8th Week of summer

This week we were busy and on the go all week.  It was a great week. 

We started this week of vacation by celebrating our 10th Anniversary.  It is so hard to believe that it has been 10 years yet it seems like we have always been toghether.  it has been an amazing 10 year.

We are so blessed.

On the night of our actual anniversay we just stayed home and played with the boys and had dinner on the deck.  The hubs built a fire and the boys enertained us.  It was an awesome evening.   Then the next evening we went out to celebrate at the Grove Park Inn for dinner.  Then we rode up on the parkway and back to the place where we became engaged.  It was such a nice evening.

Anniversary enertainment by the boys.

Views from the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We have not done our official back to school shopping but we did take advantage of the Toys R Us buy a back pack get a free lunch box sale.  Each boy picked out their own pack and lunch box and of cours our Cars man went with the Cars 2 theme for both items.  Brayden tood the Madagascar route for the pack but came back to cars for the lunch box.

We got to have ice cream with cousins.  Always a treat being with the cousins.

We played a lot of games of Cars Monopoly.

Built lots of Lego Cars and made up our own spy gear with the Legos.

We spent one day at a local Hands On museum.  The boys had a blast.  They got to build and race Lego cars.  They got to build with wooden blocks, play with big bubbles, write and draw on a huge chalk board, put on a puppet show and a stage show and LOTs of other things.

This was our first time visiting this museum but we will definately be back, 

We spent another day at Dollywood.  It was a HOT day.

The boys discovered the Rampage ride and loved it.  It is a fun water ride that cooled us off and left us soaked.  They also enjoyed some showes like Gadzillion bubbles and shows by the Penguin Players. 

We had a great week.  This summer has been so laid back and relaxed.  I am so thankful for every day and every minute that I have with these boys.  We are totally trying to forget that school begins in 20 days.



7th Week of summer

The news for the week is----  We have air!!!  Finally 5 1/2 weeks after it broke we finally got our new heat pump.  We weathered many hot days and really HOT nights.  We are very thankful that we have air now.

This week was a low key week.  We really did not do a lot.  The boys attended a camp at The Little Gym.  It was only 3 hours a day for 4 days.  It was a secret agent camp- Bond, Gyms Bond!!  They loved, loved, loved it!!!  They could not wait to get there every morning and were full of fun stories every afternoon when I picked them up.  This was the perfect theme for them.  All summer they have been playing secret agent on a mission at home.  I think it comes from their love of the Cars movies.  In Cars 2 there are two secert agent characters--  Fin McMissile and Holly Shiftwell.  I love to sit back and listen to them as they play.  Their imaginations never cease to amaze me.  Anyway The Little Gym camp was a BIT HIT!!!

Other than camp we just hung out at home and played a lot. 

Experimenting with the Hot Wheel's Track-- Seeing which cars will go the fastest and

trying out all the "Spy" Cars on the track.

Playing with Play doh.  The boys have a set where they can make Car's Cars so they spent a lot of time this week making "spy" cars and "bad guy" cars with the play doh.

Playing Cars

Building Spy gadgets and gear with Legos.

This week was a much slower paced week for us.  It was nice to just spend some time at home playing and doing fun things together.  They boys had so much fun at camp and at home. 

Week Six of Summer Vacation

Summer, summer, summer oh how I love thee!!!  This has been the best summer ever.  I so wanted to make this summer special.  With Charlie being in school all year now I wanted to make sure this summer left us with tons of precious memories.  I am trying very hard to not look at the calendar and see that it is slipping away right before my very eyes.  We are going to enjoy it to the bitter end.

We spent a day at Dollywood and we had a blast.  Luckily it was an overcast day so it was not so hot.  We had already left the park when the big thunderstorm and down pour came so that made it even better.

Brayden loved the train ride.

 Playing at the water mister plane

 Watching the show Otis--one of our favorite books!!

 The Little Engine that Could

 Driving the cars

 Being Silly

 Playing with cars-- looks like a major crash happened.

 Deck enertainment

Like I said before- Summer- I love you--

Please don't get in a hurry to leave!

Week 5 of summer vacation

WOW!!! The first five weeks of summer have been perfect!!  I have loved every minute that I have gotten to spend with the boys.  We have just had this easy flow and have connected on so many levels.  I hate the fact that our summer is half over and before we know it we will be back in the school routine.  Until that day comes we have a whole lot summer left to enjoy and we are going to savor every moment.

Week five was wonderful.  Eric had the week off so we got to spend it all together and do some fun things.  The only blemish on the week was the HOT weather and the fact that the AC is still broken.

My in-laws were camping at Davidson River for the week.  We went and visited them one day.  We played in the river, played corn hole with Nana and had a yummy meal by the camp fire before the storm came.  It was a wonderful day.

Fireworks after the game--AWESOME!!

Church Choir and Grandma

Our little family

My brother and two nephews--  Love them!!

My niece, Ashley and her hubs Travis-- Love them too!!!

Two boys that were very thankful for cherry snow cones that cooled them off.

The fourth of July was spent with family and friends.  We went to the Asheville Tourist baseball game and it was great--just HOT!!  It was a sold out crowd and we were packed in.  The choir from our church which Grandma is a part of sang at the end of the 7th inning.  They sang God Bless America and it was just amazing.

Earlier in the week we went to the same ballfield and saw the Carolina Dianmonds, a professional softball team play.  Brayden was looking cool in Grandma's glasses and Charlie actually high-fived Ted E. Tourist the Asheville Tourist mascot.  This was a first for him--He is not so into large characters.

We also spent  lots of time at the pool trying to beat the heat.