5 reasons...

I know I say it a lot but, Ammon is a fantastic dad.  He really is.  He is so patient with these boys of ours and let me tell you, that can be hard thing to do sometimes.  Well, for me anyways.  I love this picture and here's a few reasons why.

#5 - Griffin is wearing cute clothes that his Aunt Michelle got him for his birthday.  He looks so handsome!

#4 - Griffin is wearing his fish backpack.  The kid is seriously obsessed with backpacks.  Or anything that can be turned into a backpack.  If he had his choice, he'd wear a backpack at all times.  Even when he's strapped into a carseat or going to bed.  (yes, we've had to deal with those specific situations)

#3 - Griffin is sitting on top of the car.  Ammon is always doing fun stuff with his boys.  He understands little boys and knows what they think is cool or awesome.  Me?  I try but, I don't think they'll ever think I'm as cool as Daddy.  And that's ok.  I think he's pretty cool too.  ; )

#2 - Tickling!  Tickling is huge in this house.  It's just so cute to see these boys laugh like that.  I'll never understand why they enjoy it so much.  I HATE being tickled.  It's true.  Just ask Ammon.

And the #1 reason I love this picture is... those adorable little wrinkles by Ammon's eye.  Can't you just see how happy he is?  I'm so grateful that our Heavenly Father blessed us with a family.  And blessed us with Noah and Griffin specifically.  We talk all the time about how lucky we are to have them.  They are so important to us and to know that I get to be their mom FOREVER is an exhausting but also glorious thought.

Trains, Trains and more TRAINS!

Back in June (the 12th) Gigi and Pap came with us to the NC Transportation Museum.  That place is LOADED with trains.  Noah and Griffin were super excited to see real trains everywhere.  It was another scorcher of a day but, that's alright.  We had fun anyway.  It was unseasonably hot.  Up near 100 degrees.  

I've been having some trouble with my DSLR in lots of sunlight so a lot of these pictures are over exposed.  I tried to bring it back down a bit when I was editing them.

Same train.  Different angle.  Gosh, I LOVE my little family of boys.

We were able to ride 2 trains that day.  Here are the boys in the passenger train.  They had us in a different car but, the ac went out.  And the windows wouldn't go down.  We were about to ask them to stop the train and let us off.  Yep, the 100 degree weather sounded so nice from the inside of that train. They saw that we were miserable and moved us to a different car.  One that had ac.  Thank goodness.  I can't think of another time I was THAT hot.  Whew!

This was the other train we were able to ride.  A caboose train!  We were in the front of the line so, we got to sit up top.  And the windows worked in this train.  : )

Piatt boys.  So handsome.

We also got to ride a rail car.

Gigi with the boys.  They love her SO much!

What's this thing called?  A switchboard?

love.

Learning the science behind train tracks and wheels.

Thanks for a wonderful day, Gigi and Pap.  We really enjoyed ourselves and enjoyed spending time with you. Our children are extremely spoiled.  They love trains and have been able to ride 4 of them!  Not many 1 and 3 year olds get that opportunity.  Love you!

Zoo Keepers

We decided to brave the crowd and head to the NC Zoo on Memorial Day.  Whew!  It was crowded!  And hot!  Before we got there, Noah said he wanted to see a polar bear and a parrot.  That's it.  Thank goodness we were able to oblige.  Gigi, Pap, and Ammon's sister Joni (and fam) were able to come too.  We bought a year membership which gets us into other zoos and aquariums for free!  When we were in Myrtle Beach we hit up the aquarium.  The boys loved it!  Here are some pictures of our day.

Here's Griffin, Kiera and Lathen watching the seals.

And again.

 Noah climbed this huge rock and was so proud of himself!  He doesn't know that he got a little help from dear old dad.  : )

Watching the alligators.  Or crocodiles.  I'm not sure which.

There was this really neat water fountain exhibit.  The water would stay low for awhile and then shoot up like a rocket.  Pretty cool.

This was Noah's reaction when he saw it.

The boys were able to ride the carousel.  Noah HAD to be on the eagle (in the background) and Griffin picked the zebra.  I thought Noah might freak out once it started moving but he did great.  Loved every second.  And of course Griffin loved it.  That kid loves everything and has absolutely no fear.

As the day wore on, the clouds got thicker.  It down-poured for quite awhile.  We tried to stay dry but after about 15 minutes, Noah and Lathen started running around and splashing in the puddles.  For some reason, Noah held his shorts up the whole time.  I guess he didn't want them to get wet?

We had a great time but the rain was getting to be a little much for the kids.  Griffin was exhausted and falling asleep in the stroller while getting pounded by rain.  And Noah could not get warm.  We headed back to the car for some dry clothes and lunch.  Before we even got onto the main road, Griffin looked like this.  Noah toughed it out a few minutes longer but soon looked like this:

We're excited to go back!!  Once it cools down a little.