A visit on the way home

My best friend from high school now lives about 6 hours from the beach in N C, and about 12 hours from our house. Not quite half way, but it made for a nice weekend stop. We haven't seen them in exactly 2 years! And it was a nice way to break up the trip, especially with young kids in the car! We arrive at their house Friday early evening and spent the night Friday and Saturday.

The kids "relaxing" with a DVD before bed. They were so cute.

For Olivia's 3rd Birthday she was going to see Dis.ney on I.ce. So, we had the honor of going with them. This was by far the coolest experience I've had in a long time. The look of complete awe on their faces, their eyes glued to the ice and lighting up like never before. I honestly don't think I could ever forget seeing their faces! Plus, I was loving it. Amazing show and I'm so glad to have gone!

Seriously, aren't those faces priceless???

It was tough getting all 4 kids to look at the camera! :)

The girls in their outfits for the show!

Sutton had an absolute blast with balloons! :)

Last beach post

Well, it's taken me a while, but I think this is the last of my main pictures from our beach trip. Of course, I took hundreds of pictures, but this sums it up.

A few of our family snapshots....

On our last night we did smores and sparklers!

The cousins!

Nana and Papa with the big kiddos

This beach trip was to celebrate Nana's birthday, so each of the grandkids helped to make her a special birthday card.

Oh the fun - Part 2

Brookston got really into the boogie board in the last couple days. I didn't have my camera out on the day he was actually catching waves...but boy did he have some fun!

Kaisley sure was striking some poses!

Sutton had SO MUCH FUN! In both the sand and the water. He didn't really eat much sand, thank goodness, but he sure did play in it. And he loved the tide where the waves rolled in. When a wave came in that was a little too big, I would swoop him up and boy would he get MAD!!! lol!

Oh the fun - Part 1

ARG Matey! Here's were the pirate treasure is burried!!!! Go around the turtle and "x" marks the spot...treasure is burried here!

Aunt Kristi showing the kids the treasure map

Digging for treasure!

Brookston found a boat!

Kaisley enjoying the water with daddy!

Jumping waves

I love this one!

Baby feet in the sand

Aunt Kristi and Sutton exploring the water!

Rain at the beach

Our trip started off with some rain. Luckily it was on and off, so we made the best of it. We were outside when the weather cleared and we took a few walks in the rain, which turned out to be quite a bit of fun!

This was from our first beach walk. It was only raining a little bit, so the kids had fun. Our second beach walk in the rain, the sky opened up on us, so we have no pictures from that walk. We were down by the playground, which was 1.3 miles from our house and decided to walk home. The minute Nana and Papa drove off, the rain started...and fast. But with the intense rain, I got Brookston to run a large majority of it home. I was very proud of his run!

Inside fun!

Sutton playing with Uncle Adam

Ahhhh, my little loves!

Kaisley took a little time to warm up to the water

Brookston's favorite non water activity...throwing shells in the water

Daddy and his kiddos

Where to start??

In mid September, I flew up to North Carolina with just Kaisley and Sutton. A lot went into the decision, but Brookston and Richard stayed back home for a week for work and school, while I enjoyed getting together with some friends from college and a pregnancy buddy I met back in 2008.

The flight up there went amazingly well. The first flight both Kaisley and Sutton were entertained almost exclusively with no toys. Between the excitement of the plane, the drinks and snacks and just, well, nothing, neither of them had a problem on the first flight. The second flight Sutton fell asleep before we even took off. Which was a big blessing. I could have seen this flight being a disaster if Sutton was cranky and that meant Kaisley got little to no attention. Instead a sleeping baby meant one on one time for Kaisley, the entire time.

While in NC, I was able to visit my two best friends from college. One had a little boy very close to Kaisley's age. So they had a blast. And they both had babies, that I had not yet met!

Here we are with our kiddos (just missing my buddy, Brookston).

Kaisley and her new buddy!

Nana and Kaisley making muffins!

Then we headed to one of our favorite children's museums! LOVE this place! And I was so happy that my friend, her husband, and her two kids could join us. Along with my mom's friend and her grandson. So, we had 3 two year olds and two babies!

Somehow I had never seen this baby area...Sutton and his friend had a blast!

It was a totally different experience being at the museum this time. Last time, Brookston was about 2 1/2, Kaisley was 7 months. This time Kaisley was 2 1/2 and Sutton was 10 months. Brookston plays very different than Kaisley. Where Brookston could spend 2 hours in just one area of this huge museum, Kaisley hit the entire thing (at least all she wanted to of it) in less than 2 hours!

Our next stop was the beach...this however will take a while to organize...I think I took over 200 pictures in 6 days!