 new bikes, new helmets (not easy to find) and what-was-I-thinking a horn for Annabelle. 

Next step is to get my old bike dusted off so we can ride around the lake in the evenings. 

Twin Lakes Festival - July 5th

	Of all the activities we participated in at the Twin Lakes Festival on this blistering hot day the only one I took pictures of was the kids in the petting zoo.
	Perhaps it is because I was so *shocked* that Nate wanted to feed the animals, in fact he loved it. What a difference a year makes.
	Annabelle was fearless and loving as always. Other activities included painting bird houses for Daddy’s birthday, participating in a Music Together demonstration with Miss Candice and eating yummy home made chips. A fun day was had by all but it was great to go home to the pool.

Idlewild Visit 4 - 4th of July

	We upheld our 4th of July tradition by attending the parade in Latrobe with Aunt Heather & Logan. It was very hot but we managed to secure a spot under a tree after the first 15 minutes.
	Then we went to Idlewild to swim all afternoon. We had packed a picnic and planned on eating at a pavilion. Just as we were headed over to get the coolers the storm started. We ended up having our first “van picnic”. We put the seats down and spread out the picnic in the back. We chose to call it an adventure. Then we rode some more rides until the park closed and got ready to watch the fireworks. As promised, they were spectacular.
	Nate was excited to see his first fireworks, unfortunately the activities of the day caught up with him as soon as we settled down to watch. When the first few loud booms hit Nate put his hands over his ears, leaned back against Mom and promptly passed out. Never woke up til morning.

Idlewild Visit 3 - July 3

	We went back to Idlewild 2 days later to watch our friend Claire perform. We just ran up after Mom was done with work. We watched Claire and her sister Elyse dance then had our dinner there. We closed Raccoon Lagoon and stopped for ice cream on the way out. Enjoyable way to spend an evening.

Idlewild - visit 2 - July 1, 2012

Annabelle had the opportunity to ballet dance on stage at Idlewild with her dance class, she was so excited to get to wear her "princess" outfit and dance for the crowd. Aunt Karen, Uncle Kurt, Josh, Mandy, Jeremy were there along with our family of Nana, Daddy, Mommy & Nate to cheer her on.  We all spent the rest of the day swimming as it was incredibly hot. It was very fun. The kids opted to stop and ride the Rollo Coaster on the way out instead of our usual Carousel.  They *loved* it and wanted to ride again.

Weekend 6/22 - 6/23 - King's Island

	I’m sorry, children of the future for my lack of keeping the yearbook up to date. We have been *busy* but I want remember our summer of 2012, so here we go, a series of catch-ups. We were rewarded with a trip to my boss Joyce’s house to swim after a 5 hour long van ride. The kids were great watching DVDs, Nana & I listened to a book on CD, the time went quickly.
	Both kids had a ball playing pool basketball with Noah, who despite being 10 was incredibly sweet and patient with littles. He helped them swim, eat and taught us all how to play cornhole.
	The next day we went to King’s Island for Mommy’s company picnic. Daddy had just started his new job that week and couldn’t go, Nana was kind enough to accompany us even though it was close to 100 degrees.
	We visited Planet Snoopy, the kids area.
	Nate was shy of the characters at first, Annabelle of course couldn’t wait to give them a hug.
	The only reason Nate went up to Snoopy was to ask him where Linus was.
	We rode some rides, had a late lunch and got ready to wrap it up for the day.
	Then Annabelle spotted Lucy, they danced.
	Then the moment I want to always remember. The characters were being led away by their handlers when Nate spotted Linus. He ran up to him and started babbling. Instead of walking away or ignoring him Linus bent down, listened as Nate told him all about his pillow. I didn’t think Linus could hear or understand him.
	Then Linus held his blanket up right to the side of Nate’s face, the same way Nate holds his pillow. Then they embraced. Two boys that share the same affection for their lovies. It brought more than one tear to my eye.