"Carmel"winds!!

We headed back from the beach a day early so that we could be home for the first ever Carmel worship service at Carowinds!  Needless to say our kids were a bit tired from travelling so late Saturday night, but once the church service was over they perked right up in time to play all afternoon with their friends at Carowinds!

 

These two quickly found each other in the Snoopy world area and were inseparable all afternoon!

 

 

Here is a big group picture of a lot of our friends' children.  They all had such a great day playing and riding rides together.

 



What a neat way to experience a day at Carowinds and a worship experience that we won't soon forget. :)

 

 

Edisto 2013

The cousins had a blast all weekend!

These two always do their own thing.  They opted out of mini golf and this is where we found them.

Loving their boogie boards!

We had a blast on our annual trip to Edisto!  Our family left after Dave got off from work on Wednesday and made it to the beach around 9:30 pm to join everyone else.  Unfortunately, I woke up Thursday morning with pink eye, but other than that, our trip was wonderful.  The kids all played hard on the beach, enjoyed feeding the turtles, looked forward to their nightly ice cream treats, and especially enjoyed spending time with each other.  Our days were filled with beach time . . . from digging in the sand to riding boogie boards and using their sumo boppers, they played hard all day.  Poor Preston's eczema was so bad that he opted for the sand all week, but still had a great time.  I personally enjoyed a lot of relaxing time in the shade of the canopy with the ocean breeze on my face, but our kids (and Dave) played non stop.  Thanks Grammy and Papa for a great long weekend!!

Right where they left off . . .

We have been anticipating this day for months . . . a year even . . . as we waited for our friends the Marions to return to the US for a visit.  I love the fact that as soon as the front door opened, these four kiddos picked right up where they left off!

They played dress up, enjoyed several games together, made jewelry and raced cars, rode scooters outside, played in the rain, had lunch, ate an entire bag of nutter butters (okay, so the mamas helped them a bit), decorated the workout room with stickers, had Papa Johns for dinner, and then played some more.  It was such a fun day!!

The Bestest of friends!

We were so sad to say goodbye to them, but are thankful that this year they're coming back for Christmas!!  In the meantime I'll keep praying that their move back to Charlotte is sooner rather than later.

Meeting our New Jersey Family

I have known Dave for almost 12 years and never once have I met his cousins from New Jersey.  But, this weekend in the mountains of Virginia, that all changed.  We had the pleasure of going to Massanutten for a long weekend with Dave's family . . .  all 30 of us met in Virginia and I have to say that it was a complete blast!

We made it to the Virginia welcome center!

We were the first to arrive on Friday and the first to leave on Monday, but in between the families slowly arrived.  In the meantime these two quickly started enjoying some screen time! ;)

On Friday we enjoyed a nice play in the pool closest to our condo.  After hours in the car, it was certainly nice to get out and let the kids play!  We woke up on Saturday and decided to burn off some energy (and calories) by going for a hike while we waited for the first group from NJ to arrive.

Taking a rest from the rocky hike

After hiking we had a picnic lunch and let the kids play on the playground.  We then went back to the condo and waited for the first group from NJ to arrive.  We met a few cousins and then all hit the resort pool while we waited for others to arrive.  I have to say that I wasn't the one that planned on meeting family for the first time in my swimsuit, but it all worked out. :)  After some pool time we all showered and everyone came to our condo to grill out hamburgers and hotdogs.  What a spread of food we had!  Whew!

Playing a game after dinner

Sunday we all hit the indoor/outdoor water park.  It was amazing and every single person had a blast riding the slides, playing in the wave pool, and of course going in the hot tub!  We stayed for over 6 hours before a storm came that actually knocked the power out in the entire place.  At that point we figured we had been there long enough and packed it up to go back for dinner.

Preston was scared of the slides at first, but after a little bit he was going up and down constantly.  

This picture just makes me laugh!  They only enjoyed the baby pool for about 3 minutes. :)

We had dinner at the Sweeney condo Sunday night and enjoyed the famous Bachmann homemade macaroni.  WOW, it was amazing!

This is how I found Preston at 7:45 Monday morning . . half on the bed . . . so worn out!

The last part of the family arrived late Sunday so we met them Monday morning when we all ventured to the chair lift up the mountain.  Everyone loved the ride, even Grammy, who is super afraid of heights.

Papa & Grammy with Aunt Dee . . and all of their children, making them first cousins

And then the cousins' children . . making all of these kiddos second cousins

Thanks Jimmy for help figuring all of this out . . . it was sort of the joke of the weekend trying to decide who were first cousins, second cousins, or that crazy once removed thing. :)

Preston with his buddy Riley (they were inseparable) and Aunt Dee

 It was sad to have to leave so soon . . and Preston sobbed when he had to say goodbye to Riley, but hopefully we'll see everyone again before another 12 years pass!  We surely enjoyed our time in "Not for Nuttin!"

2 Healthy Children!

Today I ventured to the pediatrician with both of my kiddos for their well visits.  I had forgotten what a chore well visits are with the mounds of paperwork you get to fill out . . .  and then to have to deal with shots too.  No fun!  But, after a very long chat with our amazing doctor about various concerns for each of them, we left with two clean bills of health.  I realized tonight just what an amazing blessing that having 2 healthy children is . . . so many families are faced with so much more than eczema and blackheads in the ears.  So tonight I'm beyond thankful for healthy babies! 

They each grew about 2 inches this past year!  Savannah is now at 51.5 inches tall (which I think might be a bit inflated, but is pretty close) and Preston is 40.5 inches tall.  They are both holding steady with their BMI and are good on their growth curves.  Here's to another year of NO sick visits for Savannah and we'll shoot for that with Preston too! :)