Dirty boy!

Sand and water do not mix! Logan had been helping Shane get our sprinkler system to water the right amount (nothing like a drought to tell you that you're not watering your lawn correctly -St. Augustine grass likes 1 inch of water at one time). Then he decided to play in his sandbox.

I love my cars

Logan loves cars. So much so that he goes to bed with them!

New Kayleigh pictures

Thought I'd put some pictures up of my sweet little girl. She loves to smile and laughs occassionally (though Shane has never heard her). She has definite opinions of who she wants holding her and how (tonight it was an "I want Daddy" night).

Kayleigh Shayne with Daddy Shane's rattle. Thirty years and it's still around!


This is one water baby! She loves bathtime - except when her big brother splashes her.


Asleep in Daddy's fuzzy PlayStation chair.


Asleep on the bathroom floor after taking a tub bath with Mama. Apparently, I wear her out!

In the exersaucer, with her feet touching the bottom. She was okay with it for about 10 minutes. Enough time to fold some laundry!

Swings and slides

We finally broke down and got Logan a little play set, too. Yeah, so much for our savings between the pool and swing (and everything else).

Logan is really good at multitasking. He can climb up the ladder with his sippy cup of juice in his mouth.

He sometimes just likes to sit at the top and enjoy the view, play with the swing next to the slide, or just look at his crazy mom.

Sometimes he'll go down the slide, turn around, and walk right back up the slide. This boy takes the most direct route, doesn't matter if it's the fastest, but it's always the most direct.

Our new pool!

We are now the proud owners of an Easy Set Pool. Basically, we got sick of having to dump out the plastic pool every few days, and we were disgusted with the slime at the bottom. Yuck! So, this pool was under $80. Of course, the saltwater pump that Shane got to go with it was more expensive than the pool, but whatever. This way we don't have to worry about chlorine and chemicals as much.

Logan seems to really enjoy the pool. He is fine without floaties, though he is so bold at running in the water that he can slip, and that freaks him out a bit. But after a hug and kiss, he's good to go! He's really funny though...the water comes up to his mid-torso, but when he walks he hunches down until the water's just under his chin. I can't decide if he looks like a duck or if he's trying out a new "sneaky" walk. Either way, it's really funny.

He's also started "jumping". He'll squat down so the water is just under his nose and jump up, sending water everywhere. We did 1-2-3 Jump! for about 30 minutes while Shane mowed. New favorite game!

Kayleigh seems to do well, too. She hangs out in the hippo or crab and most of the time just falls asleep, head resting on her tummy. She's a party animal.

The pool really fun and refreshing. Shane has installed a little waterfall above the pool and a light on the side of the fence. He also claims it feels wonderful when you've just finished mowing the lawn and jump in. Nice!

Flachman Family Fun - Indiana Beach

Monday, July 20

Our last full day in Indiana we spent at Indiana Beach, a small amusement park in Monticello.

Kayleigh, are you ready to go to the amusement park? Are you ready to hang out with Grandpa for a large part of the day? Yay!

How many Flachmans does it take to push a double stroller? FOUR!

Logan and Daddy on the Antique Autos. No, we don't let 19 month olds drive. Although, he thinks he's a great driver since he gets to help play "musical cars" in the driveway when we move them to get the boat out.

Logan and me on the Wabash Cannonball Express. See, I do exist!

Jayden and Logan on the Red Baron Biplane ride. Logan was not a happy camper untl the ride actually started, and he did great going up and down. He seemed to have a great time.

This was one of Logan's favorite rides. It was a bunch of different cars hooked together. They went in a circle with one hill in it. Think the cousins all rode it at least 5 times.

Logan and the grands on his second ride (after the gondola wheel) - The Merry-Go-Round. He had a great time.

This was Logan's favorite ride, the Frog Hopper. He laughed as the ride bounced him down - it was great!

All the cousins on the Frog Hopper - Nathan (4 1/2), Jayden (7 1/2), Keegan (2 1/2), Logan (19 mos), Ethan (4 1/2), and Kayleigh (3 mos). Kayleigh didn't get to stay on the ride...maybe next year.

That night, we stayed in a hotel close to the airport. All the kids fell asleep on the ride to Indy. It had been a fun and full day.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for planning such a great time! We had a blast the whole weekend!

Flachman Family Fun - Crawdads

Sunday, July 19
After church and Sunday afternoon naps, we went to Macanaquah Park (pardon my spelling, but I'm only like 1/64 Native American). The whole purpose of being there was to catch some crawdads (the midwestern term), for you Southerners out there, that would be crawfish. Don't think that Grandma and Grandpa had any Cajun seasonings so we could boil 'em up. Instead, at the end of the day, the older boys (and Aunt Jenn) had crawdad races.




Here is the gang looking for the little lobster relatives...



Kayleigh hanging out with Grandpa. Good times!


Aunt Jenn and Jayden try to catch crawdads.


Logan checks out a small crawdad.



Logan soon lost interest in the cool water and the crawdads. So our little family and Grandpa headed to the play structures. While Logan and I were off playing, Shane had a good discussion with Grandpa. I think Shane respects him more as he (Shane) gets older. That happens to all of us though - we appreciate our parents more as we get older.


