Monday, September 3, 2012

An Awesome time with cousins!

 Greg, Abby Jane, Emily and Joy
 Getting hair french braided before church-in spite of the look on her face, Ashley did want Grammy to do this!

 and She LOVED it afterward!

 Playing on the dock!

 More paddleboarding and playing at the pool





 Ryan and Ian go for a ride!
 What's a trip to the pool without snacks?




 Aunt Boo is kind enough to help untangle all the fancy necklaces!
 The lego lovers in their twin pjs
 We arrived just a little early-don't think they are anxious to get in?????
 Ashley and Greg on a ride
 It was hard to tell who had more fun building-the little boys or the big ones??????



 Greg, Ryan, Ashley, and Katie
 Can I have this gigantic $300 Star Wars set??????
 Miniland-lots of Atlanta landmarks made of legos!  It was really neat

 Only really secure men who love their little girls will sit at a pink flower shaped table building with pink legos and making cupcakes!  What good dads!

 These huge rubber-y legos were very cool-you can buy them-a set of 10 goes for $600!!!!!
 The girls enjoying their pink legos at home!  You can also see the dining room decorated for mine and Greg's surprise 40th party that Emily and Jodi planned, shopped for, and prepared with the three 2 year olds as help, while the rest of us were at Legoland.
 One of the spend the night parties in Grammy's room
 Jodi made me (just kidding I enjoyed it) go out paddleboarding-I decided to do it on my knees b/c I really didn't want to fall in the lake!  Emily went with me to assist.  This was on the way back and I am still dry!
 Here is the lovely over the hill birthday cake Em made for us with Fisher Price people and trees from the toy closet in the basement.  It was a great sequel to Greg's on top of the hill cake last year.

 Playing in the driveway one afternoon!

 Ryan paddling solo!
 Lining up chairs and making a train!
Yet more time in the pool!  We miss these cousins a TON!  It was SO wonderful being with you over the summer!

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Fun with Greenville friends

 Dessert at the Maurers house-while our big kids were away at church camp

 It was SO good to be with my dear friend Leslie after having not seen her in nearly 2 years-they had been in Germany on a job assignment with her husband and they moved back about 2 weeks after we moved to Manila.
 Ashley plays hard!

One of our most exciting things that happened this summer was that on our one Sunday back at our home church in Greenville Ryan was baptized-Praise the Lord!  and thank you to Pastor Travis!

Catching up with our friends from church the Lagranges and their kids.


 Playing with more friends-the Finches




 We had great fun catching up over pizza and ice cream and they were kind (and brave) enough to have all 3 kids spend the night.  The plan was for them to join us at the water park the next day but Natalie had a fever and Parker had swimmer's ear so they went to the dr's office instead.

We went on to the water park and had a terrific time!





 Scott LOVES the water slides here!

 On our last day in Greenville, we spent about 4 hours at Chick Fil A-one of our favorite places!  Here are Ashley and I with my dear friend Susan, who lives just up the road in Spartanburg.  The Lagranges came by later and had a snack and the kids had fun spending literally hours playing at the CFA playground.

After CFA we bought some peaches, picked up Greg from work, and started the drive back to Atlanta.