Vacation Time

Whew, it's about time. I was more than ready to get away for a few days...just my mom and I...no kiddies to worry about. Although that's going to be weird because I'm definitely not used to being away from them for any length of time.

It was a foggy morning to take a trip on the ferry but we were able to see a few dolphins playing around in the water. Wasn't about to get any pics of then because of the fog, though, but I did get a foggy pic of the water. Kind of eerie looking.

Before heading to the bed & breakfast, we took a detour to see a lighthouse and a bunker, walked around on the sand a little and looked at their exploration center.

We stayed at a place called the Linda Lee in Cape May, NJ. It was a lovely room which had a private balcony off the back. Bathroom was super tiny, though. And the parking was atrocious...definately can't park a decent size car in their lot.

We spent the days walking around Cape May and eating way too much. We did take one excursion to Atlantic City to go to the Tropicana to watch a magic show and play the slots a little.

All in all, it was a lovely trip and I'd love to be able to go again next year. Maybe my sister will be able to join us next year.

Carnival

Since it was such a gorgeous evening, we decided that we’d go to the carnival tonight. Alex was working at the fish bowl stand as part of his volunteer work for the firefighters so he didn’t get to go on any rides. Andy and I split up…Andy getting Connor, Kenzie, Ty and Keari and I got Tay and Bekah. It was such a fun time watching Bekah on the rides. She thoroughly enjoyed them this year which was evident by the fact that she rode every kiddie ride available and then started back through them all again. LOL Since Tay isn’t as adventurous as his brother, he made a good partner for Bekah…although she didn’t need one. She definitely had no fear about getting on any of the rides. In fact, when we wandered over to see what the older kids were up to, she was insistent on riding on the big kids swing…which is the one big kid ride that Tay will ride…and was very upset when I wouldn’t let her. Older kids had just as good a time…they love a ride that looks like a big roller…takes forever to load and unload that ride but they stood in the line to ride it twice.

And it wouldn’t be a carnival without a funnel cake and this years was delicious.

If you’d like to see a few pics, click here which will take you to my hubby’s blog where he posted the best of the pics I was able to get. Very hard to take pics of kids on moving rides. ;)

Last Baseball Party

Tonight was Alex’s baseball party down in Tower Gardens. Alex has been with this same coach for a number of years now and the party always begins with a parents vs kids baseball game. When we first started years ago, the parents had no trouble beating the kids…today is another story. It was a rousing game of baseball with family members pitching to each other. The game ended when the last parent batter ended up getting hit with the ball during the pitchers warm up throws. Oops! I think the parents just used that as an excuse to end the game since they were losing. LOL

Then the party progressed to the beach at the bay where a cookout, kayaking and tubing took place. There was a huge turnout this year and everyone seemed to have a great time. We noticed towards the end of the party that one of the kids was paddling a kayak along the shore up the bay and was quite a distance away from us. When Andy finally caught up with him in his own kayak and asked the kid where he was going, he was told that he was paddling to the bridge. Mind you, the bridge was probably 5 miles away from where we were and he just matter of factly stated that he was paddling to the bridge. Kids! What are you going to do with them?? LOL

On the way home, we dropped Alex and Connor off at their youth leaders house from movie night and a sleep over.

New Altar Server

Kenzie is sooo excited. Altar server training class was scheduled for tonight and she's been anxiously awaiting this day for months now. Needless to say, she came home from the class beaming. =)

Alex came home from youth group tonight talking about a white water rafting trip that is scheduled for the middle of next month. That got Connor thinking because his youth group is also able to go on the same trip so it looks like we will be losing both boys for a couple days next month. ;)

Car Woes

Cars are definitely more trouble than they are worth. I took my car in for it’s 120,000 service and $1,600 later, I get my car back. And this is on top of the $2,400 car repair bill I had last year. This time is was everything from needing rear brakes to transmission fluid to a thermostat. Oh and don’t forget that when the tech went to start my car, he stated that the key just spun in the ignition. Ugh! That’s the only part of the repair that I didn’t do as I’ve never had that problem happen to me and it would have cost an addition $500 and take 4 weeks to get the part. Hopefully this will tide me over for awhile but that's what I said last year too.