On the playground, Mr. Adventure climbed up a rung ladder to get to the slides (it was closer than the stairs). After climbing up about 3 times, he slipped on the last step and hit his chin coming down, I caught him, but he bit his lip hard. My little man who rarely cries in pain was screaming, and my white shirt now has a "red badge of courage" on the left shoulder. After a few minutes, he was good to go back on the slides and swings. What a tough guy!

Flachman Family Fun - Sweet Cousins

The Big Flachman boys love babies. Maybe it's a grade school thing...

All three boys were very sweet with Kayleigh. They liked to give her kisses on her forehead. They all wanted to hold her, too. I missed out on a photo with Jayden, but here are the twins.

Ethan with Kayleigh:

And Nathan with Kayleigh:

Jayden, when we left them at the airport in Dallas on Tuesday said he wanted to stay with Kayleigh. Not Uncle Shane or Aunt Karen, but Kayleigh!

Flachman Family Fun - Circus Parade

Okay, so I didn't get to finish my Flachman get-together post.

Saturday, July 18

Saturday is the annual Circus City Parade. Peru, Indiana is home to the largest amateur circus (file that away for Trivial Pursuit). Anyway, the week we arrived is Circus Week, which includes the Circus (people from the community - yes, it's actually good), the carnival downtown, and the parade.

The parade is fun - monkeys, tigers,

Shriners in little tiny cars, clowns, elephants,

unicycles, floats, candy,

and politicians. The parade has got it all.

Here we are, ready to go! Logan and Daddy - it was cool (upper 60's I think) and started to sprinkle at the beginning of the parade, thus the jacket on Logan. He's a native Texan, remember?

The Big Flachman Family: Mikell and Ethan, Jennifer and Nathan, and Jayden.

Monica and Keegan with Joe, Monica's boyfriend. He seemed like a keeper!

Kayleigh snuggled up with Grandma. We were sitting in front of the First Christian Church parsonage, and one of the ladies from the church asked Grandma if she could hold the baby with the amazing hair. Being the sweet Grandma she is, she politely declined giving the reason that she only gets Kayleigh for a limited time, so she wasn't sharing!

Logan was very curious about what his big boy cousins were doing.

He also decided to make his own fun by the end of the parade. He would go about 10 feet from us, turn around and give us a mischevious grin (Grandma called it the "Shane smile" - maybe mischief is genetic?), then take off running. He thought this was great fun; well, the escaping part at least. Here he is getting carried back by Daddy after trying to run out in front of the elephants.

Well, everyone survived the parade. Logan went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house and fell fast asleep. All that excitement makes the little man tired.

Flachman Family Get Together

Thursday, July 16

Shane and I successfully accomplished the almost impossible: flying with an infant and a toddler. This was Kayleigh's first flight, and Logan's first out of a car seat (just in case he had to sit next to me). They both did great. Once we got to Indianapolis, Logan wanted to go up and down the escalators - a million times. It kept him entertained as we waited for Grandpa to pick us up.

After stopping at McDonald's (and letting Logan let off some steam at the play area), the fireworks store, and the farmers market (Mikell picked up some yummy sweet corn), we made it to 209 Boulevard in Peru.

It was nice to get to visit with Uncle Mikell and Aunt Jenn,

Aunt Monica,

Keegan and Grandma,

And hang out with Grandpa.

Logan really loved Grandma's playset, especially the slide. He'd go up the ladder, down the slide (most of the time on his side), clap, then around to the ladder again. FUN! Then he tried to do it the other way.

Uncle Mikell and Grandpa set off some of the fireworks that night, so it was a late night for Logan, who had been up since 4am.

Friday, July 17

After sleeping in as late as Logan would let us (6:30 in the morning our time), we hung around and waited until everyone was up. Then we all got our swimming gear on and headed to Missenawa Resevoir to go swimming in the lake.

Somehow, Grandpa had talked his way into the church bus. So we all got to ride together. Here are some of the folks on the bus. (Logan is playing with a purple Tonka truck that Keegan let him play with the 4 days we were there. Thanks Keegan! Logan had a great time taking it apart, putting it together, then throwing it on the floor for big cousin Jayden to pick up. Both Jayden and Logan were laughing. Thanks, Jayden!)

Here's Driver Grandpa.

And here's the bus! I felt like we were going to a hotel or something from the airport all the time!

It was a beautiful day - high 70's / low 80's and clear. Logan enjoyed going in the water where he could touch. The water was nice and cool - very refreshing. Thanks Ethan and Nathan for letting Logan borrow your swimvest!

Looking out at the water. He made a beeline for the water. Didn't get in, just wanted to be near it.

Jayden and Logan are pals! Jayden held Logan's hand and walked him around. What a great big cousin!

The really big Flachman boys...had to get a picture with their matching Oakley sunglasses. Stylin'.

After the Resevoir, the middle generation (moms and dads) went to see the new Harry Potter movie - leaving all but Kayleigh with the grandparents. Muwahaha (an evil chuckle). Later that evening, Uncle Mikell and Grandpa set off some more fireworks. Logan started saying "boom" and pointing to the "launch pad". It took him until Saturday night to really figure out that they left the launch pad and popped in the sky. But at least he figured it out...