a freakin' dorable

one of the best sights to behold. my boys (jonas and gryffie) walking up the stairs at the ymca. jonas is holding my i-pod and each have a headphone in their ear. both are singing "what is this feeling," from wicked, quite loudly, i may add. it made me smile and made my day!

camping

we went camping this past month for 4 days at the river's edge. let me tell you, camping with 3 little guys is crazy, but fun. we enjoyed the campground as well as our new tent which is roomy enough for the whole family. george (our beagle) came along with us as well as many of our friends and family. we enjoyed campfires and swimming, biking (not me), and lots of delicious food. we did not love the rain, however, and ended up driving home friday just to avoid it for part of the day. (we drove back that night).

jonas loved being able to ride his back around the campground and gryffie took to running laps around the loop. he would run multiple times per day, and loved it so much that we think we are going to sign him up for a kid's run in october. cute boys. i enjoyed trying to get george to swim in the river and playing at the pool. i loved watching the guys do their frisbee pass off while jumping in the pool- they were able to have all 6 of them throw and catch while jumping in- impressive. i think ben enjoyed this, too, as well as swimming the river with chrissypoo. here are some of my favorite pictures.

be of good cheer

this was our lesson in relief society yesterday at church. i admit, i have been struggling lately to do so. these last couple weeks have been rough- in multiple ways. i won't go into detail, but i have been having a difficult time keeping a smile on my face. i have seen the impact on the boys as well. i can tell they are acting out a bit more, most likely due to the fact that i have been stressed and impatient with them. so tomorrow, i am going to the temple. i haven't been in a while and i really felt the overwhelming desire to go. i am dragging my wonderful brother-in-law, chris, with me. we both work tomorrow evening, so we are leaving at 5:00 am. early, i know, but necessary.

i also heard a very good quote today. it was actually on ellen (i watch it on mute while at the gym). "resentment is like drinking poison." this was said by nelson mandela. i am trying to do this and feel better already. i definitely needed to hear that today- and i need to work on doing that as well. ah, life. sometimes all you can say is "it sucks." but we can't know joy if we don't know sorrow, right?

web albums and sleep...

i am addicted to both of these.

i have a couple albums to add from the county fair and also from our camping trip this summer. but it has not been working today or yesterday and i am going crazy! anyone else having an issue?

i worked night shift tuesday and wednesday night. last night, i went to bed at 9:30 pm and slept until 8:00 am. it was FABULOUS! the boys are fed, and we are off to the gym. it's amazing what sleep can do! i feel happy and refreshed!

portie on the go

portie has been a bit of a late bloomer. he just started crawling about 2 weeks ago. i forgot what it was like to have a mobile baby... the grabby hands, the dislike of being confined (as seen above with jomi), and for me, feeling obligated to vacuum more than once per month... but i love that he is interested in exploring the world. if i could just get him to stop eating grass and dirt!

washington county fair

one of our yearly traditions is to go to the washington county fair each summer. the fair opened last saturday and we were there for opening day. the clarks played that night, too, although we were too busy riding rides to stop and listen (and the boys would not let us anyway). jonas especially has been enjoying rides and he even went on the "fire ball" with ben, although it was not his favorite ride. if you don't know what the fire ball is, here's a picture. i didn't ride it.



i like going to the fair for so many reasons- spending time with family, seeing all the animals, looking at the entries for the different prize winners, enjoying the delicious food, specifically gyros and lemonade, and riding the rides. if you haven't gone to the washington county fair before, i would definitely recommend it. so much fun!

duckies

i think most of you know that we lived in jacksonville fl for a year. it was a rough year for our family- ben didn't really care for law school, i wasn't used to being home with 2 crazy kids, and we were in a new place, trying to meet new people, etc. but the one thing that was fabulous about being in florida (other than meeting new friends and falling in love with the lunts) was where we lived. campfield condos. we had a fabulous swimming pool, which the boys still talk about, and a beautiful pond with a sidewalk around it. we would often take walks as a family around the pond in the evening. various animals would frequent the pond, specifically ducks and other birds, although we did see some otters at one time. one of our favorite things to do was to feed the ducks. and we have continued that tradition back here in pittsburgh. we enjoy going to highland park, near the swimming pool, to feed the duckies. there are geese there, too. the boys love it. and it is nice to walk around the park and enjoy the sun.



the duckies



gryffie fishin'



brotherly love-jonas and portie

kennywood

it's summertime. and summer would not be complete without a day at kennywood. we enjoyed the annual kelly family day at kennywood, complete with potato patch fries, and cotton candy, and fudge, and lemonade. this year was a bit more stressful as we were the only kellers there and did not have family that we felt comfortable passing our children off to. however, the boys are enjoying the rides more and more. jonas is almost too big for kiddieland. he wanted to ride some of the big boy rides. so after dinner, ben took gryffie and porter home and i stayed with jonas. thank you to aunt sue for the ride home! i loved having some date time with jomi (and getting to ride some rides). he told me his favorite ride was the exterminator!! that's one of my favorites too. i think next year's trip will be even more fun! hooray for kennywood, and grandma and grandpa for organizing our kelly fun day!

pictures? of course!

what did they say???

i had to post two things the boys have said in the last two days.

gryffin, at dinner last night, for no reason, said, "that's what she said."

jonas, in the car home from the children's festival said, "that's crackalackin!"

what???

wild animals

we went to a children's festival today, thanks to sadie and mom, where the boys got their faces painted. jonas wanted to be a tiger, gryffie, of all things, wanted to be a skunk. so dang cute. here are a couple pictures of my wild animals.



scary tiger



are skunks scary?



who is the scariest?