While Lisa was visiting we stopped by the temple one morning.

His first Big Boy Bike

Over Father's day weekend My dad was here for a visit. While he was here, he bought Ry his first big boy bike. Ryan was still riding a tricycle, which his knees were hitting the handle bars. His knees were pretty bruised up. It was definitely time for a new bike. Here is Ry at the store testing out the one we all liked.

After choosing the one, we had to wait until the next day to pick it up so it could be put together for us. (I know "so lazy", I just didn't want to deal with that!)

After we picked it up we took him to a local park with a nice flat and open parking lot so he could really try it out. He loved it, and only had one little crash, but not a scary one.


Then we took him home and let him ride on the driveway. Our driveway does have a slight downward slope and of course all the neighbor kids were there so there was lots of traffic to maneuver through. Here's Dad trying to keep him from going too fast. After a bit he started to figure out the brakes. I felt much better once he got the hang of that!

He rode for a while that day and a little bit the next, but he had few falls that scared him and he started saying the bike is "too big!" I haven't been pushing him, but it did take a little coaxing to get him to ride again. Since then we have taken him back to the park and he really likes to ride there. It's a lot easier and not nearly as many things to contend with (hills, other bikes, traffic etc.)

It sure is fun to watch him.

Thanks for the bike, Pop and helping us learn to ride!

Daddy's Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Daddy

Ryan made this card for Daddy

What a party, balloons, a birthday sign, and a chocolate cake.

Ryan loved the cake!

Happy Birthday Daddy, We love you!

Annoucements:

Just want to take a minute to mention a few recent exciting events:

My brother Shawn graduated from his Nursing Program and has accepted a job working in the Oncology department at the VA hospital. Shawn Congratulations, I am so proud of you!!!

My sister Lindsey and her husband Matt had their first baby on Monday. Congratulations and welcome to the family. Lincoln Matthew Day, born at 3:12 pm, weighing 6 lbs 15 oz and 20 inches long. A beautiful baby boy!

My sister Julie recently took up running and she just did her first race. Way to go JuJu! I am really impressed with how dedicated you are and how quickly you've gotten so good at this!

Finally there has been a ton of Birthday's so.....
Happy Birthday to the following:

Graham
J.J.
Dad
Sawyer
Ethan
Emma
Lincoln
Stephanie
And last but definitely not least my sweet Husband!
(P.S. to my family, no more June babies please!)

I love my cousin!

Welcome Lisa and Amelia!!!

Adventures on the cheap

One of the things Ryan and I do when we're bored, but I don't want to spend any money, is we go to the Pet Store.  Ryan likes to wander around and look at all the different animals.  It's generally a mix of your standard pet store animals, fish, snakes, lizards, gerbils, turtles etc.  We went on Saturday and here are a few pictures (Double click on the picture to enlarge it)

Things he likes

Speed Racer!

Currently this is Ryan's favorite toy. We got it for Christmas from Corey's Mom (Thanks Grandma!) It's really a great little car. The controls are simple enough that Ryan can handle it all on his own, and since he's at that age where all I hear is "I can do it!", that's very important. When we first took it outside, he kept trying to crawl under our cars to get it when it would roll under them. Now, he finally understands that all he has to do is drive it back out.

Updated:  The music in this video was selected because thats the song Ryan likes to play on Guitar Hero.

ooVoo

This is the program I have been trying to get my family excited about.  Being so far away from each other I think this will be an excellent way for us to actually see each other when we talk.  I'll admit that when Corey first told me about it I wasn't all that interested either, but that was only until I actually checked it out.  Since Lisa is coming to visit she wanted a way for Ricky to be able to see her and the baby.  She and I set it up one night, and now I am sold!  The only thing is you need to have a web-cam, (which are really cheap now days).  Ryan loves to watch the videos of his cousins, using this they could actually talk to each other live!  What a great way to stay connected.  

www.oovoo.com  Check it out, it is very cool!

So here is a screen capture of a call between Lisa, Lindsey and I.  Sorry, I messed the video up and there is no sound.  I just wanted to give you an idea of what exactly this is.   After that Wendy, Me, and Lindsey were on it was so great the kids were talking to each other.  Sawyer and Ryan were showing each other their trucks.  Lindsey doesn't have a web-cam (yet), so as you can see there is no video of her, but she can still see us.  

City Park

Our favorite park to go to is called City Park.  It's really big and has several play areas, an outdoor stage for concerts, and a small art museum. It's full of tall trees that give it lots of shade.  It also has a large pond that runs through the whole thing.  

There are ducks, geese and swans in the pond,not to mention very LARGE fish.  We go there to feed them all the time, it one of our favorite things to do.  

(These were taken last winter)

So last night we went to feed the birds and fishes, and then Ryan was playing on the playground.  As I was standing there I could here music, so I left Corey and Ryan to go investigate.   Turns out there was a full orchestra having some kind of a rehearsal.  There were a few people sitting in the audience watching so we brought Ryan over and watched for a little while.  Ryan is a big fan of "The Little Einstein's", and through that has learned what a lot of the instruments are.  As we sat there he would say "Look Mom, it's a trumpet, or "Mom, there's a Tuba" and so on.  It was really neat.

We stayed until Ryan stared getting antsy, which he's 3, it took about 2 songs.   Then we headed home.   

Another great day at the park.