At the Branson Landing

Colton and cousin Emory were having fun at the Landing during the fire and water show.

George W. Bush Presidential Library

While in Texas, we made a special trip to Dallas to visit the new George W. Bush Presidential Library. Back in 2011 we visited the Ronald Reagan Library in Californai and it sparked an interest. Now I'd love to take our boys to all  thirteen of the existing Presidential Libraries.

For this field trip I took Hunter, Connor, Carter and Holden while Todd kept Collins and Colton. The boys really enjoyed it and took advantage of the many interactive parts of the library/ museum. As a bonus, we got to see my sweet friend Sarah Smith plus her hubby Wyatt and kids. I loved getting to see their family!

Here we are ready to enter the museum. *The auto focus is broken on my camera so if some of the photos are a bit fuzzy, it is simply because I am not a good photographer.

Notice how Carter is trying to smile at me and yet creep his hand up to do bunny ears on Connor.

Pieces of steel beams from one of the World Trade Center buildings. The 9/11 exhibit in the museum was fascinating!

Connor and Carter in the Rose Garden. The Presidential Library had an exact replica of the Oval Office as it looked during Bush's years in White House, and just off of the Oval Office was a Texas Rose Garden.

On the ceiling of the Oval Office.

Here we were waiting for our turn to sit at the replica of the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. Nice face Hunter!

Still waiting...

OK, these next three photos have awful lighting, but each of the boys got a chance to sit at the president's desk and even pick up the phone.

Can you believe this picture (with none of the boys in the chair) turned out the best? Rats!

The President and the First Lady's jackets from Air Force One.

This was maybe the favorite thing that the boys did all day. This table was amazing! Picture the cool computers that you see on shows like CSI where the detectives are swiping photos across a screen, touching photos/ maps/ articles to enlarge them, etc. The boys spent a lot of time in this "Defending Freedom" section. The interactive video table featured photos, documents and maps related to Iraq and Afghanistan.

This exhibit was probably a bit over the boys' heads, but I really liked it. It allowed guests to put themselves in Bush's place and make big decisions on topics such as Hurricane Katrina, Saddam Hussein and more.

Before we left, we took a few photos of these larger than life statues of George Bush and George W. Bush.

This was a fun field trip with my boys. So glad we had a chance to do the Bush Presidential Library!

For KK and Boompah

We had lunch at one of KK and Boompah's favorite restaurants...Firehouse Subs! All the kids loved their free fire hats.

Texas Fun

We just returned home from our trip to Texas and I am going through the pictures from our trip. It was a fun week of time with the Rapp family and fun events with our kids. We are thankful that we were able to go! Here are a few highlights.

Lots of time with our cousins! That is Dalton on the right and though he is younger than Connor, he stands a whole head taller than all his Branson cousins. The boys went to see Man of Steel, but most of them thought it was too violent. They were a bit disappointed and wished they would have seen Monsters University instead.

We went to Dallas to visit the new George W. Bush Presidential Library. (I will do a separate post on that later.) Colton did not want to go to the Bush Library though. He told us, "It will be so boring!" So Todd took Colton and Collins to NorthPark Mall where they got to visit the Lego Store. Awesome!

We ate at In-N-Out Burger! So yummy. Todd had to document this because up till now Collins has turned away any hamburger that we put in front of her...but not this time. She loved my cheeseburger. Her daddy was so proud! He loves In-N-Out too.

Here is our happy cheeseburger muncher!

We spent two afternoons at the pool. It was a great way to beat the Texas heat and the boys loved the diving boards. Connor was pointing at Todd during this picture.

Bronwyn and Holden at the baby pool. Holden looks so sad here, but he really is coming to life for us. He is smiling lots. *Side note: Holden has another EEG this week and then a follow up appointment with the Neurologist. We want to post a big Rapp family/ Holden update after that visit witht the doctor.

Collins thought this pool was just the right size for her.

On the move! We actually met another little girl named Collins while we were at the pool.

Carter off the boards. He would do twists and have me count how many times he could turn around before hitting the water.

