August 2014

My sisters, my daughter and me

August should be more than one post! But being more than 6 months behind, its just going to be one long post.

Trainboy is standing behind the block waiting for the previous event to end.

The first of August found Trainboy participating in the State Swim meet which was held in our city. He had qualified at regionals and enjoyed the experience. We also played in our yard; the kids quickly learned to climb the tree.

He loved his fire sunglasses!

For most of August, The kids and I took a long three week trip. The goal was mainly to remove ourselves from distracting Fixitman from working on his dissertation. Unfortunately he didn't really get anything major done while we were gone. We had a great time on the trip anyway!

This is her lego version of a bewilderbeast from How to Train your dragon 2.

First we went to visit my dear friend in Oklahoma who it has been far too long since we had a good visit. She has 4 kids and so if we were sane we probably would have just stuck to visiting the park. But why be reasonable when you can have fun? We went and visited several fun places in Oklahoma including a botanical garden with a splash park, a military museum, a wild west ranch, and a big park that would have a beach but the drought had caused the lake to shrink up. Two women and nine kids! I'm sure we turned some heads. Oh it was so much fun.

She introduced me to Zumba, we had a blast

Splash pad that is art. It was beautiful and fun! Baby isn't sure about the water flower.

Helping his brother to stand and escape the mist.

Cheese, now can I go play?

It had a cycle including rain, heavy rain, mist, water flowers and fountains.

In the children's botanical garden tunnel, all 9 kids!

At the military museum. Very cool.

Friends!

A game of favorite vehicle outside the museum

On a tower at the wild west house

Seeing herds of buffalo

9 kids and I after an old house tour. My friend took the photo.

An old merry go round you power with your feet. Reminded me of my great grandpa's happy go round.

  The next part of the journey was to make it to Atlanta. Normally I drive straight thru to Atlanta but I decided to break the journey into two pieces and it was a good idea. I hate driving two days in a row but Princess threw up on the first day making it a long slow drive and I was exhausted by the time we made it to Memphis. I wish we had time to visit some of the sites there but we just crashed in a hotel and continued our trip the next day!

Crawling break at a rest area!

This tree heart wants you to remember its all about love

Kids running around at a rest area

game of red light, green Light

In Atlanta we visited lots of family. I have lots of extended family in the Atlanta area. My sister recently moved to the city to attend Physical Therapy school so she showed us Emory campus. I had wanted to visit some of the cool Atlanta  museums but then I looked at prices. Not this trip! We did go hike Stone Mountain though, tradition!

Meeting Dooley at Emory.

Part of a huge awesome medical history mosaic wall

On the way up the mountain!

There are creatures in these pools on top of the mountain that don't exist anywhere else.

Tired from the hike. Nap with Auntie

Two beautiful flowers

We drove to South Carolina and started a week of wearing my mom out. I had a plan! We went to the beach three times, we went birding, we went to the battleships. We visited my grandma and we went to a plantation! It was fun to do touristy things and it was also fun to spend time at the beach. I love the Charleston area beaches. They are generally well maintained and the beach dunes are preserved enough to have beautiful nature as well. There were additional things I had planned that didn't happen but being flexible with a plan is important right?

Beach selfie with mom!

These two were instant friends.

Mom what is this taste?

We had a great visit to a plantation with my bro-in-law as tour guide. Free roaming sheep!

Kids loved seeing cebu. Thanks to a Veggietales song.

SO ROMANTIC! Loved this bench in this picturesque location

Tired gramma

Birdwatching in the morning!

Beach fun in the afternoon!

I asked him to pose for a picture since I almost never get one of him at the beach. He squeezed his brother.

My mom snapped this photo, it shows how Baby travelled. He didn't usually look worried like he does here though!

Everyone wanted to fly the plane!

Pretending to be captain of the ship was a great game

I had no idea how cramped submarines were!

More beach fun!

Aww, my sweet nephew!

Without his hat, his head is very white and reflective!

Helpful LittleGuy walks Baby around the beach

Baby nap time at the beach

Sisters!

Driving around the yard, they are adorable. Scared for when the truck is real though!

Family swim party!

Mommy help me! Helpful cousins keep bouncing me!

Trying to get all three littles was not a success

Cousin babies!

I think he's tired of pictures now

My sister and her sweet boy

Handsome!

Love this pose in her new dress

Uncle's tie matches my shirt!

Seven grandkids for my parents so far!

1000 miles to go to home!

It was a wonderful trip!When we returned, it was almost time for the school year to begin. We went to an opening social for Fixitman's department and the kids got the opportunity to ride some gentle horses. Then being helpful, Dinoguy locked the sliding doors on the van not knowing that BOTH sets of keys were inside. So we were the very last to leave and the kids went to bed quite late after waiting over an hour for a company to come unlock our car doors out in the country. Ah, adventure!

(Somehow I didn't get a picture of Trainboy on a horse, oops!)