In Case You Missed It...

Here are some pics of Kevin building the Great Big Chocolate Kiss. You can still check out the link to see its progress, though you won't be able to try to spot Kevin anymore.

The World Largest Kiss

Today Kevin is helping build the worlds largest hershey kiss. Here is a link to see it happen on a live webcam. http://www.hersheys.com/kisses/whats-new/kisscam.asp
He will be helping from 11-3 so you can try to find him then- thats PA time which I think is eastern time?

Cranky Kenna

Lately Makenna has pretty strong opinions about...well, everything- esspecially her hair. Everyday she wants it in a ponytail- only one ponytail and not high but low, and in the back. Today while she was distracted by dragon tales, I did a different "do." Of course when she discovered it she had a fit, yelling to me "I dont like my crazy hair!" It made me laugh.

The Big Race

Yes Kevin is quite an achiever these days- first he is the winner of the berry eating contest and this weekend he completes his first 5k race. Despite his somewhat inconsistent and last minute training he did remarkably well, and beat his goal of 25 minutes. Kevins official time was: 24:38 (not bad for a first timer and with no training). Here are some of the highlights.I call this picture: "Pre Race with Smile"

And this picture is a bit like one of those Wheres Waldo ones except, of course, it's
"Where's Kevin?" I found him- can you?

And here is the action shot! Go Kevin G0!

And here is how we found him just past the finish line. If I was to give it a caption it would have to be "Daddy, daddy are you ok?"

I call this picture "Post Race without smile"

And here we have Kevin being funny and at the same time accurately reflecting how he truly felt.

And as the perfect end to my collection of race photos, we have here what I call
"Post Race with Smile"

The rest of the day was spent in recovery. There was some napping (unfortunately only by the adults), a bit of Wii, an open house visit, an oil change, a lot of pool time and a delicious bbq. It was a good day (at least for us non-racers!)

And the winner of the Berry Eating Contest is...

the amazing, incredible, eating machine...KEVIN BRANDVOLD (or as the announcer called him, "Mr. Utah")

Saturday was filled with busyness for us but the highlight of the day was Kevin's big win at the Berry Festival in Lancaster County. He entered the berry eating competition and took first place!!! His competition was fierce but he managed to pull it off with ease. The task was to finish every last strawberry in the bowl- the catch though was that the berries were buried beneath a gargantuous mound of whipping cream and the contestants were unable to use their hands. It was highly entertaining and one of Kevins proudest moments.Picture 1: Here Kevin mentally prepares by laughing it up with his competition- nice guys but I bet you would have expected that middle biker guy to beat Kevin--its ok, admit it. It just makes his win all that more exceptional!
Picture 2: This is mid contest- the other contestants foolishly try to eat through the whip cream while Kevin cleverly uses his nose to push it out of the way. Then, while his opponents chewed and swallowed the berries, Kevin simply inhaled them.
Picture 3: Unfortunately my camera battery was low so the camera shut off just at the great moment when Kevin rose from his seat and raised his hands high in the air declaring his win. This shot was just a few seconds after- as he revels in the praise of the crowd and cleans his face off.

So here are a few other pictures from our berry festival which took place in a little square of shops, right there in the heart of amish country. We enjoyed shopping amid the shops and spent all of Kevins prize money (yes he won a 25 dollar gift certificate) on an array of jams and a smidge of fudge.

Here the kids are dipping strawberries and marshmallows in the chocolate fountain.Here the kids are eating the delicious flavored licorises we bought- who knew the amish made such good licorise- bet you didnt.

I'm not sure of the name of this character but here the kids are with him- Makenna is thrilled as you can tell.And here with his prize in hand is the winner of the berry eating contest!!!

The Old Ball Game

Friday night was a big fun party for us as we headed back down to our beloved Baltimore to meet with our beloved friends, the Bassetts and attend a Baltimore Orioles game. It was a mormom family night of sorts so we got to meet "Guthrie" (sorry I dont know his first name but he's apparently a pitcher, who Kevin even knew from BYU- very cool). It was so so so fun!

Soccer Camp

This last week, I had Brayden enrolled in a soccer camp put on by the local high school soccer team. He really had a lot of fun. In the car on the way home he said to me, "mom can we move here because its got everything we need...hersheypark, soccer camp, and a swimming pool." So apparently he is enjoying his summer-- good to know!

Sleeping In

Now I don't really ever get to "sleep in" but sometimes the kids stay quiet like this watching tv, and I get to sleep until 7. Its really helpful in making for a happier day.

My Morning Laugh

This morning Brayden said to me:
"Mom, do you remember that story with Laman and Lemuel and Jonah of the Arc? I really like that one."

This has made me chuckle to myself several times this morning and I hope it brings you all the same pleasure. It would be quite a good story if you think about it.

Boy or Girl???? You tell me!

So, for all you experienced ultrasound viewers out there, I thought you might like to guess what I am having rather than being just told The first picture doesn't show it at all but the second one (you know the one that says gender on it) is a dead give away.
Well, what I have discovered is that this thing called "mothers intuition"- well whatever that is, I just don't have it. I thought Brayden was going to be a girl, and I thought Kenna was a boy and well here I am-- baby number three-- and I was wrong again!
Oh well, we are really excited to add this new little person to our family. Brayden wishes it could be tomorrow- while I am comforted by looking at my countdown ticker which reassures me I have lots of time!

Before and After

Here are my cute kids after church- getting their wiggles out and their reeces clothes on.

This is a before church shot- I just really wanted to showcase Braydens cute outfit.

BALTIMORE

This weekend we ventured out of Hershey for a more exciting weekend in Baltimore. We visited with friends, Kristi and Merrill and enjoyed just a few of the treasures Baltimore has to offer. We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel, which was lovely- especially the "heavenly bed"-which I have been missing every night since. We drove there friday afternoon. It only took us a short hour and 20 minutess, so we arrived with plenty of time to walk around and explore the harbor. We had dinner with Kristi and Merrill at the Cheesecake Factory and then went to the hotel for a fun swim at the pool. On Saturday we visited the National Aquarium (neat, but highly overrated) and had lunch at Pizzeria Uno (yummmy!). Then we escaped the heat and humidity by spending some time relaxing and playing video games at Kristi and Merrill's place. We had a fantastic trip! Here are a few photo highlights.Here are the kiddos'---ready for a swim. Poor Alexa was a very good sport to put up with my kids who were a little overwhelmingly interested in her.
This is the kids at the aquarium. There were sharks and a dolphin show and crabs and snails they could touch... but their favorite part by far was finding "Nemo."

And though we didnt eat there we did spend some time at the ESPN Zone- otherwise known to Kevin as "heaven on earth."

Here's a few of us at Pizzeria Uno's.

Kevin took this picture- I think he was just sad to leave ESPN zone and wanted to capture one last glance.

There was some fun ship paraphanalia on the harbor for the kids to explore!

Just looking at this picture makes me nervous that Brayden is going to fall right into the ocean.

This picture doesnt really belong with the post, because it was not taken in Baltimore. It is just Makenna's other new dress and too cute not to post!