Isaac Clark's Baptism

We attended mass at Dwight Assumption Church to celebrate the baptism of Isaac Clark, my cousin Annette's son. (It's just a coincidence that my sister Laurie's last name is Clark too).

Before mass my mom and Evie walked around the grottoes (built in the 1930s) and I guess there is a functional chapel which seats only 4 people (making it one of the smallest in the world).

Little Isaac, turns out he's quite perfect. My mom gets credit for taking all of the baptism pictures.

Evie is playing with her new build your own monster stickers and Ethan is busy trying to figure out how to get the stickers off the page. I know he can't wait to eat them. Joel and I are honored to be Isaac's Godparents so a special thanks to my mom & dad who are watching the kids (and taking pictures).

Father Timmerman, my cousin Annette, her husband Stoney and their son, Isaac. Father Timmerman is pretty new to the Dwight Assumption Parish and happened to be at Blessed Sacrament (our parish) just before we moved to town.

A perfect day - Celebrating the newest member of God's family

Feeding Ducks at Holmes Lake

What's a mom to do with a pantry full of stale bread?...


...feed the ducks at Holmes Lake. The kids are excited. Evie has her princess pinwheel and is doing a little dance...

The kids are loaded up and ready to go. Evie is giving you the Taiwan 'victory' pose.

Ethan loves facing forward in his new car seat.

Ready or not, here we come...

And knowing this is bound to happen I usually don't bring bread that's too old.

Sometimes when I look at the pictures (like this one) I get a little flash forward of what the kids will look like when they get older. Ethan is only 13 months old but sometimes he seems so grown up already.

Evie had a good time feeding the ducks but she mostly liked climbing around on the rocks singing 'part of your world' like Ariel the little mermaid. I'll be so surprised if she is not in drama or some kind of theater major. She really loves singing and acting out movies.

It's still early in the season so there weren't many ducks to feed. Lots of birds but not that many ducks and geese.

Ethan loved walking back and forth on the bridge. The slope was just enough to get him running as he went down and it was just steep enough to be a challenge as he went up.

...and that means Joel got to walk back and forth on the bridge chasing after Ethan. Oh the repetitive things you do as a parent just because your kid is having fun...

Ethan stopped for a moment to yell at the ducks.

I wish I would have taken a little video of Ethan as he walked back and forth dragging the bag of bread. It was pretty precious.

And dragging the bread back up the hill...

That little speck on the rocks is Evie. This is where she played the majority of the time we were at the lake.

And here is our little Ariel, singing on her rock (feel free to sing along) Up where they walk, up where they run, up where they stay all day in the sun, wanderin' free - wish I could be, part of your world.

The sunset was certainly amazing. We didn't see the sunset in Taiwan because it was always hidden behind tall buildings.

Ethan enjoyed watching this guy fish

I think Ethan may be learning a few fishing skills from the guy above. He's watching pretty attentively.

Having a big strong dad is a lot of fun

Evie and Joel are such cute pals

And there is our big boy. He is just growing up too quickly!

After the lake we stopped for a quick dinner at Pizza Hut. We ate Pizza Hut in Taiwan our last evening while we were packing up our apartment and it tasted pretty spectacular. Hard to believe but a pizza was about twice the price as in the US.

Pawnee Lake

We are on our way to Pawnee Lake to meet my parents and my sister-in-law Aubrey and her kids for a picnic dinner. My mom always has great ideas like this. Today is also Ethan's last day in a rear facing car seat. I will miss watching him play with his feet but I am excited to have him see the world instead of the back of the seat.

We pass over the Lincoln train yard on our way to the lake and almost any given time we go over it we see trains carrying coal. It is surprising that we are still using coal and how much coal we actually use.

Evie sauce-pants. She keeps Ethan entertained by singing. She loves to sing.

Ethan and Isaiah - gently exchanged handfuls of sand.. They are about 9 months apart. I love that Ethan (and Evie) have cousins to play with.

Morgan is such a good big cousin. She is a good big sister too. She is so sweet and protective with her little brother.

The kids had fun just running and playing. It's good to be a kid.

My mom and dad planned a picnic lunch fit for a king...sandwiches with all the fixins, chips, drinks and lots of sweet treats...

The Potters and the Smiths; From left: Noah, Evie, Joel, Morgan, Fran (mom), Don (dad), Isaiah hidden behind Aubrey and Maddie.

Evie giving aunt Aubrey a koala bear hug

Evie walked to the beach with Grandpa and came back carrying this nice treasure

Evie had fun walking down the beach circling little paw prints

And the kids are off to throw rock into the water

Evie found this little fishing minnow...

...and Morgan had fun dissecting it...

We weren't expecting Don Johnson to show up but Ethan was using Joel's jacket and it was getting pretty chilly outside. We just happened to have Joel's suit jacket in the car to take to dry cleaning.

Grandpa added the finishing touch on the treasure Evie found

Morgan is quite the little artist. She made Joel and I cute little pictures to take home with us and was sweet enough to share her art supplies with Evie

And a fantastic sunset to end a perfect day