4th of July from my camera- Henry.

Yeah, we're finally into July! We had an awesome 4th of July weekend. Miss Susan's parents let us all use their beach house down by Hilton Head. Thank you, thank you, thank you Miss Becky and Mister Craig.

Unfortunately, we packed everything we needed but left the camera sitting right beside the door at home. Mama did remember to pack my toy camera, so we got a few shots of all the fun things we did.

The most exciting thing we did was go shrimping off the back dock into the marshes! On the first day, we tried casting the nets at high tide. We caught this one little guy. A few hours later, we caught 6 more and were pretty proud of ourselves.

Little did we know, the best shrimping is done at low tide.

The men of the house took charge and caught our families a mighty meal.

Papa cast the net and dropped the shrimp into a bucket and I was in charge of picking up the extras off the dock. I actually picked up live shrimp and fish. Impressive. Especially if you've ever seen a live shrimp.

It's a little early for big shrimp and the 70 we caught had to be iced, beheaded, eviscerated and peeled. Mister Paul and Miss Susan had to do the bulk of this job, because mama didn't want anything to do with it. I think papa might have cut a few heads off.

In the end, we got about a cup and a half of teeny, tiny shrimp. Soaked in butter, they were absolutely delicious and even mama ate some.

The rest of the weekend was also awesome. The island's pool was a nice golf cart ride away. We went every day.
Outside the pool was a big sand pit.
While the grown-ups were in the pool, we played down in the sand.

On the evening of the 4th, we were going to head to Parris Island to watch fireworks, but decided we didn't want to fight the crowds. Instead we headed down to the docks and could see 7 different fireworks displays at once. We could get used to this!

Videos- Mama.

Henry had some great ideas for building train tracks into space. And he insisted that everyone make a clubhouse under a blanket so he could brainstorm. There's also a brief interlude of Junie's cute little legs running around.



These videos aren't much to watch, but cute to listen to.



Papa says they'll use these videos when Henry is a great inventor and they need footage for the documentary they'll make after he wins the Nobel Prize.

Hey Cincinnati- Go Reds!- Henry.

As our final celebration for PawPaw's homecoming, we headed down to the 'Nati to see the Reds take on the Phillies. PawPaw has never been to Great American Ballpark and we're always looking for an excuse to see a good game.

Unkie Adam came along to see how a real team plays. He even wore a red shirt, despite being an Indians fan (though you can't really call yourself an Indians fan if they fail to produce a real team- oh snap!)

Our big surprise for PawPaw was that we got him up on the scoreboard! No, that's not him on the KissCam. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you'll see that the red marquee under the upper deck says "Welcome home, Col. Tris Cooper."

He was pretty surprised.

It was a great night for baseball. The Great American Ballpark sits right on the banks of the Ohio River and it was a nice cool night.

Papa tried out PawPaw's new fancy binoculars.

The best part of the night? June and I were totally well behaved!!! GG and GG brought me a Cars activity book with one of those special markers that makes pictures appear. And the whole book involved me coloring in about 40 tiny squares on every page to solve a puzzle. I was so excited about the book, I sat still in my seat for 3 hours and didn't give anyone a problem. (Thank you, thank you, thank you GG and GG!!!)

I did make it a point to look up when my favorite player- Joey Votto- was up to bat. Nice swing Joey!

And I stopped to point out when barges floated by.

Here's the stinker we were really worried about. 3 hours after bedtime and we didn't get her her own seat? No worries though! Thanks to the last minute decision to bring her nukie and blankie, June spent the entire evening cuddling Grams, Pawps, and Unkie while munching on peanuts. All in all, a great night for 2 kids up really late past their bedtimes!

Here we are after the 7-3 victory. Even though I forgot about my usual baseball bribe- a blowpop- Mama let me have it on the walk home for being such a good boy.

After this picture, someone told mama that she was a real trooper coming out to the game 22 months pregnant. Mama thought that she didn't look so bad, but apparently she's hit that point in her pregnancy, because a lot of people are starting to saw things like that to her.

