Lazy Days of Summer

Nothing too exciting is going on over here. We are just enjoying watching our girls grow and enjoying their summer.

Brooke is enjoying her exersaucer more and more these days.
We pulled out the high-chair. She's still a little unsteady in it since she can't sit by herself, so we are back to using the Bumbo to feed her. We also tried these neat little feeders. I stuck a slice of a peach in it and she LOVED it. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to clean them well.

Kayla and Macy enjoyed playing in the new pool with the squirting giraffe. Hopefully soon our schedule will coordinate with the rain schedule so we can have some more fun with it. It's just too darn hot to go out in the middle of the day and play even in the water!

Brooke enjoying her first taste of apple juice. She can't quite figure out how to work the sippy cup yet, but I'm sure she will soon.

Not much else has been going on. The girls had dance camp this week, but I have no pictures since I didn't hang around. School starts in a few weeks and Kayla is beyond thrilled. I'm excited for her too. I'm sure she will love it and I will love that she only goes 2 days a week and I can teach her on the other days. I'm excited about that too. We've been doing a lot of searching and decision making on the house-building front. We have a couple great neighborhoods we are targeting and a couple great floorplans we are tweaking with. We don't plan on doing anything until the first part of next year, but we are having fun starting to figure things out.

I Love My Family!

Swim Lessons and Found Camera

You'll never guess what happened. Remember the camera that was stolen a month ago? I had hung my bag in a tall locker while changing the girls after swim practice and then walked out without my bag. A day and a half later I went to get it and it was gone. I checked EVERY tall locker, lost and found, and we talked to the management. The lockers are cleaned out every night by maintenance and no one found it. Well 2 days ago we get a call from management and someone had found my bag in a locker and turned it it because they thought it had been left there. Kind of suspicious how it turned up after a month, but everything was still in the bag. So strange! So without any further ado, here are pictures from the last day of swim lessons (taken from the other side of a glass wall).

Kayla practicing putting her head under water. She's much less timid about it now.
The beginning of the end of potty training. This was the first time she told anyone she had to go potty. I'm not sure if she really told the instructor or if the instructor couldn't understand her little 3 year old language.

Practicing swimming.

The last 2 day of class Macy cried towards the end. This was really unlike her, so I asked the instructor about it. She said she pushed the kids a little those days and it was just too much for Macy. She still loves swimming, so no scars were left.

I'm so glad that all of our things were returned. We have since bought a new camera (which i LOVE) so I guess we'll be selling the old one sometime soon.

Tea Party

Last week my aunts and uncles were in town. We had a ladies day one afternoon with lunch at Tea Leaves and Thyme and then some shopping. The girls LOVE Tea Leaves and Thyme because they can dress up. They (especially Macy) insisted on all of us wearing a hat for a picture. I'm not a big fan of putting a random hat on my head that has gone on who knows how many heads, but I took one for the team. haha The food was so yummy. I'm sure it won't be long before Kayla asks to go back again.

Mercier Orchards

While we were in Blue Ridge we decided to take a trip to Mercier Orchards and pick some blueberries. First we took a tractor ride around the orchards. The kids enjoyed that and we learned a lot of interesting information.

They had such a good time picking blueberries, and Macy had a great time eating blueberries. I can't blame her, they were wonderful!

For lunch we ate at the deli inside the orchard store. We sampled some wonderful juices, and bought a few yummy goodies to bring home. Macy was tired and found a nice little ride.

We enjoyed our visit and are looking forward to returning in the fall to pick apples! YUM!

Geocaching: Attempt 3

(Somehow I added this to the wrong post. This goes with attempt #2)

Next we headed to downtown Blue Ridge and searched out another one.

This time we found it! The kids were so excited to have found one!

They took a look at the goodies and really wanted to keep a couple. Unfortunately since this was a last minute plan we didn't take any little things to leave in their place. Kayla signed the book and we placed it back where we found it. SUCCESS #1

Geocaching: Attempts 1 and 2

So today when we were trying to think of something fun today I remembered about geocaching. We have never done this before and thought it might be fun. Marc's brother, Dave, quickly added an application to his phone and we were off. Our first adventure took us down a long gravel road, past some pretty scenery, to a dead end. FAIL #1.

Attempt #2 took us to the side of a road where we pulled over and hopped out. Couldn't find anything. FAIL #2.

A Splashin' Good Time

Friday night we drove to a couple of parks to try and find something fun to do. The girls found a couple of ducks and a small playground at the first park, but the second park held something much more exciting...
WATER!!

Even Brooke got in on the fun, although she wasn't really sure what to think of the freezing cold water.

Hiking to Fall Branch Falls

Friday morning we decided to take a little hike to see a waterfall. The girls had a great time exploring on our way up. On the way back down a couple of fighter jets flew right overhead and Kayla so much she screamed and started crying. It was really loud.

A Cabin in the Woods

One of Marc's co-workers graciously loaned us his cabin outside of Blue Ridge for the weekend. Marc's brother, three of his children, and Marc's parents joined us for a few days to celebrate his parents' 40th wedding anniversary. We've had a fun time exploring the area. These are a couple of pictures of our view. The only down side to staying here is that on the first night the girls slept on an air mattress in the basement, right outside of our room. The whole back side of the house is windows so they woke up bright and early - literally. That wasn't too fun, especially after not getting to bed until about 10:30 the night before. We learned and they slept in the bedroom with me last night and Marc took the air mattress.

Yum! Yum!

We gave Brooke her first taste of watermelon this weekend. It's safe to say she LOVED it. She gnawed on the piece until it was too small for me to safely hold. She had another piece the next day and gobbled it up too.

Macy's 3 Year Pictures

Kayla's 5 Year Pictures

We finally got around to taking some pictures of the girls. We usually take them somewhere each year, but with our new camera we thought we'd see what we could get on our own. The timing of the day wasn't the best, so all of the pictures that turned out were taken in the shade, but I think we got some really cute ones.