Cardinals

We see so many different birds in our back yard, but I always love it when I see the cardinals.  We also have some super bright yellow birds that we see.  We add that to the hawks, herons, eagles and other birds and it's quite an aviary.  We feel really lucky to have such a great view and to have beautiful animals to watch.

Getting a new roof

We had some hail damage from a storm in April and are getting a new roof.  They started working today and will finish while we are on vacation.  This is definitely not a quiet job to have done, so we are happy to miss some of the noise.  

Ava and Kathleen

Oh, these girls are too cute!  Ava spent the better part of the day with Kathleen and they made these fruit pizzas.  These are two happy girls who are the best of friends!

All good things must end

Tammy and the girls left the next morning to go back to Chicago and meet Jim.  We packed as much into 3 days as we could while still having plenty of time to talk, laugh, and enjoy each other.  They sent this picture when they got back to their hotel room.  We loved the sentiment that they were in such a fun place, but still missed us.  It was a wonderful trip and I look forward to the next time that the Halls are in our house!

The Halls are in the House - Day 3

Tammy had a couple of requests on her trip and one of them was to learn to make cinnamon rolls.  She and her girls sat and watched as I cooked and we chatted.  It was awesome.  

Mmmmm!  We hung out for the better part of the day, enjoyed home cooking and the kids played.  

That night we went to downtown Carmel for dinner at Bub's.  We walked around for about a half hour while we were waiting for our table.  The kids had fun with the statues and the fun places to relax.  

 

Yummy Bub's!

What would the day be without a little more fishing?  We had some small and big that day!

We had a bunch of the kids' friends over that night and did an outdoor movie night.  The kids had a great time.

They watched Men In Black.  It was a very fun end to another full, fun day.

The Halls are in the House - Day 2

We decided to go to the Children's Museum and spend some time playing.  Mission accomplished!

There are some great climbing things outside and we had lots of fun before we even got inside.

 

 

Once we made it inside, we had more dinosaur fun.

We sat and learned from this person in the paleontology lab for quite a while.  After, we got to watch what they were working on.

Off to China next!

Then scuba diving!

Then to outer space!

 

 

Then to see some beautiful Chihuly glass.  

Now on to dancing!

 

 

Then we headed to the pop culture exhibit and did some fashion designing.  

Why stop there?  Let's go to the circus...not just go to it, but be it!

Ava the human cannonball!

And Zach!

Andrew the strong man!

 

Zach's impressive bench press.

 Go Ava go!

On to acrobatics!

 

The climbing Bacons and Halls!

Try taming these two!

Okay!  This is such a cool tight rope walking exhibit!  You put on virtual reality glasses and then walk the rope and it really looks like you are high on the rope.  Some people can't walk across and really feel vertigo.  It was so much fun to try the virtual glasses - I loved it!

 

 

Come on now Tammy!  We were impressed!

 

It wasn't easy fitting all these kids in the car!

And it wasn't easy getting them out either!

 

   

We stayed until it closed!  We got some great pictures of the kids in front of the big window. 

  

We met Greg after the museum and did a kid swap.  He took the kids home and Tammy and I went to Nada for some delicious food!  It was so yummy and so fun to get to go to dinner - just the two of us!

When we got home, the girls were outside fishing in the back yard.
 

They caught some pretty good fish!

 

 

 

 I love this picture of the girls.  They are so cute.  It was the perfect end to a perfect day!