Nothin' but net!

Tracen has been participating in the CDBA basketball league since late November. He practices every Tuesand and Thursday. Tracen absolutely LOVES his basketball. He never stops jumping, siggling or smiling. If everyone had their own heaven, Tracen's would be here on the basketball court. His shooting and dribbling are awesome! Now we just have to get him to be a little more aggressive and he would be an all around awesome player! It has been so much fun to watch him!

Farm Show 2013

The Farm Show has come to town.  We braved the crowds (which consisted of half the State of PA, and went to enjoy us some horses, cows and ducklings!

Tracen even got to pet his very first Rodeo horse.  He loved seeing the ducklings.  They were the highlight of his night.  As a souvenir we left carrying colored Peacock feathers.

We watched the entire milking process of this dairy cow. We learned that a cow produces 5 to 10 gallons of milk with each milking.

The best part about the Farm Show was the FOOD.  We gorged ourselves on milkshakes, bloomin' onion, fried cheese and potato donuts.  We even saw a sculpture made entirely out of butter....Yes, I did just say,..butter!(Front view of sculpture pictured above)

Side view of butter sculpture and of course us...you can't pass up a picture with butter!

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission....

My sis-in-law has this quote on her wall...I will be using it VERY soon...but it is appropriate here:

mis*sion*ar*y (noun):  someone who leaves their family for two years so others can be with their family for Eternity

Chris' cousin left on a mission and I wanted to do a little something...so I came up with this:
(I'm kinda proud of it...LOL)  We are going to make it a monthly goal to write to our family missionary and maybe he will even get a little treat out of it!  What a lucky guy...ha!

Fun with Cousins

 One of the highlights of this trip is seeing all of our cousins.  There are many more pics of these cuties to come and many more cousins, but here are some from our first week in Reno.

 My boys can't get enough of little Peyton.  They can hardly grasp the fact that he is a "walking baby" and isn't 1 year old yet.  He is so fun and has really warmed up to us in the past couple of weeks.

 On Mondays, Grandma Debbie usually hangs our with Ally and Zack, but since we have been here, we gladly have taken her place.  Our first week, we swam, watched movies and painted bird houses.  Logan LOVES Ally and Tracen and Zack get a long great.  It is fun to have them all together!

Welcome to ReNo!

We got to Reno on July 10...which side note is also my Dad's birthday...and have been here ever since, playing, visiting and having fun. We miss Chris tons and miss our friends in PA and our home, but we are having a good time. I have TONS of pictures, so I am going to try and get caught up and go in order.

When we first got here, I spent a lot of time at the hospital visiting my sweet grandma Lou! (thanks to an awesome babysitter/aunt who would take the boys!) She has made a ton of improvements since the first day that I saw her, but she still has a LONG way to go. She is now in a rehabilitation hospital where they have her learning to speak, swallow and breathe.  But with little improvement everyday, it is encouraging and keeps the faith and hope.  

One of our first play dates was with some of our greatest friends the Iverson's.  We played at the mall indoor play place and then headed over to do some swirling.  The kids had so much fun interacting with each other.  At one point, Brooklyn (5) told her mom that she needed to tell her a secret.  And speaking about Tracen she whispered, "I think I'm going to marry him!"  Yes, please!  We would love it.  Imagine their awesome mother-in-laws :)  We got pictures of the kids, but I don't have them, so you will have to deal with mine and Lindsay's cute faces :)

On Saturday, July 14, I headed to San Fransisco with Kent, Christin and her sister, Traci.  We ran a 5K called the Color Run.  Basically, you show up with a white shirt and by the end, you are a rainbow.  It was fun!

The BEFORE

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and after 3.1 miles (maybe...it didn't feel that long)...the AFTER

We did it!  PS, I am a terrible jumper...ha!

Life Lion

Have I ever told you how much I LOVE Hershey?  Where else do you have a level 1 trauma center surrounded by fields of wheat and corn, stuck in the middle of a small town frosted with chocolate and littered with AMAZING young families!  It has been the perfect fit for us.  One downfall...um...our Daddy works WAY too much!  AND we don't have family.  (maybe that was more like 2 downfalls)  I am always telling people that if I could pick up Hershey and move it closer to family, that it would be my ideal.  So I guess we will just have to live it up for the next 47 1/2 months!  Today for PIM playgroup we headed over to the Life Lion hangars to watch the helicopters fly out.  It was totally AWESOME!  The KIDS LOVED IT!!!...even though it was a bit windy and noisy!  And we didn't only get to see one, but two fly out.  By the time the people were don telling us about the helicopters and giving us an up-close-and-personal-look, they got a call and had to go.  They had said that from the time they get a call to the time they are off the ground is a mere 5 minutes...how amazing is that?  Needless to say, it was our one great outing for the day as we will be packing, cleaning and getting ready for our trip out West!

 

Foot note: In the video the propellers look like they aren't moving, but in reality they were going so stinkin' fast...I think that my phone camera couldn't keep up!