Summer Vacation 2007 (it's been 18 days since my last post and BOY, this is a long one...get cozy!)

THE LONG DRIVE

TO GULF SHORES, ALABAMA

So here's the dude that did the drivin'. What a great husband to not make me drive at ALL (except for about 2 hours at the end). Doesnt he look serious? It's like he's on a mission and he's not stoppin till he accomplishes it.

Here's the passanger that had to mediate between the other passangers to make sure no one killed anyone else during the long drive.

This is Miah's way of telling us, "I've had enough, leave me alone!"

What?? What's this? A rare photo of the two lion cubs sharing??? It must be a mirage.






THE FIRST DAY

Of course we ran staight to the beach on the morning of the first day, wouldn't you? I made Kora into a hot 'n' spicy little mermaid.

The best part about being a mermaid is getting out of those mermaid fins, man the sweat that accumulates in those has got to be chaffing.

Here's a sex pot laying out on the beach...OH WAIT, that's Austin.

You can also see Unka (uncle) Enos and Jake in the background too!

Has Lauren's mommy ever told you how much she hates "sticky"? Well, I think Lauren has inherited that hate for the "sticky" too.

Anytime Amy gets a hold of my regular Joe camera, the pictures seem to take on a whole new outcome. How does that happen? How am I not able to do that same thing?? Does this not look like a professional photograph to you, because it does to me!

I would have to say that Lauren and Miah are the best of buddies...even though they like to hit and push and steal toys from one another. I think all of those things make them grow closer to each other, really...I'm being serious.

After a full day on the beach Austin and I can get to lookin pretty rugged, huh?

But we clean up well!!

The next few pics are of ALL of us cleaning up to go to dinner on the first night.

Kora got ready faster than anyone so she took a moment to sit and read about sharks.

Don't Ni (lindsay) and Aidan look nice and clean and ready to chow?

Kora did SO many things the first day, she wore herself completely out by dinner time and fell asleep just like this on the table. Doesn't she look precious?

It was good while it lasted but it didn't last long, not so precious anymore, huh?

When we got home from dinner, our neighbors gave us a pail 'o' crabs they had hunted while we were gone. (we stayed in a duplex home on the beach and they were on the other half of the duplex. Kora was pretty scared of the crabs but she still said that one was hers and even named it.

Let me introduce you to Zack (jake's crab) and Bow-dee (kora's crab).

MORE BEACH DAYS...MORE FUN

It didn't take Miah long to start lovin the water. He was especially fond of this float that he would "bob" in while we were all swimming and laying out. This was all good until one day when he slipped through and found himself at the bottom of the pool. Thanks to his great big brother, he was quickly rescued and he went back to happily "bobbing".

Here's MiMi with her two babies!!!

I think Amy did a wonderful job at balancing the two babies back and forth each day in between naps, feedings, diaper changes, crying and so forth. I didn't even see her complain, not once and that's more than I can say for myself when my babies were that little!!

Enos decided to try out Aidans baby tent while we were there. It was a tad too small.

This is Kora imitating me as she pours the bronzer into her hands...

...and then applies generously all over the body.

What a sweet father daughter picture!

This was the usual scene in the living room. The boys were gamers playing the wii for the majority of the time that wasn't spent beaching, swimming or golfing.

Lauren was so precious on the trip. I think she loved being around everyone each day!




KORA'S PHOTOSHOOT

One evening while we were waiting for our table at a restaurant, Kora decided to take my camera and have her own photoshoot. Some of us she asked to make silly faces. These are her pictures!

I know this is blurry, but come on...I had to put it up!!

Even Aidan participated in the fun!

Isn't this precious?

Come on Ni!! Make a silly face!!

Kora chose a select few to have her picture taken WITH them.

Wait...Miah was in her select few?

So she really DOES love him!!




JUST A FEW MORE GOOD ONES I WANNA SHARE

Here's Jake hangin on to a pirate ship!

I know Amy already did this one but it was MY idea!

Brown boy holding a white baby

White girl holding a brown baby

I love this family picture. We took it at a restaurant called Lamberts. It was SO much fun because they actually THROW rolls at you. They also did a lot of pranks on us and had us laughing for most of the time. Go to http://www.throwedrolls.com/ to check it out!

Here's a sweet pic of Ni and Enos!

Hold up...David was on vacation with us?

I'm just kidding David! (how did you manage to avoid every photo op?)

