Wallman Wanderings ~*~ Following Jesus Wherever He Leads

Fun at a new park

Today, we went to a park by my parents' house that has some pretty fun stuff. It's not the usual park we go to, so the kids had lots of fun!

Chasing tennis balls might have been the highlight!

Jacob couldn't get to them fast enough!

Cassie & Hudson waving up to everyone on the tower.

Papa & Jacob way up high!

Bryce is so cute I could just squeeze him!! He has the cutest little voice!

See?! He's just too cute!

Hudson. Such a cutie pie!

They have these cute little houses and the kids had fun playing in them.

Lions and Tigers and Monkeys, OH MY!

On Monday, we all went to the Wichita zoo--except Aaron...he had to work :( The kids loved it. It was pretty warm, but not terrible. We were there for a few hours and I think we saw all the exhibits. The new tigers and penguins are great! And THANK YOU to Cassie's cousin who got us passes!!!

Bryce LOVED the "Cool Zone" misting fans!

Jacob & Papa watching the gorillas. None of the animals were very active that day. One of the gorillas did run across the windows and pound on them once.

I was trying to get a picture of the gorilla laying there playing with his toes, but I think this one turned out pretty cool! Hudson checking out the gorilla.

A graceful swan along the way.

Bryce was so funny! He wasn't the least bit afraid of the animals in the petting zoo!!

Anna preferred the stroller. Such a rough life!!

Jamie and Hudson checking out the horses.

Jacob...he was scared of the small animals (of course!) but enthralled with the huge ones! Here he's checking out the Water Buffaloes.

"ooohhhhhh"

When he saw the peacock, Bryce said "Hey chicken!" over and over. He is just so cute!!!

The peacock's call scared Jacob half to death! He did NOT like that one bit!

Their color is just phenomenal!

We had lots of fun seeing all the animals. Anna's favorite was the baby zebra! :)

July 4th

Sterling has a great 4th of July celebration all weekend long. This year's parade was the biggest I've seen in the 7 years we've lived here. The sirens got a little loud, but it was fun! It was pretty hot too :( Not as bad as it could have been, though.

Waving at the paradees (is that a word??)

The tradition of bagpipers. Sterling has Scottish heritage.

The color guard. Those guys had to be so incredibly hot!

She tried to stay in the shade (we had a couple umbrellas), but once the parade started, she was intent on watching and getting candy!

Mia, Kaedyn and Anna waiting for the parade to start.

Elise (and Jeremy) watching the parade.

Still waiting, in a different position!

(Elise, Kaedyn, Anna, Mia)

First thing Saturday morning, Aaron & our friend Kreg ran the 5K. They did great!!

Anna running to meet Papa and Mia!

We sat REALLY close at the lake for the fireworks. It was pretty loud, even for me! Anna really liked them, just not the noise. So she sat like this the whole time!

Jacob HATED them! (he's crawling up Binga's neck behind Anna)

Anna's PARTY

We had Anna's party of the 4th, just because I knew my oldest brother and his family would be here from Florida. Anna was SO EXCITED her cousins were coming to her birthday party!!! I have to say, this will be the last time we have her party a WEEK after her actual birthday (either that, or we won't celebrate on her actual birthday at all!). A week of birthday celebrating was a bit much for a 4 year old! It was hard for her to understand time (the calendar helped). But she had a blast.

Again, blogger is being *whisper* stupid *whisper* and won't let me move the pics around. But here are a whole bunch from her party on Saturday. We had fun. Thank you to all the family that made the trip and came! We loved seeing everyone!

I guess Jacob thought the yard needed to be mowed! :)

We got the kids a swing set as a joint gift this year. Jacob loves the slide! Thanks, men, for staying up late putting it together!

A split second after I took this, Anna flipped over backward! Somehow she managed to hang on, but it was pretty funny!

ALL the kids loved it!

This was Anna's face when she saw her present! But then she got excited and ran to try it out.

He gets a little wild in his sleep!

The swingset:) Hopefully they won't expect such big presents every year!! Our neighbor's gave us one a few years ago, but it got demolished in the ice storm last year :(

Those same wonderful neighbors let us borrow their camper for the weekend. My whole family stayed for a few days with us, so we needed the extra space! Anna, Kaedyn, Mia, and our friends' little girl Elise all slept in there with Aaron & I. It was great fun:)

The first night (without Elise), I put Kaedyn and Anna in the bigger bed and Mia in the smaller one. I had meant to put the baby monitor out there so we could hear them if they weren't sleeping or needed something, but I forgot. So a couple hours later when I went to bed, I found Anna in Mia's bed! Mia said Anna was up fussing and saying she was hungry so she let her get in bed with her!

And Kaedyn had this great big bed all to herself!!

Mia, Elise, Anna, Bryce, and Kaedyn playing in the pool!

Mia started a water fight with Great Uncle Terry and Anna joined in! I think Uncle Terry lost!!

I was waiting for Jeremy & Jamie to push Aaron in the pool, but they took FOREVER! And I had just asked Aaron to pray before we ate, so he was looking around waiting...it just didn't work! Good thing, too because he had his cell phone in his pocket!