We found this body-less head.
It didn't concern Trace or Cole at all, they just kept on with their digging.
Jack has a best buddy, Grey, who is also in his kindergarten class.
Grandma and Grandpa Hale wanted to get the cousins together.
So we all met at Pineview Reservoir in Huntsville to enjoy a gorgeous day on the lake.
What's not to love about sandcastles?
And tubing behind a jet ski (thanks, Chad's client)
Here's Jack with cousin Meredith.
Cousin Annie Pulsipher and cousin Anderson Songer.
Cousin Bracky.
Tal's sand project.
Grandpa and Grandma taking the jet ski for a spin. If you were on the lake I'm sure you could have heard Grandma's signature, "Whee!" 
Then all to the Mckay's for a fresh water rinse. Kudos to Jack for jumping off that rock about 20 times.
Trace is just a couple of weeks older than Tyson "Snack" Lafferty. They are like right and left hands when they are together.
This is Princess Ally, and only in the sweetest sense of the word. We really love her. It's so fun to live near Scott and Cara. Scott and Clint have many manly interests in common and Cara and I have each other to go to museums and cultural events.
We walk a lot in this neighborhood. We walk to church, to school, to friend's houses and the corner drugstore for a treat. We don't have to walk to the park, because we live on the park--we refer to it as the front lawn we don't have to mow. Here you see our boys on a walk to the Pulsiphers. It's only 8 blocks, but it took about 20 minutes at Trace's pace. In the boy's mind, the Pulsipher's house is up there with Disneyland. Aunt Jenny and Uncle Mike are so nice and patient, Annie was a favorite babysitter (before she returned to the Y--boohoo!) and cousin Sam likes to do all the things the boys like to do: watch Airbender and play video games. And they have a backyard that drops down to a creek with a waterfall and a tree house! Boy heaven! Clint and I like the amazing food they cook. They are foodies, those Pulsiphers, every one. It's so nice having them as neighbors!
As we pulled up to our house the children next door came out and introduced themselves and within an hour of arriving, Talmage was buried up to his neck in sand at the playground across the street from our house.
The boys took to the sports court in our back yard immediately and Clint remarked in awe, "All our boys are playing happily outside together with balls!" Who knows maybe one of them will even become sporty, not likely, but maybe.
We saw this double rainbow over the house the first day we moved in. I thought it was a nice sign that maybe we are in the right place.
This museum was a welcome break from the freeway--tanks and helicopters to climb on! It doesn't get any better than this for boys!
Dad knew a lot of things about these vehicles that weren't on the plaques. The boys we're kind of bummed that the German tanks were better than the American tanks.
Location: On the side of I-40 somewhere in Nebraska. 
This picture clearly shows how boys act after being cooped up in a car for six hours. The following pictures show how the same boys act while being given a historical religious lecture. 
Clint and I tried to control them, really we did. We ran this way, dodged that way and gave time outs to try to contain them but they still pounded on the display buttons, chased each other all around the room, turned off the First Vision video and crashed the antique handcart. The Elder Missionary just kept on with his presentation through it all, so maybe being father of eight he was used to it? He told Clint he really appreciated us trying to control our kids, as some people just let their kids run wild. Really? I can't imagine what that would look like!
First stop out of Memphis (a painful 3 a.m. arrival) was Nauvoo. After a long sleep-in the boys discovered a pretty great view from our balcony. Cole called this his temple because it was built (rebuilt) the same year he was born--2002.
Enjoying Lunch and dinners at Jon's cafe.
Holy Hollyhocks!
Listening to a lecture on bread making in the Daily Living Center. The rope was aquired at a previous instruction on rope making. Jack is posing as Cole's pet rat and has been leashed to the chair.
They were both amused by the arrangement.
Visiting the house of Clint's great-umpteenth grandfather's house. The boys Kung-fu'd their way through the house. It was not very interesting to them--except the gun forge part. 
At Joseph Smith's home. Historic places are probably a bit much still for these guys. Tal's favorite part: The jail (Carthage); Cole's favorite part: winning $3 from Dad for all the footraces he won. We hope a bit of the feeling and scenery and history sunk in for the boys. Hopefully we'll get back when they are older.
In front of the Pink Cadillac Elvis bought for his Mom. It's a Southern Mama-son thang.
Joey and Katie gave us quite the amazing going away gift--tickets to Graceland! They knew it had been on our bucket list forever, but they also know we are kind of cheap and may have justified not spending the $70 a ticket to go. Thanks you guys!!! It was so awesome. We felt so much prouder to be Memphians (if only for one more week). Seriously I could not really explain it, you just have to experience it. That Elvis really had it going on. So if you visit Katie and Joey in Memphis, you really must go to Graceland. (So do you have that Paul Simon song in your head now? I do.)
This is Ethan Sterbis, Cole's best Memphis friend. He was heading off to Louisiana, just about the time we were leaving Memphis ourselves. Aunt Katie Hale taught him Japanese lessons to help him maintain what he learned while living in Japan and attending a Japanese preschool. He and his family are good peeps.
