Sidewalk Chalk Fun

A few days ago, we were outside having fun with the sidewalk chalk - I'm not sure who it was more fun for, us or Ben! We had a great time making all kinds of designs and getting dirty. What a great summer activity!

Ben walking over his "clock"- we HAD to make one for him because he's obsessed with them!

Ben playing with chalk
Our little "creations"

New Words!!

We've noticed a few changes in Ben. One being that he LOVES to babble.....to himself, or anyone who will listen!! I also thought I'd keep you all updated on some new words he's learned lately. He recently learned and now says "baby" "up" "ball" "keys" "rock" "clock" and "cheese". Very exciting stuff in the Kuhn houshold lately!! As a side note, we are finishing our "water babies" class tomorrow and we'll start the "water bugs" class in either September or October! It is designed for 18-month olds and up to 3 years. So, he's graduated!

Montana State Fair

We went to the State Fair on both Friday and Sunday, which was so much fun. We spent most of the day there on Sunday. We took Ben down the "Fun Slide" which is a HUGE slide - he loved it. We also got to milk a goat - wow, that was interesting. Ben took a pony ride and of course we had to eat some fair food! We walked around and enjoyed the day with our friends, Brandy and Jeff and their little one, Anna. We hope to go back before it ends this Sunday!! We have to take advantage of our summers here!!!! Before we know it, it will be below zero again! Here are some of the pictures we got:

Ben getting a frog painted on his arm - he looked at that for the rest of the day!

Ben and Me and Brandy and Anna going down the monstrous slide!

Ben and daddy playing

Ben, milking.....a goat?

Salute!

Lt Benjamin reporting for duty!

Ben salutes any flag he sees, anyone in a uniform, including Mario! It's so cute. So patriotic this kid!

Water Fun

Ben trying to drink the water!

Still trying!

Spraying it by himself

Loving it!

We were outside today and Ben really wanted to play with the water hose.......so, we let him! He really loved it. He is all boy and really likes being outside, especially if it's helping daddy do something. He had a great time getting all wet and spraying the hose by himself. He really loves the water.

Holter Lake

Ben and daddy

Ben and Avery playing in the inner tube

Ben and Avery, climbing trees?

We went out to the Holter Lake yesterday and went boating and let the kids play. We cooked out, rode the inner tube around the lake, let the kids play at the little beach and pretty much exhausted ourselves by the end of the day!! It was nice to get out of town though. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the outdoors!

Everything is coming up DAISIES!!

This picture was taken about 7 months ago (before his first haircut) and I absolutely love it!

Emergency Room Visit!

Ben, looking like Moses in his hospital gown!

Well, we made our first visit to the ER last night. That sure was FUN! Beforehand, we were enjoying a nice birthday party, when Ben decided to swallow something he shouldn't have!!!!! They did an x-ray to make sure the item wasn't doing any damage on its way down. All seems to be good, for the moment. We are still on "alert" and are waiting for that "item" to exit!! Fun stuff, I tell ya. He's in good spirits as you can see from the photo!!!

Ryan Dam

The Falls at Ryan Dam

Me and Ben at Ryan Dam (the actual "Great Falls")

Ben Rocks!

We were all outside and Ben was collecting little rocks

and placing them on the step of our porch

Ben's little "collection" of rocks

4th of July

One of our fireworks!

We had a spectacular 4th of July weekend!! We initially decided to go boating and then decided to instead go to Bozeman, MT and stay overnight. We went to see the Dinosaur Museum at the University and played at the indoor pool of the hotel (we had it all to ourselves!!). On the 4th we had some friends over for some really cool fireworks. It was a perfect night -- it wasn't too hot and was actually a bit cool. We even got to see the city's fireworks from our deck! Yesterday, we went to the actual "Great Falls" of Great Falls, Montana! It was the first time we'd been there since we've lived here. I couldn't believe we hadn't gone before -- it was AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL. You cross a bridge to a little island that is directly in front of the falls and there is a beautiful park there where you can picnic or throw frisbee or whatever! As you can see, Ben is getting bigger and bigger every day, it seems. He's added "tick tock" to his vocabulary - we sing it ("Tick Tock, Tick Tock, I'm a little cuckoo clock......", just in case some of you didn't know!)every week at the library and of course he hears it a million times at home too! He says no, but not in a defiant way........yet. He's a funny, warmhearted little man that we love so much.

Home Depot Project

Ben hammering in the nails on his birdhouse

Helping daddy

Our Flag Cake