2010 Fall Update

Happy Fall Friends and Family!

We hope you all are enjoying the fun autumn brings with the influx of asian beetles, raking leaves and winterizing your home. Ok, there is a lot of fun things to enjoy this time of the season, especially with a toddler and a preschooler in the house. It gives you permission to do the kind of childish activities you loved to do as a kid....and perhaps enjoy it more than your kids! Anybody else know what I'm talking about?

Now that Josiah FINALLY figured out how to pedal his tricycle this summer (he recieved as a gift from aunt Tracy for his one year birthday!), he thinks it necessary to gear up appropriately for his excursions. At least if he inherits his Papa's track record on cycle accidents, his eyes, head and torso will be adequately protected.

This September, it was a family affair running in the annual WI Cow Chip Festival 5k/10K Run.

A fun first for Josiah....his first camping trip with Dad. A mere 100 yards from the house but he slept like a rock the whole night in the tent, despite our nearby train that goes past a half dozen times in the night. We knew he was so excited to "camp" because he wouldn't stop talking and was complimenting everyone and everything. Note to Mari, he still LOVES the bear hat you made him!

With all the pumpkins from our garden we were blessed with this year, we spent a morning at Nonnie's house decorating pumpkins. Very abstract pieces thus far in my childrens art career but we'll see that develop a bit more.

Earlier this month, our family flew out to the east coast for a wedding and catch up with some friends. Josiah was the ringbearer and both kids managed pretty well considering they didn't get thier regular 3 hour afternoon naps. Ryan and I decided we'll take Rochester traffic anyday over DC traffic, yuck! You do, however, realize how much you miss your distant friends when you get a chance to personally reconnect with them for a weekend.

Mandi, my sister, and her two kiddos made their way up from Texas one last time before she adds child number 3 to their crew. The cousins love eachother so much, it's fun to see them play together like they see eachother everyday. Josiah was heartbroken all the next day after they left.

Grace is our little animal lover and I love to see her treat our dog so kindly! Maybe that will translate into taking good care of her parents when we get older. She is completely obsessed with backpacks so I made good use of this and she now carries her diapers, wipes, etc. She also is really getting into the "princess" phase. Despite my efforts to downplay the whole princess thing, she is drawn to it's magical powers and believes she can sing like Ariel. She's a tough little cookie as you can imagine with a brother like Josiah but still follows him everywhere.

God bless and have a great fall!

Summer 2010 Update

We'd love to share with you a few pics and an update on what's happening at the Lins Zoo....

Like everyone else, we've been so busy with summer festivities we haven't even realized summer is almost to a close. We are adding to to the circus here with one more child. I am due January 7th with baby number 3. Josiah is certain it's a boy and comes up with the craziest made up names. Scary enough, we find it's so hard picking out boys names that we may just use one of them.

Grace took a dive off the play set four weeks ago and ended up in a full leg cast. She was pretty challenging to deal with for the first five days....until she figured out how to hobble around with it. Oddly, she started to enjoy trotting along to the rhythm of the cast tapping on our hard wood floors. She got her cast off on Thursday and we're trying very hard to keep her from getting too wild so we don't undo what's been healing.

My sister and her kiddos made a trip up from San Antonio to visit us for three weeks. We had a great time and some good adventures despite the fact we had a herd of babies, toddlers and preschoolers along for the ride. We went raspberry picking, fishing, hiking, riding, up to cities to the Mall of America and the Children's museum to name a few. Josiah is smitten with his older cousin Faith and even is willing to dress up in a prince tux to have tea with your highness.

Josiah and Faith in the "secret garden". Too precious, I couldn't help myself!

Josiah and Ava embracing as two birds of a feather at the Childrens Museum in Minneapolis.




The sisters, cousins and Nana at the Mall of America.

A couple weekends ago we got to help Ryan's sister and husband move to the beautiful land of Minnesota. We all went up to "help" them move in. Although Josiah spent a good portion of his time as the bubble wrap super hero. Real safe, I know.

We spent some time in Osh Kosh visiting some friends and going the the Fly In Show. We had a great time. Grace enjoyed singing from our friend's raised patio in the backyard. I think she was rehearsing for the next American Idol.

One of the fun things to see was Steve Saint's flying car he invented. It was created to save lives in the Amazon. He let Josiah jump in the drivers seat to check it out closer.

Checking out the war birds with our friend, Adrian. Josiah is hiding behind my leg. I guess he's camera shy now.

A random event at the show, but fun. Josiah's first ride on a mechanical bronco.... we did convince Ryan to hop on as well. They sped it up a bit more for him.

We went to the Berne Swissfest this past weekend and got to see all sorts of crazy events. I am certain it has sparked some inspiration of more "creative" games at home. One of the events was the stone throwing contest. Josiah thought he'd show up the other young strong Swiss by hurling the 75 pound rock further than all. He didn't move it at all from this pose.....

Have a great rest of the summer!

I am sure we're all a bit giddy from the sunshine and warmth we've been experiencing these past couple weeks. Even though it seems like it's been a loooong winter, it's hard to believe summer is almost upon us. Obviously, I've missed a few months blogging. Here's the latest blog update I've been able to muster, thanks to my Texas Rose's prodding.
Ryan had a work trip to Puerto Rico in February and I was able to tag along with him so he wasn't lonely. Tough job, I know. We ditched the kids with my folks and I think they had as much fun as we did.

We celebrated Easter down in Branson with the McKenzie side of the family. The cousins has so much fun, they didn't want it to end. We were able to make it to the sights and sounds theatre to watch Noah, the Musical. There were live animals and a 360 degree stage. The kids sat still and watched the whole 2 hours of it! We celebrated Easter with a Texas pinata and discovered Grace is a natural at hitting stuff with a big stick.

Josiah turned the big 3 this month and we celebrated this past weekend with a small party Lightening McQueen style. He seems to have a liking to the Disney movie Cars, and anything to do with Cars so it only seemed appropriate.

Grace has been fine tuning her spring horse riding skills. After watching trick riding at the Dixie Stampede in Branson, she is now ready to perform the suicide drag. Seriously, she is our little dare devil. We can't let her out of our site for a second. During Josiah's party, she decided to take a little swim in our pond and my mom had to dive in to grab her!


Josiah is well on his way to wearing big boy undies....we got a ways to go.

We are getting 25 chicks in a few days so stay tuned for more pics. Have a great spring!