Puddles, Bugs and Kansas

Here is a condensed picture update. We took a trip to Kansas the end of July to surprise Michael's mom and tell them all another little Dearden is on the way. This time our good buddy Shawn joined us because he is a HUGE John Deere fan and has wanted to go to Kansas for a while since they make 'em bigger out in Kansas. He finally made it and he is welcome back with us anytime. Did you ever see a more contagious smile! That's our happy Shawn, its the squeaky little John Deere horn on this big tractor that has him so excited. We found this butterfly at the farm when we were letting Shawn climb on the equipment. As usual, Danae was very interested in it, she didn't touch this one though.

Danae watched the Leoti parade, which is one of the few parades I've been to that remembers what a parade is supposed to be with passing out candy, etc. Danae collected several suckers, or "sticks" as she decided to call them. She is pictured above with her cousin Eden who is one year older than her.

Danae has sat on the horses a few times, once with mommy in uniform, then when mommy or daddy held her up there and this time she actually rode around a little with Daddy on T-Bone. She of course loved it!

This water hound was so excited when we introduced her to puddles. Now I'm not sure that she gets excited over the rain because she likes the rain or because it makes puddles. She gets so upset when mommy or daddy go out into the heavy rain, I think it scares her. Thanks to Lizard, these cute pink sandals make the best little puddle jumpers!

Of course with rain comes snails. This was Danae's first introduction to snails and she was intrigued at first and soon lost interest, but she of course wanted to hold it.