2011 Family Trip to Amelia Island

Complete exhaustion! This is probably the best description of our trips to Amelia. We always have the most wonderful time. This year the kids were 1, 2, 3 and 4 so needless to say we were busy, busy, busy. The older boys have a blast playing together on the beach, riding bikes and just doing whatever it is little boys like to do. I think in this picture Hunter was acutally taking and afternoon nap. He is getting better and better and keeping up with big cousin Eli, but at the end of the day, he is still a year younger and a few bars lower in the energy department!

Lucas is was so much fun this trip! The last time we were here he was only 4 months old. He had a blast and loved the water, the sand and all the entertainment. He may be the youngest, but he has no trouble trying to keep up with the bigger kids. What a ham!

Fun at the playground.

As you could imagine the water temperature in Florida was perfection during July. In Abingdon the pool stays frigid all summer (my opinion, some folks say the cool temps are refreshing!), but the warm water was perfect for the boys. They loved it. Hunter grew more confident with his swimming everyday and Lucas had a blast splashing around and people watching.

Cuteness~I look at these pictures, since I am posting almost a year later and it is amazing to see how he has grown.

A favorite afternoon treat, ICECREAM!

Turtle watching.

I nice afternoon hike through one of the marshes on the island.

Tired and hot, but they are looking over the walkway at the hunderds of miniture black crabs that live down there.

Here they are. One day we will laugh at these pictures and the difficult time we had getting them!

Brotherly love..

Family..

Misc Summer Pics from 2011

Just a little brotherly love. I happend to grab the camera and head out the door when I caught Hunter letting Lucas take 'a little sip' of his Sprite.

Lucas decided fix his own breakfas and dumped the entire box on the floor!

Hunter turns everything into a sword, including a piece of driftwood. This is one of his fabulous smiles.

My boys LOVE pasta! Score one for me because it is super easy to make.

Usually while I am inside cooking dinner, the boys entertain themseleves on the back porch. This is so helpful, but only during really warm afternoons.

Double run and Hunter is not in the mood.

Cutie pie!

Guess who's back in business!

I have to admit this has been my longest absence from blogging! I think about it, I upload my pictures, I have everything ready to sit down in front of the computer and then I hear, "mommy, what are you doing?" Or the kids are sweetly tucked in for the night and I have a few hours to myself before bedtime and instead of blogging I plan the week's dinner, fold and put away at least 2 loads of clothes and if I am lucky I steal away a few minutes to just veg in front of the TV. Needless to say, my to do list is forever growing and blogging seems to get pushed to the wayside. But, I enjoy it and I hope you do too. So I am going to try and make it more of a priority the next few months to at least get caught up. Now, we are approaching the holiday season so don't hold your breath!!

As I have heard from many folks, 2011 has been a very difficult year. Our family is no different, we have had our share of sadness and chaos. My dear grandmother passed in February and then we recieved the terrible news that Norman had lung cancer. We had a wonderful spring and summer sharing some special times with Norman and the York-Simmons family. Norman, passed away at The Hospice Home of Surry county on September 13. This was a very sad journey for all of our family. Our boys had a speical relationship with their Granddaddy and Hunter still asks often about his happiness in heaven and how much he misses him. It has been especially hard on David. He has lost both parents and this is so unfair at such a young age. I could not imagine not having mine. We are a strong family and a close family and can manage any situation together.

So to catch us all up and to keep from boring you guys to tears with some to the activities we do on a daily basis I will attempt to catch us up by posting on each of the boys and then hitting the highlights of the activities we have done over the past four months! This is no easy task as I am going to have to look back through at least 600 pictures and choose the best ones to post and talk about. It will be fun to remiss, but give me some time to do it!! Okay, so maybe not 4 months...I am serious, I WILL GET CAUGHT UP!!
....Maybe not much more today...I hear Lucas up from his nap and that means no more computer time for mommy!

Some Springtime fun

We finally started getting some warmer days. The weather has been doing some crazy tricks, but in the spring when you get a few of those nice warm days you just don't want any more unseasonable cold snaps!

First tractor ride with Papa..and yes he loved it. I think both of my boys could ride on big machinery all day long!

Chloe in the pool.

Cute pic of all three of them on the four wheeler. They all fight over who gets to ride on it with dad. It is much easy to manage them on the Polaris.

Okay, I know this doesn't look eactly safe....but he as only driving it out of the garage and into the front yard so that I could take a picture! Then they all went on a Polaris ride.

Easter in Pilot Mountain!

We had an Easter egg hunt at Gaga's house before Easter lunch and the kids had a blast. Hunter was much more comfortable scrapping around for eggs here. By now this was his third hunt and he was getting the hang of it. Now they are all sitting on the porch and counting their loot!

Lucas and Cowboy having a moment.

Hunter racing for eggs!

Chloe, also known around the Hunter household as 'Hawkeye', is a professional egg hunter. The Easter bunny had to find some pretty tricky spots.

Lucas had more fun playing with the Easter grass then with anything in his Easter basket. I should have known!

An after picture of Hunter's Easter basket. The Easter bunny left him some Scooby Doo.

Easter Egg fun and hunt inside the Fellowship Hall of Gaga's church. This was not the best idea in the world, but the kids had a lot of fun. It was so cold that day and it was raining outside so they had the hunt indoors. Imagine 50 kids all picking up eggs just thrown about on the floor! This was Hunter's worst nightmare. I don't think he moved 3 feet from my side....don't worry Lucas and Chloe had a blast.

Dying Easter Eggs at Gaga's.

Lucas thought this was one of the greatest activities EVER!! If it wasn't so messy I would do this with them more often. They both love it.

Easter

Lucas at the preschool Easter egg hunt. He is not about to be outdone by the bigger kids.

He learned very quickly that if you open the eggs, you will find a sweet surprise!

I feel silly posting about Easter during the middle of the summer, but in my own defense it was really late this year!

Hunter and the rest of his classmates awaiting the single to start the hunt!

Some of his friends ended up giving him some eggs. It was such a sweet gesture. Hunter is still so shy and he had a hard time competing in the search. All the other kids were pushing and running and grabbing...but not Hunter. He hung out in the back, I was so tearful that he only had about 3 eggs compared to the dozens the others had so I was relieved when these sweet girls offered to share.

Still searching!

Lucas's first big boy haircut

Just like his big brother, he was born with and has kept a full head of hair. The first few times I noticed a few straggling pieces I cut them myself. I did the same thing with Hunter, but after a few times of this they need some professional help. Lucas is a bit more spirited than Hunter so I was very anxious to get this first cut out of the way. Needless to say, he enjoyed this about as much as being pinched but we all survived. I have to give Cheryl, our fabulous hairdresser, major props for this haircut. This was not an easy task! In the end he got his big boy haircut and even a sucker. We can always hope that the next time will be a little easier...for everyone.

Thank goodness we are all done here!

Starting out was not so bad. There is this cute little chair but he wouldn't have any part of that, nor did he want me to sit and hold him. He preferred to be held standing up. I guess he thouht I could run away if we had too!

Hunter taking it all in. Occasionally he would pipe up and say, "it's okay Wucas."