We took off from Cincinnati to try and get a few hours of driving in before we stopped. It was a very big night, because we actually paid for a hotel room- something that rarely happens to the Turners. Since we got there after 1am, mama and papa told Junie she could sleep in the big bed with me. But at 6 am we woke them up with the surprise that we had both wet the bed. (Pretty impressive for a girl who just had her diaper changed at 1 am. But almost guaranteed for me when I'm up late.) Good job on a great mattress pad, Comfort Inn. But it also meant that mama and papa's bed got two more for the next 3 hours. Not quite the way we wanted our special hotel stay to go. At least they had a waffle maker at breakfast.

Marion County Fair- June.

It's no secret that mama loves a good fair. So when she found out that the Marion County Fair was running all week, she started lobbying for a trip. No one really wanted to go, but mama did some research and found out that admission was free on Monday if you brought a canned good. There weren't any more excuses, so we packed up Grams and PawPaw and headed down.

The first stop was the horse barn. There were a lot of great 4-H'ers that were willing to show off their animals. We hit the jackpot when we found this pony pulling a little cart. We even got to hold the reigns. (Don't worry, it was tied up.)

We visited all the animal barns. Henry didn't hardly look at any of the animals, but had a good time planning out our course so we could walk down every aisle and not run into any mud, as it had been raining for about 12 hours straight before we got there. (But what's a county fair without flooding and having to hose everything down outside the pig barns?)

Mama said it was fun to finally have someone who liked animals to go to the fair with. And did I ever like the animals. Here's my best duck impression.

Henry did take the time to pick out his favorite bunnies and had a good time telling us which animals he saw pee. The rabbits were a goldmine because it was full of sweet little 10 year-old girls that would see us coming, grab their rabbits, and follow us around asking if we wanted to pet them. I was very gentle.

Last up was the pig barn. We went through those fast because Grams thinks pigs are gross and stinky. PawPaw told us that you could tell how old a pig was by counting the number of notches cut in its ear.

Good news for the Seibert calender! We actually convinced Henry to sit on a Cub Cadet this year. Before, he's always refused because he was afraid they would drive away.

Now we just need to find a fair with really big tractors so we can get our pictures taken inside a wheel.

Of course, I had no fear and tried out all of the tractors.

Henry and PawPaw picked out this standup tractor that could mow our yard in about 15 minutes. Mama said she didn't think it would be able to mow the hill without tipping over, so we had to leave it at the fair.

We skipped the old-timey village because we had some driving to do that afternoon, but not before we picked up some free balloons.

While mama and PawPaw were deciding what to eat that the Pork Producers booth (a fair must), Grams surprised us with blue slushies and fresh made mini donuts!!!

We ate the mini donuts much to quickly to get a picture.

I loved my slushie, but I don't think I've inherited the Seibert sweet tooth. I drank about half of it then was finished. The slushies ended up being a great purchase because we had to walk past the kids' midway to get back to the car. Henry had been talking about which $5 ride he wanted to ride, but in the end, decided to forgo any rides because he didn't want to stop drinking his slushie. Now that's the power of the Seibert sweet tooth.

Sadie and Juner- Henry.

We're now a full two weeks behind in blogging. Don't tell her I said it, but most of it can be blamed on mama. Something about her big belly and the fact that we now have cable tv for the first time ever. (Did you know Chad Ochocinco has his own reality dating show? It's as awful as it sounds, and mama says she's going to watch every episode.) We promise we'll try to catch up this week, because being this far behind is unacceptable. Rewind back to Marion. June and Sadie had a good time playing dinosaurs together, but both are firmly entrenched in a "That's mine!" stage. Sadie actually figured out that the best way to irritate June is to take her toy, while all she has to do to get my riled up is mention that whatever object I'm playing with is hers. She doesn't even have to take it. Gets me every time.
June and Sadie conspired together to stage a dinosaur attack.

This is what a dinosaur attack sounds like. And you can tell from the first half of the video that we're either going to end up as best friends or giving each other a lot of bloody noses.

Splash park- Henry.

On Sunday morning, we wanted to get outside, so we headed up to Worthington to an awesome splash park!
Of course, the Turner kids didn't want to have much to do with the big fountains.
I did spend a good amount of time playing with that water gun behind Juner. I sprayed lots of kids in the head.
June eventually got up the nerve to put her hands around this pole that was spraying water and got herself a little bit wet.

