grandparents part 3

Wednesday after lunch we loaded everything back into my moms car and left Salisbury and headed back to Burlington. why did I have my moms car? Mine was in the shop getting a new plug sensor thingy that cost too much money! At least it was one 1 that needed replacing not all 3! And it was much cheaper than getting it fixed here in MI. After picking up my car we headed to Graham to see James, Maddie, Kelly, and Beth. We had a great visit and of course it was much too short. Caroline found a stash of Bernstein Bear books and had Maddie, James, and uncle Kelly read to them. Then it was over to Aunt Barbara's to see Melanie, Abigail, and Nathaniel. It was also a great visit and too short. The kids had fun coloring and the girls played with stickers. Then instead of going to dad's office he walked to Aunt Barbara's house and we took him home. We stayed the rest of our trip at my dad's house and packed as much in as we could. The first was a trip to the Greensboro Children's Museum. It is a fantastic place and this is the 3rd time the kids have gone and they have made some changes. But since the kids are older they can do more and that kind of thing never gets old!

Then after naps we met Granddaddy at City park for a picnic and to enjoy the rides. This is something I don't remember doing as a kid even though we drove past it everyday. The carousel is a very old, special one that both Mimi and grandaddy remember riding when they were younger. They have made city park a much nicer place than it was when I was a kid. There about 5 rides and a playground. We did them all!! After we had done some of the rides we had a picnic lunch and then the kids got to pick 1 more ride before leaving. So much FUN! They were exhausted after such a big day.

Friday morning was a relaxing morning of playing with gdaddy. Before starting our trip back to MI after lunch. We had a great time visiting with all the families and can't wait to see everyone again!

Grandparents part 2

Friday afternoon we arrived in Burlington at my mom's house. Spent the weekend with them and then went on Monday morning to Salisbury to see Justin's parents. Bonus was that Jeff, Amanda, Jackson, and Lacey all came for the day too!! I haven't seen them since Christmas so it was great to see my niece and nephew again. We had a blast paling on the playground in the back yard, played in the pool, and shot dart guns (Will's favorite). I made dinner since both Ingrid and Dennis had to work that day and surprised them with an early birthday cake for Jeff and Ingrid. I even had wrapped presents for them! The kids loved helping make the cake.

Caroline and Jackson playing in the pool. Jackson is only 8 months younger so they had a blast playing together.
Play shoot with me grandpa, was Will's favorite phrase. And these were hi-tech guns. They had laser guides on them to help with aiming and the darts had suction cups on the ends to help them stick. They kids, and adults, had fun shooting them and having them stick to pictures and door and even the sun lights on the porch!
Will and grandpa were aiming for the back door.
Then Tuesday morning grandma and I took the kids to the Y to go swimming and I was in the water so no pictures from that outing. After grandpa got home from work we went to a church friends pond to see about catching fish. Will was the early leader and caught 3 before anyone else had caught 1. He still wasn't a fan as you can see in the picture he was going to hold the fish but wasn't quite sure.
Small pond, hot evening, but lots of fun!
Caroline helping hold the fish so grandpa could take it off the hook.


Thanks for a great time!

The first of 3 grandparent stops

The first stop was to Nana and Papa's house. Then all day Saturday it was to Kerr lake for some boating, swimming, tubing fun! We had lunch and dinner on the boat and swam so many times. The kids love water and are quite the little fish. Caroline saw me do a flip off the side of the boat and had to try for herself. She didn't quite do a flip (landed on her side) but I was impressed that she wanted to try!

My mom's Aunt Lou came for dinner one night and Caroline had her reading a story before she could even sit down!!
We also had fun playing with mom's 2 labs, Ty and Jack. Caroline loves to walk dogs so we took the dogs for a walk and the kids held the leashes the whole walk. You can see how great Ty did with Caroline. He doesn't do nearly this well for anyone else!
The also loved playing with Uncle Keithy as they call him. Keith threw balls, swing them in the air and they cried when he would leave for work! Love you Keith!!

Lots of prayers needed!!

I know it has been a really long time since I last posted and lots has happened that I do want to share and I have lots of pictures to go with it. But for now I am having a really hard time thinking about and writing about all the fun we have been having when my heart is breaking for a fellow military spouse.
Justin and I found out last night that one of our neighbors husbands was killed in Afghanistan this week. The family lived on our court in LA. When we lived in LA she had one boy and now she has 3 kids under age 4 the newest is less than a month old and has never seen her dad. I was never close to her but we did have fun at playgroups and talking about exercise (she is an avid runner still). This is the first person that I have known to die. I know it happens all the time, we see it on the news. But it was never anybody I knew or lived near. I cry as I write this because I just can't fathom the idea of a dad not getting to see his only girl. I want to help, to be there, but just don't know what to do. Please pray for all the members of the military and their families.
Our thoughts and prayers are with you Lisa, Jackson, Bryce, and Heidi!

