Father's Day

For Father's Day, we made Ryan Star Wars pancakes (thanks for the pancake molds Jess!) and bacon (so maybe Ryan had to help because I always burn bacon and the new pancake molds were a little tricky). Breakfast was followed up by gift opening, World Cup watching, mowing, swimming and dinner over at my mom and Bob's house with my grandparents. We were able to have dinner with my dad on Saturday evening to celebrate Father's Day since he had an open house all day Sunday. We were also able to spend an evening last week with Ryan's dad, so we extended Father's Day over almost an entire week.

The Boys are Back in Town!

We couldn't be more excited, Max and Caster now officially live in Edmond!!! It has been 7 years since Ryan has lived in the same state as his boys (and 3.5 years since they've been in the same country). Their mom was transferred to Tinker Air Force Base and she and her husband purchased a house in Edmond. They are on the other side of Edmond, but it only takes about 20 minutes to get to their house, we couldn't be happier! For the first 4-5 weeks they are going to stay at our house. They've got a trip planned with their mom and then they'll be back with us for a few weeks before school starts. We'll then have to figure out what the schedule will be once school starts. We can't wait to be a part of their lives more (in person anyways, we got pretty good at it over Skype and the phone). Bring on the parent-teacher conferences, homework, sporting events and school activities, we can't wait to be a part of it! But until school starts, it's a summer full of swimming, watching the World Cup, family time and all sorts of fun stuff.

The boys have gotten so tall! Sara is only about 1 inch taller than Max at this point. Ryan and Max are already wearing the same size shoes!

The first weekend they were here we went to Jeremy and Cori Hughes' wedding. It was so fun to be there for their big day. Of course we took the opportunity for some family pics, we all don't get that dressed up that often).

With Jess, Eric and Silas

Cori and the guys at their wedding.

With Scott, Autumn, Bob and Cindy

Cindy, Jeremy and Sara
Because the boys were still living in England when Max turned 13 (on May 10), we had a belated birthday party for him complete with steaks, cookie pizza and gifts when they got here. We're so excited that from now on we'll get to celebrate Max and Caster's birthdays on their actual birthdays instead of a month late or a month early (Caster's b-day is in September).

MMMMM.....cookie pizza

Max showing off his gift from Bob and Cindy

Italia

We had an amazing trip to Italy, I wish we were still there! We got to spend a week in Rome, followed by two days in Venice. We drank lots and lots of wonderful red wine and had all sorts of fantastic food. We walked lots and lots and fit in as much as we possibly could while we were there. We went with our friends Brett, Amber, Kathy and Zach and we all shared a three bedroom apartment just down the street front the Colosseum. I am so glad we were able to get away from work to go (and that we both were able to avoid e-mail the entire trip)!

As soon as we got to Rome. We were lucky this was the only day that it rained.

The Pantheon

In Piazza Navona

The view from the rooftop bar where we had drinks

Amber, Kathy and Sara at the Trevi Fountain

At the Roman Forum. This is the temple of Castor and Pollux.

Us in the Colosseum

The Pope

Zach, Kathy, Ryan, Sara, Amber, Brett on the Vatican tour.

Inside the Vatican Museum.

After a failed attempt to take a wine tour. We were able to arrange for a driver/tour guide to take us to Tuscany last minute. We spent the day in the southern Tuscany town of Masse Marittima, where our guide had a friend that showed us around. It was so beautiful! We started with a private wine tasting, followed by lunch (the same owner had the wine shop and restaurant). We then headed to Baratti beach to check out the Mediterranean Sea. We finished off the day at the Populonia castle.

Our private wine tasting with the owner of the shop and with Cosma (our tour guide).

The view from Masse Marittima

The view from Populonia castle.

We finished up our amazing trip with two days in Venice. Just like everyone said, it is easy to get lost there! Lucky for us we weren't on a schedule and didn't have anywhere we had to be.

Here is the link to all of our pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/116036608521392661007/Italy?feat=directlink