Morning Fun

Today has been cloudy- a great break from the hot sun. We love to spend time outside, but usually try to be in by 9:30 to escape the heat. Due to the cloud cover, Sunshine and I enjoyed being out most of the morning. Here are some of the activities we did together...

We picked some cucumbers.
Sunshine enjoyed some cherry tomatoes from her plant.

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles...

We also went for a walk and attempted to fly the kite she got T for Father's Day. We did have it up for a little while, but I spent more time untangling kite string than actually flying it. Hoping for some more mornings like this one!

Sunflowers, take 3!

The sunflowers have been blooming like crazy! I am amazed at how tall they are. We planted them on the west side of our tomatoes and they have worked out great as a shade and some protection from the hot sun. I think they are about done. We are hoping that they will reseed and will have more to enjoy later. Sunshine has really enjoyed them and talks about how tall they are.

Konza Prairie

Sunshine and I spent June 1-8 in Kansas visiting family and friends. We had a great time! It was so nice to have extended time with my family and catch up with some good friends. I have numerous pictures (I posted some on Facebook), but thought I would just share about our trip to the Konza in this posting.
I love the Konza prairie! T and I took many walks there when we lived in Manhattan. One of my favorite memories is when we hiked it in the snow. We took one of the longer loops, so we were pretty cold after we finished up. After we were done, we drove into Bob's Diner for some hot biscuits and gravy...they tasted so good!
This time around, it was definitely not cold. It was actually pretty hot and I was thinking that I had made a bad decision by deciding to meet my sister and her husband there at 5:00 in the afternoon to hike up the big hill. I wanted to hike the steepest part so that we could enjoy the view. I started thinking that Sunshine might end up thinking I was the worst mom ever or I might have a bad back from carrying her up the hill. Well neither happened. She loved it, and wouldn't let us really even help her on the steep parts. She wanted to do it by herself! Here are some pictures from our outing.

Crossing the bridge.

And she's off!

Uncle Alex showing Sunshine a toad.

Black swallowtail on butterfly milkweed.

Ascending the big hill- by herself of course!

We made it! Alex, Leah, and Sunshine at the top.