My adventures south

We made it! Or more like I made it with out going absolutely crazy! The kids and I drove from Michigan and made it to NC today. Yesterday was a typical busy day but had lots of bumps in the road so to speak. It started out around 630 but I didn't get out of bed until 7. Then breakfast and I mowed the yard before 830. I am sure my neighbors thought that was nice! Then dishes, shower, a little nail painting, finishing packing, and off to drop paperwork off at Caroline's school. Then to the gym so I could exercise before Caroline's swim lesson at 1105. After her swim lesson we swam some more and then went back home for lunch and loading our stuff in the van. Here's were the bumps start.

We were in the car I was looking for the address for the hotel but couldn't find it. No big deal I can look it up on my phone. Got it and went to grab the GPS to put the address in. No GPS anywhere in the car. Crap! Called both Justin's numbers, no answers. Texted him, no answer. So I will use the map function on my iphone. So off we go, 145pm. Will falls asleep by 230 and about 15 minutes later I notice the gas light is on. I forgot to fill up before leaving town and I must have driven by at least 3 gas stations on the way to the highway! I know if I stop it will wake Will up too. I check the on board computer to see how many miles to empty and it says 15. Obviously I didn't see it when it first came on! So I begin looking for a place to get gas but am in the first of many no-man-lands I will drive through. Didn't find anything until it said I had 8 miles left. Will did wake up and didn't go back to sleep. About 10 minutes after filling up my neighbor calls and tells me I didn't close my garage door! Double crap!! She went and shut it for me, thank goodness. Now you might be wondering why it didn't just turn around and start the trip another day. Well it gets better. I have not used my phone for directions before and I guess I don't know how to use it properly but I really thought I was following the directions exactly but made a wrong turn went north instead of south. Only 15 minutes out of the way. Finally going the right way we encountered that the road we were traveling on was closed and we had to take a bypass. Then it happened again about 90 minutes later. Fantastic! Caroline had been asking since about 4 when are we going to get to the hotel. We finally arrived at the hotel at 9pm! We slept great and the rest of the trip was uneventful and we got to Burlington around 245pm. (Big Sigh!)

On a more positive note the part of the country we were driving through was so beautiful. We saw lots of farms, corn, cows, horses, and rolling hills. The kids will find all the silos with in their view, corn and cows too. At least with all the city living we have done they still know what a cow looks like! We drove through Amish country in Ohio and got the see horse drawn carriage along the edge of the road, an Amish baseball game with all the carriages parked in the outfield. And even a horse drawn something working in a field pulling up square bales of hay. So cool. I really felt like I had gone back in time. First back to the early 90s and not having a GPS and having to use maps. I wonder about how on our camping trips across country how we found places to stay and places to eat. At least you had someone to read the map while you drove dad! The back to some other time with the horse drawn carriages. Crazy day and was so glad it was over.

On to enjoying the grandparents and all the good food I miss from NC!

baseball crazy

Will is now officially baseball crazy. He wants to watch it on TV and he told me last night he wants to be a baseball player for Halloween and everyone can be on his team. He carries around his little bat and his special ball all day! So far neither kid has been hit with that bat. So here are some pictures of the kids playing ball with Justin in the front yard. Will bats and will throw (most of the time) left handed. If he would watch the ball he would be a better hitter but he is just getting ready to turn 3.

You can see the ball in the middle of the tree that will threw right handed. I like this picture because Caroline is flipping her hair. She is pretty good at the batting thing (she says she just wants to hit it hard!) but she is still very girly.
Totally missed the ball! It is down by his leg!
A video of Will playing ball in the house. I should know better but I was being lazy and was sitting down with my back against the sliding door. He was having so much fun. Enjoy, it is almost a minute long and the best part is at the end.

fishing

Part 2 of our vacation loop. We went to Justin's grandfather's lake house in Wisconsin. They weather was cool most days, chilly at night, and for a day we had warm enough weather to wear shorts. One day our high was lower than NC's low for the night! But the kids still had a blast swimming and Will loved playing in the sand. Most of the time they wanted to fish. Before we even got the pole out. Aunt Sandy took the kids on the dock to feed the sunnies some oatmeal. They had fun throwing the oatmeal in the water and watching the fish come up to eat it. The water was crystal clear and not very deep around the dock. Caroline could easily touch all the way around the dock. Caroline was holding a net and just scooped it into the water while Will was throwing in the oatmeal and low and behold she got one. So her first fish was with a net. She was shocked she got one and we had a good laugh over that. But that just shows you how easy it was and how many fish there were. They were able to catch lots of fish so it kept their interest.

Maybe this one is a little too close!
This was our last day before breakfast. Justin took them out to fish while I packed.
How many people does it take to get 2 kids poles ready!? Uncle Carl (Justin's mom's brother) and Sandy were there with us. They are staying there about 2 months this summer.
Will on the last morning finally enjoying fishing.
The first few fish he wasn't so sure of! He was squealing in this picture and trying to get away from the fish.
Will still not so sure but Caroline loved fishing and was pretty good at it. She kissed 2 fish on the lips and thought the waxy worms were fun to hold and call her pets!
Will just wanted to eat the bread we were using as bait!
Can't wait to take them fishing again as long as somebody else is there to take the fish off the hook!! That's not my favorite part. We are heading to NC for a week on Thursday and they are going to get to fish with Papa and Grandpa while we are there. What lucky kiddos!

