Katie's Baptism

What a special day for Katie yesterday! She was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We're so grateful that my mom and dad could be here for the event! We also appreciate the support of faithful ward members and friends. This spunky daughter brings so much joy into our lives, and we're proud of this step forward that she has taken.

New Friends!

"One of these things is not like the others". . . meet our new pets: Sandy, Licorice, Marshmallow, and Spotty. 

Back to School!

Abby ~ 5th grade with Mr. Urso

Katie ~ 2nd grade with Mrs. Prues

Alex ~ kindergarten with Mrs. Nowak

(Oh, no . . . does this mean I need to unpack from our month-long trip and clean the house now?)

Virginia Road Trip

(Better late than never, right?!) We had an exciting road trip to Virginia in June; here are some of the highlights!

The Potomac River at Mt. Vernon, George Washington's estate

Mt. Vernon

Mt. Vernon

Carrie with cousin Cate Todd ~ We loved the chance to reconnect with these cousins, who live in Landsdowne, VA. It was so great to see Cate and Mike and their beautiful home, and all the 2nd cousins hit it off great!

Alex, Katie, Abby, Grace

with second cousins Nathan, Spencer, Grace, and James (we got to see Mary Jane and Richie too, but they somehow escaped picture-taking!)

Kuzma second cousins! ~ Jeff and Nicole (Luke's cousin) were so wonderful to open up their lovely home to us for three days, and the kids had a blast together! We just adore this amazing family. Here are Katie, Elly, Amber, Sarah, Alex, Trenton, and Abby enjoying dinner on the back porch.

Jeff and Luke took Katie, Trenton, Abby, and Alex on a canoeing adventure on the Potomac

Thumbs up for a mud bath!

Katie found a little critter for a friend, of course

Our sightseeing day in Washington, D.C. ~ starting at the National Mall

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

Family shot at the Mall by a nice passerby (Capitol barely visible over Luke's right shoulder)

Alex liked this fountain at the Smithsonian so much . . . 

. . . that he went for a swim! (Oops . . .)

Looking down the mall to the Lincoln Memorial

The Jefferson Memorial (only a drive-by visit this time . . . we just couldn't pack it all in to one day!)

The Air and Space Museum ~ Alex was in heaven.

This is what Sarah thought of the Air and Space Museum

A shot of the Capitol from our moving car ~ the best we could do!

Katie made another friend at the Museum of Natural History

It was a great trip! We could have stayed for weeks and still not seen all there is to see, but we packed in quite a bit and had a marvelous time.

Zoo Day!

We had a great time at the zoo a couple of weeks ago!

On the train

Watching the penguins dive and swim

Climbing on the "spider's web"

Enjoying the slide in the children's zoo

Learning to empathize with a turtle  :)

Grooming the baby goats . . .

. . . and feeding them

Mama Giraffe with her 6-week-old baby

Climbing on the rhinos (with new furry friends to take home)

Making friends with a fancy peacock!