Samuel is as crazy as ever. He starts preschool on Tuesday and will be going half days two days a week. He is so excited about it and wants to hear preschool stories every night. He talks a lot about he new friends and all the things he will be doing. During the day he loves riding his new cars or bike outside. He also would be in the pool nonstop if he was allowed. He is becoming quite the little boy with all the things he says and the mannerisms he is developing. Notice the toe nails in the picture below. Sonya, his babysitter and Uncle Mike's girlfriend, introduced him to nail polish. He was so excited to show me when I came home. Very cute!
Liam has probably had the biggest change. He is walking! He still prefers the crawling since he is really fast at it, but is walking like a champ now too. He will easily go around the living room from chair to chair and has even attempted larger hikes as well. I think the other day I counted 39 steps before he sat and crawled the rest of the way. He is also signing and talking a lot more. He can sign please, more and all done now. We also figured out when he yells what sounds like "da da" to us he is really yelling at Samuel. Very funny!
Because his curls are so cute...
There is a quick update on some of our lives. I will try to keep everyone a bit more updated in the future!So ladies and gentlemen...here it is. The new Clark Family blog. It is the same address just a different layout and name. All our old posts are still there and can be found in the archives on the bottom. The blog will also remain private.
In addition, we have started a separate house blog, Under Construction. This blog is intended to serve as a journal for us as we move through the process of the remodel. It will keep track our our progress and experience. There will also be plenty of before, during and after pictures. You can link to it here. You can also always find a link on the right side under Friends Who Blog.
Enjoy!
Liam loved Jasmine. They played together for quite a bit. Lots of laughs!
Samuel loved watching the fish in Grandma's pond.
Grandma, Mike and Liam
Grandma and Samuel
Grandma, Samuel, Liam and Mike
Liam hanging out at the zoo. 
Samuel and Roxy playing with thier "baby rocks."
Everett...all smiles
Two peas in a pod. This was a few hours after arriving. We were heading to the park.
Playing at the park.
Liam and Everett getting to know one another. Yes, Liam's feet are that dirty.
Samuel and Roxy at the zoo.
"Mommy, I love St. Loius."Nothing much happened today. We took off from Angie's around noon and had about a five hour drive to Mt. Pleasant, IA. We were able to drive most of it straight with only minor pitstops for bathroom breaks. We ended up arriving around dinner and were welcomed by The Pizza Ranch. We had one in Hudsonville when we lived in Jenison so were thrilled to see it there. After dinner we headed to the hotel and settled in to watch Michael Phelps win another gold.
Sorry no pics today.
They also have a little carnival area. Samuel was thrilled about the rides and being the suckers we are he got to ride a few. He had to ride all these on his own and was so excited. They were all a bit more intense then the rides at the Mall of America and he loved it.
Race cars
The initial drop scared Samuel a bit but once that was over he loved it. 
Aunt Angie and Samuel on the train
Samuel loved driving the fire truck. They could also ride on the back and squirt water but he wanted to drive both times he rode it. 
This was the most exciting ride. I was hesitant to let him go thinking he would freak out but he loved it. I can't wait to take him to Cedar Point next summer! 
Liam was no thrilled to have to sit and watch all the action. I think he would have been on the rides if we would have let him. 
The train ride
Deigo's bus
After going to two select stores the boys played in the Lego store before we all made a pit stop at Cold Stone. By then we had all had enough. I can't imagine that I will ever care to go again. It was crazy busy and way to many stores to take in all at once.
Pretty laid back day of driving. When we got up we checked out the weather and realized that it was suppose to rain near the Badlands all day. Instead of driving back 20 minutes to rain we decided to forge ahead and try to get into MN tonight instead of tomorrow. Well, I (Mike) had intended on making a series of posts titled "The Lance Chronicles"...but alas that won't be happening. I know, you're probably all wondering who "Lance" is. Lance was a dear friend, a member of our family, he meant much to us over the years...Lance, was our fish.
Before we left Seattle, we tried with all our might to give away Lance, we even considered releasing him into the wild (Green Lake that is). Then I had an idea. What if we just brought him with us? So, Lance traveled with us from Seattle to Minneapolis, where he now is "swimming with the fishes."
So this post is written in memoriam of dearest Lance. Here are a few photos from his final days with us. May he rest in peace.
Lance in Eastern Washington's 100 degree heat.
Lance at Flathead Lake, MT.
Lance in Glacier National Park.
Back on the road, both boys fell asleep within about fifteen minutes. Yes! Our hope was to make it to Wall, SD where we would take a dinner break and do all the touristy thing there. We were then only going about another hour to Kadoka, SD for the night. Yes, we already had a hotel room reserved (we learned). Our hope was to drive through the Badlands National Park on the way also.
We then decided to head straight for the hotel since the weather was still pretty bad and it would be getting dark soon. Since we are a day ahead of ourselves we will be going back to the Badlands to do a drive through before attempting to make it to Souix Falls tonight then my sister's tomorrow.
