Swim Team End of the Year Party

 Sean was excited to receive his trophy! We enjoyed pizza and hung with all of his swim team buddies for the night. It was a great season!

Cabin Weekend-Sunday Fun

Like I said, we like to stay busy so after a delicious breakfast of homemade sticky buns (courtesy of me!) we rallied all the kids up and headed to the Massanutten Peak. It was a LONG hike to the top but it was a lot of fun. The little kids were carried for a good amount of the time but the big kids did great! Sean even ran towards the end as he stil had plenty of energy!

After cleaning up the cabin, having lunch, and packing up the cars again it was time to head home. We were all exhausted! Especially Sean!

About 10 minutes into the car ride he passed out!

Cabin weekend--Saturday Fun

We were up an out of the house early (the guys went golfing and the ladies were trading off later in the day) with all ten kids and 4 cars headed to Harrisonburg to have some fun. We visited this amazing playground that was built after we left JMU (very close to where we all used to live) and then after that we had a picnic lunch on the quad at JMU. We took advantage of the scenery and took lots of pics before heading over to Klines, the best local ice cream around! It was a great morning!

Once we got home, the guys took the reigns and the girls headed to crosskeys vinyard for a relaxing afternoon/wine tasting. The Dads all took the kids putt putt golfing but since they are guys there is no proof in the pictures as they didn't take the cameras!

Once the girls returned, we had a big pot luck dinner that night and played games til the early hours of the morning (moms and dads!) We had so much fun and laughed so hard! What a day! If only the kids would sleep past 7 am! 

Cabin Weekend--Friday night Fun

We visited the cabin at Massanutten again with our friends for the weekend. With 10 adults and 10 kids it doesn't matter how big the house is--we have to stay busy! So, our first activity was the McGaheysville Town Parade and carnival. The kids had a blast catching all of the candy during the parade and enjoyed the rides at the carnival also. We went home with 10 very tired kids!

VBS 2014

 Sean had a great time at VBS this year at our church. Carter was sad she didn't get to stay each day but she'll be old enough next year!  On the last day they did a performance for all of the parents and then we had a picnic lunch.

Swim Team is over for the summer

Swim team started off a little rocky for Sean but as the summer progressed he improved so much! He took off 25 seconds from his original 25m freestyle time. We were so proud of him! He even earned two ribbons for 5th and 6th place in his age group and he earned two heat wins in Meet 4 and 5. He really enjoyed being on the swim team and we enjoyed seeing his excitement for a new sport!

Picture Night!

Each year we always have a night we do pictures with the whole family. We use our usual bribe for the kids: fruit snacks!

Ghost Crab Huntin'

Sean loves to go ghost crab hunting at the beach! We actually went out two nights this year and found lots and lots of crabs. He caught them with his net and then soon released them back. It is a fun tradition!

Beach!

We are the first ones out there and sometimes the last ones left. We all love to spend the entire day on the beach! We had warm water a few days but other days it was chilly. Luckily, a tidal pool formed each day for the kids to play in. Dan got a couple good days of boogie boarding in, also.

The Pool

We always enjoy a little pool time each day!

Hanging at the beach

With 21 people at our OBX beach house, there is always plenty of entertainment for Sean and Carter. They love spending time with all of our family.

OBX Bound!

We pass the Grave Digger Monster Truck shop each year on the way to the Outer Banks for our family vacation. Since we were ahead of schedule on our trip we had a few minutes to stop and check out the monster trucks.

Jammin on the James

Along with Sean's best bud from school, his sis and his mom we went to an evening concert close to the James River. The kids had fun getting their faces/bodies painted and dancing to the music!

Romp and Roll fun

Carter doesn't get to go to many birthday parties just for her. She was excited for her friend Jane and had a blast playing at her party!

A long drive home

Since we took two cars up to NY we were able to put Sean with my parents and Carter with us. We were all exhausted from a busy couple of days but Carter stayed awake the whole time until 45 mintues from home. She waited 8 hours and 15 minutes to fall asleep. LOL. It wasn't a bad drive home at all and we didn't hit any real bad traffic. We all came home and went to bed early and the kids slept til almost 8 am this morning.

