Summertime fun

It sure is summer around here...finding stuff to do with water is always a great idea :-)  We've found some other things to do too.  We celebrated Father's Day a week ago, have played t-ball in the backyard, chased some beautiful butterflies in our backyard, read lots of books, went to our very own dinosaur museum in Woodland Park and more!

Today Tom is doing day one of driving our van down to TX to ship it to Germany.  So today I took the boys on a little journey into the mountains where Woodland Park is.  We explored at the dinosaur museum there.  Gregory has been loving dinosaurs since we saw them when we were in Arizona at the Natural History Museum.  So today we enjoyed them again.


Next week we are looking forward to spending time with more family!  Tom's sister, Beth and Rob and kids will be arriving on Wed night!  Can't wait!

Oh and of course there's new pictures here...  http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Gregory - the explorer

Most of you will not notice this "little" change to the design of my blog, so I want to take this time to bring it to your attention...Gregory's title has changed from "entertainer" to "explorer".  Gregory LOVES to explore...not sure if this is the right word to use to explain the changes going on in his little head, so I will use more to explain it.  :-)

This week we were talking about science "stuff", so when I said we were going to the library Gregory asked if we could get some science books and movies.  Of course I found some good ones and when we got back from our doctor appointment on Thursday it was too late for Gregory to take a nap, so while Joshua was napping we had fun.  My sister would be so happy about this kind of fun!  Developing Gregory's love of science.  We did some simple experiments and talked about science.  Gregory said, "I love science!"  Another thing my sister would be thrilled to know :-)  My sister is an aerospace engineer and any time she hears of someone leaning towards her love of science it makes her happy.

I am sure there will be more experiments to come with my boys and I am looking forward to the fun we can have with them too!  Can't wait to make a volcano and see it erupt :-)

The more I keep Gregory busy the happier he is and the better I feel about the time I am spending with him, I am glad the dishes wait and the laundry waits for me.  I know that time will not stand still for me either, so I need to make the most of the moments I have with my boys.  Before I know it they will off running around with their friends, not hanging out with me in the kitchen cooking or experimenting :-)

As always, more pics at our shutterfly website...  http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com/

Our trip to Arizona

This past week we finally made it back down to Arizona.  It was a hot time to be there, but we knew we had to get down there now knowing we couldn't put it off any longer with our upcoming move to Germany.  We went down mainly to visit Tom's sister and her family and we get the bonus of seeing my aunt and uncle and three cousins when we head down there too.

Our trip started out a little crazy with spending THREE hours on the runway in Denver before our two hour flight to Phoenix.  It gave us a little taste of what it will be like on our LONG flight over to Germany in a couple of months...we need to find some more toys to bring with us I think :-)

While in Arizona, we got the privilege of hanging out with our three great nieces and nephew...at their favorite place...the mall!  Gregory got to go in a Lego store and a Disney store for the first time, so he was loving it too.

We went to the Arizona Natural History Museum as well and looked at dinosaur bones mostly and then enjoyed Night at the Museum 1 & 2.  It was a fun time and it was great that Tom (our brother-in-law) was able to take some time off while we were there and it was nice that Lorrie (Tom's sister) was done with work since she works in a school.   

Gregory and Tom got to watch our nephew Ian practice his karate and Gregory also enjoyed playing with Ian and his legos. 

Joshua loved the attention from Casey and Samantha!  Too bad the cats didn't love Joshua's attention :-)

We also spent some time swimming in the pool at our hotel, but most of our time was spent inside in the air conditioning since it was so hot and windy.

It had been 3 years since we had last been there so the kids had all changed so much.  It was fun to hear about what's going on in their lives and to share with them what's going on in ours.  We wish we had more time to spend with them, but we take what we can get.  Due to safety concerns I don't have any "public" pictures of us with them at my sister-in-law's request...but I do have a few pictures which I can share from our adventure at our photo website here... http://tomandroxannecook.shutterfly.com

Like I said earlier we got to see some "extra" family while we were down in Phoenix...my aunt and uncle and cousins.  These are the ones that I got to spend weekends with when growing up (when they lived in Minneapolis & Nashville) before I was married and before their kids had grown up much.  We enjoyed dinner together and hanging out.  Gregory will remember aunt Laurie reading lots of books to him and Joshua will be able to look back at the pictures to remember uncle Lyle being silly with him.  Blake, Brady and Brennan were around too, so it was nice to catch up with these guys as well. 

As always it's nice to get away, but it's also nice to get home too.

Changes coming - heading back to Germany!

So most everyone who knows us by now knows that we have a move coming up in our future.  In August we get the pleasure of moving back to Germany!  We are pretty excited about this change and excited for where we'll get to go, what we'll get to experience and what God will be doing in and through us while there this time around.  We know this time will be significantly different having two boys (where we left with one little guy back in Jan 2008).  Gregory will start school there; Tom will be working with AFRICOM (Africa Command); Roxanne won't be working at all (I got to work for nearly 3 years when we were in Germany last time); and Joshua, well he'll be experiencing it all for the first time!  We know there will be tough times (being so far from family will be the biggie), but we also know we will have fun adventures too!  So the next couple of months will continue to be busy with appointments, traveling to see family before we leave and sorting through our accumulated belongings :-)

Please be praying for us during this transition and we'll keep in touch.