More Summer Fun!

Yesterday morning we headed up to the skate park. It is just a small skate area that is just under a mile from our house. The boys brought their scooters and skate boards and the girls brought their bikes. We have to arrive early before the rowdy teenagers show up! Thankfully, since their early is around noon we can usually skate until 10:30 or 11:00 worry free.
Abby has been training in a similar arena lately. Chris has been taking her for bike rides each evening. I went with them and brought Hanzie along the other night but it was just a bit too much for him. I have to remind myself that he is not the young pup that I like to believe that he is! Here Abby plays the spectator. Hanzie was happily sitting at home in the AC!
Here Will takes the endurance award. He is still going while everyone else is beat! He also gets the bravery award for being the first one to take the bike down the jump!
Skate park suit up!

Nothing like a mean face, a skeleton shirt, and a pink bike!
This afternoon we are hoping to hit the water park in Daytona. But, since there is a 70% chance of storms, it does not look likely. I'm already prepared for some seriously disappointed kids. They woke up this morning chanting "Daytona Lagoon, Daytona Lagoon, Daytona Lagoon!"

Lifeguard to the Rescue

This morning we headed off to the beach. The tide was out so we swam out to the sandbar so the kids could boogie board. They spent nearly the entire 2 1/2 hours that we were there on their boards. Will, having the bad luck that he does, got stung by a jellyfish. After putting up with the sting for a good while, he finally allowed me to take him over to the lifeguard to throw some vinegar on it. He was happy that we went, because he felt better almost instantly and headed back out to the waves.

We got home right at lunch time so it was a mad rush to get the dogs out, change wet clothes, make lunch, etc. So, I walked over to Abby to let her out of her crate and she had SHREDDED her crate bed. I'm not sure she'll like laying on the hard crate tomorrow! What a brat. And yes, she had been on a walk before we left so it is HER fault! She had all the necessary chew toys in her crate with her as well.

After swimming for a couple hours we came in so I could start dinner. Ethan requested one of his favorites, lasagna. While I was making it, I thought of a funny Ethan story. When Ethan was two he helped me prepare a lasagna. While it was baking we went for a walk around the neighborhood. Much to our surprise, the normally quiet Ethan, was telling everyone that he helped his mommy make lagina! We corrected him a million times and had him repeat it to us, however, every time we saw a new person he would scream out, "I helped my mommy make lagina!!!" Ah, good times!

Dance Off!

Melissa and I watched Step Up 2 the Streets on Thursday with the kids. They immediately started practicing their dance moves and decided to have a dance off. Their costumes were the best part, but they went for a swim before their dance off and ended up dancing in their pajamas for the most part. Noah's was the best. He seriously looked like he was ready for the streets. That boy knows how to dress for the occasion. Will and Paige took the prize for best dancers. Will will get on his head and spin, plus he did the splits as part of his routine on more than one occasion. And Paige, well that girl just brings down the house!

Jumpy Place

Today we took a break from the beach and pool and went to The Jumpy Place. The kids had a blast and were in much need of a Slurpee when we left. Okay, that is at least what they told me and I fell for it!

Here Noah and Ethan try for a knock out.
They had some American Gladiator events as well.
And then there was the slide!
They had lots of other inflatables as well. The other big hit was the obstacle course. The velcro jumping inflatable was not inflated so Ethan was a bit sad about that. Oh well, maybe next time. Now it is finally time for the pool!

While Dad is away, the rest of us will play!

Yesterday we hosted a lunch for all the teachers from school. We had a good time. The kids all swam while we ate and chatted. It was nice to get everyone together during the summer. After dinner Abby had obedience class and we threw in a little play time at the dog park. She is coming right along with her training. Although, she isn't really learning much yet because we have already taught her everything the teacher has gone over.

