Grace: Growing Up

My little girl is growing up and this summer proved it.

 She has found and made some great friends in our neighborhood where she will ask to go to their house, or they will come and knock to see if Grace can come out to play.

It just seems like a big step to send her out to play with the kids.

 She lost her first tooth in July.

 Our neighbor has a fairy garden in her yard.  Grace had the idea to put her tooth in the garden so that the fairy can come and get it.

The "fairy" came, took the tooth and left a quarter and a ladybug.

And now we are getting ready for Kindergarten,

She is getting so big!

Photoshoot

 Every year we try to have a picture taken of all of the Kiser grandkids.  This year we took and evening out of our summer plans and used my neighbor's beautiful backyard as a backdrop to have our yearly photo shoot.

I think it turned out very well!

Lake Sherando

This summer we did not go to the beach or take a big vacation as a family.  But we did make time to do a few short trips to local areas.  One of those was a Sunday trip to Lake Sherando.

 It is a lovely lake with a sandy beach and it is only about 45 minutes away from our houses.

 Grace loved the water and was floating in it almost the whole time.

Glen was content to play in the sand and shoot people who were passing by with the water from the edge of the lake. 

 Amy and I relaxed in the chairs that Matt and Adam built for us.

 Adam made many things in the sand that day.

 After a nice lunch in the grassy area,

We said good bye to the sand and headed home.

Another great trip is in the books.

July 4th

Happy July 4th Everyone!

Summer Fun

Summer is a great time for fun outside.

One weekend while our church was at a campout, we did not attend the camping so we joined Mike and Amy's family for a fun morning at the local park. 

 We also have been having a lot of fun play dates with a new friend.  He is a child of someone that Lana worked with last year.  Though he is Glen's age, he seems to play with Grace more.  It is a fun time every time we get together.

Did I mention that he has some really cool cars that the kids got to drive?  Yeah, that was AWESOME!

 Summertime is the best.

But it is almost over, here comes school!

June Camping Trip

The hope is that we will do more camping this year than we have in the past.  We will see how that plan goes, but we have done one trip at least.

In June we went camping on Skyline Drive (the same campground that we went to last year) and had a blast.

We arrived on Thursday morning and found a great campsite that had fallen trees and lots of rocks to climb on. 

 I think that the kids spent more time with the trees and rocks than they did at our actual site.

Nature's playground!

 We also were beside an access point to the Appalachian Trail.  On Thursday we hiked a half of a mile into the trail and a half of a mile back.  So the kids have now done their first mile on the AT.

There was also a tenth of a mile loop that connected to our campground.  The kids ended up enjoying hiking so much that we did that loop at least two more times.

 Here is my little camper as she climbs like a mountain goat.

 My other little camper who quietly observes and studies everything.

Another wonderful trip.  Can't wait for the next one.

Summer Fun

We have had a lot of fun doing many activities together this summer.

 But the most fun are the things that we just do at home.

 Playing on the playground, riding bike, or simply going for a walk.

This summer Grace learned how to ride a bike with no training wheels.  Glen has moved from his tricycle to a bike with training wheels (his legs are a bit too short for the balance bike that we have waiting for him)