Family Reunion 2007

We had our family reunion back in August the weekend that We came back from the obx. I told you I was behind on posting pics. Anyway here are some pics of the family at the reunion. I think that Shayna has actually gotten bigger since that picture of her playing football was taken. :)

More OBX Pics

I am so far behind at posting pics from our vacation. Here are the ones that we took right before we left the cottage that we were staying in. We did alot on our vacation at the obx. We went to Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Bodie Lighthouse, Elizbethan Gardens, Aquarium, and of course we visited the local Wal-Mart. :) It just isn't vacation if you don't visit the local Wally World. I have posted some other pics from the obx on my myspace page.

Sunday Sight Seeing

On Sunday we went to the Wright Brothers Museum and Memorial. The cottage that we stayed in was right across the street from the memorial and I tried to post the pic showing you the roof but it seemed to have problems loading. After we left there we went to Jockey's Ridge which is one of the largest sand dunes. Cody was the only one that did not walk to the top of the dune. For he was having difficulty walking. He had stubbed his toe on Samie's heel. From what the travel guide said the sand dune is half the height of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. And it was like walking in the desert with all of the sand. At the top you could see the ocean and the sound side of the peninsula. And the breeze was really nice. They say anyone could fly a kite on the dune because of the winds. We didn't have a kite or we would have done that too. We did go to Kitty Hawk Kites after though. I will post pics from Monday tomorrow.

Back From the Outer Banks!!!!

We just got back from the OBX yesterday. I tried to get back online while on vacation to update blog and I couldn't. So I will have to post several different posts to get caught up from our trip. We had a lot of fun the weather was nice for the whole week we were there. The kids got to ride their bikes and swim in the ocean. I will post more pics and tell a little about our trip over the next few days. I am glad to be home though. We came home yesterday and we had our family reunion today, so I will also be posting some family pics from that.
Let me tell you about the pics above. These are from the beach on Saturday after we arrived at the OBX. On this day the waves were extremely rough. They ended up taking me and Casey under twice right in a row. I didn't think that Casey would go back in the water after this, but she ended up being a real trooper and began to love the ocean. The last time we were at the beach was for my mom's 50th birthday and that was in February a couple of years ago. The time before that Casey was only 6 months old so she has never experienced the waves of the ocean before. And I tried to tell her that the waves were stronger the first day we went than they normally are. By the last day at the beach she was riding the waves on the boogey board like a pro. :)
Since the waves were so strong on Saturday the kids decided to play in the sand and Samie made Casey and Caitlin into little sand mermaids. They attempted to make sand castles but that didn't last long.

Vacation Finally

Well, we are now on vacation. We drove to the Outer Banks today. It was suppose to be just an 8 hour trip but it ended up taking us 12 hours. First off we stopped in Wytheville Va to check the oil in the truck(this is just 40 min. from our house) Once Eric got out of the Suburban and we ended up having a flat tire. So off to Walmart we went. We were there for 2 1/2 hours getting 4 new tires and getting the oil changed. By that time we were all starving to death. So we stopped at Shoney's to eat. So by the time we got on the road it was something till 11am. We started out at 6:20am.
Now I have never been to the outer banks so I printed directions from mapquest and I borrowed my brothers gps. Well they didn't agree on part of the trip and we went by what the gps had. MISTAKE!!!!!! It took us off of the main highway and through 2 towns. Which ended up being 25 miles more than what mapquest had. While traveling through the first town it started to pour the rain and lightning. We then crossed a bridge which looked like was over the ocean. As we were crossing the bridge you could see the lightning hitting the water. It was cool looking but to think about us being over the water during that was kinda scary.
Any way we will be back before the reunion and I will hopefully be posting as the week goes by.

On a totally different note: I am asking for everyones prayers again. My aunt Norma (Nunu) isn't feeling too good and is back in the hospital. Her blood count was low and she had to be given 2 more pints of blood (she just had 2 last Friday) and her white blood cells are extremely low and she has been put on reverse isolation until they come back up. So everyone going to see her has to wear a mask. On top of all of that she has been sick and in lots of pain. So I just ask that you pray that the Lord will give her comfort from the pain, and build her blood cells back up and give her the strength that she needs to get through this difficult time. Thanks.

