beautiful girl

while i work on uploading photos from ryker's super amazing, wonderful birthday party, i decided to post a photo of this beautiful girl.

best friends

i first met tonee in our junior year of high school. she was the beautiful new girl at school who had the best laugh and most engaging personality. her "no drama" approach to high school theatrics was refreshing. we clicked instantly and became great friends. i remember the days we would spend driving around town in her 4-runner listening and dancing to music (e.g., notorious big, ghetto superstar), laughing at our high school history teacher's clothing choices, and talking about boys.

we have managed to keep in touch during these past 14 years and yesterday, we decided to get our kids together. her son geddy is six mons older than ryker and her daughter jennsen is three days older than kate. ryker and geddy hit it off just like tonee and i did so long ago. the kids ran on the playground, played soccer, chased each other on the trails, ate lunch, and more. i think geddy summed up the day best when he told ryker "you're my best friend." and i think ryker, being a man of little words, agreed as he shared his lunch and wanted to keep playing games with geddy.

of course the battery in my camera died so i managed to only get a few pictures. but i’m sure i’ll get more pictures of these adorable kids and their sisters during a future play date .

choo choo weekend

we had a busy memorial day weekend. from lagoon, the zoo, and three barbeques, we exhausted our kids and ourselves. but we had a blast doing it! ryker wasn't a big fan of lagoon (see the heart breaking photos below) until he got to ride the train. then he was a huge fan.










ryker also loved the zoo. during the bird show, we sat under the fly zone so ryker had six large birds fly about a foot over his head. he was laughing so hard. it was hard to get photos of him looking at the camera because he was so busy taking in all the sights. he liked the train at the zoo but it wasn't nearly as cool as the train at lagoon




we celebrated my brother's birthday on sunday. ryker helped himself to the frosting on the cake, while great grandma and grandpa vincent played with kate. what a perfect weekend!