Happy 4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July here in New York!!! We got together with some families from our ward and had a BBQ and went swimming! We always miss our own families, especially on Holidays, but we feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends who are our "family" while we live far away! 

Our family on the 4th! 

One of the Elders does Rodeo and he was teaching people how to lasso! 

Grayer jumping on the tramp with this friends, Kelsey and Dusty

 That night we headed to the local golf course where they put on a fun firework show! 

Grayer with his friend, Phillip

Finden had a love hate relationship with the fireworks...
 He needed comfort because they were so loud - hence he is sucking his thumb but you will see in the next picture he wanted to touch them:) Silly boy

There was a family who brought sparklers to the golf course and was sharing them with kids around them. Grayer LOVED them! 

Finden liked them too:)

Trip to the ZOO!

Our most recent trip to the zoo was a significant one for us because it was Finden's first time to the zoo where he really understood that there were things to look at, and he absolutely loved it! We had to pull him away from each animal and he would cry until we got to the next stop. It was quite entertaining and it made for a really fun trip to the zoo!!!

He has a death grip on the fence

 After we were done looking at the animals we played in the little river/water park.

Father's Day

So we have an awesome grocery store here in New York called, Wegmans. For Father's Day the boys and I went there and got Andy's favorite cake... white cake with raspberry filling and butter-cream frosting. So why is Andy's cake rainbow colored you ask? Well, when I was ordering the cake Grayer was walking around and saw a cake display with a cake decorated like this and came running to me saying that we should make Daddy's cake look like this. "He will love it" he said. So we ordered the tie-dye rainbow cake and you know what? Andy did love it!! 

 

Missionaries

We have awesome Elders serving in our Ward right now so we have them over as much as possible!!

Elder Thueson, Grayer, and Elder Ryser eating lunch

Finden enjoying his lunch as well:) 

Elder Thueson wanted to learn how to make a quilt, so I showed him how! 

I took this picture so he would have proof to show his Mom that he really did sew his own quilt!

Elder Ryser played and read to the boys while we worked on the quilt

Beach Time!

We love it when it gets warm enough to head to the beach. Here are a few pics from our first trip this year. Unfortunately it was still a bit too cold to swim but it we still had fun having a picnic, playing in the sand, and wading in the water.

Finden thoroughly enjoyed his first sand experience! I couldn't get him to stop playing to look at the camera:)

Grayer braved the cold...

But then came and wrapped up in a towel right after:)

Lots of Seagulls

Matching Brothers

My Mom sent the boys these cute matching outfits, so of course we had to do a photo session!

Out of order Pictures of Grayer

I was going through our pictures and found these that I hadn't posted yet. They are pictures from February and April so they are a bit out of order -oops!

Grandma and Grandpa Gilchrist sent money for 

Grayer to get a bike!

Shopping for a bike is fun!

Building a bike is fun!

But riding a bike is even more FUN!!! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

 This was General Conference Weekend. We get a new puzzle to do while we listen to the talks! 

 Grayer's Pre-School Spring Concert.

Grayer with his friends Cayden and Grant