4th of July Vacation

The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays.  I have such fond memories of past 4th of July celebrations.  I remember growing up in West Lafayayette, IN watching fireworks going off over the Wabash river.  I can still hear the "whir whir" of the ice cream maker going in the background of 4th of July picnics. Then there were the fireworks at home - sparklers and bottle rockets and the ones that spun around and round.  Such great memories. 

Thankfuly these memories continue into my adult life as well.  John's family also makes a big deal of the 4th of July, although the celebration changes from year to year.  There are usually picnics with family and friends, parades and fireworks at Yorktown.  There was the year that we found out that Chelsei and Jeremy were dating - and they just celebrated their 2nd wedding anniversary a few weeks ago! Another 4th of July my best friend Tabitha - who I grew up with and now we have little girls just days apart in age- got to come for a visit along with her husband Rusty.  I love my 4th of July memories.

This year we got to do a little something different.  My mom flew out to Virginia from Indiana and then along with the kids and myself, took a little road trip up to my Aunt Liz's house in Lewes, DE.  What a fun weekend for us!

We got up very early and left from my house at 5 am in order to beat holiday traffic though the tunnels.  Here is a picture of the sun rising that I took at a pull off on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel .  In my 11 years living in this area I have never gone to see a sunrise over the ocean so this was very special for me.  What a great way to start a vacation!

 

As we traveled up the Eastern Shore we decided to visit Chincoteague and Assateague Islands.  We had the pleasure of two different pony sightings.  As a girl growing up I loved the books about Misty of Chincoteague so it is so much fun to be able to visit these places and see the wild ponies roaming free. 

Here is one pony that we think was pregnant.

The next group of ponies had three foals with them.  So sweet.

The town of Lewes, DE is the first town in the first state.  Kind of a cool claim to fame.  They had such a fun day of activites on July 4th in the town and we loved the chance to be part of the festivities.  We started out the day on 2nd street. There was face painting, balloons, lots of fun free stuff for the kids, and games for ages 4 and up. There was a fire truck there which the kids loved.  Here is a picture of my Aunt Liz, Nathan, Elizabeth and myself in front of the fire truck.

Here is Elizabeth in her 4th of July dress and fire hat.

Nathan loved climbing around inside the fire truck.

We watched some of the games including a sack race and a three legged race.  I was not sure if Nathan would be interested in the games at all or not but I have found him several times hopping around in bags pretending to be one of the kids in the race, so I guess he did like the games!

Later on in the day there was a "Doo-Dah" parade.  What fun!  Here are my mom and the kids watching as the parade is going by.  

 

My kids really hit the jackpot with the candy at this parade.  Elizabeth was shoving it all in her mouth just as fast as she could.  I think she was afraid that I wasn't going to let her take it with her once the parade was over.  "No candy left behind" was her moto! 

Here she is after the parade.  Candy stained face and beads.  Who could ask for anything better?

Finally, time for fireworks!  We headed down to the beach to watch fireworks.  It was a beautiful night, perfect temperature and a beautiful sunset.  We even got to see a school of dolphins as we waited! The kids did very well waiting for the fireworks. 

My mom and Elizabeth waiting for the sun to go down.

Nathan prefered to be closer to the water.  Aunt Liz hung out with Nathan down in the surf. 

There is nothing like making a sand angel while you wait.  Sand everywhere... but he had so much fun!

What a great vacation!  So relaxing and well as fun! Another set of wonderful 4th of July memories! 

Photo Shoot at Yorktown Beach

The evening before John's sister Shanna and her kids left to go home to Mississippi we dressed up all the cousins and took them down to Yorktown Beach for a photo shoot. 

Ethan, Molly, Elizabeth, Brady, Nathan

Cousins

Father's Day weekend was filled with good times with the cousins from John's side of the family.  I remember as a kid so looking forward to spending time with my cousins and now I get to see the joy that my children get from spending time with their cousins.  The ages of the cousins ranges from 8 years being the oldest to 8 months being the youngest. So they are all fairly close in age which makes getting the cousins together great fun.

Here are Nathan and Molly with their "swords" at Yorktown "fighting" with a tree (probably because we told them they could not hit each other...)

Elizabeth adores baby Ethan!

Nathan and Brady of course love to explore the rocks with Grandad.  Who knows what treasures may be found between the rocks!

After a night at Yorktown it was nice to go back to Mimi and Grandads to cool off with a popsicle!  Notice that Nathan is already done with his and the others look like they have just begun.  Than is purely in hopes that one of the others may decide that they don't really want the popsicle and Nathan would be so gracious as to take it off their hands.

We also got to enjoy time with the cousins at Pops and Mama Virgie's house on Father's Day.  I love this picture of the cousins all lined up on the pier. 

From left to right: Brady, Molly, Rhumont & Lizzy, and Nathan

Rhumont, Nathan and Molly holding hands as they begin the hike to the end of the pier.

Brady and Nathan (with John's help) try to pull the sailboat close enough to the pier to get in.

Molly and Elizabeth back on dry land.  Such beautiful girls!  What a blessing these children are!

Father's Day

June 20, 2010 Father's Day. 

John and Nathan

John and Elizabeth

Happy Father's Day!

The Start of the Busch Gardens Season

The kids and I went to Busch Gardens this morning - and I brought the camera this time!  The weather forecast said  that it was going to be hot so I made sure that the kids wore their swimsuits and brought water with us.  I love that Busch Gardens allows you to bring in food and drinks.  That helps a lot.  I bring a water bottle and cups.  I give the kids water in their cups and keep refilling the water bottle from water fountains.  I am also able to bring in a snack or two so that we don't need to buy anything in the park.  Of course all the food smells and looks so yummy so it is very tempting.  Maybe we will get a special treat on one of our trips to the park...