Mostly, she stood on the edge and watched Sadie play in the water. At least someone had a good time.

I didn't play much because our weird injury trend continued on Sunday morning. I came into mama and papa's room complaining that my ankle itched. With her eyes closed, mama rubbed some cream on it. (I don't even think it was hydrocortisone. I think she just put lotion on it to make me think it would stop itching and maybe go back to bed. Best mom ever.) Later when she did wake up, she noticed it was a little swollen. I told her it didn't hurt, so she thought maybe she had another twisted ankle on her hands. (We got papa's brains and mama's weak ankles.) As the morning went on, my leg kept swelling. When we got to the park, my leg was swollen up to my knee and my other leg was covered in splotches. Mama spent the rest of the time on the cell phone calling people to see if we should head to the emergency room. It was finally decided that we'd hold tight unless I started acting sick, got a fever, or had trouble breathing. I got a few doses of Benadryl and by evening, my ankle was back to normal. We figure something must have bit me in my sleeping bag during the night. Hopefully, we can now have a few quiet weeks without any major injuries or poisonings.
Since I just wanted to hang out with papa, I commandeered the camera. Here's a sweaty mama.
A serious papa (he was pretty worried at this point).
The splash park.
And the playground directly behind it. We spent most of our time over here. Besides the splash park and playground, this park also had a community center and an amphitheater. Plus, train tracks ran right past it! Two trains went by while we were there.
On our way out, I got some pictures of the flowers. I took about 75 more pictures. Maybe i got more from mama besides her weak ankles.

Soldier Day Afterparty- June.

After the excitement of Soldier Day, we headed back to Uncle Adam and Aunt Katie's to start the party!

We were up until after midnight on Friday night traveling (we never sleep in the car), and then Soldier Day was at 1pm. With a party immediately following, there was no time for naps, so mama and papa just had to hope we could handle it. I was really tired and for once didn't get really wound up because of it (I left that to Henry and Sadie). I opted instead for a cuddle with GG Grams.

And a book with Aunt Molly. I also decided it was too hot and spent most of the afternoon inside playing by myself. Someone periodically came inside to make sure I wasn't causing trouble. I spent the day lining up Little People under the coffee table, then climbing under it with them and giggling.

It tends to confuse people that I call all women "Mommy," so people kept telling mama that I wanted her. I had to make a special concession and instead ask for "Aunt Mommy" or Aunt Molly. She's my new favorite person and I cuddled her whenever she'd let me.

After suppertime, a big thunderstorm came through. In complete un-Henry-like fashion, Henry and Sadie took the opportunity to dare each other to run out in the rain.

This is the kid who won't wear a wet bathing suit for more than a minute after getting out of a pool, yet he ran around for over an hour in soaking wet fatigues.

Here's a video of the action. Listen to what Henry compares the thunder to.

Mama stripped off my dress so I could run out in the rain, but I didn't want to go.


Not for Henry's lack of trying.
When the storm let out, I did wander out to stomp some puddles.
Papa says I look like a puppy whose arms and legs are really long, but the rest of my body hasn't caught up yet.


Check out this video and see if you notice my limp. To add to our spring of weird maladies and injuries, somehow I managed to sprain my ankle, which is unusual, but not unheard of for toddlers.
It's now been a little over two weeks since I fell down and got my swollen leg. It doesn't seem to bother me much, but I still have a little limp. The only time I complain about it is when I've been sitting for a long time- like right when I wake up or if I've been in my car seat for a while. Then it is stiff for a few minutes. Mama hasn't taken me to a doctor, because I really don't seem to mind it. Plus, she's also become one of those people with crummy health care that doesn't want to pay hundreds of dollars for a doctor to say "Call me if it gets worse."

Obviously, it's not bothering me that much.
Back to the party. We moved everything into the garage, where papa was contemplating all things facial hair.
Once I got done jumping, i thought Aunt Mommy's white shirt needed a cuddle from my soggy body.

What's the only thing better than running in the rain? How about throwing ice? Unkie busted open an extra bag he had on hand and let us go at it with all 10 pounds.
Add that on to the fact that we got to stay up way past our bedtimes (with no naps!), and this may have been the best day ever. Thanks for hosting the awesome party, Ohio Turners!