Sister!!!

We were very excited last week to have the boys' stepister Kalyn in town!  I am sure she is back home trying to rest from being worn out. The boys simply would not leave her alone!  They did not understand why she was not up at the crack of dawn like they were, so they really enjoyed laying outside her door waiting for her (not so patiently, might I add)! As always, she was wonderful with them, playing all of their games, playing along as they "cooked" for her, "sold" stuff from their store and watched countless episodes of Tom and Jerry. We took several day trips to museums, and the swimming pool and had a lot of ice cream and cupcakes.  The boys were in heaven! We already miss her, and we are looking forward to her next visit!

Father and daughter!  She is as tall as he is!

Lyndon laughed at me because she had to bend down to take this pic!  She is tall and beautiful!

This was the fun room for little ones! Of course, we big people had fun too!

The next room was the strange and unique!  I loved the sea horses...

...the giant cockroaches were not a favorite!

They also have an entire area devoted to fun experimental stuff for kids!  Logan and Luke both loved this air ball thing!

Kalyn and Lyndon both loved the bed of nails!

The boys demonstrating their superior upper body strength!

Lyndon demonstrating his superior upper body strength...

...me demonstrating how to be dragged across the floor!

They had a cool room that was just for designing and building your own creations!  This is what the boys started with...

...this is the finished product!

Ok, so not really, but it would have been cool!

Another day, we visited Ben and Jerry's ice cream shop and fed the ducks that live in the small pond behind the shop!  This particular day, they were rather aggressive!

Luke was having a blast chasing them!

They tolerated Luke, until we ran out of food!

Painted Ladies!

Today we released our pretty Painted Ladies!  The boys have had a lot of fun watching the caterpillars form their chrysalids and then become beautiful butterflies!  Well, Lyndon and I have had fun too.  They were all out of their chrysalids as of Sunday, and we waited for a nice cooler morning to let them go in the backyard.  We got to touch a couple of them and several even stayed on our hands for a bit before flying off!  I have to say that I was really impressed that this actually worked.  I expected that they would die or never come out of the chrysalids or make it past Bubba for release.  But, they did, and it was a great learning experience for the boys!

Future Painted Ladies!

While on our trip to Texas, we visited a wild flower farm that had an amazing butterfly garden!  The boys were able to walk through it and were having a blast trying to keep up with all of the beautiful butterflies!  For some reason, they loved Luke's hair and kept landing on him.  One of the guides showed the boys the caterpillars and chrysalids and explained the process of becoming a butterfly!  Logan was in awe and Luke just wanted to catch the butterflies and play with the caterpillars!  They loved it so much that we purchased a butterfly habitat and sent away for some live caterpillars!  It only took a few days, but the boys loved to watch them make their way to the top of the container and form into chrysalids!  We moved them just this morning to the habitat and are not-so-patiently awaiting the emergence of butterflies!  Here are a few pics of our habitat!  If you are interested, you can order a habitat and learn lots about them from http://www.insectlore.com/!

Awww Texas!

For the 4th this year, we headed to Texas to visit my parents and grandmother!  The boys got to spend 10 days with their grandparents and had the best time.  The weather was beautiful, minus the three days of rain thanks to hurricane Alex.  But, they still managed to swim, hunt bugs, help with yard work, go see some animals and go out on the boat with Papa.   The lake my parents live on hosts an amazing fireworks show which we got to view from the boat!  It was quite a sight to see the hundreds of boats "parked" in the lake late in the evening to watch the show!  It made me really miss my home state!  Here are some pics from our time there! We happened to be there in time for Papa's birthday, so the boys decorated some posters to hang outside, and they made a special keepsake box for him...it was a big hit!

A little swimming with Papa to help celebrate another year!

We are loving the hair...

Our trip to Zoo Exotic outside of Johnson City...

...they really liked to be fed!

Those are some serious antlers!

Some did not wait for the food to be handed out!

The next day, they boys were about as wild as the animals!

They had a bath after painting...

...then had to have another after hunting for bugs! 

Papa's cool fish pond!  The boys loved it!

I could not resist the feetprints from art time!

This is a picture from Luke's viewpoint!

They got to spend time with not only their grandparents, but also their great Grandmother Belle and great Uncle Don!

They were very excited to help Daddy and Papa pick up the limbs and clean up the yard!

Then they jumped in the pool for some swim time with Daddy!

Our last day there, we got on the boat and headed down the lake for the fireworks show!  The boys love the boat and especially love to drive!

Captian Papa

Three generations!

The plane ride home...one moment of peace and calm before the storm!

Luke managed to have two of the most memorable meltdowns on this day.  He at least saved them for before and after the plane ride!