The beginning of a 720!

Retirement Party

A big reason for our trip to Texas was to be here for Grandad's surprise retirement party. At the end of May, Tommy retired from his many years as an orthopedic surgeon. The party was a great chance to see lots of friends who have loved the Rapp family through the years. Grandad was definitely surprised! Nine of his ten grandkids were present. Todd's sister Lauri has two girls - both in college, but the rest of the grandkids are young. This is Sarah's Instagram from the night, which I thought was funny!

More pictures from the Hillbilly Lobster Hunt

I found a few more pictures from our "lobster" hunt last week. Collins wasn't dressed for the water, but she sat right down in the creek and had a great time. Her diaper was about ten pounds by the time she stood up.

It was work trying to get Collins out of the creek, up a hill and to try ground with her wet diaper and Holden strapped to my chest. I was tired!

But we made it! And thankfully I had dry clothes and a diaper for Miss Collins.

Rangers Game

We are in Texas right now and as a special treat, Todd and the boys got to attend a Rangers baseball game. Thank you to David Rapp for finding the tickets. What a treat it was for the Rapp boys!

Stitches

Some Connor and Carter rough housing today ended with three stitches near Carter's right eye. So far Carter is the only Rapp boy to get stitches, and this is his third set at that. Travis Brawner took good care of him and afterwards, Todd treated Carter to cheese fries at Freddy's. Carter is doing fine and thinks he looks a bit like Frankenstein.

Collins

This picture was from Saturday morning. Collins had spent the night with the O'Dell family so that we could attend Parents' Night at K-1. When I went to pick her up, my sweet friend Wendy had her hair fixed in these adorable pigtails with a little barrette in front. Adorable! We couldn't get her to look at the camera as she was very interested in the iPad.

And on a less glamorous note, this was later Saturday afternoon. The cute pigtails were gone and I had hastily pulled her hair out of her eyes. She, however, was responsible for her own marker mustache.

This hair do is from our time in Nashville. KK pulled Collins's hair into a messy bun after she was done swimming.

K-1

This weekend our family was reuited! After two weeks at kamp, it was time to pick up Colton and Hunter. We couldn't wait to see them. The reunion is always so sweet as the kampers come running to find their parents. I love my husband because he is always so unselfish as he lets me greet the kids first and he takes pictures. Colton got very emotional when he saw us and kept commenting on how his brothers looked different after two weeks apart.

Greeting Colton!

 And Hunter!

 Go Cherokees! Here is a picture of the boys with Holden Bryant who was the K-1 Cherokee Chief. Holden's dad was a dock daddy with Todd many years ago at K-2. And to everyone's delight, the Cherokees did win the term competition!

After a picnic on the fields, there was time to tour K-1...but the Rapp boys just wanted to do the barn swing. We spent the entire "tour" time in the Party Barn.

 Time for cabin awards. Colton seemed kind of zoned out as he listened to his counselors.

 I thought this was a cute picture of Colton looking up at one of his counselors.

 The counselors choose REVERENCE and GOODNESS as the character qualities for Colton.

 What a cute boy!

Hunter's turn. He received the Heart Award for his cabin, plus the character qualities of OBEDIENCE and RESPECTFULNESS.

 Hunter was a tad embarassed and happy all at the same time. Love that grin.

This was a group shot of Hunter's cabin mates.

 Time for more awards. Hunter also received the Total Release Runner-Up for Soccer Klinic.

 Showing off his ribbon.

 Plus, a certificate for working on his Champion's Walk Bible Study throughout the year.

At the end of the awards ceremony, they handed out the Four Square Life award. This is K-1's equivalent to the I'm Third award. Colton won the Four Square Life for his division! We were so proud of him. I'm so glad Todd got pictures because I was outside pushing Collins on a swing...she had had enough of the awards.

 These next few pictures make me teary-eyed. Kris Cooper took a minute to congratulate Colton on his award. Coops is such a dear friend to our family. I love that he took this moment with Colton.

Oh yea! What a kid! As soon as we got home Colton said, "Dad where should we hang my award?"