Our summer trips

July 4th - West Plains, MO
Ryan and I stopped at my aunt, uncle and 3 cousins home for a few days before heading to Alamaba and Mississippi. Ryan had fun doing sparklers for the first time. We spent lots of time in the pool. We also took Ryan to his first movie in a theater, Ratatouille. We don't get to see the Richards' family very often so it was a nice time. Ryan loves hanging out with Clay

July - Biloxi, MS
We met up with my grandparents after our MO visit and traveled to Alamaba and Mississippi. We attended a wedding in Alamaba. I don't advise visiting Alamaba in July. It was insanely HOT! Ryan and I made a short trip over to Biloxi, MS to stay on the beach for a couple days. Ryan liked the beach until we saw several jellyfish. He was done with the beach after that so we just swam in the outdoor hotel pool.

July - Washington
Jenn, myself and the kids went back to our hometown for week. We went to the county fair, got to see a few friends, went swimming and hung out with our families.

July - Colorado
As a family we to Colorado. We stayed the first few days in Colorado Springs with Lynn and Michael's home. We went and viewed the sights of Pike's Peak, Garden and the Gods, Seven Falls and Helen Hunt Falls. The next stop was Black Canyon which was my favorite part of the trip. We camped at the bottom of 2,000ft canyon. Beautiful! From there we headed to Durango, CO. We camped at Lemon Reservoir. Ryan's favorite part of the trip was riding the Durango/Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. I agree, it was pretty neat. The train ride was 3 hours one way but Ryan never got bored. He loved it! Can't wait to go back to Colorado! Probably one the most beautiful states that I have been too.

August - Omaha

My nephew's birthday is one week before Ryan's so we took the boys to Omaha to celebrate together. We spent a day at the zoo. Ryan's favorite part of the zoo was riding the train (makes the 1.5 hour wait worth it) and the flamigos. We stayed in a hotel with a really neat pool area for toddlers. There was a small waterslide and a big waterslide, guess which Ryan liked? THE BIG ONE! He is fearless when it comes to water. He would go down the slide with no floats on and with no one to catch him at the bottom. Good thing the water depth was only 3ft so he could touch the bottom. We had cake and opened presents at poolside. I think we all enjoyed hanging out as a family. It doesn't happen nearly enough. All in all, it was a great way to end the summer.