Drew's End of Year Celebration

Drew loved going to preschool this year. He's sad it's over for the summer and will miss his friends.

Drew and Christian

Drew and Robert

Jeep

Drew and Laci love to ride in the Jeep. They look like a little old couple riding around our circle.

Baby Turtle

Drew and Laci found a baby turtle in our backyard this spring. It was our pet for a few hours. All of the kids loved it. We let it go in the pond behind our house that night.

Korea

We went to Korea for 9 days in April. Nick had to go for work, so I tagged along. We flew Grandma Sally out to stay with the kiddos. It was a nice kid-free vacation for us. Nick served his mission in Seoul, so it was fun to see him back in his old stomping ground. My favorite part of the trip was watching peoples' reactions to Nick speaking Korean. He still remembers some of the language and a white dude speaking Korean isn't very common.

A really old palace

A fun market

When we were walking around one night, Nick heard a familiar ping...the sound of a ball being hit off a bat. We had come across some batting cages and he HAD to give it a shot. FYI - He struck out his first 10 tries. Bret and Cole loved that dad strikes out too!

We found the church on our last day. It was in the same location, but Nick says it's a totally new building.

We took a tour up to the border between North and South Korea, aka the de-militarized zone (DMZ). It was the most interesting part of the trip. We got to go down into a tunnel that the North had dug to trying to invade the South. They've discovered around 20 of these tunnels, all of which have been unsuccessful.

Me, with the North Korean flag in the distance. We could use the binoculars to look over into North Korea. There was a huge statue of Kim Jong Il, their leader. I guess there are lots of these statues all over the country.
A sign posted in one of the restroom stalls...instructions on how to use (and not use) a toilet.

Winter

This is the sledding hill we made with all of the snow we got. It was a long, cold, snowy winter.

Braces

Bret got braces in March!! He's more like a teenager everyday...SCARY!

Cole's 8th

Cole turned 8 on February 26. He had a laser tag party with about 10 of his closest buddies. A couple of weeks later, Grandma, Grandpa and cousins Kate and Emily came to visit for Cole's baptism.

Disney World

We went to Disney World the week before Thanksgiving. We met Tony, Allie, AJ and Adeline there and everyone had a great time. The parks were empty the first three days and we were able to walk onto all the rides. Nick felt jipped not being able to use all the fast passes he ran around collecting. It was definitely more crowded on the weekend and we put the fast passes to use. It was so fun to see Laci's reaction to the characters and princesses. The boys couldn't care less for this kind of stuff but Laci loved it. She also loved Tony's family. She pretty much dropped Nick and I like hot rocks and wanted to spend every waking minute with "my Tony" and "Adeline's mommy." She couldn't quite get the name Allie down. They held her, pushed her in her stroller (by request, of course) and she would break out into tears when we went our separate ways to sleep. Nick got a bit jealous of "the other man" in her life. Drew reached a milestone in his life that week. He was tall enough to ride Tower of Terror and Splash Mountain for the first time. He was freaked out. It was so funny. Tower is a scary ride for a 4 year old. Here are a lot pictures in totally random order: Lunch at Cinderella's Castle

Look at Drew's cute, terrified face on Splash Mtn. Bret and AJ took a little nap

The boys

Drew cuddling with his new gun

Laci hugging Daisy

Laci and Marie, this was the stuffed animal she picked as a souvenir...a smaller version, of course

The tallest onion volcano I've ever seen

Epcot

Laci and Minnie

Laci and Belle

Laci (with Snow White's kiss print on her cheek) and Ariel

Laci and Snow White

Bret getting a little love from Ariel

Castle

Magic Kingdom

Mount Everest, Bret and Cole's favorite ride, in the background

Laci and AJ

Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom

Laci doing her Dori lips

Kids after the African Safari

Chocolate Outhouses

Grandma was here for a few days and when Grandma is here, the kiddos always have fun. One thing she did with the kids was make gross, spooky chocolate outhouses. She's done this with the other cousins for a few years, but this is the first time my kids have made them. They loved it.

Laci

Little Laci turned two. Oh, how those two years have flown! It seems like yesterday that we finally had our little girl and now we can't imagine life without her. We love this spunky little thing. And, she is little. When I took her for her check up, she weighed in at 24 1/2 pounds, the 21st percentile for her age...so different than her brothers, who have always been in the 90th percentile. On the big day, we went to a pumpkin patch that had lots of fun stuff for the kids. They all loved the pillow bounce. Even Bret, who is usually too cool, liked it.

She loved the slide, especially head first.

The corn box

Tractor ride

Pillow Bounce

Bret taking Laci on the big slide.

Her new favorite doll. She loves to feed it and change diapers.

Laci got a Rapunzel costume from Grandma. She loves it and says, "Let down my hair" when she puts it on.