We have been busy this summer! Since our last post, a lot has gone on in the Quirk household. Joshua got his first haircut on June 5th. He did not enjoy it, but he looked so cute afterwards! Noah and Evan were there to "help out" by telling him everything would be okay.
We've taken a few trips this summer already. On June 16th, we went to the farm to visit Brian's family for a Fathers' Day celebration. We spent the day there playing, riding the gator, eating, and the boys even got to go swimming in the creek. Joshua loved it! Noah and Evan were hesitant at first, but then ended up enjoying it.
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| Noah, Brian and Evan playing in the creek at the farm |
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| Joshua playing in the creek |
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| The whole gang getting ready for a gator ride! |
The next day was Fathers' Day. We went to church in the morning, took Brian to Bob Evan's for breakfast (big spenders), and then had my family over that afternoon for hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats. It was a great weekend!
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| Fathers Day |
The following weekend, June 23rd, we took the boys to St. Louis for our cousins Michelle and Scott's college graduation party. We got there too early for the party, so we went to the Science Center - all of the boys had fun!
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| Noah and Evan at the St. Louis Science Center |
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| Joshua and Daddy at the St. Louis Science Center |
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| Looking down onto the highway at the St. Louis Science Center |
The party was great and it was so much fun to spend time with extended family! We stayed at an Embassy Suites that night, which our boys always like because they get to "explore" the hotel.
On Sunday, June 30th, we drove to Branson, MO for an awesome family vacation! We went with the boys' Grandma and Grandpa Sonderman, Uncle John, Aunt Theresa, Michael, Mia, Uncle Mark, Aunt Sarah, and baby Dominic. We were initially going to go to Colorado Springs, CO, but some bad wildfires kept us away. We were very bummed about not being able to go to Colorado, but the Branson trip was an absolute blast! On Monday, most of us went to Silver Dollar City. The boys loved to ride their first real park rides and play in "Geyser Gulch," which is an awesome play area for children with lots of water, air cannons that shoot foam balls, and more.
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| Geyser Gulch! |
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| Noah at Geyser Gulch |
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| Evan at Geyser Gulch |
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| Noah and Michael at Geyser Gulch |
We swam that night at our townhouse's pool. On Tuesday, the men played golf at our resort. That afternoon, we all went and checked out the outlet mall, which was great. That night, Brian and John took Noah, Evan, and Michael mini-golfing (Joshua and Mia were having a "fussy" night and ended up at home with me and Theresa).
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| Noah playing mini-golf |
Wednesday was the 4th of July. A lot of us went to The Track for go-karts, kids rides, and mini-golf. It was SUPER hot, so we didn't last long out there! Brian and I went back to the outlet mall that afternoon while Noah, Evan, and Joshua took naps at the townhouse with Grandma and Grandpa. We swam that night and got to see an awesome fireworks display from our pool. Thursday morning we all went and got an "old time photo" taken. It turned out fantastic! We got some ice cream afterwards. That afternoon, Brian and I left the kids with Grandma and Grandpa and went to The Landing to shop. It was a lot of fun. That night we all went out to a local Italian restaurant for dinner, Florentina's. It was really good (with the exception of Sarah finding brush wires in her steak - needless to say, she got a free meal). Friday morning we all said goodbye and headed home. It was a great week!
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| Mia! |
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| Joshua, Noah and Evan in a Batcave at the outlet mall in Branson |
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| Michael, Noah, Evan and Mia modeling their new superhero shirts |
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| Joshua with his new Spiderman shirt (complete with Noah/Evan's spiderman tennis shoes) |
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| Grandma and Grandpa with all 6 grandkids |
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| Mom and Joshua in Branson |
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| Evan and Daddy chillin' in the townhouse in Branson |
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| Sweet baby Dominic hanging out in the townhouse in Branson |
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| Noah in his Daddy's new t-shirt |
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| ...and Evan acting silly on the last night of our vacation! |
Noah and Evan started swim lessons the week of June 18th. They do NOT like them. They like to swim, but don't like to be told what to do by someone other than me or Brian. Their swim teacher is great, and she has a lot of patience. Hopefully they learn to like the lessons and get over it quickly. We will probably only have them do a few more weeks of them. They start fall soccer again on August 26th, and will start preschool on September 4th. They claim to be excited about both of those - we'll see :) On a development note, Noah and Evan are both doing well. Their vocabulary is getting better, and they seem to be eating better. They still have fights and throw fits, but what 3-year-old doesn't? They love to play in our backyard with or without our neighbor Abby, who comes over at least a few times a week to play. We try to play outside when it's not so hot.
Joshua is doing great as well. He loves to swim in the pool! He loves it so much and is a complete daredevil. I told Noah and Evan's swim teacher that she'll probably have Joshua next summer since he's loves the water so much. He is eating like crazy (most of the time he eats more than his big brothers), and his vocabulary is getting better each and every day. He loves to play with his toys, read books, play outside, and follow his big brothers around. He likes to roughhouse with them, and also gets in trouble for pulling their hair a lot (even though he's not doing it to be mean)!
We still have plans for pretty much each weekend left this summer, so we'll have much more to blog about soon. Have a great summer!