First part of vacation-Cubs

I am finally getting around to telling stories about our vacation. You have seen the pictures that I emailed out the other day, hopefully. We went in 4 states, slept in 4 different places, made a 7 hour car trip into a 13 hour one, and spent countless hours having lots of fun making great memories! Some of us even kissed real fish(more later)!

The first leg of our journey was to stop in Chicago for a night and go see the CUBS play. Justin has been a huge cubs fan for about all his life and has never been to Wrigley field. We had to go since it is about a 5 hour drive from our house. We stayed in a hotel the night before the game and got to go swimming the next morning before heading to the "L" station to get the train to Wrigleyville. The kids loved riding the metro when we lived in MD and so they were excited to get to ride a train again. Will has asked me several times when Justin is on a trip if he is riding he "L". We had a great time at the game and the Cubs won so that meant we got to sing the Go Cubs Go song that the entire stadium sings after every win. The kids liked the singing best. Well Caroline liked the singing and Will liked his baseball.

The place was of course packed.
No TVs anywhere. We could see the people changing the scores on the big scoreboard. Made it kinda hard to follow sometimes without the live replays.
After the game we took our time getting back to our car. We did some shopping and had an early dinner before driving into Wisconsin for the night. Justin and I set the tent up in the dark so we didn't get to see how beautiful the park was where we were staying. The picture below is when we left the next morning.
Part 2 Bass Lake coming soon.

The coolest thing about the game was we were sitting behind the bullpen. If you know Wrigley you know the bullpen isn't out behind a fence in the outfield but right out in the open along the third base line. Caroline wanted a ball so I told her she would have to ask for one (I surely wasn't going to!). It took most of the game for her to find the right opportunity to go ask. Couldn't go while the ball was in play or the crowd management guy wasn't standing there. But she did and when she asked she got one!! Will saw what happened and went scurrying down the 2 steps and put his hand out for one. The crowd right around him had seen Caroline get one, knew they were brother and sister, and seeing his little hand go over the wall promptly went "awwwww". The player hearing the crowd turns, sees Will's hand and then gives him one too!! How crazy that they both end up with a ball from a baseball game! Ever since then Will has said he is going to be a baseball player and is all consumed with his baseball and mini bat we got him. He puts on his knight helmet saying it is to keep his face from breaking (small story of why catchers where the mask I might have told him!) and is ready to go. He even tells me I need to put the black under my eyes so I can play too. That boy cracks me up!

Tough Guy Will

A true and very funny story. Will has always been very rough and tumble. Justin and I try not to run and coddle him everytime he falls but tell him hop up, brush it off. some how Will started saying he was OK, he was tough after he got hurt and was asked if he was OK. It goes like this

me: (after I hear or see him fall) you OK Will bo?

will: yeah, I'm tough.

So the other morning he hurt his leg and came to me and got in my lap and I asked if he was OK (he wasn't crying). HE told me,"Yeah I'm tough. (then pointing to his belly said) I got lots of tough in here!" I told him that he sure does and it was a good thing he did as much as he falls down and he laughed at that. Hilarious! That boy cracks me up.

Today after nap we went to get Caroline and woke her up actually(rare for her to fall asleep these days) and she wanted 5 more minutes so Will and I went and cuddled on my bed. He decided that the deers were coming (again with the deer) and needed to get under the covers. So we did. I tried telling him that deer were very pretty animals and nice but we still had to hide from them.

Will and I hiding from the deers!

Will loves animals and REALLY loves Jakers (our cat). But Jake doesn't always love the way Will shows his love. Tackling, pulling tails, and chasing aren't the cats favorite expressions of love. There are times Will is very gentle and truly loving to Jake and the cat has never scratched or bitten Will so he keeps trying. Below is a picture of Will after a tackling, hold the cat close, roll back and forth session of lovin!
Will holding Jake after picking him up from being boarded. The cat sat in Will's lap most of the way home with out trying to escape. Must have missed Will's lovin!
Will way deep in the covers hiding from those pesky deers!
No matter what mischief Will gets into there are always laughs nearby too. You can't help but smile at that cute little face! As Susan says,"I could just eat him with a spoon!"

For Julianna

Julianna, these are all for you!! Caroline has had many different hair styles but by far the biggest issue in regards to Caroline's hair is brushing it!! She doesn't mind washing her hair but she isn't a fan of anyone brushing her hair. I have included several pictures of Caroline showing off her hair. Mimi gave Caroline her first haircut and since that one she has only had 3(I think).

When Caroline was born she had lots of black hair. IT quickly fell out and when she got hair again it was bright blonde and stuck up all over her head!! It wasn't that windy in the picture below!
Caroline also likes to wear her hair in pig tails and I have seen your hair done the same way!
These last two are the most recent pictures so you can see what her hair is like now. I trimmed it a few months ago to make it easier to brush.
Finally a view of the back of her hair. When I told her that you wanted to know all about her hair she wanted me to take lots of pictures right away! So that's what we did!
I hope you enjoyed looking at Caroline's hair Julianna. Hopefully one day you and Caroline will get to do each others hair!!