Trip to North Carolina

We started our drive after Derek got off of work and we had plans to drive as far as we could until we got tired. So we made it to Virgina after driving through downpours of it rain and a couple different detours around 2:30 in the morning. This point the kids were all asleep but as soon as we stopped at the hotel for the night, all the kids woke up and wanted to know if we were at the beach. After a good nights rest we head out again and only had a few hours to go. We saw lots of mountains in the morning and here are so pictures. My favorite picture is of the Runaway Truck Ramps!

 The kids entertaining themselves with movies and DS. I also packed each kid a bag full of goodies, candy, and a few small toys. They loved it and kept them busy for a while. The kids were so good on the drive down and back. It really surprised me, there was no whinning!!

 We arrived around noon to the hotel. The kids loved it! We had 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and then a sleeper sofa and a full kitchen. We stayed at Tiffany's Motel at Topsail Beach. We was so much fun!

 This was the first night and we went out for dinner.

 After dinner I wanted to take some pics of the kids outside the resturant. There was a outside terrace to eat but it led down to the beach. The kids had fun making funny faces.

 Except Mekie, she always has such a pretty smile!

 They were so excited to get in the water! This was Ash and Mekie's first time seeing the ocean!

 Before we headed to the beach, I told the kids to be careful not to go too far out in the water and explained the tide to them. Ash was too scared to even go in the water and Mekie took of running and Derek had to go after her! In one ear and out the other with her.

 Ash and Ethan stayed up on the beach for a while and collected sea shells. We had quite the collection by the end of our trip. We even had a few snails.

 After a day everyone had warmed up to the water and loved it. We were there all day some days and they never asked to go back to the hotel.

Ethan loved having daddy cover his feet up with sand.

More Fun Times in May...

 We had a new addition to our family. Derek's brother and his wife Kari had a little boy named Lucas. So for fun I had to take some pictures. Mekie just loves real babies. Over the past year she had no idea how to play with a baby doll but now she carries them all over! But when there is a real baby she gets so excited. She thought she was big stuff when she got to hold Lucas!

 On Memorial Day Weekend, we went camping with my brother, his wife, and my grandparents. My dad also stopped in! My brother and his wife (Tyler and Elissa) bought the kids kites. That kept them entertained for a while. We had a few kites escape that we had to chase down, some got tangled, and just flew with no problems!

 Tyler and Elissa also got the kids water balloons. That is Elissa below handing out the balloons.

 We started out close and then moved farther back. They all did pretty good but had fun when they got wet!

 Then we took the water balloons and tossed them over the raquet ball net. That did not turn out so good. It was a good idea but too hard.

 Ethan loves his John Deere tractor. He likes to help daddy mow! But his tractor always goes too slow and runs out of gas!!

I think that is it for May...now onto June. I will catch up some day I know it. I have a full week at home and I had minor foot surgery this morning so been on  the couch all day. So I know the next few days I should get more pictures up!

Garrett's 7th Birthday

 I asked what Garrett what he wanted to do for his birthday and he wanted a PJ party! So that's what we did. We asked the guests to wear their PJ's but it turned out that just my kids wore their PJ's. But we still had so much fun.

 Garrett got lots of great toys that he wanted.

 Garrett putting together his legos. He worked on them all by himself and finished them in a day and a half! I was pretty impressed!

Then Addison and our Miss Mekdes!

Well Happy Birthday Garrett! I can't believe you are 7 all ready.  I so wish they could slow down growing!!!!

Pictures from May

Still finding Mekie and Ethan sneaking into each others' rooms. And if you look closely at the picture you will find their hands together!

For Mother's Day we had doughnuts and we all built a birdbath with mosaic tiles. It turned out so good and it's in my flower bed.

Ash's graduation from Preschool. Now onto Kindergarten. Today is actually his first day of school. I can't wait to post pics from today. It was so sad to see my big boys off. Didn't think I would cry, but I did!

Mekie watching Ash graduate. It will be her turn next year!

Baseball

Garrett had a great season! He was hitting off a pitching machine this year. From the first game to the last was a huge improvement. Every year gets more interesting to watch! It is so fun to see how every year he improves catching and hitting!

Daddy giving him a pep-talk before he hits!

Ash was not so sure about playing baseball this year but by the end he loved it. He was such a great hitter and has a rocket arm! He improved so much over the year. He didn't even know how to stand to hit a ball and by the end he was crushing the ball! Way to go Ash.

Mekie posing for the camera. As you can tell, Mekie had no care about baseball but had so much fun picking me bouqets. Thank you Mekie for all my pretty flowers this season!

Great job boys this year! Can't wait to see you play next year!