Bonfire, hot dogs and S'mores

After our busy day with my mom's family we headed back to my grandparents house for another bonfire complete with hot dogs and S'mores. It wasn't as chilly as the night before but still so nice to sit by a fire and not be roasting hot in the summer. My grama bought super large mashmellows so the s'mores were overflowing with melted marshmellow. It made quite the mess!

Family get together

Since we don't make it up to western NY too often, we haven't seen our extended family in quite a while. My uncle was able to host my mom's side of the family at his house for a nice lunch/afternoon. While we were there the kids got to go on yet another "gator" ride (or rides as they just started asking anyone to take them!) and we got to take a ride around Rushford lake with my Uncle Rick and my Great Uncle Melvin. We had amazing weather, 77 and no humidity. We didn't wear our bathing suits as the water was probably a little chilly for us but we still enjoyed our ride around the lake.

I also was able to nag my family into letting me take a few family pictures. Some of them were not so excited about that as you can see from their faces!

It was so great to be able to spend the day with our family!

NY Road Trip

We decided to join my parents on their road trip to Rushford, NY for the fourth of July. It was a bit complicated as Dan was working in Chicago until Thurs but he was able to change his flight and fly into Buffalo. Buffalo is about 1.5 hours from my grandparents house, which isn't so bad, except his flight didn't land until 12:10 am. Whew! 10 hour car trip followed by a late night at the airport and we were all exhausted!

On the fourth of July my grandparents have a big party with fireworks and a pot luck dinner. Earlier in the day the kids and Dan and my sister went exploring on the 120 acres of land. They have all sorts of "toys" to play with, tractors, four wheelers and "gators". The kids went on numerous rides throughout our stay in NY. They also have a pond in their front yard so the kids loved looking for fish and even helped my cousins do a little fishing during the party.

We also were able to visit my Aunt Pam and Uncle Denny who live close by, they have horses and a new baby horse that were wanted to see. His name was Briar.

We had a nice bonfire to keep us warm because it was freezing! I haven't worn that many clothes in July in years! It was a nice break from our horrible humid heat so we appreciated being able to sit by a fire. The fireworks began around 9:15 but there was one person that wasn't a fan= Carter! She got a little scared and so she and Dan observed from inside the house. Sean loved it and asked how old he needed to be in order to help set off the fireworks. Finally by about 10:30 the kids were sleeping in bed. What a fun fourth of July!

Swim meets

We've had 3 swim meets so far this summer and they have only gotten progressively better each week. After Sean's first attempt at his 25 meter free style, he cried hysterically. He just started crying about 10 feet from the wall in the pool and I could see him struggle to finish. It broke my heart to see him struggle like that. But, I didn't want to encourage giving up, so we decided he needed to work harder and swim the whole race without stopping. He did just that during his second meet. He made it all the way to the end without stopping taking off 12 seconds of his original time. For his third meet, I noticed he was placed in lane 4 which is where the faster swimmers are placed (towards the outside there is more wake so they give the advantage to faster swimmers by letting them swim in the middle of the pool). Since he was in the middle I knew he had a good chance at winning his heat if he worked hard. Unfortunately someone false started and so the loud siren went off which signals the swimmers to STOP swimming. Sadly, the 6 and under boys just kept swimming and swimming until an older swimmer jumped in and stopped them Sean was almost to the end went they stopped him. So, now he had to do it all over again with a few minutes to recover. He jumped back in and swam his little heart out to earn his first ever win in his heat. The reward is the coveted lolipop which he carried around proudly like it was a trophy. The next morning he woke up with it in his hand! He still hasn't eaten to this day. I've never seen him so proud of himself! We look forward to each week to see his improvement. He took off another 3 second last week after the false start. Who knows what he has in store? Maybe he'll take after me and become a swimmer!

There he is with his lolipop! (kona ice too!)