Daddy

Our Daddy is the best. We love him so much! Every night we just can't wait for him to come home. When he gets home, he picks us up and tickles us. He always wrestles with us, and a lot of the time Mommy has to work so he feeds us dinner, plays with us, reads us the Book of Mormon, and puts us to bed!

 We are always fighting over who gets to sit with Daddy. Sometimes we make him hold both of us, even though we're a bit wiggly.

 Sometimes he has to distract us by holding toys up for us to see so we don't fall right off the couch while Mommy is taking a picture.

 We love when Daddy helps us open our presents...except when he eats the candy out of them. :)

 Daddy is also a good uncle! One time he held both us boys and Ella and Paisley on his lap all at the same time! I think they love him too, but not as much as we do!

 Daddy likes to catch big fish. He caught this one up at the cabin this summer. It's huge! Too bad he couldn't keep it so we could eat it-yum!

 Speaking of Daddies, we love our Grandpas too! Here is Mommy's Daddy, Grandpa Hessing:

Needless to say, we LOVE our Daddy!!

Let's go to the ZOO!

Tripp has a marvelous preschool teacher named Mrs. Amber. The kids go on field trips once a month, and I got to go with Tripp and his class to the zoo! As you can see from the picture, Tripp is the only boy. The class only has six students, so each student gets individual time and attention from the teacher which I feel is very important. Here they're inside the little hut in the African village:

 We brought Chantz along. He had no idea what was going on, but his big brother loved showing him the animals!

 Here's the kiddos looking at the giraffes...I think...

 Tripp and his friend Addison checking out the birds

 I thought these pheasants were so cool! I'm not an animal person so the zoo doesn't thrill me, but I've been twice this summer and both times I have really enjoyed seeing these colorful, unique birds.

 The kids stopped mid-way for a snack.

 "Can we keep going? I want to see more animals!"

 I think the highlight of the day was the giraffe slide--who needs live animals when there are plastic ones to slide down??  :)

 Tripp, Lainey, Trey, Chantz, my mom, Macey and I went back to the zoo last week. This time I decided to give the little African hut a try with the kids...

What great memories we are making this summer! I hope we can take the kids back one more time before the zoo closes-we haven't gotten a chance to feed the giraffes yet!

Ahhh...Summer.

What would Summer be like without mentioning the cabin? What would Summer be like if we didn't go to the Cabin... a lot?? Well, don't worry friends. Our family has had the blessing of being up in Island Park twice so far this year, and we plan on being back up there asap. Between the two trips, we have experienced snowy blizzards, lightning storms, 85 degree weather, an 8lb, 25" plus fish, many smaller fish, two Playmill shows ("Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "High School Musical"), a rafting adventure, bridge jumping, a double ear infection, a trip to the ER, four wheeler rides, wildflower picking, lots of napping, lots of reading, catching up with aunts, uncles and cousins, huckleberry cheesecake, playing at Grandma Trudy's,watching fireworks over the water, having Chantz's first birthday party, and having the suburban overheat every twelve miles the whole way home. I was involved in most of these activities. :) Needless to say, besides dealing with a poor little sick baby, we really had a great time! Here is the gang before the rafting trip:

As you can see, Tripp was super excited to go to the cabin...or maybe he was just super excited that Chase let him stand on the suburban. Aunt Denise and Uncle Steve took the kiddos fishing the first day-it was Tripp's first time and he loved it! No fish, but maybe he'll have some luck next time.

Tripp and I were best buds on the rafting adventure.

Chantz and I took a gorgeous walk around the cabin one afternoon...you can see how happy he was in his stroller to be out and about!

We have also been hanging out at home as a family and enjoying the beautiful weather and time together. Chantz and Tripp are best friends, as you can see from the pictures. I thought I'd throw in a few pictures of their obvious cuteness. :)

 Grandma Hessing celebrated her 90th birthday this last month. Wow! There sure is a huge Hessing clan, and I feel so blessed to be a part of it. There are so many amazing people in our family and it was so fun to catch up with everyone and to let Grandma know how much we love and appreciate her. She's the cute one in the middle dressed in pink, if you couldn't tell. :)

 The Boys in their new double stroller

 Chantzter in his swing in the backyard. We spend quite a bit of time out there!

 Tripp's "Link" face. Link is a character from a video game...

 Here are my boys on Chantz's first birthday. We had two parties for him-one at home and one later at the cabin. He wasn't quite sure how to dig in to that monster cake, but with a little help he figured out!

More brotherly love