Sunday, September 9, 2012

Labor Day at the Lake

Since Kylie's school was closed on the Friday before Labor Day, my mom took Kylie on up to the lake Friday morning and Noah and I headed up after he got off the bus that afternoon.  We left Waylon at home to do some planting and mulching in the front yard.  We had a landscape designer come out and give us some ideas as to what to plant and where so he was getting a jump start on that!

I'm pretty sure Kylie enjoyed being the center of attention that day - not only were Grammy and Papa there but also Roz and Duane.  Roz even helped her make some cookies that day!  :-)



Noah was so excited about going up also.  The first thing he said when he got off the bus was 'Grammy, Papa, Roz, Duane!!'  :-)  Fun playtime, dinner, etc when we got there that evening.

The next morning, we had another visitor on the porch.  We've seen quite a few praying mantis' recently!!


We went down to the beach for a bit late in the morning.  There were lots of friends for the kids to play with there.  We usually say how nice it is to have the beach all to ourselves but it was actually really nice to NOT have it all to ourselves!!  :-)  The kids were having a great time together - Noah seemed to be the ringleader while Kylie wasn't quite sure - typical for them.  :)


It started raining on us after about an hour of being out there so we came back for lunch.

Kylie learned to make the Wolfpack sign!
Luckily, the weather cleared up for the second annual Sandy Trace Fishing Contest.  We didn't go last year but I'm pretty sure we'll be going next year!!  :-)  Despite the looks in this next picture, Noah had a BLAST.  He caught a pretty big catfish (2 lbs, 6 oz) and it was the biggest fish for a while - until another little boy caught another catfish over 10 LBS!!!  Wow.  Noah won a trophy for "1st Place Total Weight" - which wasn't quite true but the other kid won the trophy for 'Biggest Fish' and wasn't eligible to get 2 trophies so Noah got it!  He was SOOO excited and even wanted to sleep with the trophy that night!  :-)

Watiting - very patiently

Noah's catfish!

My daddy - recently saw a quote "The only thing better than having you as my dad is my children having you as their Papa"


Kylie joined in, too!

Another fish!  I think he caught 3 total.

Love this shot of Kylie  :-)
Awards Ceremony
 
The winners!

So proud


Kylie got a participation  medal, too  (she didn't want to pose for the picture with the other boys)

Kylie's catch of the day - the minnows from the bait bucket

When we got home, Noah didn't want to put his trophy down.  Roz and Duane went to visit some friends for the day and he was so excited for them to get back so he could show them his winnings!  :-)

Kissing the trophy

So happy!
Sunday morning, we went back to the beach for a picnic lunch.  Love these next few shots - they are both so comfortable in the water.  I love it.



They both love jumping off the end of the dock.

This is the life!!

Good times

Friends for many many years!

Kylie pulling Papa in

They played really well together down at the beach.
Cutie Patootie - in one of my dresses from when I was little
We decided to switch it up and go to the marina for dinner instead of our usual lunch trip and that decision kind of backfired on us.  the plan was to ride the boat over there but it started raining right before we left so we drove.  It stopped long enough for us to feed the fish after dinner though!  Always a hit.


That night, Kylie read some books to Papa before bedtime!  :-)


Sibling silliness with the iPad
Monday morning was kind of nasty and rainy also so we weren't sure what we were going to do at first.  We finally decided on a quick boat ride which turned into a really fun trip!  We stopped at Goat Island - a little island in the middle of the lake where there are goats who graze!  They are really nice and people stop there all the time and pet and feed them.  The kids obviously loved that!  It's funny - we've been going there for 10 years and it's the first time we've stopped there.


Love my kiddos!!!

Noah feeding the goats.  Kylie got brave right before we left and fed them but I didn't have my camera with me at the time.

Swimming at goat island


We came back around mid-afternoon and everyone was happy to see daddy (and I think he was happy to see us, too!).  The new beds and plants look great so it was a successful weekend altogether, I think!

I've been back at my 'new/old job' for about a month now and in a lot of ways it seems like I never left!  My friend Jenn and I have always been 'brain twins' and we showed up to work one day last week looking like this - in fact, the sweaters are the exact same ones (we actually bought them together) and we have the same brand and style of jeans, too!!  :-)  Too funny.


One night last week, we spent some time at the pool.  We were actually the only ones there and the kids had a blast with that.  Like I said, playing well together - which ironically also means more arguments but that's just the way it is, right?  :-)


This past weekend was another fun one but that's for the next post!!!  Have a great week to those of you who actually still read this!!  By the way, thanks if you do!  :-)  I do it mostly for myself these days but it's always nice to hear when people are reading!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

The Past Few Weeks

After we got home from the lake, we had a nice 'normal' week and a fairly low key weekend.  The kids spent the night with Nana and Grandaddy that Saturday night and we had a Progressive Dinner in the neighborhood so that was a nice break.  That following week, Waylon went to Boston for work, so my mom came down to help us out for the week.  She took Kylie back to the lake on Friday morning (her school was closed that day) and Noah and went up there on Friday after school/work for Labor Day weekend (Waylon stayed here to do some planting in the yard).  Kind of random pictures....


