Omaha with the Lansinks

Jenn and I took the kids to Omaha for a couple days. Thursday we went to the Henry Doorly Zoo. It was a beautiful day. It was almost too warm, the animals were being pretty lazy. The only bad part was all the "extra" fun stuff were closed. Ryan was looking forward to riding the train but it was closed :( The carousel was closed and most of the concession were closed. We still had a great time though. We were able to see a few animals that we didn't get to see in August.

Thursday night we stayed at a new waterpark hotel. Ryan had a good time swimming. I think we were at the waterpark for close to 3 hours then woke up the next morning and swam in the regular swimming pool for another hour before we had to check out of the hotel. He is such a waterbug.

Before heading back to Iowa on Friday, we stopped at the Omaha Children's Museum. Both boys had a lot of fun. Neither of them wanted to leave but it was 4pm and we had to get home. There was so much to do. I think Jack's favorite thing was the splish splash water table. Ryan's favorite thing was putting out the pretend fire with water hoses and driving the rescue boat. Here he is shopping in the pint-size grocery store and milking a cow...

I have been trying for SO LONG to get a good picture of Ryan and Jack. I can never get both of them to look at the camera at the same time, let alone smile. LOOK! A GOOD PICTURE!!

I am MAD....

but mom really likes the photo. Ryan was giving me "the look" because he was mad that I went and got from the field. He was telling me that he wasn't done working yet! Haha!

Spending time with friends!

Ryan and I have spent a couple nights down at Jenn's this month. Correy is in Omaha working for a several weeks so we like to go keep Jenn and the kids company. I wanted to share this cute picture of the kids. We love spending time with them!

Ryan's 3rd Birthday

Ryan turned 3 on August 30th. Ry had a great day. This year he truely understands what "birthday" means. To start off the day, one of Ry's friends came over to play. Then we went to lunch at Ryan's choice: McDonalds! That evening we went to Grandma/pa's for supper. We had his favorite meal, tacos. Can't forget cake, ice cream, and presents!

The big party was on Sept 1. Lots of family and friends joined us to celebrate. The kids enjoyed the bounce house, pinata, art, cake and running around outside. We had a wonderful time.

Three Year Old Stats:

40 lbs - 95 percentile (only 3 lbs more then last year)

40.25 inches - 97 percentile (almost 3.5 inches taller then last year)

Good bp, great sight 20/40 in both eyes, hearing was fine.

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.

New Family Website!

I was having a lot of trouble downloading photos to our last website so I have decided to do a blogspot instead. I am hoping for less of a headache with the technical aspect. So welcome!