I wonder who she looks like...

Since Emma was a baby, people have said that she looks like me. I've never thought so...she has blue eyes, I have brown...her hair WAS light blonde, mine is dark brown. However, my brother recently sent me some pictures of me when I was little (up to this point I only had 2). I have to say...Emma does look like her mama! The first picture is Emma while we are on vacation. The second picture is of me, my mamaw (my dad's mom), and my sister, Laura. See the resemblence???

Emma

Lately, I have noticed that Emma has given up twirling for headbanging...I have no idea where she got that from!

Virginia (on the way to Virginia) : Day 1

We had planned to leave for vacation at around 1am Monday. We figured that the kids would sleep, I would probably take a nap, and that we would have the entire day ahead of us instead of spending our first day traveling. We ended up leaving earlier than expected. Joe was much too excited to sleep. Ryan and I couldn't sleep. So around 10:45 pm we left.

The majority of the kids (except for Ben) did not go right to sleep once they hit the van. Jake held out the longest, staying awake until almost 3am. (Please ignore the smear on my camera lens...yogurt maybe???...sticky little fingers must have had a hold of my camera...these things happen with 4 kids..)



It took us about 10 hours to makeit to Virginia. We could have made it quicker, but we had a ton of potty breaks to make. We went straight to our cabin. Driving down the driveway to our cabin was an experience. We passed by swimming cows, and drove down a driveway that seemed to be never ending!! Finally we rounded a corner and saw this:



Our beautiful cabin. The pictures on the website really do not do it justice. It sits back on a mile and a half driveway. No other cabins around. Some of our favorite features were: a stocked fishing pond that you are welcome to fish in, a gorgeous view from the wrap around deck, a hot tub, a picnic shelter with two grills, and a lovely inside. If you are ever staying in the area, be sure to look them up: http://www.burnermountain.8m.com/index.html. There were little books inside that the guests had written in. Many guests have been coming back for 3 years or more. By the time we arrived at our cabin, we were ready for a little nap.

Once we woke up we decided to explore a portion of Shenendoah National park by taking a drive on Skyline drive.




We stopped at several of the overlooks to take in the beautiful scenery and to take some pictures (Let me just say, in these pics you will notice there are only 3 kids...that's because Joseph was SOUND asleep at this point and didn't wake up when we stopped...you will see him awake and grumpy..in a bit!)






We made it to the visitor's center near Big Meadows campground where we went inside to look for brochures and view a small exhibit they had on the area. At this point, Joe's nap had to end so that he could come inside with us. The kids posed for a few pictures outside:







On the way back to the cabin we stopped at a few more overlooks. Ryan and Joe climbed out to this rock (it makes me ill just looking at them being out there that high..I'm not a height loving person):



We saw deer and even a baby bear perched in a tree!






We headed back to the cabin for dinner and to rest up for Day #2 of vacation!

Who knew that cows liked to swim???

As I mentioned in my previous post, we rented a cabin on vacation. Our cabin sat on the side of a mountain. There was a mile and a half driveway up to our cabin. At the bottom of that driveway there was a gate. Inside that gate we saw this:



"Swimming cows"

The kids loved Mooing at the cows as we went past. It was part of there routine to say hi and bye to the cows each time that we saw them.

Vacation 2011 Overview

We arrived back home on Friday from our vacation in Virginia. We rented a beautiful cabin, / If you are ever in the Luray, Virginia area, I cannot recommend this cabin enough. The pictures do not do it justice! We hope to go back and stay there again sometime in the future.

We drove on Skyline Drive, had picnics in Shenedoah National Park, hiked a couple of trails, toured Luray caverns, saw 8 bears (3 cubs), hundreds of deer (2 on our cabin property), an owl, cows (also on our property), and fished.

It was a wonderful, relaxing vacation. Just what we needed! I will write more detailed posts on our vacation very soon. Right now I'm trying to catch up on some things and working on getting the kids back into a routine.

Summer Vacation 2011

In less than 24 hours we are off on vacation! Almost everything is packed (I think...) and the kids are super excited that after 3 weeks of counting down...vacation day is finally here!

I'm sure that I will be back with a ton of pictures and a ton of things to post about! Until then...ready or not, Virginia....here we come!

Touch a Truck West Chester June 2011

Two years ago we were able to experience our first Touch a Truck event in Sharonville. The older boys loved it and the twins (still small and shy) just enjoyed being out in the fresh air. Last year we attended the Touch a Truck event in Sharonville and Fairfield. All of the kids loved climbing in the trucks and exploring. This year, we were bummed to find out that Touch a Truck wouldn't take place until August. However, while at Kroger, a fire fighter gave Ben a card for the Touch a Truck in West Chester...which was in JUNE. We were very excited to attend!


Since I am less than 12 hours away from leaving for vacation, I will leave you with a collage of pictures from the event!

Picture collage created with Smilebox