The Freeman Family

Ooo-ooo-ahhh-ahhh (Trip to the zoo)

We took Ainsley to the zoo a few weekends ago. Ainsley would say we went to see the ooo-ooo-ahh-ahh's, or what most people call monkeys! She still won't say the actual animal name, but instead calls them by the noise they make. Maybe one of these days she'll say the animal name, but I'm really hoping she starts saying her own name first instead of calling herself "girl"!

I had a list of things I wanted to do while on maternity leave and taking Ainsley to the zoo was one of them. We just took her to the Springfield zoo. I would have loved to take her to the St. Louis zoo, but it was hard enough talking Joel into going to Springfield. He'll have to be in an extremely good mood before I'll be able to talk him into making the trip to St. Louis.

She didn't like the goats or peacocks!

This is what she would do when we would get her near the goats!

There's the bear!

Watching the monkeys

They have a little train at the zoo, and Ainsley saw (or rather heard it) as soon as we got into the zoo. Of course, she immediately wanted to ride it and didn't care very much about the animals! As long as the train was out of sight, she forgot about it and watched the animals.

Lily was starving by the time we got through the animals, so Ainsley and Joel rode the train while I fed Lily. Ainsley didn't want to get on it at first and Joel said it took her until the second lap around before she finally relaxed a little.

Of course, Lily was still taking her bottle (she's a little slow sometimes) so Ainsley got to play on the playground equipment while Lily finished. I can hardly watch Ainsley on the slides, etc. It scares me to death! She's so clumsy and I'm afraid she's going to fall.

It was good to get out of the house for a little while with the girls!

Strawberries

One afternoon a week or so ago, we went down to Backwoods Berry Farm to pick strawberries. One thing I noticed was the buffalo gnats weren't bad at all that afternoon! It was almost the perfect day for it because it wasn't too hot either.

Ainsley was quite the little helper and would carry the buckets and try to dump them into the flat. She even picked a few strawberries!

Lily was so good and slept the whole time!

I don't know how her belly didn't hurt by the end of the day after eating all the strawberries she did, but she didn't complain! She sure loves her strawberries!

I tried turning Ainsley's hat around the right way, but she would keep putting it on backwards. She loved wearing a hat like Daddy!

Tanner's high school graduation

I feel old typing this, but Tanner graduated from high school a few weeks ago. Because I'm so much older than Tanner, eleven years to be exact, I remember a lot of his childhood. The day he was born there was a snow storm, and we had got out of school early. We went to Grandma Mary's when school let out and waited for the phone call that he had arrived.

Me and Tanner 2/3/1995

Of course, he was always the little brother that got in the way of his almost-a-teenager sister. But, he sure was a cute little guy!

Tanner- 9 months (I see Hudson in this picture!)

Spending the night with me at the dorms

He sure does make a pretty girl

He started kindergarten and I had the pleasure of taking him to school each morning and dropping him off at the elementary. That was when I was the "cool" big sis...or maybe I was just "cool" because he got out of riding the bus!

Tanner has matured a lot over the last couple years and thankfully isn't that bratty little brother any more. Well, that last sentence may be pushing it a little since he's now become that bratty uncle to my girls who likes to teach them things he shouldn't!

I managed to get to Tanner's graduation with both girls (Joel was in the fields) and not make too big of a scene during the ceremony. Once Ainsley realized Uncle Tanner was up on the stage, she wanted to go up there with him! She had a slight meltdown when we told her she couldn't go up there. Then, Emilee (Tanner's girlfriend) got an award and Ainsley saw her come down from the stage to get her award and she thought she needed to go to Emilee. Again, she had a little meltdown, but overall I think she did pretty good for a 2 year old during an hour long ceremony!

Ainsley loved clapping and saying "Yay" when the students got awards/their diplomas.

Aunt Roycelyn held Lily throughout the ceremony, and did a pretty good job of keeping her quiet!

Love Lily's face!

I never thought the day would come that Tanner would actually graduate high school. He had a rough few years during school when it was "stupid and dumb" and he didn't care about it at all! He must of got that from Thomas, because his sister never got anything lower than a "B" in school. (Okay, so maybe there was that one time in 5th grade with Mr. Pearson, but that doesn't count!) I'm so glad Tanner finally realized that school was going to be there whether he liked it or not and he might as well just do it and get through.

I find it even harder to say that he's going to be going to college this fall. I don't really think there's much of a difference between him graduating from high school and going to college, but saying he's going to college this fall makes me feel even older! I remember when he would come stay with me in my dorm my freshman year at Blackburn, and now he's starting that new journey.

He's going to Lincoln Land for their nursing program. Thankfully, his girlfriend is doing the same thing, so hopefully he'll stick with it. I still can't see him actually doing nursing though. The first time he sees an actual wound, he'll probably gag or throw up, much like he did when he was in the backseat of Joel's truck when Joel hit a deer!

Later that weekend was his graduation party. We were able to visit with lots of family, and some we hadn't seen in awhile!