Monday morning was No-Bo's morning. He actually wanted LC to come with us, but I insisted that he have his time so he would be swayed to do what his big brother wanted. I love this kid and taking pictures of him. He is just beautiful!
Last year at the beach I woke L.C. up early to see the sun rise. He really loved it and asked to do that again this year. Even though my eyes are barely open it is so neat spending time with just my big boy. We spent a couple of hours walking up and down the beach in search of cool ocean wash ups. I loved watching him explore and have this time all to himself. He is such a smart kid and absolutely loves exploring and anything science related. This is just on of the 8 horseshoe crabs that we saw "stuck together". I guess it is mating season for these creatures.
We made it to Edisto! After many, many, many hours in the car (it should only be a 5-6 hour trip) we arrived at Edisto Island for the week. For some odd reason all of our children have decided to potty train on our beach trips, and this was no exception. Both Pipi and JJ stayed dry the whole trip-yea! This was the reason for many of our stops. I really hate this potty training business, and doing it with two takes forever. We have discovered that it is much easier just to stop on the side of the road and have them go rather than finding a bathroom (usually yucky) and lining the seat with toilet paper. I guess in the long run it pays off when we won't have to buy diapers for two. After a quick supper we headed for a look at the ocean. These little ones were a little unsure at first, but they quickly warmed up to the idea.
Here is my monkey! I caught Pipi climbing from her crib into J.J.'s! She started doing it a couple of months ago, so we moved their cribs further apart. As you can see that did not stop her. She is quite the climber and can climb completely out of her crib without making a sound. I guess we need to move to a big bed soon!
The big boys took swimming lessons this week at the local pool. L.C. did a great job swimming across the pool and working on different strokes. No-Bo was really comfortable going under water, and got to play a lot with his instructor. We lucked out and they were the only two kids signed up for the week, so they each had their own instructor!
Here we are at the Lakemont. As if playing in the creek at the cabin isn't enough. They love to swim in this lake. Don't you just love the goggles. I wish I looked as cut in mine. J.J. is actually doing a belly flop into the water which he did over and over and hit the bottom each time with his belly. No-Bo looks really brave jumping into this foot deep water, and Pipi didn't want to get too wet!
We went to pick strawberries at a local u-pick farm. We were lucky to get in because apparently it is past season and they had closed. A really nice man let us in, and then gave us our strawberries. We ended up with four gallons! The kids loved it and they were really good. J.J. had the best time, and kept taking a bite of the strawberries and then putting them in his basket. Needless to say we had to weed through his bunch!
Here is a picture of my favorite man using a power tool! The main reason for our visit to Pickens was so Jeff could help is Dad work on the cabin. They worked all week putting up new siding and rock for the front. It looks great so far, but I can't wait to see the finished product.
Here is the back of the cabin with only a couple little places that need to be done. Today I took all the kids and meet some friends at the zoo in Greenville. Fortunately they did not keep any of my monkeys. I forgot my camera to take pictures of the day, but it was kind of nice just to walk around and not feel like I had to take pictures.
The best part about going to Pickens it getting to play in the waterfall/creek at Papa and Nana's cabin. We tried this several times before we were able to capture the water looking like a solid sheet. The water was freezing, but somehow L.C. was able to keep pouring buckets of water on his head!
Okay I have gotten way behind on my blog, so I am going back in time to update it. We have been on the go so much in June. I think we spent one week out of the month at home. We left Huntsville and headed back to Chattanooga to take the kids there. Like I said before, we really like Chattanooga, and there is so much to see and do there. We decided on Ruby Falls since it was underground and would be cool. I think the temps we in the 90's, so nothing anything outside would have been really hot! It was a neat walk in the "cave" as the boys said and the falls were also neat to see. After this adventure we headed back home for a few days.
We had a great visit with Daddy Jim. We all went to the space and rocket museum for the day. It was a hot one, but I think we were able to take in most of the sight and ride the rides. It was so nice to spend time with my dad before he headed back to Iraq.
We just did some hiking today, and walked downtown some. Probably the greatest thing about this weekend is the sleeping in. I mean you would think that we were still in college as late as we slept. It has been such a long time and it will be another long time until we get to sleep that late again!
To celebrate our 10th anniversary we decided to go to Chattanooga for the weekend. My parents and sister watched the kids for us and we headed out Friday afternoon. We love Chattanooga and would seriously consider moving there! It is such a neat city with so much to do. We decided that we did not want to do anything that we wanted to take the kids to do. They had there river fest all week that started this weekend, so we got to listen to music (from outside the fence though). This picture is one of the many cool pieces of artwork that is all over downtown. If you haven't been, I highly recommend going.
This is just another neat piece of art along the river.
Meet "Baby Kitten" as we like to call her. About a month ago our cat Lena had a baby kitten. That's right just one. I think that I got home right after Lena had her in our garage, and I keep looking and waiting for more to come. Cody was right there in the garage with her, and at one point he went over and laid down beside her and put his paw across her belly like he was protecting her (I love that dog)! We weren't even positive she was pregnant until she had this kitten! Lena isn't even a year old herself. Anyway we have not officially decided to keep her, and have not come up with a name. She is just precious though, and I am not even a cat person.
Our other new friend is this crazy butterfly. I was mowing the grass yesterday, and this butterfly keep landing on me. It landed on my hand and stayed there while I went down and back in the yard. I then walk over to our front door and yelled for L.C. and No-Bo to come and look. We were able to get the butterfly from my hand to L.C.'s, then it flew up to his ear for a while. I took several pictures. It finally had enough when we tried to get it to No-Bo's hand. It did however land back on me when I went back to mowing. I guess that I am the sweetest!
These kids love popsicles! They are always opening the freezer trying to get into them!
JJ is working so hard to get it out.
Here are the boys on the driveway trying to warm up!