Silliness with Jake and Ben at a restaurant (waiting to be sat)

LOVE this shot of pure joy on her face here.

Loves her daddy
Noah has been enjoying playing the Wii - anything 'electronic' as he likes to say!  :-)

Such determination and concentration

Love the expressions.

Saturday morning, we found this 'little' guy IN our house!  He must have been about 4-5 inches long  How in the world did he get in!?  Crazy.


We were getting ready to go to the pool and I was trying to get Kylie's bathing suit on.  I turned around for a second and found her like this....


I took the kids to the pool that morning and met my coworker Sara and her little boy, Logan.  It was his first time in the pool.  He LOVED it!


Kylie and Noah loved playing with Logan and showing off for Sara

After the pool, I took the kids to a place called 'Go Bananaz' to meet Nana and Grandad.  Seemed like the perfect place for *Nana and Grandad* to take them.  :-)  HAHA.  Seriously though, it was a fun place - I went in for a minute - and they spent quite a while there.

Noah loved the bumper cars!
They had a great time with Nana and Grandaddy that night and we went to a Progressive dinner in the neighborhood.  So much fun!  I made some appetizers and was really excited so I took a picture.  :-)  No other pics from the evening....

YUM!
The next day, we met the kids, Nana and Grandad and Andrea and Savannah at the park to pick them up.  Then we went to lunch with Nana and Grandad.

Noah found a cricket - he wanted me to take a picture  :-)
That night, I went to the pool with the kids and ordered pizza there while some of the neighborhood guys were at a Fantasy Football draft.

Sweet Abby

Kylie and Will
Monday, Waylon left for Boston and my mom came.  Tuesday was the kids' last swim lesson of the season.  They have done so well this summer and improved so much!  We'll take a break with the swimming for a while and pick it back up in the spring at the latest...  They both LOVED their teacher, Ms. Michelle....



Grammy reading to Kylie one night that week

Kylie copied what Grammy was doing and did this all by herself!!!  Pretty impressive, I think!

We had another visitor after Waylon got home but this one stayed outside.  Crazy hubby of mine....


Friday, we were off to the lake for Labor Day weekend but that's up next....

Lake Weekend with our 'Crew'

Almost every year for the past 5 - 6 years (??), we've been taking a summer trip with this group of friends.  Usually we leave the kids at home but this year was a little different with so many new little ones so we decided to do a long weekend at the lake with the kids, too!  Unfortunately, Josh and Anise couldn't make it from Charleston with little Brooks but we managed to still have some fun!!  :-)

Kylie and I took off with Megan, Ryan and Peyton, Megan, and Jennie and Sam on Thursday night.  We got a bit of a late start and surprisingly, no one slept a whole lot on the way up there so it was quite the night.  I didn't get Kylie in bed until 11 and the other kids were up until almost 1am!  So Friday morning, we had a bit of a lazy morning at the house....


Kylie and Ryan having fun with Sam.

Playtime with the water table

Sam is getting so big!!
 Megan and I took Ryan, Peyton and Kylie down to the beach while Megan A,  Jennie and Sam went to the grocery store.



Lunch time!
The guys and Noah showed up just before dinnertime on Friday - Noah had an early release day from school so they came up when he got out.  Here come the blackmail pictures.....  :-)


I don't think Sam was sure about all if it.  :-)

Cory and Waylon with their boys - friends for many many years!!!
Love this pic - looks like such a happy family.  :-)
They will have a happy family soon though!  Megan is pregnant with a little boy, Tucker!!

I got some sweet Sam snuggles that night.
On Saturday, we did a lot of playing outside.  Since we had so many of us and quite a few little ones that might not be interested in the boat, we traded off beach and boat time throughout the day.  It was a good time!  Since I was mostly on the boat, driving, I took all the pictures there.

My arm is still injured from falling on it at the lake over a month ago (GRR), so I couldn't do the tube or the wakeboard so Kylie decided (after much thinking) that she wanted to go on the tube with Cory.  It was so cute seeing her out there with him, and she didn't want to stop!


See something funny here??  :-)  Kylie was pulling Dave on the tube!

Noah rode with Dave!

He wanted to swim back to the boat with Dave and Jason.  Took him a while but he did it. :-)

That night we grilled burgers and dogs.

Silly kiddos

The whole group (minus Waylon who was taking the picture)!
 Hanging out before bedtime on Saturday night....

Thought this was so cute.  Noah was just hanging on Waylon.

Jennie loves sugar so we loaded her up on her Strawberry Margarita.  :-)
Noah playing with Sam - have I mentioned that he loves babies!

Kisses!

Adorable Peyton

Sunday morning - bright and early!
The plan was to spend some time on the boat and/or beach on Sunday morning but the weather was not very nice so we packed up and got ready to go home.  We did take a quick trip to the gas station to get gas for the boat.  It was raining on us a little but the kids thought it was hilarious so that was fun!  :-)


Such a fun trip as always with that group.  It was fun to have the kids there though.  How things change over several years!  :-)

We missed you, Josh, Anise and Brooks!