Family

We love Grandma!It was so great spending time with my brother. I've missed him so much. Saturday he took my mom and I out to lunch. We ate at the cutest little resturant called Little Red Riding Hood (or something like that) and everything was antique and vintage. Then he took us to the best donut place ever and I got a true Boston Creme! (we were in MA) Love you bro!
Before heading back on the road, we took some pics by Sarena's gorgeous flowers. The girls--we had such a great time together. :) And Mika even warmed up to Sarena in 3 short days!

The boys--

Sharps, you guys were so great, fun and hospitable. Kenz let me and the kids take over her room and bathroom--such a good sport!! She was a vagabond most nights. It was fun to talk about books with her and watching movies when the youngens went to bed. Jared was so gentlemenly to the girls, always protecting them. Trev was so helpful and I had a great time laughing with him. And Karinn was so sweet to all my kids. She shared and played with them all week. They adored her.

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Kaylin's 7th Birthday!

Kaylin was so excited to be with her cousins for her birthday--even tho Daddy wasnt with us
:(
We went to church, had a big brunch, opened presents, had cupcakes and then waited for some fireworks after grilling burgers!

Kaylin wanted these dolls so bad. They were on sale so we got her two so her and Karinn could play them together. She got some great gifts! One is a necklace from her daddy with a cat that sparkles.

Talking to her daddy on her bday....

Blowing out 7 candles!!!

Coloring with her new pastels from Grandma Wendy. Isn't her picture pretty?!

Connecticut Adventures!

Salmon Brook Park--the kids could not stop climbing the erosion. They had a blast. The water was so beautiful, clear and no Goergia clay! But it was freeeezing for these Southerners! :)

I couldn't believe Ethan was in that ice cold water. He loved it.

Children's Museum--

Me and Mika were on TV! :) Blowing Big Bubbles.

The Shadow Wall. We did a bunch of different funny poses.

Mika loved the water area. She was very determined to pour that watering can.

There was a little tractor Ethan loved "driving"

The "Doctors" fixing up poor Makenzie.

One of the favorites of the Children's Museum was this Curvy Climber. It's carpeted and the wires are string pulled really tight. They played tag for forever. Even Mika went up there (with me) and had a blast climbing.

Look Park---

Here are the kids at the Petting Zoo. They had lots of fun looking at this Peacock for a while. :) On the Paddleboats. Mika was born a worrier and things haven't changed. When the worker boy tried to put on her jacket she flipped out and wouldn't put it on at all after that and would not budge from my lap.

Grandma had the "boy boat" They all took turns paddling and the worker girl in the canoe had to tell them to "be careful" more than once....

The Aventurers!

Tubing on Lake PTC

We took the Butlers out with us on Lake Peachtree Saturday. We had tons of fun. The water was so warm and refreshing in this hot humid weather! We swam in coves, went for boat rides, and went on the rope swing.

But the best pictures were of tubing. Here's Jeff, Halle and Savannah. After a "slow ride" Travis sped up a little bit per Jeff's request! :) They got some air!
The 3 kiddos did too. Kaylin, Savannah and Ethan were going so slow they were practically falling asleep. So we hit some bumps...they got off shortly after. :)


Britt and I went too. These are out of order but I don't have time to fix them. Travis gave a nice, fun ride first. It was hilarious. Last thing Britt said to me was "I'm NOT letting go!" I blinked and she was gone!

The 2nd ride was faster and crazier. We got some major air, which equals to really sore muscles the next day. I think we snapped in half--legs meeting head--kind of thing. Not a feel good ride at all. But we died laughing in our too small jackets and had a lot of fun.

Father's Day!

I have some of the best examples of wonderful Father's in my life. One is my dad. The words I would use to describe him would be: honest, generous, wise, hard-working, thoughtful. The second is Travis' Dad, Brad aka Paka. Words to describe him would be: playful, generous, faithful, loving and trivia king.
And last but not least, my amazing husband. He is playful, trusting, loving, selfless, willing and honest. I am so blessed to be among such wonderful Patriarchs.

Happy Father's Day!!!

I thought this was cute--Ethan put all the bikes in the trailer. :)

29 now and forever

Would I wake up feeling older and wiser?? Yeah, I think I did. My kids forgot, but once I reminded my fit thrower what day it was, the kids all remembered and showered me with hugs. My friend Joyce dropped off a goodie basket of all my favorite things and then I rushed off to the last day of swim lessons. My mom came and watched them with me, then hauled them away to her house, so I could enjoy a day of shopping and dates!

Thanks Mom!!! (the best present ever!)

Me and Travis--despite his sprained foot and the crazy hectic day at work, we laughed all night. Thanks babe for a stress free day!

Britt and I share the same bday. So fun. We spent the day laughing and shopping and eating. It was fantastic. I don't think I have laughed that hard in a long time....
It was almost more painful to try NOT to laugh...the pictures were hilarious, but oh my... too embarrassing for the Blog.
After dinner Travis and I headed to the movies. Our plan was to go to our favorite hotel, but plans fell through, so we pulled our mattress out to the living room and watched movies all night. It was awesome sleeping in, taking my time to get ready for the day, had brunch and then picked the kids up from my parents.
Of course the kids had a blast. And even better to have my dad there too. He's usually working when we come up to visit during the day. My mom kept them busy making bday cards and father's day card and even took them out shopping to find us gifts! They were sad to leave....
My mom also made me a cake. I know it sounds silly, but it's so nice to have a cake on your bday-- It just completes it. I must say 29 candles were quite hard to blow out!
Another fun thing was all the birthday wishes on Facebook. It was so fun checking my email and seeing so many friends comments. Thanks!!

I WON'T mention that Travis' family ALL forgot (except his parents) as well as my ONLY brother and one sister...but hey...I'm getting old...which means so are they...it's hard to keep up! ;)

Swimmin with Friends

We went over to our friends, the Purdys for dinner and swimming! The pool was awesome because it was heated and salt water. As I said in the Swim Lessons post, Bubs has come a long way and this pic is proof! He's swimming!!!!!!Poor Travis--I haven't cut his hair in ages and the kids were climbing all over him and so he usually had some funky hairstyle going on. It made me laugh, so I had to photograph it. :)
He did all sorts of tricks with Kaylin. My favorite one was of her on his shoulders, but I had the video camera for that one.

Cute girlies enjoying a swim with Daddy.

Swimming with Mika. When she doesn't have her little floaty jacket she's fearless. Constantly pushing away thinking she can swim all by herself and needing a rescuer on hand.

Me and my girl Kenda.

Slip N Slide

Who knew how fun a slip n slide could be?? Ethan did all sorts of fun tricks and jumps. It was very entertaining.
Kaylin just loves being in the water. It really doesn't matter what she is doing!
Mika was content to be in the kiddie pool with Grandma. :)
Angie and her little fam came up to swim with us too. We went over to my mom's friends house where they had a great pool for us to spend the afternoon swimming and showing Grandma all of the kids' new tricks from swimming lessons. (sorry no pics, I was in the water too)

Bath Time at Grandma's is one of the kid's favorite things to do in her giant jet tub. After the kids all the decided to tickle the tickle bug, Henry. I love this pic with him surrounded by tickling hands.