This morning we went to the beach for a couple hours. When we got there it was a chilly 75 degrees, but by the time we left it had warmed up to 88. The boys were able to get their boogie boarding fix. We came home at lunch time and have spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool. Abby has now discovered that she does not actually need to use the stairs to get into the pool. Of course this was great fun for us. We laughed endlessly while she dove in over and over! The boys called Chris to tell him the newest development and he wasn't all that impressed since he doesn't entirely like her in the pool. Since it is such a form of amusement to the boys and me, he tolerates it. Honestly, it doesn't get much cuter!
Self portrait.
I think we were trying to take a respectable picture. I'm not sure what happened!
This is the best video I could capture. She actually made several full on running dives into the pool but I managed to miss capturing any of them on film. I'll have to get Chris out there, he is much better in the photography department.

Abby Swims!

Abby used to be afraid of swimming in our pool. No longer... I was reading on my float and the next thing I know she was next to me and has jumped in dozens of times since!

Dog Training

Abby had dog obedience class this morning so Ethan was warming her up with a little training session. Melissa has the boys addicted to the Zak George videos, so now the boys are obsessed with training her how to do all sorts of tricks. The funniest ones, in my opinion, are limp and bang. We've got to work on those!

Make that 4 snakes in one week!

This morning we went up to the skate park for a bit and the kids got nice and hot. They all came back to our house for a swim and were eating lunch on the pool deck when they noticed this snake hunting for lizards through our fence! I hope that this isn't some sort of sign.

Bucket full of jellyfish...

As promised to Noah, we went to the beach yesterday to ride the waves. He got to try out his new rash guard and was quite pleased with it. He is sort of a fashion diva of sorts so it is all about the look to him! As Emma said, "The waves are awesome!"
Paige and Will barely took notice of the waves. They were too busy collecting all of the washed up jellyfish. I'm not entirely sure if they are complete jellyfish, chunks of jellyfish, or just non stinging jellyfish. What I can tell you is that they are disgusting and Will and Paige along with the rest of the kids are disturbingly fascinated by them.
Does it get any nastier than this? Gah...ross!!!!

It took them two hours to get two buckets filled. Whatever it was got released back into the ocean before we left.

Doggie Paddle!

Yesterday we were stuck in the house all day waiting for furniture to be delivered. The boys, the dogs, and I were out of our mind with boredom and Noah wanted to try out his new rash guard at the beach. He suggested going to the beach about a million times during dinner so we headed off to the dog beach. Since it was dinner time for the sharks we conviently forgot Noah's boogie board! No worries, we are headed off to the beach in a few minutes so Noah will get his boogie boarding fun today. There was a storm close by so it was cloudy and breezy which was nice!

Headed towards the river approach.
During high tide there is no beach on parts of the river. The mangroves just ahead of us are in fairly deep water so we actually have to swim around them. The boys think they are some sort of adventurers (they call themselves survivors) when they get to swim around those so that is the highlight of their night!
After the swim, the boys and Abby pose for a picture.

Here we are once we reach the ocean.

The boys playing on the inlet rocks just above the shark infested waters! Because of Bertha the waves are big and there were TONS of surfers out. Noah was happy to see that they weren't being eaten by sharks. He fears everything lately! Even though the surfers were safe he still wouldn't chance the waters! He didn't think about it for a second while he was swimming around the mangroves though!
On the walk back to the car we took the path to keep the dogs dry. Noah and I nearly stepped on this snake! This is the third snake this week that I have had a close encounter with. Don't they know I don't like them!!!!

Forget about Nathan's!

Abby is ready to enter the Nutro Max dog food eating contest! She can eat puppy food like no other! I must say that she has actually slowed down a BUNCH since we got her. Initially she ate so fast that we had to feed her from a cookie tray to slow her down. Here she consumes her 2 cups of Nutro in seconds. The girl loves her food, or our food, or Hanzie's food, or stranger's food...

Visit from the Donegan's

Liz, Colin, and Caroline arrived for a short visit on Tuesday afternoon. We did the whole beach and pool thing for the most part! I bought a couple new boogie boards just before they arrived. It was a good thing that I did because that was all the rage this week! Noah picked out one with sea turtles.
Emma in her rash guard getting ready to make her way back out to the waves.
Besides riding waves, the kids collected tons of jellyfish the second day we were there. Poor Caroline got stung by a jellyfish the first day we were there, but the second day was carefree.
Caroline squinting to get the sun out of her eyes!

