Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The Summer I never got around to blogging...

Fix yourself a snack, kick back and make yourself comfortable, this could take a while...
Here is a bit of our summer in pictures...I'll try to keep the captions brief. We really had a busy summer. 2 trips (Our couple get away to New York and our family Mid-Country vacation-St. Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus and back)...but beyond that - we did lots around T-town. Here's a sampling of our summer.

Weddings galore, here is the whole Clark family at one.

Me and my BFF Christy at another

Riley and Cade were enrolled in the summer reading program at the library and earned free tickets to a Drillers game (Tulsa's baseball team) for reading all their books. It was "Bison" night so all the kids got a little stuffed Bison(see Cade's hand) --which beside the food, may have been the highlight of the game. I'm thinking "Bison Night" might be an "only in Oklahoma" thing.

Huge milestone: Riley learned to ride her bike (sans training wheels).

My garden was pretty pathetic this year. As you can see from the size of my produce here. Then again, I think it takes a lot of talent to get a carrot and a watermelon the same exact size. Seriously...you try it. We did get a few tomatos and zucchinis but nothing like years past.

Brooke cannot be contained. She will not stay in her crib - so we have to shut her door to keep her in her room. When we check on her, this is what we find.

4th of July -- Brooke LOVED the fireworks, she'd just clap and clap after each one

We LIVE at the pool in the summer. Cade took one on one lessons this year and was out of his vest, holding his breath, and swimming under water by the end of summer.

Another pool pic, because these two are just too darn cute.

Normal spaghetti night... I really love that my kids can eat themselves and I don't have to feed them anymore, but sometimes it's just almost not worth it.

We took full advantage of our splash park too. It's funny, the most patience my kids have ever shown is waiting for these buckets to fill up before they tip over on them.

Father's Day at the Lake.

Brooke was content to just play in the mud.

Riley "caught" a dragonfly!


Fathers Day at GreenLeaf State Park.


Cade trying to catch a fish with his Spiderman fishing pole. Didn't catch any fish, but we saw a ton of baby turtles.

Remember what I said about the kids trying to feed themselves...yeah, same thing.

There's a Blue Bell Ice Cream Plant just a couple miles from our house. Every year they have their "Taste of Summer" and have tours, tons of free samples, and lots of activities for the kids. Here are Riley and Cade "milking" a fake cow.


An annual Clark tradition, blackberry picking.

This year we got nearly 6 pounds (not including what we put in our bellies while we were picking...which probably equaled what we put in our buckets). With our bounty I made 5 pies, 9 jars of jelly, and we gave 3 pints to neighbors. Next year we're gonna do raspberries too! You might be able to roll us to the pool next summer.

NO more pictures mommarazzi.


Cade taking after Uncle Heath with his hurdling...

Cade turned 4!Blowing out his candles!
Brooke turned 2!
Blowing out her candles!

The mark of a good party...crashing on the tile. I think my husband did this a few times after parties in college, it must run in the family...

this was actually for our nephew Clark's 1st birthday, but you can see all the kids had as much fun as the birthday boy

We camped in our backyard a couple times this summer. The first time we did it a storm blew in around 2 or 3. None of us slept very soundly so when the wind was practically blowing us into the neighbors yard Wade and I decided we better move everyone in. Good thing we did, a massive storm blew in moments after we all got in.

Reading stories by flashlight (well LED "puck" lights) courtesy of mom.

Cade and Riley both loved their goggles this summer and I just thought Cade looked so stinkin' cute that I had to include this picture.