Nelson Beach Trip 2011

Last week we had our annual Nelson beach vacation - and it was so much fun! We got there Wedensday evening with Chad's mom, unpacked, ate some dinner and headed down to the beach.

We were going to just get our feet wet...I think Drew might of well of just jumped in! He was soaked!

Then we woke up early on Thursday and got right to it! We spent LOTS of time on the beach, at the pool, on the balcony - completely taking advantage of our awesome hotel. Grant, Sherry and Olivia arrived at lunchtime and then joined in on the fun.

Here's a great family shot on the beach!

The undertoe was pretty bad and Emma kept falling down!


The guys dug a big hole and took turns putting the kids in it!

Emma's spikey hair blew in the wind. It was actually REALLY windy the whole time we were there. You couldn't set anything down w/o it blowing away!

Here's the kids ready to head down to the beach for some more fun!

Here's Olivia and Drew in their jammies, taking a break from hide n' seek with their dads to sit with Grandmom.

Emma and Chad swimming in the pool.

Emma liked running in the baby pool with her float.

Such an "Emma" face. Every time an airplane or helicopter went by (like, every 5 minutes), she'd point and say "uh oh."

Here's everyone playing in the sand.

Drew on the balcony w/ a giant CHEESE!

Here's Emma on the beach figuring out what this sand-stuff is!




Emma kept trying to do headstands in the water!!

LOVING the ocean!

Emma crawled over my sunburnt legs and got sand all over me! Ouch!

Olivia and Drew played with their watering cans every time we went to the pool. They tried to fill the dumptruck with water, but it kept rolling away with the wind.

Here's Emma sporting the ladybug suit at the beach!

Chad took a pretty neat mother-daughter picture. I really like this one!

We played putt putt on our last full day there. Drew had a few impressive shots! The teenage guys ahead of us gave him high fives and you could see his chest puff out a little - he was so proud!

After putt putt and dinner, everyone went down to gather seashells. I hung out with Susan and Emma in the room - and I took a picture of them.

After we checked out on Sunday, we headed to Ripley's Aquarium before going on home. Here's the guys trying to pet some rays.

And here's a group shot.

Emma liked splashing in the water but didn't touch any sealife.


And here's my favorite picture from the entire vacation! Drew and Olivia are in the bubble on the bottom, looking up at the SHARK swimming over their head!!

Thank you SO MUCH Susan for taking us all on such an awesome vacation!! We had a wonderful time!

4th of July

We went to the Lowe's YMCA 4th of July Celebration to watch fireworks. They had a huge festival going on beforehand. Here's Drew climbing on one of the many bouncehouses he went on. He didn't know how to use his feet on the steps, so I'm pretty sure he pulled himself all the way up there with just his arms!

Here's the kids hanging out before fireworks. Emma actually snuggled up with Chad as soon as the fireworks started. I think she was a little scared at first...but ended up snoozing away. Drew loved it though!

On Monday, July 4th, we went to Chad's parents' house to feed their cat since they were out in Montana. We made a day trip out of it and headed up to Boone to have a picnic in the mountains. We found our spot at the park and started eating our lunch...and then the thunder started! Here's Emma enjoying her first Capri Sun!


And it's not a picnic w/o some fresh fruit! Here's Drew enjoying his watermelon!

After a quick lunch, Drew got to put his feet in the water...and then it POURED!!

Luckily I'd brought extra clothes for the kids in case we actually let them "swim" in the creek. We were all soaked by the time we gathered all our stuff (blanket, huge cooler, 2 folding chairs, bag of food, etc.) and the kids and hopped from stone to stone across the creek and ran to our car. We called it a day and have decided to try again some other time!!

New bike & baby pool

Some of the plants we planted last year are still surprising us with new beautiful blooms!

Last weekend, we got Drew his first real bike! Chad and Drew used some teamwork (and Cars 2 shirts) to put it together. It doesn't fit him perfectly yet, but I think he'll figure it out and grow into it. He was pretty excited!

The pedals are still a little awkward for him, but he was doing good!

Emma had a high fever last weekend, and then had a pretty bad cold and slight fever all this week...which can make for a really long week stuck at home for me and the kids! She has four molars coming in on top of being sick, so she hasn't been the happiest! Although, today she was feeling better, so we played outside some.

"You've got to be kidding! You call that swimming??"

SLASH TIME!!


Cannonball!!

Emma's babydoll takes baths with the kids and came swimming with us!

They are buddies...most of the time!

Lazy 5 Ranch

The Lake Norman Mommies forum has been such a wonderful thing for me and our family! We have met so many friends, learned so much about our community and things going on, and it has helped Huntersville feel like our true home. Because of that, I have taken on a position with the group as the K13 Planner. K13 stands for "kids going into kindergarten in 2013). My job (completely volunteer "job", by the way) is to plan several outings or events for the K13 members of the group each month. What's really awesome, is that a lot of these 3 year olds have 1 year old siblings - so even Emma meets friends! This morning we met at the Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville. People can drive their cars through the ranch to see the animals, or you can take a wagon pulled by horses. We took the wagon, and I think that's got to be the best choice. It was AWESOME to see all these animals so up close and personal! Drew is afraid of most dogs, so I was really proud of how he worked through his fears and was feeding the animals by the end of the ride! Emma just kept barking and meowing the whole ride! haha The animals know that we have tons of food for them on the wagon, so they come right up and beg for it! And if your bucket is too close to the edge, they steal it (we lost one bucket b/c of this!). Emma wasn't too sure about it at first!

Here's all the animals behind us, picking up all the food we'd dropped and chasing us for more!

Drew's looking ahead to see what animals are next.


Feeding the animals. I wish I could remember what everything is. The guide told us about all the animals, and we'd stop and feed them and look at them.

And here's when Drew got more daring and started feeding this scary-looking beast! They told us to be careful not to get it in his nose, b/c he'd spew it back in your face! yuck!

And some of the animals were a little more aggressive - this one has his front hoofs on the wagon and is running on his back legs! They told us not to set the food near the back of the wagon b/c the animals would jump up there with us!

We didn't stop next to these animals!! HUGE horns!

Feeding the giraffe was pretty cool!

We are up in the wagon, standing on the bench to reach him! There was a baby giraffe with them that was born May1st, and it was already huge!

This was totally on their own...I had my camera out taking pictures of animals, and I'm so glad I caught this sweet moment!

Emma got more comfortable with these huge creatures being so close to us. I asked the guy about his fur - and he's shedding! Looks painful!

Here's a zebra walking by our horse-drawn wagon. We weren't allowed to feed them b/c of the angle of their teeth - they'd bite us.

Here's a llama following our wagon!

When our wagon ride was over and we were climbing out, Drew was one of the first ones climbing down with his bucket of feed, and several ostriches came over and started going nuts eating right out of the bucket! He didn't panic or anything, just kinda stood there - but I was thinking, "aren't ostriches MEAN??" I was trying to get to him, and then some of the workers came over and shewed them away real quick! Whew! Scared me to death!! Then we got to walk around another area with some other animals. Here's the kangaroos, who stared at us and then went hopping aound real fast, like they were performing.

Here's most of the crew!

Emma liked the rocks...This was too cute when the kids all grabbed each other's hands as we were leaving! Emma and Betsey (the two one-year-olds) and another 3 year old aren't in the picture. We had a group of 13, so it was a pretty successful trip! Such a unique thing - we'd never done anything like that before!

This is totally random, but Emma has been making bubbles with her slobber! She's been doing it for several weeks. At first, I thought she was just making a weird, annoying sound, but then I looked closer and saw her spit bubbles!! What a crazy little girl!! haha