Another Post!….Finally!

Hello?  Is there anybody out there?  Well, just in case I’ll move on.  I’ll try and post at least once a week for a while to get caught up.

Zayne’s soccer team after beating the 1st place team.

Showin us one of her kata’s during her karate belt test

Kee-ya!

Getting a green belt.

And on to my first recital!

I’m ready and soooo excited!

A plie’ (No daddy, it’s a passe’ en releve’)

Roses for the ballerina!

Ok, now on to kids’ ninja warrior course.

Made it to the top of the wall! (with a little help from Daddy)

Zayne didnt want or need the help

And he made it!

Ready for trick or treating!

Ok, now we’re REALLY ready!

…and we’re out of gas

Just hangin’ out at the zoo…

And a pic with “Santa”. The kids figured out pretty quick this wasn’t the real Santa.

Capriana found a Harley she liked!

Capriana’s Birthday!

It is Oct. 24th for those who have forgotten.  Yes, it’s May 5th, do you want to see the pics or not?  Ok….  She had 3 parties!  One we went camping, her choice.  One was in Kansas for the UT/K-State game and one was here at our house.

Painting pumpkins with Eden (in the middle) I’m the one with the bike helmet on.

Cup Cakes for Camping Capriana!

Present time. (if ou closely above the bag you will see th top edge of the TV. If you look above that you can see the satellite dish we took out there. GLAMPING!!!)

The following weekend we were in Kansas for the Texas/K-State game. Hangin’ out with some chips and my cousin Kyler

My, errr our party at Grandma and Grandpa Stovers

I can blow out ALL the candles.

The 21 is for Kyler. I guess that’s important somehow…

And now I get the chance to open more presents! At home this time.

A canvas pic of me and Ariel!

And another one of the Disney Castle!

Some fall pics

We went to our nephew Josh’s (Gwen’s son) wedding in Kansas.  And a couple of other pics.

The Pics…

Pre, pre-wedding pics.

Who’s taking who’s picture?

A rare family pic. A really, really rare family pic while dressed up.

Zayne is just soooo excited to be in the wedding…

A bit of a goofy face.

Is this how we’re supposed to stand?

Pumpkins, not flowers. It is a fall wedding. (It was also supposed to be outside, but it rained)

In rehearsal the night before I set this on the step, there are no steps in here. Where do I put thsi?

Goofy wedding party

Dancing with her cousin Josh, the groom.

I was luck to get this for Zayne’s 15 seconds out dancing.

Dancing with her cousin-in-law. Zayne declined to dance with her. To say he was a bit shy….

Caprian LOVES to ride on the Harley.

And some things never change (no, not kids eating constantly, that is still true too) but…

…kids still love grilled cheese sandwiches (So do Mommy’s and Daddy’s!)

BMX and bikes

Wow!! It’s been almost….6 months since my last post.  How about a quick one to get me going again?  This is from last August and a couple of our biking adventures.

Capriana on the trail in Frisco

Hitting the jumps!! (Zayne refused to ride the jumps with us taking pictures)

Zayne, Capriana and Mommy (not in this pic) getting ready for the parade lap at their first BMX race.

Capriana on her warm up lap.

The first timers ready to race!

Mommy in her first race.

Capriana rolling out of the gate (a bit apprehensive at the noise it makes when it slams open)

And she’s off!

Over the big jumps

Zayne’s first race

And Zayne over the big jumps

More summer

Our good friend Monty got married this summer.  This gave us 2 whole weeks between the Carolina trip and heading to Quincy, Illinois.  We then stopped on the way home to see Great Grandma, and since it was July 3rd…..boom!

January Activities

January was a busy month as we went back to Kansas just two weeks after Christmas to celebrate Grandpa Stover’s 80th birthday.  We also got in some yard work and some birthday fun.

So, playing with a little fire? I’m sure you didn’t start it.

No, you didn’t start it! Actually, they decided to burn the brush pile on this day. And then Grandpa Stover walked around with a lit stick lighting the grass on fire! He said he was burning off the weeds, but I think he was just having fun.

I got a tractor ride and driving class from Uncle Kirk.

So, I pull this lever and what happens?

Now, I get to steer.

And then it was Zayne’s turn.

And the reason for the trip to Kansas.

Grandpa and his cake, and oh ya, me too!

Funny how when a birthday cake has candles lit our kids manage to be on the front row….

Hmmm, what’s wrong with this picture? Oh ya, Grandpa isn’t drinking his normal brand of beer!

Daddy with Anna?

Stover family pic.

Zayne made a Jackie Robinson poster for his class.

Back at home it was time to tear down the raised flower garden and fountain to build a vegetable garden. By the way, Capriana, what do you have?