Party Weekend

Saturday we spent the day at my SIL’s house. It was a beautiful day to hang outside…kids swam (although their pool was freezing!!), played badmitton, had scavenger hunts. Everyone thought Keari was an angel child…boy did she ever have them fooled. LOL

Sunday we had a pool party for Connor’s baseball team. It was another fun day although the weather was a little warmer/muggier than it had been on Saturday. We supplied the pool while everyone else supplied the food and there was more than enough to feed everyone…even my hungry crew. LOL Kids had a great time playing volleyball in the pool and having races to see who could swim the length of the pool the fastest. The adults sat around and chatted the afternoon away. All in all, a good day. =)

High School Youth Group

Tonight was Alex's first night with the high schoolers for youth group...he's previously been going to the middle school group. I think he was a bit nervous because he wasn't as proactive with getting information about it as he normally is. During the summer months, the youth group is held at a house located on a point of land where every where you look, you see water. And the houses in this community are huge! Makes our 7 bedroom house seem puny...which it is compared to these houses. He seemed to have a good time if his smile when I picked him up was anything to go by. They started off by talking about a C S Lewis book, then did a cook out and played volleyball. I can't say enough about the youth groups that Safe Harbor Presbyterian Church hosts...they open it up to any kids of the appropriate age which is wonderful since we don't actually attend this church...the youth minister is awesome. He just has a knack for putting people at ease and relating to the kids.

9 Months

Wow how time flies. Hard to believe she's 9 months already. Here's a pic of her from today.


And here she is the other day on the move LOL What a big girl she is. =)

Moo?

I saw this on Venessa's blog and I had to laugh cause I most definitely am not!! LOL

Cool Letters

I saw this letter maker the other day on Meari's blog and finally had a chance to play with it. You can make your own here.

Off to the Races

Okay, not literally but Kenzie does get to visit a horse farm today and to say that she is excited is a huge understatement. Andy met a gentleman almost a month at Southern States...he was there to buy chicken food and the gentleman was there to buy horse food. They struck up a conversation and it turns out the gentleman owns race horses and has a grand daughter named Mackenzie. He invited our McKenzie to come play with his Mackenzie anytime. Not sure that he really thought we would call though. LOL I'll be back later to tell how things went today. =)

What a fun day! We were at the farm for about an hour and both Kenzie and I got to ride on a horse...although I'm not sure if having a horse walk in circles truly qualifies as riding. LOL Kenzie got to start and stop the pony by herself and tell it to turn in whatever direction she wanted. It's the first time either of us had ever been on a horse. When they offered me the chance, I couldn't turn them down...couldn't have my 9 yr old daughter show me up. LOL Kenzie is on a pony named Autumn Falls and I'm on a quarter horse named Marshall. Here's a few pics of our morning

Happy 4th of July

What a fun 4th we had although the day did start off with some cleaning...seems like a never ending job around here. After lunch, the kiddos all headed off to watch a movie while Andy and I took the kayaks down to the creek. We paddled all around the creek, watched some guys putting out some kind of traps in each of the little coves...not sure exactly what they were trying to catch although we are speculating maybe muskrats. We actually saw one swimming around...it was pretty cool as I've never seen one that close before. At one point during our paddling, I ended up running aground and had to walk my kayak to deep waters...deeper being past my ankles LOL To say that creek is shallow is an understatement. In alot of spots it's less than an oar lengths deep.

After dinner, Alex and I ended up going back down to the river as he really hasn't had the chance to do much kayaking. I was so tired but I couldn't turn him down and we had a great time although it was tough for us to pull the kayaks from our house to the water and back. Guess we aren't as strong as Andy.

A Day on the Water

Yay! Our kayaks arrived this morning, so after a quick lunch we headed down to the river pulling our kayaks on our homemade carrying cart. Amazing what you make out of old stuff that you have laying around the house. I had Kearsyn and Taylor in the kayak with me while Andy took Bekah and Tyler. We had a great time although it was a bit windy which made steering the kayak a bit challenging. Keari did great! I was a little worried that she wouldn't stay still but she did and at one point Tay said she was even trying to fall asleep. Of course, I kept dripping water on her from paddling so that didn't work too well. LOL Alex, Connor & Kenzie missed out on the maiden voyage as they spent the day on a friends boat but Andy did take them out when they got home. They all seemed to enjoy it. Now we know to what to ask the grandparents to get them as Christmas presents...two kayaks for all of us just isn't going to be enough. ;)

Andy has some pics of the kids and the new kayaks here if you want to take a look.