Well, today was just Nathan, Elizabeth and me.  We started off the day in Sesame Street.  The kids had a great time in the splash park.  Both kids got soaked and had a lot of fun doing so!

Next we moved over to a dry play area. 

I am so glad the kids enjoy playing with each other.  I really hope it continues!

Here is Nathan on a sort of balance beam.  I was very impressed with his ability to balance himself all the way across.

Here are pictures of the kids riding on the airplanes.  Both had a lot of fun here.  This was Elizabeth's first time in the airplanes!  I remember loving the airplane rides as a kid.

Up, up, and away!

Nathan's favorite part of the entire day was the bumper cars.  He rode them 10 times in a row I think!  The guy was very nice and said he could ride them as long as he wanted as long as there was no one else in line.  When we first walked up the to bumper cars there was a group of kids who were just just getting on.  There was one empty car so Nathan joined in.  He loved having a bunch of other kids about his age to ride around the bumper cars with. 

I was very impressed with his bumper car skill.

The last ride of the day was the little Clydesdales.  As much of a dare devil that Elizabeth thinks she is, she did get on this ride and decide it was not for her.  Look at that face!  She did not like this ride!  Nathan on the other hand did not want to get off even after his second time. 

The kids were great!   I had packed a lunch for us and so around noon we headed to the car.  I got the kids all set up in their car seats and passed out lunches.  As I was pulling out the parking lot I looked back to see both my babies sound asleep, partially eaten sandwiches still in their laps. 

It was a good trip and I look forward to the rest of the season!

A little of this and that

Well, this post is going to be a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  We have been up to stuff, but I haven't had my camera with me much for some reason. 

I have been relatively happy with how my garden is going.  I love looking at it (that is until I see the weeds - but we won't talk about those!).  To my delight my lettuce has been doing very well.  I was almost ready to pull it up and throw it out because it just was not doing so hot, but all of a sudden it started growing like crazy!  We have been having fresh picked lettuce for salads almost every evening and I have been eating a lot of salads for lunch too.  Think we may have tacos for dinner tonight just so I can use more of my fresh lettuce!  Other than that my tomato plants are growing pretty well and have started getting flowers so I am eagerly awaiting my first tomato.  Peppers are growing but as of yet no signs of any actual peppers.  I also have a pumpkin plant that is doing well and have just planted two watermelon plants.  My carrots, green beans and onions are not doing as well, but I have not given up hope yet. 

I french braided Elizabeth's hair for the first time the other day.  Turned out pretty well and actually stayed in fairly well.  She has pretty fine hair so I was impressed that I was able to french braid it at all.

Monday was our first trip to Busch Gardens for the season.  I took Nathan, Elizabeth, and my 8 month old nephew Ethan.  We had perfect weather!  It was such a fun trip for the kids.  I wish I had brought my camera, but I didn't so no pictures this time. We did not do too much this first trip, but I decided that was okay because my plan is to go every Monday all summer long.  Last year Elizabeth was so little that she just sat in the stroller and watched, but this year she is able to ride some of the rides.  She is definitely more of a dare devil than is Nathan.  She will have a lot of fun next year when she can ride more of the bigger rides.  Nathan did a great job of riding on the rides all by himself.  Nathan's favorite part of the day was riding on the train - he didn't stop talking the entire time!  Elizabeth loved the splash park in Sesame Street and when the characters came out for the show she had a blast dancing to the music.  Ethan also loved the Sesame Street show.  He was in the stroller the whole time but that didn't stop him from dancing along with music!

The next set of pictures are of my beautiful little girl giving her hair the "applesauce treatment".  When we got home from Busch Gardens I gave the kids applesauce to eat while I brought in all the stuff from the car.  For some reason Elizabeth thought that the applesauce would be better in her hair!  I found her massaging it into her hair.  She was very happy with the results. 

Needless to say we had to have a bath right after these pictures were taken, but I guess that is how the "treatment" works best :)   Massage applesauce into scalp, wait 5 minutes, rinse.  Maybe I should give it a try...

A Blustery Day

I know I have posted before about our family picnics at Yorktown, it is very much a family favorite.  Nathan for quite a while instead of calling it "Yorktown" called it "My town" and would correct anyone by saying "It's not YOUR town! It's MY Town!"  Well, last week we were trying to decide on dinner... it was such a beautiful day - why not head down to Yorktown?  So we called Grandmother and invited her to come along, packed a picnic dinner and off we go!  Thankfully I thought as we were headed out the door that sometimes it is a bit windier down at the water so I grabbed jackets for everyone.  Wow!  It was definitely more windy down by the water!  We were just about blown away!  Wind always makes a picnic more interesting.  Here we are trying to set up our picnic dinner...

Check out Elizabeth trying to get her cup!  The table cloth is about to blow on top of her!  Good thing I brought heavy things that could be used to hold down the table cloth!

After dinner the next thing is to always go play on the rocks.  Here are John and the kids looking out over the rocks at the water.  Notice there are white caps on the waves!  All in all it was a very fun picnic and we were so glad that Grandmother got to join us!

This next picture is specifically for Aunt Shanna.  I know she will like it because Elizabeth is wearing a dress that used to by Molly's.  Thanks Aunt Shanna for sending it!  So cute!  This picture was actually taken at our house right before we left for the picnic - not windy at our house!  Go figure!

And this picture I just had to include because I braided Elizabeth's hair for the first time today!  Not a great picture, but it was the best she would let me get.  So sweet though in her little braids!