Smith Mountain Lake

We took our annual vacation to Smith Mountain Lake again this summer. As always, we had such a wonderful time. My sister Ashley and her family were not able to come this year, so we missed them. However Christine's neighbors came and had 2 preteen girls. They loved carrying and playing with my girls, which made this an actual vacation. I had 4 girls begging to play, dress and carry my girls. I even had a brother in law who made us lunch and brought it out to us while we were laying out on the dock. Perfect life!

 Andy towed his "green pickle" to the lake. He took a few kids out each day. It was actually a very nice relaxing ride. 

One night we had a campfire and smores

 We spent a lot of time in the lake being silly.

What a sweet, sweet cousin pulling Sarah.

 

Abby loved hanging out with Lauren. She was such a sweet girl!

We took a kid friendly ride behind the boat.  At first, the girls were a little scared, but then they realized Nick was loving it and laughing, so then they realized it was fun and had a blast. It was a much better ride than last year when I was chucked off the raft.

 

We actually braved a dinner out to eat with 10 kids.

How many kids can ride a 25 cent ride???!

 

Sing along with Todd on the guitar.

 

The highlight is always the ice cream boat!!

 

My beautiful neices are so grown up... I can't believe it.

Todd in his rockstar (and sparkly) glasses.

 

Guess who is under the blanket.... Nana. Supposedly checking her phone.

 

Dancing on the dock.

Silly Noah.

Poor Andy... his green pickle kept getting flooded and he would have to scoop the water out. We all got a good laugh at him and the pickle.

 Can't wait until next year!

Abby Girl - 15 months

Abby Girl LOVES the camera. She smiles right when she sees me pull it out. I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of this cutie pie!

(She also loves climbing the stairs!)

 And she also loves to snuggle!

What's not to love about this munchkin??!

4th of July

On 4th of July we spent a nice quiet day as a family. We had dinner at our favorite All American restaurant - Cook Out. Then went to a festival and fireworks in Clayton. 

 The girls loved this surfing thing at the festival.

I didn't know how Abby would do with the fireworks, but she loved them. She clapped and Ohhh and Ahhed the whole time!

 

Happy 4th of July!

Beach!

One day we headed to the Wrightsville Beach for some fun!

It was a little overcast, but it was perfect because no one got burnt and the beach was pretty empty.

Emily and Sarah were happy to be back at the beach, however Abby was not so sure about it.  

 After hanging out with Daddy a little bit, she was happy again and ready to play.

The water was a bit cold, but the girls loved playing in the surf.

It is always fun to watch the girls loving life and enjoying each other.

  

Andy's Birthday

Andy turned the big 35 this year!

The girls were so excited about his birthday. He took the day off work and we started the day with birthday blueberry muffins. We had made a banner of pictures of him growing up (which I forgot to take a picture of) and Emily made a scavenger hunt for him to find his presents.

She drew pictures of places in the house and he had to hunt for his presents... which were in the shower!

He got a trailer hitch for the van and a razor. I thought I might actually surprise him with the trailer hitch, however he revealed that I had left the order confirmation page open on the laptop.

Could I be any sneakier??!

Then his parents came up and we went to see the NC Museum of Science. A new wing of the museum just opened and we have been waiting to check it out. There were some neat exhibits, however the dinosaur room was closed, as was the butterfly room. We had one upset 5 year old, but the day turned out to be lots of fun!