Kansas #6 of 6...

So, my cousins' boyfriends' (Westin and Garrett) family has a dairy that we visited too. They have 150 cows, and we even got to see a baby one that was just born the day we were visiting.

Here's Gavin peering into the huge tank of milk, fresh from the cows. We were there in the evening when the cows were being milked, and it was really quite interesting to see.

Gavin learned that cows "moo" when they're hungry. (I can't say that I knew that, myself, before this visit. Did you?) They let Gavin feed the cows too.

On our last day Uncle Ron pulled Gavin and Sammy (the Golden Retriever) in the trailer behind the four-wheeler. He said he'd never put the dog in there before, but everyone seemed to enjoy the ride.

It was a busy, fun, adventurous and exhausting trip. In terms of sleep, Gavin did better than we expected him to, and Gage actually had a harder time that we expected him to. But, in the end, I'm so glad that we went to Kansas to visit my family! Thanks, everyone, for a great trip!!!

Kansas #5 of 6...

Here's Uncle Ron putting the worm on the fishing pole. Gavin was as fascinated by the worms as he was by the sport, and he's talked lots about the worms since we've been home.

I love this picture! I have memories of fishing with Uncle Ron as a kid, and we had to tell Gavin the stories of Mommy never wanting to touch the fishies with her fingers and using a kleenex to pick them up.

Oh my goodness! Uncle Ron was so proud of Gavin here (and the Blue Gill catch) that he was caught smiling in this picture, which is a rarity to say the least.

I'm so happy that our son got to experience all of this!

Check out this Blue Gill that Uncle Ron caught later. We'll refrain from making any comment about the comparison between our two-year-old's catch and his.

Kansas #4 of 6...

Uncle Ron doesn't hesitate to put willing visitors to work :) so here's Brent on the riding mower in their yard.

A real natural, wouldn't you say? Brent's such a helpful guy.

Is this cute or what?! Uncle Ron even let Gavin drive the tractor himself. You can about imagine how much that meant to our son.

I actually have no idea what they were doing on this tractor, but it probably didn't matter much to Gavin. Just sitting on it was about the coolest thing he'd done in a long time!

Kansas #3 of 6...

This is one of my husband's "artistic shots" taken outside of the beautiful barn that Uncle Ron just decided to put up when Aunt Patsy turned 40. (Why'd he have to take my idea?)
Not bad, huh?! My uncle is really an incredible builder. They have a beautiful home and surrounding property.

Gavin had his first weenie roast in Kansas too! Featured in this shot (left to right) are Grandpa, Westin (Sierra's boyfriend), Garrett (Brittany's boyfriend and Westin's brother) and Gavin. These "friends," as Gavin called them, were SO good with our boys, and Gavin loved them.

Gavin looks pretty into his meal, wouldn't you say? So adorable on that little chair too.

Here's our little family enjoying the weenie roast together. Poor Gage looks like an afterthought off to the side, doesn't he?

Kansas #2 of 6...

I guess this isn't a particularly good shot of most of my family between the plant, the computer and Gavin's hat, but here they are (from left to right): Brittany, Sierra, Aunt Patsy and my goofy son who was posing with a straight face for the camera.

As you can well imagine, Gavin LOVED the trampoline outside. And I did too...until we bumped into each other and my lip started bleeding. That quickly ended my trampoline time, but that didn't stop Gavin from jumping with anyone else willing.

It was a good spot for tackling too. Daddy and Gavin like to do that.

This is Grandpa Brandt. He is my mom's dad and my only living grandparent. He is 89 years old and recently had some serious health problems, so I was really glad to see him and introduce him to Gage. He loved the boys, but I don't know if he knew quite what to do with Gavin most of the time. Gavin thought it was pretty neat that Great Grandpa knew how to wiggle his ears. Now if I ask Gavin if he can wiggle his ears, he just puts his fingers on his ears and wiggles 'em. Clever!

Kansas #1 of 6...

We just went to visit my family in "KAN-zus" last weekend, and Gavin had so many cool first-time experiences that it will take us the next six posts to document them all. Here he is with Uncle Ron, cutting down trees on his property.

Gavin loved riding--and even driving--the four wheeler with Uncle Ron. My aunt and uncle live in the country outside of Goessel, which is outside of Newton, which is outside of Wichita...if that helps any of you with your Kansas geography.

Uncle Ron enjoyed having a little hired hand for the weekend, and Gavin was right in his element.

I guess this post should be called "Ode to Uncle Ron" now that I think about it. Here he is with Gage.
Aunt Patsy is a wonderful cook, and among her yummy dishes were these amazing muffins (pumpkin chocolate chip AND rhubarb, two different types of muffins), as can be seen all over Gavin's face. We had no trouble taking care of them for her...and even taking one for the road! Patsy, thanks for hosting us and making such delightful treats.

Formal pictures...

Is this precious or what?! His wispy, Fraser hair cracks us up. Though all of these pictures are adorable to us, I thought that the photographers didn't have the best luck that day capturing Gage's most precious smiles.

If we thought that it was tricky to get good ones of one child, we didn't know what we were in for with two! When one was smiling the other was serious; or better yet, when one was elated the other was in tears. This was one of the best pictures of Gavin and Gage together. Side note: Not that you can see it here, but Gage adores his big brother. He watches everything he does and has recently even become distracted by him when he's supposed to be nursing. So cute!

This was one of the most precious solo shots of Gavin. What a grown-up little dude we have!

Oh yeah, this was probably the best one of them together. Gavin's hand on Gage kills me!

Oh, wow! How did my Precious Piggy get to be four months old?! When I was sleeping?! Oh, yeah, maybe not, since I'm still not doing enough of that these days. (I'm only feeding him once in the middle of the night now, but I'm still up a bunch just helping him get back to sleep between 11 pm and 4 am. We even let him cry for up to five minutes at a time, and that felt impossible to do with Gavin at this age.)

Gage...

This guy has been loving his appendages lately. He loves to grab his feet and put his entire hand into his mouth.

His smiles absolutely ruin us lately. And I could listen to his giggles all day!

Happy Mother's Day, indeed! God has been so good to us. Gage turns four months tomorrow.

Swimming with Mommy...

Due to the pregnancy etc I had taken a major hiatus from swimming with Gavin, and we all decided that it was high time for Mommy and Gavin to get back to the pool together. So Daddy brought Gage--and the camera--and we all headed to our local rec center.

I had fun throwing Gavin up and catching him in the pool that day. It reminded me of what my dad used to do with me when I was little. He loved it, by the way, and someone tell me: How and when did my son get so big?!

Daddy caught two killer facial expressions here, if you ask me.


Here we are warming up in the family hot tub afterward. Our next mission is to get Gagecito into the pool too. I think he'll like it since he loves his baths.

Garden work...

Brent has spent a bunch of time out in our garden and yard lately making it beautiful in time for Spring. Every once in awhile he'll hack everything back in our garden, weed it, reclaim it and put down new mulch. It looks awesome right now because it's full of tulips in bloom. I love flowers!