Riley got to drive a helicopter

Ok - so maybe she wasn't really flying the thing, but she did get to see an Army helicopter, and she did get to sit in the pilot's seat, and she did get to move the joystick looking thing that they use to drive/fly it - so that really is the same thing.........right?

When this thing landed - it was loud and windy!

The kids were so excited (ha) that this is what they thought of it while it was landing

Cousin Cayman opted for covering his ears

Riley just wanted to go inside - look at the look she is giving the helicopter - whew

Then Riley and Cayman decided if the hugged maybe it would make it better - ha

And Carter was just chillin' thru all this - what a big boy

Now...here come the honorary pilots..........

Riley the ever watchful

Evan the cool dude!

Cayman the big silly guy

And last but not least........Colter the almost birthday boy
(now he really did sit in the pilot's seat, but he wasn't happy about it!)

This was a super fun - but incredibly hot and humid time......but I do have to share one more photo (sorry Gina) because it is just too funny. When the helicopter landed, it was loud and windy and Gina had a panic moment looking for Evan - see if you can find him in this picture..........

Yep, right there in her arms..........and she was really concerned I'm telling you :)

Riley Got a New (BoUncY) Present

Riley got something new last week - after a lot of sweating (could it have been more humid the day we were working......no I think not) and a little fussing from daddy after we put the the top part on upside down the first time and had to not just redo it but remove the bazillion metal clip thingys in order to put it on that second time.........Riley was happy as can be!!!

Don't mind that these are fuzzy - I still love the expressions!

Splashing the water off the side - the humidity when we were putting it together was not just because we live in Missouri it turns out, but because we were only minutes from a torrential downpour which Riley was very sad to have to wait thru before getting to jump (don't tell but we let her jump in the sprinkles for a little while)

Riley's jumping mate - Cousin Cayman - was also excited to share in the first jump, they didn't mind at all that they were getting soaking wet at the time!

The sign of a good time in the slightly rainy day is an extremely wet bum - check out these two!

Of course with our luck, we were missing 6 of the lovely little clip things so we can't put the safety net/fence thing on it yet, but I promise we bought it so there's no need to worry about her safety..........I will tell you a secret though, her mama doesn't want to put it on, it just seems silly, but at some point some random child may sneak into our yard and jump and I would hate for them to break their arm or worse. Riley, now I just want her to learn the safe way to jump and not depend on the net. Oh well, daddy has to win sometimes........and safety is a good time for him to win!