Isabella's 7th birthday

We arrived in Indiana (from North Carolina) the day before Isabella's birthday. She was given the opportunity to pick what she wanted for her birthday. My mother-in-law very graciously took care of all of the plans!! Isabella chose to swim in my in-laws' pond with her cousins and have a family birthday dinner. It was really fun! She had a great time!

Hunter and the Beach

It is so much fun to see complete and total joy in my children! Hunter so completely loved the ocean that I think he may have to move close one day.

My four beach bums!

Trying for a group shot

Any of you who have tried to get a "nice" photo of your kids can probably identify with these pictures. But . . . there is more to the story. Hunter was running around like a crazy man, playing in the surf. I asked Isabella to carry him over to where I wanted them to sit. When Isabella picked Hunter up, HE BIT HER - right on the chest. The top picture is right after Hunter bit, hence the crying from Isabella. So then I suggested to Hunter that he needed to apologize to Isabella which led to the bottom picture. At least Orion and Sabrina look sort of happy. I know the song is "Two out of Three Ain't Bad", but I only got 2 out of 4.

WakeMed Hospital

This summer we had the opportunity to take Hunter to the hospital where he was born. We drive by the hospital where the other three kids were born at least weekly, so it was really cool to be able to make an event of seeing Hunter's hospital. He was very cute about it!! Hunter grinned from ear to ear. It was a little strange because the hospital has built an additional building - right on top of where the old entrance used to be, but the inside looks the same. In the bottom picture, the kids are sitting at the edge of a koi pond that I used visit almost daily. Next time we're in North Carolina, I really hope we can visit some of the friends that made a huge difference in my stay there, but seeing the hospital was pretty cool - especially for Hunter!

Our "house" of kids

We shared a rental house at the beach with my uncle & his wife, my cousin, his wife and their toddler. The kids got along really well. My girls hovered over Taylor's EVERY move ;-)

The First Day of school

Today is the first day of school for three of our kids. Orion started 3rd grade; Isabella started 2nd grade and Hunter started kindergarten. They were all very excited to go to school this morning. I thought for sure Hunter would cry, but he didn't. He has Isabella's Girl Scout leader as his kindergarten teacher, so I think because he already knew his teacher, he wasn't nervous - just very excited!! I cried though. Sabrina has been very jealous of the school stuff the kids have done this week. She insisted that we take pictures of her. She starts preschool next week, so she'll get the spotlight then.

Fishing and the Aquarium

Time in the surf

Venus Fly Traps

Last Christmas we gave Hunter a terrarium of carnivorous plants. One of the plants is a Venus fly trap. The only place in the United States that Venus fly traps grow in the wild is within 60 miles of Wilmington, NC. North Carolina has a great state park, Carolina Beach State Park, where we went hiking to find a Venus fly trap in the wild. I'm glad we did this, but . . . it was painful. I hate humidity. I am not cut out to live or function in humid places any more. The day we picked to go to the state park, it was 99% humidity and we went at NOON. So I got a little grumpy about traipsing through the woods while dripping with sweat to find a plant. I ended up sitting in the van with most of the kids and my parents while Brett and Orion searched for the Venus fly trap. As you can see from our pictures, they did find one - about 30 seconds before I left them at the park.

My Birthday!

I'm not much for big parties with lots of people, so for my birthday the six of us went out to dinner with my cousin, his wife and their toddler. (We were sharing a house together.) Orion and Brett shared the king crab legs and the fisherman's sampler platter. The waiter was surprised at the amount of food they ordered, and equally surprised when they ate it all.

Group Photos

Here is our group photo. We had a wonderful turn out for our family reunion this year - 35 people. We missed those who couldn't join us and hope they will in 2013.

Our family has a history of the group photos taking a LONG time and being a painful process. The past few reunions I have tried to take charge and make it less painful - limiting the family to one good digital camera with the promise of providing the digital picture to everyone. I think it has worked pretty well. But this year was still a little painful because the morning for pictures was sweltering hot and humid. All's well that ends.

Here is our family photo which was close to the very end and my kids were not cooperative. We had family pictures taken three times this summer and didn't get one decent shot of the family. I guess we have to try again this fall.

Little Helper and Siblings

My dad is on the far right. He is with his two siblings. It is rare to get a picture of just the three of them together.
My kids are used to being the youngest kids at family gatherings, but no more. My cousins have started having kids. At my family reunion in North Carolina there were four little ones younger than Sabrina. Isabella was in heaven. She spent many hours playing with and walking with these toddlers. She actually left the beach early a couple of times to go help with these cute toddlers.

Carrollton, Georgia

Another bonus of traveling the southern route was our accomodations the second night. Brett's cousin and wife live in Carrollton, Georgia - just 15 miles south of I-20. Brett has taken a number of camping trips with Dan. The first time I met Brooke was during one of those trips. Brett and Dan went camping for a week and Brooke stayed at our townhouse with me - good thing we get along fabulously!!

We arrived at their house late in the day (or early in the night ;-). Brooke & Dan still had an awesome dinner waiting for us. Their house is so filled with toys that the kids, given the choice of anywhere, have declared that they want to go to Brooke & Dan's house for vacation next summer. It was so awesome to visit them and see where they live. Normally, we only get to hang out with Brooke & Dan if our trips to Indiana coincide. Thanks for putting us up for the night!

Ft Smith Arkansas

After lunch in Amarillo, we drove to Fort Smith, Arkansas. The kids only have one requirement for a hotel - a POOL! The first hotel we went to in Fort Smith (at 9pm) had an outdoor pool. We drove a couple of blocks and found a sweet deal. A Courtyard by Marriot with an indoor pool and an awesome military rate. The kids had a fabulous time in the pool and jumping on the beds. At this point, I think they would have been happy to stay at the hotel for a few more days.

Day #1 of the road trip

Brett asked to drive a more southern route to North Carolina. He has driven I-70 many, many times between Indiana and Colorado and Brett got to check off two states that he had never stepped foot into.

I was happy to oblige. The first reason I was agreeable is because the southern route meant we would drive through Amarillo, Texas where my good friend lives. We met my friend and her family for lunch at a cool bar-b-que place. This is a picture of all of our kids. I was SO thrilled to get to meet her younger daughter for the first time and see my friend . . . if only it could have been a longer visit!

"normal" evening by the pond

We were gone for so long and I'm overwhelmed with the number of pictures I took. I'm going to simply post one picture a day to cover most of what we did.

Here is how the kids were occupied our last night in Indiana. The snake was swimming across the pond. Then it was shot by one of my nephews and my father-in-law. Then they proceeded to dissect it.