Thursday, October 8, 2015

A few Spring things


Taking the boys fly fishing.

My sweet boy wanted to wear his new bow tie to dinner.  Now who wouldn't want to join him!


Working hard with daddy.

Our new stairs down to the Creeper Trail.
Lucas was easily bored of fishing.  We found new ways to help.  We would scout the water for the fish ( you could see them in the water) and Lucas would yell for Hunter and David that "this is a good spot!"  Cracks me up.
Hunter loves to fish.  He could do it all day long.
Lucas, not so much.  He was mostly entertained by the picnic and the 'tent' I made for him out of the Spider man towel.  In this picture all you can see are his feet!

Mayfest 2015 and Random funny boys

Mayfest rides that seem fun at first but end up making you feel like you need to puke!


Fun times with these little cuties.

Lucas in K-Mart doing what he does best...begging.


This may be one of my all time favorite photos of Hunter!  He is such a sweet, tender hearted, loving and simply wonderful in all ways little boy!  He gets dressed before he comes down the stairs in the morning, and as you can see, he picks out his clothes.  I'm trying to recall why he chose these clothes and not gym shorts and a tee shirt.  I think he was going to play a few holes of golf with David and he knew he needed to wear a collared shirt.  He had just lost a tooth so he let me snap a picture of him and his newly lost tooth!  Sorry buddy, when or if, you go back and read this, mommy really wanted to capture the moment of you in your wonderfully put together outfit.  I love you so much!

(ps.  We did have a discussion on trying to coordinate and match.  And no, we didn't let him golf in this outfit!)

Tri Mayberry Overall winner!

My coach said, "find a shorter distance triathlon and race it before you go to the 70.3 in Chattanooga."  I was shocked to realize our little neighbor town of Mt. Airy hosted a sprint distance triathlon called, Tri-Mayberry.  Nana kept the boys so mom and dad could watch me race. It was cool and pouring, I mean pouring rain!  I had a great race, despite the weather, and WON.  I won the whole race, an exciting first time accomplishment of finishing first for both the men and women.  This raced was USAT sanctioned and qualified me for the Olympic and Sprint distance National Championships! More on that later....

Happy 5th Birthday, Lucas!

It is so hard to believe that our little Lucas is 5 years old!  Man, the time is simply zipping by at an alarming rate.  It feels like just yesterday that we were bringing him home from the hospital.  Oh, how we love his infectious laugh, handsome smile and inquisitive ways.  We love you to the moon and back little buddy!  Thanks to Anthony's dessert for making some pretty awesome Mind Craft cookie cakes.  Just so you know, there was a Creeper, Steve, and an Ocelot.

This year I rented an outdoor obstacle course bouncy house!  Fun times, kids loved it and so did I!
We were blessed with a beautiful afternoon to host an outdoor birthday party.  The first of April can be a bit tricky in the mountains.  We could have snow, cold rain, or a sunny newly warm day.  So thankful the weather was perfect.  You can see from the picture that the trees were still without leaves.
Piñata time!  This is always the highlight at our parties.  The kids love it and love the anticipation of what may fly out of the piñata.  This year we set up two, one for the 5 and under and one for the 6 and up!
Go Emerson!
Policing the Pinata can be a difficult and alway redundant job.  I yell, "take two steps back!" like every 3 seconds.


Bag of loot with the birthday boy!

Present time is also lots of fun.  Thanks to all our wonderful friends and family who always make the boys' birthdays so special.
Random Ice cream stop!
Thanks to the Dawson's for joining us on Lucas's 'real' birthday!  A celebration at El Bigotes.  For those of you that know Lucas, he LOVES cheese enchiladas .  He eats three at a time and as you can see from the picture there are rarely any leftovers.  And the greatest part of any birthday celebration is the pie to the face, right?
This is a really sweet moment from these two kiddos.  Blaine was actually giving Lucas a kiss for his birthday.  #Buddies.
Pre party view before the madness begins!  I love our backyard!  Happy Birthday LUCAS!

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte

Let the Magi quest begin!  Thank goodness Master Evan was with this group to lead the way.


For those of you unfamiliar with this game let me just get you up to snuff.  First, you have to buy the gear (everyone needs to fell the part, right?).  This includes the full ensemble of wizard attire; hat, cloak, wand with a cool topper, and a belt to hold your quest card and wand.  Lucas was all into the costume.  This was his favorite part.  Ok, so amongst the first two floors of the hotel they had it set up as a Magi quest game.  You had to figure out the clues to unlock one level to the next.  You had to use your wand to assist finding the clues.  The wands also stimulated certain objects in the hotel to move. The boys loved this game.  It was really like being a part of a video game.  It would hard to say which they liked more, Magi quest or the indoor water park!


One curious little wizard.
And it is very cool if you stay in your outfit ALL DAY.
Lucas working his magic.
Here you can see how Blaine used his wand to open the treasure chest.

It was even necessary to sleep in this attire.  I love their imagination.


Senior wizards.  This cracks me up.  This picture could have been taken at 7 in the morning or 9 at night.  If we weren't in the water park, they were play Magi quest.








And we followed them around like puppies.  The first time was cool.  The 100th time was enough to make me pull my hair out.  We had to work this game in shifts!

Pink drinks for the ladies!
Brian taking it easy in the wave pool.  You start to do things like this in a crazy waterpark, with children wizards running around everywhere.

Or you pretend, like I caught David doing, that you are in the ocean swimming freestyle in the warm tropical waters of paradise.
Yup, it was crowded and cold.  Kids love it, I hate it.


Lining up for the ropes course.
Leaf frog across the Lilly pads.





Hunter loved this obstacle.  He did it over and over.  I like it too and we would have races to see who could cross the fastest.

Blaine made it!

Fun weekend trip with the boys.  We needed to get out of the house and move after months of cold, dreary weather.  An indoor water park was a clever idea.  Until next time....but at some point they grow out of this stuff, right?  Im not wanting them to rush and grow up but I can think of some cooler places to go than the water park!