After spending the morning at the beach yesterday, we headed over to Merritt Island to look for some gators. We saw one small one on the loop and one itty, bitty baby one at the visitor's center boardwalk. Here is the baby one. If you enlarge and look in the middle where the green grass meets the water you will see his head.
Though we did not see many gators, we saw lots and lots of manatees hanging out in the river.

There was plenty of pool fun as well. Naturally water guns were a hit with the boys!

Emma and well, Paige's body! Cute suit, eh?
Caroline posing for me!
I didn't get a single good picture of Will or Colin the entire time. They are on the go too much! I assure you that they enjoyed their time together as well.

Tonight Abby has her first obedience class if it doesn't get rained out. Wish us luck!

Pictures from the Dog Beach

Mike took some pictures of all of us at the dog beach.

Abby after a short swim.
The cast and crew. Cute group, aren't we?
While the kids were playing in the sand, Melissa and I walked down to the inlet rocks with the dogs and back.
The pack leaders. I would like to believe that refers to Melissa and me.

4th of July and more...

We had a nice 4th of July. The Eagney family, the Pool family, and Bobbie & Dick came over for dinner. The kids had a blast playing together all afternoon. Most of the adults enjoyed some afternoon mudslides. Yummy! We were all ready for a nap before going to the fireworks!

Sydney enjoyed exploring the house. She is such a good baby!
My masterpiece! Okay, I've never made an ice cream cake before so I thought I would give it a shot. It was purely an effort of well I could try this or that. The outcome was quite delicious, although unprofessional at best!
There was the thematic red, white, and blue layers and then the brownie layer thrown in the middle! I realized when I started putting it together that I needed a third layer of cake but didn't have any cake mix. Melissa had a box of brownie mix so that is what ended up in there!

Sophie enjoyed it so much that she announced she was going to marry her cake while she was eating it! I was just happy to make Sophie so happy! (Not that hard to impress her in the dessert world though, but I take what I can get.)

The kids spent most of the afternoon playing in Abby's crate. When I say Abby's crate is huge, I mean it. All SEVEN kids were comfortably playing in there.

Vanna, uh I mean Paige, models "Club Krate."
Last night we all went to the dog beach. It is always so much fun to go there. The kids love it, the dogs love it, and I survive it! Abby is quite the puller at the beach. On normal walks she is fine, but there is something about the dog beach that brings the puller out in her. She did go out and swim with me so that was fun. She was so cute and kept her head against me as we swam! Hanzie loves the dog beach too because it is so breezy and whenever he gets hot he can easily cool off in the water.

Unfortunately, the salt system on our pool broke. We didn't realize at first and kept adding more and more salt. Well, now the salt level in our pool is crazy high. The new salt cell is coming tomorrow so we have to get the salt level back to normal before we can hook it all up. The only way to do that is to empty the pool halfway and fill it up. While my stomach churns at the cost of refilling the pool, the kids have enjoyed the experience. The water is emptied out through the hose so the kids sprayed each other for hours with the warm pool water. Once the pool got lower they decided that they would go in it and play with the lower water levels and enjoyed that just as much!

More Vacation Pics...Finally!

Not sure what Jen already told you about our vacation (and I am too lazy to go back and read her post), so I'll tell you my version. We left for Maryland on June 13th after I got home from work. Jen took the first driving shift and unfortunately had to drive most of the way because of a little mishap. When we went to refuel and switch drivers, I was bit by about five fire ants. As a precaution, since I am allergic to some type of insect bite and most likely the fire ant, I overdosed on Benadryl so that I wouldn't have to use my Epi-Pen. I managed to drive a couple of hours before I was ready to fall asleep at the wheel. Jen was forced to drive the remainder of the way, so she was pretty tired when we got to my parent's house in the morning. She wasn't able to get much rest there because we had to head over to Lori and Dale's house for Aidan's birthday party.

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.