While it threatened rain early in the day, we were blessed with sunshine the whole time of the event, up until shortly after clean-up when the skies exploded with heavy rain.
We love bouncy-houses!
Megan's tooth-less, red-cheeked grin!
Megan and Daniel sneaking off for a snow cone.
Overall, it was a really good time. The kids had fun and it was a great way to spend some time with our Adventurers friends.
Daniel (in the plaid) and his best bud Luke (in the stripes) graduated from the Beginners class at church. I opted to stay in the Beginners room one more year because it is so fun to teach 3-and-4-year olds! We are now drawing near to the end of my second year in the room and I'm happy to pass the little kid room on to another teacher.
Along with some help from my awesome staff, I moved the physician's group into a multi-million dollar building. It took up quite a bit of the summer, but the experience of it all was really eye-opening. I learned quite a bit, even though in the end I decided that the management tract I was taking was moving me further and further away from my patient-care related goals. I still work for the same large organization, now I'm back doing in-patient nursing and I'm happier than ever!
Lilly's dog-school took up much of our summer. We faithfully attended every Thursday night for 8 weeks in a row. 
Lilly learned how to beg and she uses that skill daily. We aren't allowed to feed her anything but her dog food, since she's a few pounds overweight. 
Daniel and Buddy Bear and Meow-Meow settled in for movie-night.
After everyone was done golfing, Keith bought bags of dirt that the kids then panned over running water to reveal different "minerals". It was a cute activity and we still have all the gems, including some fun Indian Arrowheads. 
A group shot of all of us. The kids are already asking for another visit!
Daniel as the king of the hill waiting to go onto the next hole.
Megan asked if we can get a waterfall like this for our pool. 
The three golfers! They had a blast! I think it was Daniel's first time actually being successful at mini-golfing. However, not as successful as Mary Grace, she scored not one but two hole-in-one shots! 
Mary Grace and Frank - we now call them Grandma and Grandpa Ketchum. 
The boys. They are so handsome! 
Joshua and Daniel checked out all of the different experiments to try and settled on the air pressure marshmallow shooter. Fortunately, the kit came with some balls of fluff, and so we did not have to break into our sticky snacks for ammunition. 
Joshua made the shooter and then altered it many times to see how much he could change the air flow through the tubes to change the target area of the fluff ball. It was really neat. There are a few other experiments in there that involve using things out of the recycling bin. Two thumbs up from Joshua!
Here's Keith giving a thumbs-up for drawing the short straw and having to help with homework duty. I'm sure given the choice, he will choose "clean the kitchen" next time. Oh the tears and drama Megan can produce when she just doesn't want to do her school work. The assignment was to cut out "sparkle words" from magazines and bring them to school. Now, I realize I am certainly not an education professional...however, when you tell a (then) 6 year old girl to cut out "sparkle" words, and the two magazines in the house, Time and Shape, do not have anything in them that actually sparkles, then the tears come bubbling out. What ever happened to just calling them adjectives? Once we talked further about these words being describing words, the assignment went a little easier.
They seem to tolerate each other's existence, and like to share the sunny spots on the kitchen floor.
My two favorite snugglers. Lilly will get mad at me in the evening if I am milling around the house doing stuff and not sitting on the couch chilling out with her. I thought being a dog owner would encourage me to exercise more. Apparently, my dog has a bit of couch-potato in her! 
Joshua read to us from one of The Bible Story books. 
Megan and Grandpa listening by the light of the tree.
We played a few rounds of chess, which Joshua had unwrapped as one of his Christmas presents the night before. We had to get creative this year because we had so many festive things that we were trying to do! So we opted to have a gift-opening celebration on Christmas Eve and save Christmas morning for our wonderful church service and lunch at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
Grandma sure cooked up a fancy spread for us! 
We were given a tour of the truck and a lesson on all of the different tools the firemen use. 
A post-hair cut picture (didn't I promise I would be all out of order!). Megan and I were taking a peek at the nighttime colors of the castle, just before getting ready to head home for the night.
We so very much enjoyed the hair-cut experience! 
The kids enjoyed watching the flume of Splash Mountain. It was just a little too chilly for us to do that ride this time around and after the minor "dip" of Pirates of the Carri bean, I wasn't sure how many tears this ride would evoke. 
We saw Woody and Jesse out for a stroll. The line was crazy-long to get a picture with them, so I snapped on in passing.
We ran into Goofy just outside of Pirates. Goofy is one of my favorite characters!
The Jungle Cruise is a must-ride for anyone. Seriously, the cheesy shtick from the cruise director left my sides hurting. 
We journeyed through the Swiss Family Robinson tree house. There was not a lot of people wandering through there, so we were able to take our time. We love that movie and so it was really fun to see the bedrooms and kitchen. 
The little one's planning their next attack! 
My driving partner. Look out, ladies!
With sweet eyes like that, I can forgive his poor driving. 
Me and my prince charming in front of Cinderella's castle. Awww....
As you can see, we did not let the rain deter us from having fun. Each of the kids attempted to pull the sword out of the stone. I have heard mixed stories and cannot confirm if this particular sword is actually able to be dislodged from the stone. However, it did not stop these guys (and gal!) from giving it their all.
