Pretty Cool!!

We bought season passes to our little water park here in Spokane Valley, Splashdown, again this year. The kids just have a blast, it is so worth the money!!! This year our friends bought passes too, so it has been doubly fun for the kids to have their friends with them!!

Last Friday the dads took the kids to the water park by them selves, while us mom's worked. They told us that while they were there, standing by the kiddie pool, a teenage boy was yelling at his friend and called him a retard, right in front of Ella and Riley. The lifeguard (young high school possibly college guy) immediately yelled at the kid and told him something to the effect of "knock it off, we don't need people talking like that here." I thought that was just so cool. So, today when we went to the water park my husband, Ella and I went and talked to the owner of the water park and told him just how appreciative we were that the young lifeguard had got on to that boy, how much that meant to us. The owner said "we have absolutely no use for that kind of language here!" Hopefully he will make sure and tell the lifeguard what a good job he did! I love that place!!!!!!

Here are a few pictures of Ella and Riley at the water park. I swear these two are two peas in a pod, they have very very similar personality (and a lot of it!!!) I can't tell you how many times we have been asked if they are twins!!

I added this after I posted..... Mary and I are sharing this post, here is what she had to say...

Okay it's Mary again. Don't you just want to squeeze these two? Now that Riley doesn't scare Ella to the point of tears they have so much fun with eachother. They have the cutest little hugs and kisses for each other. They truly are good buddies and I love to watch them play. They have their moments of bossing eachother around and not wanting to do what the other wants but they truly do have concern for each other. The shots above of Ella's arm around Riley are not posed or encouraged by the moms who think it's cute. Riley didn't want to walk at the moment so Ella was giving him so encouragement. If one of them is upset the other has to come and give pats and loves to make sure their friend is OK. It is so encouraging to hear stories like the one above and so much better in real life. I love to think that there was a little Riley or Ella in that lifeguards world somewhere that showed him there was no use for the word retard. I love to imagine how many lives these two are touching without us even realizing.

Hunter and Ella

We have been so busy and I have so many pictures and things I want to blog but I had to do this one first, because it's fresh in my memory (and I wrote down what Hunter said and I didn't want to lose the paper : )

Last night the kids and I were sitting on the couch just relaxing. Hunter and Ella were snuggled up together under Ella's pink Dora blanket (shh don't tell Hunter I told you that) and Hunter says to me....

"I just love having a 3 1/2 year old with Down syndrome. I love hugging and kissing her it just makes me feel like.......like I love her, cause I really do."

Seriously. Melt. My. Heart.

Then he starts asking me "so when I'm 20 she will be 18?" "When I'm 30 she will be 28?" I wonder what he is thinking about?

All I know is Hunter is an amazing boy. He is such a sweet big brother to Ella, she is SO lucky to have him. Hunter often brings tears to my eyes, like when he is changing innings during a baseball game and runs to the sidelines to give Ella a high five and a big hug, when he gets off the school bus and runs to his sister and hugs her, lifting her off the ground and then instructs his friends to give her a hug too, the way he pushes me out of the way so he can catch his sister coming down the slide at the water park.

These pictures aren't the best I've ever taken, but these are ones that I will cherish forever, a moment of pure sibling love!!!

Okay, that's enough being sweet!!

4th of July

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!!! We had a great day, spent time with our Alaskan friends at the lake. It was quite chilly but that didn't stop Hunter from getting in the water!! Of course I took a ton of pictures : )

Hunter LOVED these water guns!

Hunter was totally annoyed with me taking pictures, as usual : )

Ha ha!

Out on the boat!

I just love that little hand!

Family visits!

This past Saturday my husband's sister and family came to visit us from Chicago. We had SOOOO much fun with them and crammed as much fun as we could in the few days they were here! I of course have a TON of pictures so it may take a couple of posts to put all the ones I want on here! The last time we had seen them was Ella's first Christmas, when she was 3 months old and Hunter was 2 1/2 years old. Here they are the last time.... And here they are now..... Brendan is 9, Hunter is 6, Shaylin is 5 and Ella is almost 4!!

We bought the girls matching dresses, they were SO cute!!

These pictures were taken on their last full day here, at Lake Coeur d'Alene.

My little family...


Tami, Shawn, Brendan and Shaylin


The boys really hit it off, Hunter sure misses Brendan!

My babies