Fun in Ohio

Just after summer started the kids and I headed to Ohio for a visit.  While we missed Mike terribly (and deserted him on Father's day, no less!), our trip with action-packed and filled with lots of fun.

Shannon and Jason have their pool all set-up and opened so we (read:the kids) spent a lot of time out in the chilly water having a blast! 

On Father's Day we went to church and were privileged to witness Gabriella's baptism!  As if that weren't wonderful enough, I was filled to the brim with joy to also be surrounded by Dad, Granny and Papaw.  Apart from weddings, I think this was the first time I had been at church with Papaw (who has just recently accepted Christ and been baptized himself!).  What a morning to celebrate! 

Jason baptizing Gabriella

Dad and his girls.  Aubrey insisted we wear the same dress!

Later that day Sara and the kids came to spend the night and following day with us.  It is always so good to be with our dear friends and our time together is too short.  But, the kids LOVED being together and I loved being able to catch up with Sara.

The rest of our trip was spent enjoying time with family.  Emily came over with Laken and Evvy (no pictures of that - bad me!) and it was so fun to see how much they have grown over the last 6 months.  We spent lots of time with Granny and Papaw, and headed up to see Grandma Brown one day as well. 

Whew!  There was a lot of action packed into a short trip.  As always, we were sad to leave, but happy to be returning home to see Mike.

Honor Roll and Georgia!

The end of the school year always brings a flurry of activity and this year is no different.

Katey took the EOG tests 2 weeks ago (4 tests over 4 days) and passed all with flying colors!  While we didn't have much worry that she wouldn't pass, it is still a stressful time for Katey and her school mates and we are so thankful to have them behind us!

Friday was an exciting day around here.  Katey was part of the award ceremony for the Honor Roll at the school.  She was in the A honor roll all year long and received a certificate and trophy for all her hard work!!

Right after school on Friday we headed south to Georgia to meet up with Aunt Christy and visit Aunt Martha and Uncle Lee (and cousins!).  We had a wonderful weekend of fun playing in the pool, catching frogs and a turtle, exploring the woods, playing on the tire swing, watching Uncle Lee take off in his plane, visiting church, laying around with Cody the dog and eating lots and lots of cookies!  As usual I was really bad about getting pictures and neglected to pull the camera out while we were hanging out with Mike's cousins.  (I think it was because we were enjoying being together so much that there wasn't time to think about pictures!)  Guess we'll have to have a next time so I can get pictures then!  :-)  

Weekend at the Beach

Thanks to Grammy, Mike and I got to take a nice weekend trip to Ocean Isle beach.  It truly was a wonderful weekend away!! 

We started out driving to Wilmington to see the USS North Carolina.   It was really cool to be on a ship and get a glimpse into what life was like as a sailor in WWII.  Gotta say, I was beginning to get downright claustrophobic in some of the areas!

 

 

 From there we headed to Ocean Isle.  What a beautiful view we had from our hotel room!!

 It was a little chilly while we were there, so no actual swimming took place, but Mike did brave the water and got in up to his calves.

 We ended up spending a lot of time walking on the beach and looking at all the seashells that had washed ashore.  Oh, we also decided to rent bikes to ride around the island.  When we got to the rental place we opted to try out a TANDEM bike!!  It took a little getting used to, but we had great fun riding together.

 Another highlight of the trip was sitting on our balcony Saturday evening eating pizza and watching 4 beach weddings take place!  I was pretty amazed that 3 of the 4 weddings involved tuxedos and full-on wedding dresses.  We had great fun talking about the brides and grooms and pondering various aspects of the ceremonies.

We returned home on Sunday.  While we were sad to leave the beautiful view, Mike and I were both ready to be home and see the kids.

Turned out the kids and Grammy had a great time while we were gone.  They had all-you-can-eat pancakes at IHOP.  Seth ate FIVE!!!

 They took the train Uptown and had fun exploring Imaginon:

And, they went to a little farm and rode horses!!

Thanks, Grammy, for a fun weekend for all of us!

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!!

Let the Summer Fun Begin!

Last week the kids and I met up with our good friends, the Molendorps. We picked up their kids, Anna and Dayton, and brought them back here for 2 whole sleep overs! All the kids were thrilled to be hanging together again and I enjoyed hearing their funny conversations and giggles. While they were here we went to the pet store, played at Xtreme Play (a bounce house!), played on the Wii and got to swim. Really fun times!!


On Wednesday, Mike and I loaded up all the kids and drove to a beautiful mountain house in Maggie Valley to return Anna and Dayton to their parents, Jon and Sara, and spend 2 days with all of them. It was so much fun for the kids but just as much fun for the adults!

What an incredible view from the deck of the house!!

While we were in Maggie Valley we roasted hot dogs over the fire pit, made s'mores, played games, went putt-putt golfing, and watched movies. There is nothing quite like hanging out with old friends! The highlight of the trip for the kids was playing in the "clubhouse." In one of the bedrooms at the mountain house, there is a little loft area that the kids could climb up into and they loved to go up there and play. The highlight of the trip for the adults was realizing that we could be on a separate floor from the kids and finish an entire conversation without being interrupted (usually)!! That and catching up and playing games together.

The girls at bed time. They loved reading together and sleeping in the same bed!

The boys with their lovies all ready for bed!

Sara, Anna and Jen all got a hole in 1 on this one!

Katey learning that roasting marshmellows is a hot job in the NC summer sun!

And enjoying the fruits of her labor!

It was hard to say good-bye, especially for Katey and Anna who are, as they put it, peas in a pod! But the girls are looking forward to some e-mail time and talking on the phone this summer.

What a great start to a summer of fun!!

Vacation!

We spent a funtastic week at Lake Norman this year. We rented a house and a boat with Jen's mom, sister and brother-in-law and his family (which we absolutely claim as our own!). There were 16 of us for most of the week - 9 adults, a 7 year old, 4 five year olds, a 2 year old and a 1 year old. Yes, you read that correctly, 4 five year olds - 3 of them being boys! We all had a blast...a noisy blast, but a blast all the same.

Here is a shot from the back deck of the swimming area and boat:

There was a wonderful swimming area that the kids and adults all loved to play in (that is, once we got past the nasty feeling of squishy disgusting sandy mud between our toes!). It started out zero-entry and got deep really fast. We were able to do cannon balls, can openers, pencil jumps, belly flops and dives off the dock. What could be better than that?! Well, since you asked...

Tubing on the boat (only 2 kids fell off the entire week!):

Driving the boat:

Learning to ski (courtesy of our friend, David Pharr!):


Movie night and slumber
party in the basement:

Hanging out with friends and family:









Oh, there was also the pinata, bags full of toys and games, the luau and treasure hunt, craft making, hand-painted t-shirts, donut making, and roasting of marshmellows (Katey informed us afterwards, "I have been waiting almost 8 WHOLE YEARS to taste a roasted marshmellow and it finally happened!! I love them!" We didn't know we were depriving our child, but apparently we were; at least according to her.). Most of the above was curteousy of "Mamaw Kathy" as she has a wonderful way of planning and making everything extra-special for the kids.

So we have come back tired from all the fun, but excited with all that we were able to do and try for the first time. I'm just wondering if I should be nervous...Mike confessed the other day that he was looking at boats on Craigs List. Bring it on, baby!