Scenes from the Summer...

So I'm still catching up on this blog after a couple of months of falling behind. I wanted to be sure to post pictures of the major events of our summer...such as Dave's big boat race! Dave participated in the MR 340 in August. For those of you who don't know what that is...it's basically a 340 mile river race down the length of the Missouri River from KC to St. Charles. They go through fog, night time, etc. with very little rest. Hannah and I were there to see them off in KC, and then followed them throughout a lot of their journey. It was a great experience! I have to say that I think being on the ground crew is probably more fun than actually racing it, but we were so proud of Dave and Britt. What an amazing accomplishment!

The start of the race in KC...there boat is somewhere in there! It started bright and early in the morning.



Waiting at the first checkpoint! When they come into the checkpoint, it was sometimes for just a few short minutes to re-stock on supplies. Sometimes they didn't even stop at all but just waved.


A pit-stop at Central Dairy in Jefferson City on our way to the checkpoint...





Waiting at the Jeff City checkpoint--they definitely had the biggest cheering section :)




Hannah went home with Grandma and Grandpa and Geni and I went on to Hermann, Augusta, and the finish line in St. Charles (where we were again met by the rest of the family cheering section!). Geni and I had a great time. These are a couple of pictures of the place where we had lunch in Defiance, MO. It was beautiful and so relaxing. Time well spent. Of course, during this time Dave and Britt were probably beyond exhaustion with every muscle in their bodies aching...but at least Geni and I were having fun :) We joke that maybe we could do the race next year and Dave and Britt could be our ground crew...or maybe not :)




Waiting around at the finish line in St. Charles.


Hannah trying to see where Uncle Dave is :) Notice the monkey "backpack" AKA "leash". I resorted to one of these after several comments by Hannah including "Hannah Swim!!!" and "I jump in (the river)!"


The finish!! Sam and Maggie were so thrilled to see their daddy at the end. And we all were so excited that they finished and did so well. They could write a book about the whole process and all the adventures, but we were just glad they were finished and safe!



So our other adventures probably weren't quite that exciting. We did go to the zoo numerous times. Each time I go to the KC Zoo, I like it more and more. There is a great new polar bear exhibit which Hannah and I both love. We got a zoo pass this season so we went quite a bit.

One of Hannah's favorite parts is the open area where you can run around with the sheep and feed them :)


Hanging around at the polar bear exhibit. You can see Nikita the polar bear in the background.


The Carousel at the Zoo is always a hit.


We also went to a lot of parks this summer. These are some pictures at Penguin Park, which has a lot of statues of animals that you can play in/under/on.




More parks...




First McDonald's Happy Meal :)


Road Trips...


Playing at home with Mom :)


Playing with stickers...


Having fun at Gramma Jan and Grampa Bill's house...


Art projects with friends...This was the scene in our driveway when the Moms group came to our house to paint. I'm so thankful for the Moms groups we're in...lots of fun activities and fun people to hang out with.






In all, it was a great summer. Lots of great memories and fun times...more pictures to come as I continue to upload them all off my phone. And more fall pics to come too...lots of catching up to do!