Girls Night Out

Last night Katie, Nana, and I went to a Red Sox game and we had so much fun together! John and Zach had to stay home because of soccer so they kept Aaron with them so we could go out with just the girls!

We took the T in and we got there early enough that the train was pretty empty.

Our seats were out in the right Field Bleachers so not to close but we could see the whole field so it was good to watch the game.

Like always Katie danced most of the night and keep everyone around us entertained.

It was Katie's lucky night and she was given some pretty cool gifts. When we walked into the Ball Park one of the ticket scanner guys gave her a base ball card. Later in the game a very nice man came up with this balloon baseball cap and didn't want to keep it so he gave it to Katie, she was the center of attention when we were walking back to the T stop. She was also given a small Red Sox cap used as a bowl by a man sitting in front of us, Katie wants to use it for a doll hat. It was a great night out with just us girls. Thanks Dad for letting us go!

Weathering The Storm

With Hurricane Irene's path set to come right over our area we spent some time getting prepared for the worst but praying for the best.

We spent Saturday getting the house ready for the strong winds. We took all of the toys and bikes and stored them in our shed behind our house and mowed the lawn to be sure that there no large sticks in the yard. As we were finishing up it started to pour down rain.

Sunday my sister Susan can over to spend the day with us and wait for the storm to pass. With the rain and wind outside our TV didn't work well most of the day so we played games with the kids and had a blast.

We were blessed with not having our power go out and we only had a couple trees that are in the woods behind us break off from the top. We had quite a few sticks and branches and leaves around the yard but for the most part we came out untouched from the storm, it also helped that the storm turned into a Tropical Storm so the wind was not as strong once it got to us.

Aaron couldn't wait for it to stop raining to clean up, so he put on his jacket and went out with his rake and wheelbarrow.

By late afternoon the storm had pasted and all of the boys went out to clean up and help out the neighbor who had a large tree branch across his driveway.

After dinner the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful summer evening. We are thankful to come out on the good side of such a terrible storm and pray for all of those who are having to deal with the aftermath of it.

Six Flags

We spent one of our vacation days at Six Flags but so did everyone else in the area being that is was the first sunny day of the week so there were tons of people there.


The kids are now big enough to get on some of the adult rides so John went on the new one with Zach and Katie while I stayed with Aaron.

All 3 of the kids still love to go on the kids rides as well and this is one of their favorites!

Katie loves to put her head into the sharks mouth so she couldn't pass up the chance when she saw this one.

We ended our day by watching a show and John ended up being picked to dance with Daffy Duck and he had to dress up as Beyonce. He did a great job and everyone really enjoyed watching dad up on stage. We had a great day together and can't wait to go again next year!

Beach Day

Last week John had a vacation week off from work so we stayed home and did some local things. We spent one day at the beach and had a blast.

The kids love to go to the ocean and John got this great shot of Katie jumping over the waves.

Aaron mostly stays on land and plays in the sand.

Zach found a hole in the sand so they all got inside and buried themselves. We had a great day and can't wait to come back again before the end of the summer.

New Hang Out

Johns parents moved to a new home this summer and is down the street from a nice residents only beach and the kids love it.

The lake is so warm you don't ever want to get out once you are in.

The neighbors have a couple kayaks they let us use and it was fun hanging out on the lake we even got Aaron to go out for a while.

The kids have a fun time swimming out to the dock.

This is from our first family meal together it was a great day.

OH MY BEE'S

A couple weeks ago we were on our back deck and noticed there were a lot of bee's around so John went to check it out. In the mean time Aaron who was standing outside with him came back into the house and started to scream. We noticed that he had a bee sting on his arm while I was checking him out he started to scream again but pointed to his side this time. I pulled his shirt off and a bee flew out. So in about 15 seconds he got 2 bee sting.

Later that night we were making dinner on the grill when Aaron stepped out the back door and within about 20 seconds he was stung again! Poor guy 3 in one day how could that happen. John went to look again and found 5 small bee's nests under our stairs.

A week later we were out in the back again when John and Aaron were attacked by a swarm of bees again both of them getting stung 3 time. John found another nest under our ramp to the shed. We are so glad that Aaron didn't have a reaction with all of those bee stings. We are hoping that we are now done with the bee's for this year and we will have to be better at watching for them next summer.

Free Zoo Day

During the summer the State has a free Friday program where many places are free to get into and we decided to go even though it was a hot humid day.

We had a good time walking around trying to find all of the animals who were hiding in the shade so it was a challenge most of the time.

We were able to see the lion sleeping under a rock but he never even picked up his head.

The kids got tired pretty fast so we didn't get to see all of the animals .

We had a fun day together and that's what matters most.

Final Stop Tennessee !!

Our final stop and the reason we came on this family trip is to Powell TN where my oldest sister Cathy lives. My oldest niece Emily was graduating from High School so we wanted to make sure we were there to celebrate with her.

We were able to take a few days of rest once we got there, so we mostly just hung out together and the kids played in there toy room. We did go out to a park one day and the kids had a blast.

Our last day in TN we went to the graduation and it was so exciting to hear Emily's name called!!

We had so much fun and it was a nice visit with our family but we had a long 16 hour car ride back home. We had a wonderful vacation, we saw and did so many new things. We can't wait to do it again!!

Day 4 Museum Afternoon

After our much needed lunch break we went to 2 more museums. We started at the American History Museum.

Katie and I were very excited when we found the red slippers from the Wizard of Oz .

We also saw a huge doll house that was all hand made, it was amazing how many rooms were in this one house even the rooms were wired with lights.

After walking around for a while and leaning a bunch about our history we walked down the street to the Natural History Museum.

As we walked in there was a huge elephant pretty cool!
The animals were so real looking it was so cool to see them up close.
In the sea world part we found the skeleton of a huge sea turtle.

Katie got pretty close to a shark and thought she was so funny!

Aaron had fun looking into the kangaroo's pouch. So much to see in one place so amazing. To finish up we went to another 3D movie this time we found out about Dinosaurs it was pretty cool.

Just down the street was the Capital Building so we made a quick stop to take a picture.

This is the end of our time here in DC but we had so much fun while we were here. There is so much to do and see it's amazing. From here we drive to our Final stop in Powell TN, we can't wait to see our family and take a much needed rest from traveling.