A snake! a little garter snake.

So, Capriana’s playing with a snake and I’m working? “Yep, get back to it.”

Ok. BAM!! (Zayne finishing up taking down the stone wall for the raised flower bed.

All gone except the liriope grass.

And this same area is where the vegetable garden will go. (Of course it’s September now, so most of the garden has been harvested)

And a birthday party (not Daddy’s, that’s a different story). Their friend Remy had a birthday party at this indoor water fun center. Here Zayne is riding the board. Of course later he ditches the board and just shoots over the back into the bigger pool of water. And then does it again and again and again and…..

Capriana is ready to go.

And away she goes. And of course follows Zayne’s lead and ditches the board.

December 2015

I’ve decided to encompass all the December pics into one post, so it’ll be a little long, but it will be done.   So, grab your favorite beverage, maybe hit the loo first and settle in and enjoy.

Kee-ya!

Wrist grab and the way to get out of it

Getting my orange stripe!

I scream!

The kids wanted their own tree for their rooms, so Mommy took them to the store and bought them each one.

And here’s Zayne’s.

Making or eating cookies?

Of course this time of year Santa is around!

Playing Simon Says at Dr. Josh’s. He hosted Santa that night and Mommy and Daddy were very happy with no line.

hmmm, cheerleading in your future, Capriana?

Dr. Josh had a contest between all the kids to see who could hang the longest. After a couple of tries Zayne and I got VERY serious about it.

I won! I crushed the other kids, and Capriana finished second. I even beat a 9 year old!

Jingle Bells, Sofie

Opening this big package, I wonder what could be in it!?

CAPRIANA!!

This better not be another foreshadowing of your future (popping out of things)

See, we can get along!

What dessert? I didn’t have any dessert yet….

Ariel, my favorite!

Star Wars, my favorite!

Just relaxing with my drink waiting for my turn…

….and now it’s my turn…

…a Frozen jacket. Frozen is my favorite!

Just my size.

STAR WARS LEGOS!!!! My real favorite

Yep, I want pink everything!

More legos!

A Christmas tradition at the Stovers. The kids must wrestle on the floor.

Daddy is noticing a trend in you two getting along….

Just cute

Books that read to me.

Santa’s gift. Not sure what it is…

OH, a Barbie Chef.

Here is the note left for Zayne from Santa.

And here is the one for Capriana

And another Christmas tradition, a visit to see Kirk at the Fire Station.

Outta my way!! (truck horns)

Getting geared up…

…this stuff is heavy.

A little too heavy for me.

Scary Monster! No, it’s just Kirk

Cool, a heat detector to use in a smoky house/building.

We loved putting leaves into the exhaust vaccum.

Santa left me a Thunderbird plane!

He also left me a Blue Angel plane! (Capriana received a mixing bowl and cooking set, unfortunately the pics didn’t turn out well enough).

But, we did get a pic of her using the real thing!

And we got to light sparklers for New Years Eve!!!

Ya!!! (Zayne was off running around the pool with his)

Happy New Year! Mommy and Daddy had a pajama party for New Years.

Pensacola

Ok, we now go back in time to the weekend after Thanksgiving 2015, for our stop in Pensacola on the way home from Disney.  We stopped for a couple of nights for some beach time and to break the drive up.  And just to make sure we had worn the kids out enough at Disney….

‘Strike a Pose’, Zayne!

Hey, Sailor Boy

Our stop at the National Naval Aviation museum

LOTS and LOTS of planes

Just my size!

Dad, this is a serious job

Ok, let’s start the engines

Hey! What are you doing on my carrier, Daddy?

Looking for subs.

Ready for take-off

Bomber ready!

F4 Corsair. Just like the ones in Baa Baa Blacksheep

Torpedo seat

I think I’m gonna be a pilot!

I gotta turn this gun to shoot some Zero’s.

A T-34 trainer, just like Grandpa Stover used to fly.

Pensacola is also the home of the Blue Angels

Nixon’s Marine 1

Prepping for take-off

Daddy and co-pilots? ready to go.

Mommy’s ready, and seems to have lost her co-pilots

The co-pilot is ready to be THE pilot.

I can’t wait to get to the beach!

Had to take a pizza break after the musuem

On to the beach! Zayne decided to dig a hole and relax.

Capriana on the other hand decided to build a castle.

Zayne wiped out by a wave.

The sunsets on the vacation….

Of course the kids are still playing in the sand.

So tired, he fell asleep wathcing TV.

Too tired to even get in bed the right way….

Summer Vacation – Patriot’s Point

While in Charleston we went to Patriot’s Point.  This “National Park” is home to the retired aircraft carrier U.S.S. Yorktown, the retired destroyer U.S.S. Laffey and the retired submarine U.S.S. Clamagore.  The whole tour took 7 hours, including lunch, which we kind of knew would take a while.

