It’s Grampa Dusty’s birthday, so we spent the day at his house! We baked a lemon cake with lemon pudding in between the layers, covered in a homemade lemon butter cream frosting. Yum! We also had baby meatloaves for dinner, with mashed Yukon Gold potatoes and veggies. The girls played Legend of Zelda almost all day, sometimes with Grampa and sometimes without.

Right before dinner, Erin came over with Caleb and Rhys. Ashley got to meet Rhys for the first time (me too!). She could hardly believe that she was once that same size! Here are some pictures of the cousins together.

Ashley gets to meet and hold Rhys.

Bring Kayla into the group.

And Gramma and Grampa too (the Grampa picture was a little fuzzy).

Check out the face!

Food coma! He’s almost drooling. =)

Time for cake!

Rhys doesn’t like to open his eyes, but he was hungry and complaining.

We have been busy since the last post! First, we all had to get done with school. We know have two middle schoolers in the house – a rising 5th grader and a rising 8th grader! Sheesh. Now we are settling into our summer routine.

Gramma had her birthday. Kevin grilled flank steak, we made little red potatoes and baby brussel sprouts (and peas), and for dessert, we made cobbler. Gramma really wanted peach cobbler like she had in AZ, and lucky for us peaches are coming into season. I made a big peach cobbler and a little apple cobbler. Here is Gramma’s birthday “cake”.

The girls have a new cousin! They were a tad disappointed that he was not a girl, but they still think he is cute all the same. They won’t be able to meet him for a little while. Kayla could go to the hospital and visit because she is over 12. But Ashley can’t. We will wait until they come home to meet Rhys.

Kayla started summer weekly band lessons today. She has her week long retreat coming up in a few weeks. Kevin will be gone that same week for training in Houston for the new job, so it will be just Ashley and I!

Ashley had her belt test recently. At each test, kids earn stripes for their performance. 1 stripe is OK, 2 is good, 3 is excellent, and 4 would be near perfect. The fourth stripe you earn on a color promotes you to the next color. At her very first test, she earned 2 stripes on her white belt. This time, she earned 3 more, which means red with one stripe! Here is her sensai putting her stripe on the belt.

And here is our new red belt!

Another important part of our summer routine: visiting Six Flags! The new coaster opens tomorrow, but we won’t get over there for a little bit. Kevin really wants to ride it, and I don’t (and won’t and can’t without being ill, stupid body). So the girls need to wait for him. But we didn’t have to waste a near 90 degree day at home either! We went to the waterpark for a few hours!

If you look closely, you’ll see the girls on the stairs struggling to carry up the big tube (right under the blue and yellow tube). An employee helped.

Here they are coming out of the thing.

More rides. Here they are climbing up more stairs, you can just see their tiny forms.

And coming down from it.

Happy to be there!

Lazy river.

And what would a theme park be without a carousel ride?

This coming weekend will be super busy! It is Kevin’s and my annual bike ride, the Tour de Farms MS150. Kayla will spend the weekend with Gramma. Ashley is spending it with her friend who moved about 3 hours south. Our event is halfway between, so her friend’s mom is meeting us there to take Ashley for the weekend. Looks to be toasty warm, but hopefully it won’t rain…

Happy Birthday to Aunt Schna on Friday!