Indiana Trip & First Day of School

Today was Drew's first day of Preschool! I think he was pretty tired from our long day in the car yesterday, but he was still pretty excited. He did great and had fun! Emma was the one that had a hard time. We came home after dropping him off, and she looked around, sat on the floor, and cried (tears and all), "Deeewwww!!" It was so sad...and sweet!

This past weekend (Labor Day Weekend), we went to Indiana. We drove all afternoon/evening on Friday. Then Saturday morning we went to my sister's house. They got their guinea pig out for Drew and Emma to play with it. They fed it a celery stick!

Later that day, everyone came over to my parents' house (excpet my sister, she had to work). We even had a redneck fireworks show before a huge storm hit!

Then on Sunday, we went to Ben and Julie's to swim and eat dinner. Chad threw the kids around a little in the pool - they both love it!


It was cold out (only in the low 70s), and Emma kept shivering and I thought she was done swimming. So I took her suit off...then she wanted back in! That's why she's only wearing a swim diaper. :)

Cheese while swimming!

Here's the infamous boat from our beach trip! Hannah, Lynsdey's friend, Will, Emma, Drew and Lyndsey all squeezed in!

Then we ate pizza for dinner and got the baseball gear out!

And the kids jumped on the pool cover!

Then the adults took ove the baseball game! Here's Tim hitting.

Then my mom got to hit. This brought back memories of my brother pitching and my dad catching! Although, I don't think my mom would have tried to hit off my brother if it was a real baseball back then! This was just whiffle balls! My mom is quite a hitter - I think she knocked a few of them into the neighbor's yards!

Drew and his buddy Will!

The kids love my parents' piano!

Last days of summer!

We went out to eat with the kids the Friday before my birthday. Then on my birthday, we packed a lunch and headed to our favorite park - Jetton. We ate on one of the the big decks on teh lake. It was very relaxing. It wasn't too hot, just a little windy since it was also the weekend that Hurricane Irene was hitting the east coast.

Drew was playing doctor and checking Chad out.
Emma and Drew were watching a squirrel. He was carrying things around and then went down and waded in the lake!

After we ate, we walked almost a lap around the park (1.5 miles) to the playground. Here's Emma peeking!


I was cracking up at Emma's wispy hair sticking straight up every time she'd swing forward! Her hair is getting thicker in the back, but still pretty thin and straight!

Drew loves to go as high as possible!

The day after my birthday, Sunday, Chad ran in the Warrior Dash. At first, we'd planned to do it together, but I chickened out! It is a 5K race (3.1 miles) that has 12 or 13 obstacles in it (jumping in and out of dumpsters, horizontal cargo net, wading through a pond and climbing over logs, crawling through mud under barbed wire, etc.). They set this race up in all different locations all over the country and people travel all over to be in it. There were over 10,000 participants in the Huntersville race - over 500 started the race every 30 minutes. Needless to say - it was awesome! Chad's parents came and watched the kids, so I could go watch Chad run. I am glad I didn't do it (I just HAD to see it before i put myself through it!), but I'm excited for next year - and I think we've even recruited my sister's husband and hopefully some other friends and family! Here's the start of Chad's heat - around 500 people ready to go!

Spectators were close to the last two obstacles and the end where they jumped over fire and crawled through mud under barbed wire and ran to the finish line.

This is the obstacle that scares me a little. It's at the very end, and there's big spaces and a big drop! Chad made it look easy!

Most of the runners were covered in mud at the end, but Chad was fairly clean.

We went to the park a lot last week. The end of summer is near and the weather has been pretty nice.
"Higher, Daddy!"

The same day that we went to the park, we also went to Discovery Place Kids. Drew loves the train tables!
And here's Emma dressed as a construction worker! haha

Panama City Trip

first...not sure why this is underlined...I'm having issues with this website. And I can't shuffle the pictures how i want them, so they're out of order!!

Last week, we went to Panama City Beach, FL with my family. We had an AWESOME time! We
stayed in a huge 6 bedroom house right on the beach. The boys and Emma would be the first to wake up every morning to get things started. After breakfast and some lazy time, we'd head to the beach to play in the sand and in the ocean. We'd head up to the house for lunch - and then back to the beach! We cooked dinner at the house and all ate around the huge table. Then we'd head out for an evening walk and watch the sunset. Then once the kids went to bed, we watched movies, played Wii, and sat outside in the rocking chairs chatting. We missed Tim, Marc and Sarah (who were unable to come), but I'm so glad Lyndsey still came! And it was great to see Drew, Will and Parker have so much fun together - they ran around the house, jumped on beds, built TONS of sandcastles, rode in the boat together, and danced in the rain together! Lyndsey and I took probably over 400 pictures between the two of us on my camera and Mom and Dad's camera!

We had a few storms - here's the boys dancing in the rain!
This was so silly how the birds lined up at the water!
We got a great picture of everybody on our last day!! (we'd planned on the white shirts/khaki shorts combo!). I love this picture!!

Here's Julie, Ben, Will and Parker. Drew and Emma taking a break from our "photo session."
Here's one of the storms blowing in!

The only two girl cousins in our family. There's three boys and another on the way. What a pretty picture!
Drew and Emma adore Lyndsey! Every time we head to Indiana, Drew is always asking if Lyndsey will be there.Awww!
Me and Chad with the kids. Not sure why Drew looks so angry!! haha
Ben and Julie and their boys had gone out to eat before we did pictures, so we got one shot of the rest of us.
Mom and I
Our house even had an ELEVATOR!! Which, of course, all the kids thought that was pretty great!
Drew and Chad floated around in this boat on our last day for a LONG time - Drew loved it! He was so worn out and just chilled out and chatted with Chad. Ben bought this boat for $16 at Wal-Mart, and it was AWESOME!! Lyndsey and I had so much fun riding in the huge waves in it and getting tipped over multiple times! We even got washed out to sea (not really, but we thought we were!! We got too far out and had trouble getting back! haha)
Drew and I buried Chad!
Here's Mom and Dad and the kids.
Julie and Mom even got out in the boat!
And Dad too!! haha! The hardest part was when you got washed all the way up to shore and waves kept hitting you!
Ben and Chad pushed Parker and Drew around in the boat.
Drew and Will were best buddies on vacation!
Here's Drew sitting on the balcony

Here's Emma playing in the sand on one of our evening walks. This was always close to her bedtime (we stayed on NC time, even though FL was an hour off), so I think she was ready to head in
Chad and Drew were blasting off rockets to the yard area for the others to catch.

Blasting off rockets!
Our family again, on our evening walk.
Emma was sleepy, so I was singing and dancing with her! =)
Building sand castles!
Ben buried both of his boys' legs in the sand. Will's not too sure about it!
Cheese!
When I asked Drew what his favorite part about the trip was, he said, "playing in the sand and the ocean with Daddy." =)
Emma tried to keep up with the 3 boys. She wanted to play baseball too!

Here's all the kids!
Drew and Chad in the sunset.

Will, Drew, Parker, Chad, Dad, Mom and Julie walking in the sunset.
Our beach house!