Let's end with this one. My sweet father and mother, a.k.a. MawMaw and PawPaw.

Thanks for everything you did for us on the trip! I love you both!

What's This? Pictures? NO WAY!!!

So I found some pictures on my mom's camera and decided to steal them to use on my blog. I was beginning to feel like my viewers were getting bored just reading my stories. Sorry to use them all up in one post, but I couldn't wait! Please EnJoY!

This is the bounce house/water slide/swimming pool that my dad bought for the kids this Summer. They LOVE LOVE LOVE playing on it and their favorite thing to do is climb UP the slippery slide which can become quite a mission as you can see Kora hanging on for dear life at the top. Miah is scared of the whole thing, but we managed to thrown him down the slide about 20-30 times to get him used to it (it didn't work). He WILL of course use the water guns to spray Jake and Kora, just make sure the water doesn't touch HIM.

Here's Jake and Kora right after their performance at CATS. They took a two week class and each worked on different performances which they did for all the families on Friday, June 22nd. Jake's show was called The Wonderful World of Wilbur which was like a part 2 of Charlotte's Web. Jake played the part of Wilbur which would explain the pink little number he's sportin. He did a fantastic job and remembered all his lines. He was the only boy in his class, but it didn't bother him a bit. Kora's show was called Fairy Tale Travels and they made up a story about Princesses, Fairies, Witches and Princes. Her whole class was made up of about 13 girls and EVERY single girl wanted to be one of the Princesses. On the day the teacher assigned the roles, all the little girls came out crying to their mom's saying that they wanted to be the Princess. The teacher was trying to explain to all the girls that not everyone could be a Princess and there were only 3 princess parts. Well, Kora comes out of class with this straight face looking all mad and says to me in a angry voice, " I'm princess number three, but I wanna be the dragon!" Leave it to MY child to complain about the part that everyone desires! The day of the show, she kept telling me that Mr. Gordon (the teacher) told her to wear a dragon costume to the show and to wear dragon makeup. It was funny because she was so serious and would have really come as a dragon if she could have convinced me to make her over as one!! Anyway she did a great job as Princess number 3 making faces at me and Austin when she was on stage! (crazy woman.) We also found out at the performance that there was no dragon part and she had made that whole thing up anyway! At the end of the show, Austin got a Combat Arms magazine for Jake - he's a gun freak. Kora got a big bouquet of flowers from Daddy and as you can see from the pictures, it was her first bouquet of flowers and she wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do with it.

I have always been so fond of my years of playing with Barbies. I was always so imaginative with them and would make up full length soap operas almost that would continue from day to day as I would get home from school. I loved my Barbies SO much and I couldn't wait for the day that Kora showed an interest in Barbies. Finally, it happened a few weeks ago when she had a little cash and wanted to spend it at Target. With no persuasion from me at all (really, I promise!), she chose to buy her very first Barbie and I couldn't help but take a picture of her with it. Hopefully it's the beginning to a long life of Barbie fun! She did of course have to get the one with the pooping dog...leave it to Kora to pick out the most vulgar Barbie.

Here's a sweet picture of Miah diggin' into some good 'ole corn on the cob on Mother's Day.

While over at my parent's house for Mother's Day, the little kids all decided to raid Maw Maw's closet and have a high heel fashion show. Don't they look precious? For those of you who don't know, the sweet little girl with the piggy tails is Miah's cousin Lauren, who is my sister's daughter. They are SUPER favorite cousins and she's probably the only kid Miah's age that WON'T let him boss her around...which I like!

Here's Miah holding (or trying to) his cousin Aidan, Lauren's baby brother. Don't they look awkward?

On the day we moved in with my parents, we found Kora in her new playroom coloring so diligently and blasting her Disney Princess CD. Too bad you can't hear the music, because that was a big part of this precious picture, but you get the point.

This is me with my beautiful sister Amy and her daughter Lauren. I don't have many pictures with my sisters so when I saw this one I had to post it to introduce her to all my faithful viewers.

This is my sweet baby nephew Aidan. The thing I like about this picture is that he is making a "David face". You won't get that unless you know his father, David. Come to think of it, I'm not 100% sure this IS Aidan...it could very well be David...who knows?

While we were busy unloading boxes and unpacking at my parent's house, the kids were busy riding around on the 4 wheeler. The only bad thing about this picture is that it makes me wonder where another child will fit if I have more? We can't leave them out!