She did finally get some much-needed rest at Lori's.
Noah and Aidan are buddies forever!
Abby looking as clueless as ever. Which way did he go?
Aidan stealing some sips of soda. Lori picks her battles with him and this is one of the many that she has lost and continues to lose on a daily basis. Like I told Lori, she is lucky that he is so cute.
Here Aidan is again enjoying the Slip-N-Slide.
After Aidan's party, Jen went with the dogs to her parent's house and I went back to Bowie with the boys. That night, we went to a DC United game at RFK Stadium. It was the first Major League anything for the boys, so they were mesmerized by the entire experience. Before that though, we rested up at the house. Kate and Ethan rested by having a little Guitar Hero battle.
The following day, my parents had everyone over for Father's Day. Here are some of the cousins enjoying brunch.
And here are [most] of the rest of them.
A group photo of all the kids. It was quite difficult to get all of them to focus on me at the same time. This is my best effort.
Grandma Pat and Will .
In the afternoon, we set up the Slip-N-Slide and the kids went crazy. This is evidenced here as Evan slides into home. He may just have a future in baseball.
Will had a different technique.
And Isabel had yet another.
Skylar couldn't keep up with the big kids, but still managed to enjoy the water in the baby pool.
Not sure who started this exchange, but it looks like Eric is winning versus Will.
Or is he?
Dan joins in and sends Will a crystal-clear, ice-cold message.
When you mess with one twin, you mess with the both of them.
Noah didn't agree with Dan's philosophy and just laughed (and ran).
Monday morning we joined Jen at her parent's house. The rain joined us as well.
With the rain though, the money tree was able to sprout new money. Amazingly enough, this money tree also grows lollipops. I try to tell the boys that Pop Pop Wayne is just kidding them, but they don't believe me. I tell them, "Wouldn't you think we would have one of these at our house if they were real?" I guess they don't put that much thought into it.
Bill, Steph, Gavin, Evan, and Skylar joined us for the first couple of days we were there. This is Evan enjoying the clean, country living. For us, that included a campfire.
And a four-wheeler. Here's Will checking out their gift from Wayne.
Noah, Gavin, and Evan are digging Wayne's new Kubota utility vehicle.
Of course Noah had to check out the four wheeler as well. We couldn't pry the boys away from this for the first few days that we were there.
Since the house would have been pretty cramped with all of us sleeping in there, Bill and I decided to pitch tents and stay both nights in them with the boys. Bill set his tent up on a tarp to make it easier for clean-up later. Luckily, I did not. Later that night, there were torrential downpours and severe thunder and lightning. Bill had a river under him all night and thankfully I did not.
The next day we decided to hike around Lake Habeeb, the big lake in nearby Rocky Gap State Park. We didn't do the entire loop, but we went about three miles.
Skylar even got to go with us.
The boys took a break to pose for a quick picture.
And so did Jen and the boys.
Gavin and Evan as well.
Country living also includes fishing (for some people). I hate fishing, but the rest of the boys seemed to enjoy it.
Here's Will holding his big catch.
Ethan managed to catch a few as well. Truth be told, Wayne feeds all of his fish daily, so they are quick to bite anything small that goes in the water. You have to wait all of a few seconds to get a bite. I guess that is why the boys loved it so much. It's fishing without the boring part - the waiting.
Evan also loved fishing, but I really think he enjoyed counting how many fish he had caught more. He was in the twenties last I heard. The boy loves to count and is good at it too.
Here's Wayne and Abby. My guess is Wayne is trying to figure out how to stop Abby from going into the pond while people were fishing. She loved going after the bobbers in the water!
It's One-Eyed Willie!
Cast away!
Abby posing for a quick shot.
Here is Ethan, Will, Alina, and Aidan in front of the train station in Cumberland.
Lord of the Flies?
Some sweet bokeh.
"Hey guys, have you seen my shoes?" Aidan picked the most inopportune times to ask me that. Usually, it was as I was trying to take pictures of deer or wild turkey.
"Hey guys, do you want to play soccer?" This was Aidan's second most asked question. Doesn't he look so peaceful here though? Don't fall into that trap. He is a little hellion.
Before Lori left, we got all the kids together for a group shot. Noah was sick that day, so it was very difficult to get him to look happy at all.
This slowly turned into Abby's favorite spot to lay and sleep. Of course, it is right in the way of people going up and down the stairs. It figures!
Like I said, Aidan is a little hellion. Here is one example of why. He got Pop Pop Wayne good, didn't he? Or wait, maybe it was Abby that did this to Wayne? Oh well, I'll just blame it on Aidan anyway. You know, to go along with the story.
I managed to snap this quickly with my awesome new zoom lens in a break between Aidan asking about his shoes. You may be asking yourself, "That picture doesn't seem like it was taken with some awesome new zoom lens?" Well, I was over a mile away from the deer. How do you like it now?
I also got the boys to pose for some pictures while on the tire swing. Will wasn't very hard to convince. He did all sorts of model-like poses for me. He said that he is working on Blue Steel for me next, or was it Magnum?
Noah was bit by the modeling bug too. He's cute and he knows it. Work it.
Ethan was a bit tougher. He was more interested in flying high on the swing, so it was hard to get a good shot of him.
Here's Abby heading down to the pond. I don't know why, but this is one of my favorite shots of her. Maybe it is because she is walking away? Just kidding.
"Please help me!" says Abby. Can't you just see it in her eyes? Ethan has a tendency to overwhelm her with his love at times, and this is one of those moments. I'll love her and hug her and squeeze her and keep her for my very own.
And finally, a picture of Hanzie relaxing on the porch.
