Southern Lights 2013

Another of our holiday family traditions is visiting the Kentucky Horsepark's Southern Lights display. As well as the beautiful lights, they have an awesome petting zoo and Santa. Because we generally visit Southern Lights Thanksgiving weekend (which also included Kennedy's birthday this year) we were able to include the Stiriz family and Uncle Chuck and Aunt Julie in this tradition as well as Uncle Dan, Aunt Dorothy, Heidi and Holden. It was a beautiful night and we had a wonderful time as always!

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McKinley's 1st visit with Santa - she did a great job and I think this picture is so sweet! Part of the reason she did so well is because she had her favorite bear from Aunt Arla to keep her company. 

 Jackson wasn't in the mood for pictures or cooperation (a real shocker, I know...) so we just got this super cute picture of the three girls with Santa. :)

 2/3 of the LaBar/Lueker clan

 Aunt Julie and Uncle Chuck with our sweet girls :)

 I love this sweet picture of Aunt Julie and McKinley looking at lights together

 The girls had the opportunity to pose with Frosty and the Nutcracker too :)

 Such a cute picture of Chaz and McKinley - he is so awesome with all my little guys! 

 The four big girls waiting for a train ride

 I'm not sure how it happened, but Tim ended up with basically all the kids in an itty bitty train car. The kids had a fabulous time singing at the top of their lungs and I'm sure Tim enjoyed the ride as much as they did. :)

 Charlie, Kelly, Aunt Julie and McKinley had a slightly less crazier train car (and probably ride too)

 Off they go! :)

 After the train ride we headed to the petting zoo to feed a wide variety of animals

 The kids also took turns on the adult camels

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Anna and Reagan

 Chaz and Jackson

 Kennedy and Heidi

 And Jackson finished off the evening in his usual delightful manner... Kelly just scooped him up and carried him along as he screamed at us. Oh how I love this challenging little boy! ;)

Thanks to the Stiriz, Cox and LaBar families for making our 2013 Southern Lights outing a memorable one! Looking forward to doing this with some or all of you for many years in the future and we especially can't wait to include our new cousin, baby Cole! :)

Andrasko Visit

I can't believe it's been so incredibly long since I posted! Between summer activities and first trimester pregnancy sickness I have fallen behind, again... Here goes to working on catching up. Hopefully I'll figure out a way to provide highlights of the summer since I feel hopelessly behind (which is also part of what has kept me from posting recently). Wish me luck! :)

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The beginning of June Tim's best friend, Andy, and his family came to visit us for a long weekend. We had an awesome time with them and need to plan another vist soon! I caught this great family picture of Lily, Andy, Angie and Miles during our visit to the Horsepark (more pictures of that below).

 On Friday they invited us to their hotel to enjoy the indoor pool. Needless to say fun was had by all! Here's Mile demonstrating his mighty cannonball skills! :)

 Missy K was very excited to use her new frog goggles

 All the kids enjoyed the floats

 Lily and Jackson playing together

 Lily is such a precious little girl we hoped some of her sweetness would rub off on Jackson :)

 Missy K and Lily sharing hugs after we got out of the pool

 Friday evening we had a cookout with the Andrasko and LaBar crews. It was a bit warm outside but Jackson throughly enjoyed his watermelon. :)

 Lily thought the marshmellows were pretty yummy :)

 Holden managed to get an oversized marshmellow in his mouth in one bite!

 Smores were enjoyed by all

 On Saturday we headed to the Kentucky Horsepark. I can't remember the name of this horse but it is extremely rare. I want to say they said there are only 10 currently living in North America.

 Jackson was not interested in the horse show so he and I found some ponies to pet not too far away from the arena.

 Everyone else enjoyed petting the horses from around the world after the show had finished.

 

 We also saw a miniature pony show

 We walked through a stable where all the kids could pet some of the larger horses

 The kids loved climbing on the oversized furniture

 Before we left we headed over to the playground for some fun

 Saturday evening the four adults went out for dinner and had a great time. I had meant to have Katie or Lauren take a picture of us before we left but totally forgot. Sunday morning, before they headed back to St. Louis, we went to the Movie Tavern for their "Flapjacks and a Flick" special to see "Madagasgar 3" for Miles' birthday.

Thank you all so much for coming to visit us! We can't wait to get together again! :)