Summer

Mike pointed out last week that it has been an entire month since I posted anything on here.  Summer has been too fun to stop and blog!

Since I am completely overwhelmed with all there is to write about, I have decided to do a quick poem to sum it all up (with a few pictures, of course).

SUMMER
The summer started out with lots of watery fun;
We spent a week with the Collins family (and Grammy) at a house on Lake Norman.
The kids learned to ski and we spent the week on the boat;
It took another 5 day for Jen to stop feeling a-float!
Next up was a trip back North;
To Ohio we went, just after July 4th.
We had fun at the Hankins' family reunion - what a treat;
Lots of aunts, uncles and cousins to visit with and good food to eat!
Packed and ready to head back home, until we heard a scream;
Seth scraped up his armpit but managed to not fall out of the tree!
Harry Potter camp is where we sent Katey;
She loved being a Hufflepuff and we don't mean maybe!
A camp filled with sports was where Seth then headed;
He loved it so much, the end of the week he dreaded.
Swimming with friends at the water park has been fun;
It's hard to believe that summer is almost done!!

On your mark, get set...

GO!  Seth up on ski's for the first time!

Check out Katey's form!  She skied like that the entire time!

The kids singing the National Anthem during the closing ceremonies of the Lake Norman Olympics

Uncle Jason with the kids.  They loved to go TOP SPEED!

At the reunion - the Ella Hankins clan

Lake Vacation

We had the honor of spending last week in Greensboro, GA with the Averill family in celebration of Mom and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary! What a blessing to have such a wonderful event to celebrate!

The week was filled with swimming, boating, eating, skiing, tubing, eating, laughing, picture-taking, sleeping, fishing and celebrating (and probably a little more eating). We really spent almost every waking moment on the boat or at the table. Annie and Jen would really like the ground to stop moving now as we are in day 5 since being on the boat and still have yet to fully regain land-legs! Of course, the crazy boat driving while trying to flip tube-riders probably didn't help with Jen's motion sickness...

One thing we planned for the week as a gift to Mom and Dad was family pictures. A wonderful photographer, Gloria Slaughter, came to us to take pictures. They turned out beautiful and we couldn't be more pleased! We were a bit ornery and pulled a little joke on the parents...all the kids and grand-kids dressed in crazy colors and played it up like we were ready for pictures. Mom and Dad were good sports but we did have them going and a little worked-up before letting them in on the prank. :)

Oh, one more thing: I'm not saying who it is, but we did learn last week that someone in the Averill family has a "sassy swagger" but it is only because of pigeon toes...or so we have been told! :-)

Here are some fun photos from our wild week!

Grandma up on skis! She is awesome on the water!!

Annie learned to ski - check out the determination on her face! (Aunt Jo learned to ski this week as well!)

Seth LOVED tubing!
He got pretty brave and daring and was even flipped off the tube a couple of times and came up still smiling!

Aunt Christy and Aunt Jo...adorable!

Grandpa fishing with the kids. They both caught a fish!

The cutest little nephew around - NATE!!

Uncle Brandon and Aunt Annie

Oh, what a wonderful trip full of great memories!!