4th of July in Breckenridge

We had another fantastic 4th of July with the Shepherd family. Brent and Ryan mountain biked. Trish and I drank coffee and snuck away for Happy Hour. I enjoyed a great new drink named Freedom. How appropriate. The kids went down the Alpine Slide and Brent and Ryan went snow tubing. Yes that's right there was still a lot of snow on the peak. Breckenridge has over 500 inches of snow this year so the river down main street was like white water rafting. The parade was great- lots of candy, someone handed out watermelon another Popsicles. You won't find many pictures of Baker. He has another ear infection and a flu bug but he hung in there for the most part.

Quinn and Aiden on the gondola

Ryan and Caitlin riding the chair lift up to the Alpine Slide

Ryan getting ready for tubing

Baker and his Godfather

kids made themselves busy by picking dandelions

enjoying hot chocolate while waiting for the fireworks

Ava and Quinn playing T-ball

Quinn and Harry on the field

The Big Car Trip

For weeks Ava and Quinn have been so excited for what they like to call " the big car trip". They thought that "camping" in the car would be the coolest things they have done so far in their little lives. So Thursday June 16th at around 4:30 p.m. mountain time we started heading East. All three of them did an awesome job of keeping quiet and content. They slept until 5 a.m. Central time. Brent and I were tired but we thought that it all went quite well. We arrived in Madison at 8 a.m. to a very relieve Nanee Sylvia and Papa Art. Later that day we went to Gigi's and Uncle Amjed where we met little Sami for the first time. Sweet little thing. The cousins were so happy to be together again. The next day we went to the Zoo, spent some time on the Terrace and surprised Jeremy by showing up to his rib fest.

Ava practicing her cheer leading moves

all the little monkeys

what are they talking about?

Haithem, Quinn, Sahra and Ava

Nanee Sylvia and all the grandkids

at the Terrace

After Madison we drove to Kenosha. Carter looks great and was feeling pretty good. We swam at the Y, had dinner with the cousins, relaxed and had a great time. Nolan planned an excellent birthday party for Quinn. He pretended he was a bad guy that stole the presents. Nolan had clues throughout the house that the kids followed to find the presents, then they put Nolan in jail. Quinn thought it was so much fun.

there's a new sheriff in town

searching for clues

Nolan in jail

Bedtime at the Hellwigs...

Kathy and Dean's friends Bill and Ginny arranged for Quinn to have a visit with a couple of Kenosha's finest. Quinn was so excited about being with the police officers.

Quinn with Officer Zielsdorf

Officer Torres and his dog Chico

Baker was trying to get in as well

Quinn in the bulletproof vest

Our man Carter looking awesome after his spinal fusion surgery

After Kenosha came Indianapolis. The Bruce's came down from Michigan and all the neighbors were ready for a party. Heather, Trisha and I took the kids to the Children's Museum.

Cleopatra with the girls

Quinn and Baker enjoyed the new exhibit "Treasures of the Earth"

the kids put together one of the terra cotta soldiers

Quinn and Aiden in the Captain Kid exhibit

Aiden, Quinn, Hailey, Baker, Caitlin, Ava and Julia

Friday afternoon we met at the park to see the Muellers, Hemmerlings, Hollemans, O'Connells, and Cliffords.

Heather and I made a tea party for the kids. The girls worked on decorations and we worked on the food.

only at the Lamb's would we do crafts with two bottles on the table

Quinn's best buddy, Jessica

with Julia, Clay and Carson

The ride home was not as smooth as the trip out. But the other kids did great.

Green Lantern

All he said for 18 hrs was Mama

our almost teenager, eating chips and listening to the iPod