The kids love to ride their bikes. They ride them all of the time. In fact, Blake got a new bike in March for his birthday and he already needs new tires because he's worn them out! Here is a couple of videos of them riding...

Samantha had been asked to do the Call to Worship for church this Sabbath with her friend Heidi.  She wanted to be sure she was ready and practiced several times at the church.  All of her practicing paid off as she did a perfect job!  We are so proud of her!

Being that Samantha has been in gymnastics for a bit, Blake wanted to do something so we decided to let him try soccer.  He loved it so much and loved Coach Mike.  He gave 100% and ran the entire hour no matter how hot it got and it was hot some days!

After the the Summer session was done he begged to do more so we've signed up another session with Coach Mike.

Blake wanted to show how hot it gets after soccer.

The kids had been anxious to carve their pumpkins, especially Blake.  We decided to invite our friends over and made it a little party.  We started off the evening with pizza and apple crisp.  The kids turned on the World Series and watched it a bit before we actually got to the pumpkins.

Samantha took a few pictures to document the work.

Terry thought we should clean the seeds and pan fry them later so Claudia cleaned them.

The kids got to dress up for Halloween a bit early for a party at Travis's work.  They looked adorable!

Here's to my little Indian girl and my Pirate!

Last weekend Grandpa came to visit us.  Travis decided to go watch the NASCAR race with him while the kids and I went to KC Pumpkin Patch.  The weather was perfect to be out all day and the kids loved taking in all of the activities.  We stayed for a western stunt show and Samantha asked to have her picture taken with the characters.

Climbing and Haircut

Here our little climber is again.  He really likes to climb on top of the playhouse and look in at Papa Joe if he's outside.

Samantha loves to practice her gymnastics on the play house.

Travis enjoys our background and new chairs.

Per his request, Blake got a new haircut!

Over Labor Day weekend we decided to head to Great Bend.  We got a late start and got there about 8 Friday night.  Sabbath we got up and went to Church and in the afternoon we went to Cheyenne Bottoms and went to their nature center and drove throughout their refuge.  We were surprised that there was water in most places as it's been dry for many years.

Saturday night we went to a 50th wedding anniversary party for a couple that Travis grew up with.  I was able to meet some people that Travis went to school with.

Sunday we got up and went to Hutchinson and visited the Salt Mine.  It's one of the 8th wonders of Kansas.  It was an interesting 2 hours 650' underground.  We received a tour of the facility and took a couple of the kids.  It was fun to hear how things are pretty much like they were 50 years ago as things are so preserved there.  We all had a great time and came back with our own pieces of Salt.

Everyone had to wear hard hats and emergency breathers while underground. 

A large piece of salt.

Many things are stored here because of the natural preservation.

Afterwards we headed to the Cosmosphere but we were a bit late to really take things in so we just visited the planetarium and decided we'll come back another time to check it all out.

A year ago we had a Monarch caterpillar that turned into a butterfly.  It got away before Blake could hold it so it felt terribly bad.

This year we found another caterpillar that Blake put in a jar and waited for it to turn into a caterpillar.  During my birthday party it got put into the garage and forgotten about it.  One day we were out in the garage and noticed that the chrysalis had turned into a butterfly.  We left it in the jar so Samantha and Travis could see it.

After we showed everyone we let it go in the gardens at Travis's work and watched it fly away.