The U.S.S. Yorktown

The U.S.S. Laffey

The walk up. As we later took advantage of, there is an enclosed golf cart that seats 8 or so. The walk is longer than it looks after 7 hours…

Pilot Zayne “Z” Jennings

Pilot Capriana “Dancer” Jennings

“Smokey” Stover – just like our Grandpa in Kansas (but different guy, although our grandpa was in the Navy and flew planes for a little while. More on that in an upcoming post)

Scrappy!

Down in the engine room. We got to see EVERY part of the ship. Most of it we didn’t care about.

I have to reduce the pressure of the steam, or we’ll lose screw #2!

Daddy’s favorite WWII plane, the Corsair.

“Dancer” in her pre-flight briefing.

The Brigg.

Riding an artillery shell. Daddy said it reminded him of the movie Dr. Strangelove. We thought that was strange…

Our Grandpa Stover was also a barber in the Navy.

And Daddy’s and Zayne’s favorite fighter jet, the F-14 Tomcat

“Z” with an F-18 Hornet

Now he’s an artillery gunner.

The ship is REALLY long!

Now it’s Cap’n Capriana

And Co-Cap’n Zayne.

The U.S.S. Clamagore. The sub is in pretty bad shape and I’m surprised it isn’t leaking.

The torpedo room. 3 shifts of men, armed, repaired, loaded and slept in this room.

The aisle? Not so sure on my nautical terms….

Two kids in a tube.

I’m ready to go now! No, not leave, out to sea! Submarines are fun!

The U.S.S. Laffey

All aboard!

A nice seat in front of a turret. We watched a movie inside this turret about the attack on it in 1945 and the kamikazee planes that hit it. Yet it didn’t sink.

A view inside at the sleeping quarters.

Summer Vacation!

Due to time constraints, we jump ahead in our programming….   Ok, so we’re a bit behind, so Daddy is starting a new strategy (ya, we’ll see how this works out….).  He is going to make a post with newer pics and one with older pics so always keep scrolling down until you see stuff you’ve seen before.  Of course, to start this new strategy off he’s only putting up one post (so, how does this work again, Daddy?), but at least it’s new pictures.  At least only a month old…  Well, here is post #1 of our trip to the Carolinas.

Our first stop was Asheville, NC, where we stayed with our friends Jim and Anne who moved out there years ago. This is taken off the Blue Ridge Parkway which is just a couple miles from their house.

Another pic of the Blue Ridge Mountains off the Parkway

In Asheville one of the restaurants had a bubble machine. As you can see, it was a fun.

Mel and Anne about to go biking.

We found a turtle on our nature hike! Capriana is trying to coax it to move.

Asheville has some great breweries, but we chose to stop at a Cider place and sampled 8 different ciders. Funny how our original choices weren’t our favorites after trying them all. Some, were tough to choke down….

Jim with the kids.

Our next stop was Myrtle Beach. We found a gluten free restaurant and as you can see Zayne was very happy at the selections….

…and so were Mommy and Capriana with the dessert.

And of course a picture with the king and queen of Margaritaville (yes, we went all touristy and went there….)

Blenders and a beach. Oh, and pajamas and Capriana’s balloon hat from Margaritaville (same with the blender glasses. I TOLD you we went TOURISTY).

Our first stop in Charleston, was to an old plantation.

Nice splash pad before our walking tour of Charleston….should have brought swimsuits with us.

Real cobblestone street dating back to the 1700’s.

A row of houses dating back to the 1700’s and among the first in Charleston refurbished.

The bricks on the ground show where the wall ramparts were locate. Charleston used to be a walled city and just beyond this rampart was the water. As you can see Charleston has grown a bit.

A good example of a single house. The house is just wide enough for a single room and extends back as far as 100 yards in some instances.

A row of houses along the sea front and still has part of the old wall, under the new wall.

The First Baptist Church….in the U.S.A., built in 1682, so this is truly the FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.

A house George Washington stayed at during his visit to Charleston in the 1780’s

The chair (supposedly) that George sat in during his visit. For sure the same location.

A little lunch with a view before our next stop…..

…Which was Fort Sumter. This is where the first shots in the civil war were fired.

A restorted cannon inside the fort.

Rebel or Yank?

Something about the brilliance of the light made me take this pic. Somehow it seems more poignant now.

A row of cannons

The remnants of the north wall. This was originally 3 stories high with cannon racks. The wall to the left was part of the soldiers’ barracks.

Tired girl on the boat ride back.

Foreshadowing – the U.S.S. Yorktown.

Capriana’s silly face

Out….

and…..oiut