Casey rides her bike without training wheels

Today we went to my mom's place and took the kids to ride their bikes. Where my mom lives it is flat and has a paved road all the way around the trailer park. Plus Casey has been wanting to try to ride her bike without the training wheels. So we took the one from downstairs that didn't have the extra wheels on it and figured we would let her try. We had originally thought about going to the park but my bike was already at my moms so we just decided that we would go there instead. As you can see from the pictures, it didn't take Casey long to learn. She was a little wobbly at first but she seemed to get the hang of it pretty fast. She did have some trouble getting started but after a while she became better at that also. We ended up going around the trailer park 3 times because she was having so much fun. Twice around is a mile. So she did pretty good. I also video taped it and she made sure that I showed everyone that she could ride her bike without training wheels.
They just grow up way too fast, next she will be asking for the keys to the car.

Dollywood

As I mentioned earlier, here are some of the pics from Dollywood. Since it did rain, I didn't want to get my camera wet. So maybe next time I will get more pics.

Gaitlinburg Trip

This past week our family went to Gaitlinburg for a mini vacation. It was us minus Samie, my brother and his family, my cousin Sheryl and her husband Matthew, My mom, and my aunt Norma (nunu). We went down on Monday and came back on Thursday. While we were there, my uncle Larry and his family came up to spend time with us and Norma. We stayed in a cabin that slept 22 people, it was so nice, we all had king size beds and a bathroom of our own with a jacuzzi tub in each bedroom, and we had a hot tub and pool table. Here are some of the pictures I took down there. The only pictures I got of the inside of the cabin are the kids in the jacuzzi tub taking a bubble bath. The fog scene is from the night that we got there and from the middle balcony. I did take some pics of the neighboring cabins to show you sort of what the cabins looked like on the back side. We went to Cooters in Gaitlinburg on Tuesday. For those of you who haven't been there it is a small museum of the Dukes of Hazzard. I just loved that show growing up. I liked those good ol' Duke boys. :) I got a pic of all of us with the General Lee. Cody didn't want to go with us that day. Samie had to stay home because she had been bitten by her cat and had blood poisoning real bad. She was having to get IV antibiotics twice a day. So needless to say, I am glad that she got to go to Pigeon Forge the week before with her mom and grandma.
We had all went to Dollywood on Wednesday, but we ended up getting rained out before we got to ride any rides. We rode the rapids ride and drove the cars and then it started to thunder and lightnin, so they shut all the rides down. I will post the pics from that later today. So we ended up getting rain checks and are planning on returning in December to use the tickets. We want to see the lights at Christmas time.
Norma did pretty good on the trip, she got a little tired but she didn't get sick and she said that she enjoyed the fact that she got away from the phone ringing all the time. She then had to have her chemo treatment on Friday. So I just ask that you continue to keep her in your prayers.

Casey's Toothless!!!!

Now as you may remember from a previous post, Casey has been babying this last front tooth. Well, this past Saturday it finally got so loose that when she talked it would move. You could even turn it halfway to the right or left. So we went to my brother and sister in laws house on Saturday for a cookout. Well I told Casey that the tooth was coming out before we went swimming or anything. That me and her would stay in the car until we got it out. I was mostly afraid that she might knock it out and swallow it. For it was that loose. Anyway, she would scream and cry when you touched the tooth. So I tried to get her to do it herself. Not gonna happen. So I just kept wiggling it back and forth and side to side. Her fighting the whole time. So finally I got a paper towel and I used it to hold on to her tooth and wiggled it some more. Then I got a good grip and pulled straight down, and at that time I heard a pop. Her tooth was finally out. After I did it Casey asked "Did you get it out?" in a crying tone. It was bleeding a little so I told her to just drink some juice and that I did get the tooth out.
She ended up swimming the whole time we were there. Until the sun went down. She slept so good though. :) And the tooth fairy left her $3. Which she took to the candy store the next morning.

Happy Late 4th of July

Happy Late 4th of July!!!! The top picture was taken right before we went to see the fireworks. Sheryl did the honors of taking the pic for me. This is at my brothers house. The ones of the girls with the sparklers were at the parking lot that we went to to watch the fireworks. And let me tell you, it was great. We were on top of the roof of Eric's Suburban and we had to lay down to see them because they were right above us. The picture of the fireworks is when the finale started and I was laying down looking up. I hope that everyone enjoyed their 4th of July and that they got to spend it with family. We did have a family get together and had lots of food. :)