10 Whole Years!

We are now 10 years older than we were in this picture!  We were able to escape for 5 whole days to Charleston, SC without children!  We had a great time doing nothing, taking carriage tours, doing nothing, wandering the city and eating a meal from beginning to end without interruption and doing a little more nothing... it was a great time away!  

 

10 Year College Reunion

 Last weekend the kids and I headed up to VA/MD for my 10 Year College Reunion.  It was a whirlwind weekend, but we had a great time, and the kids did really well considering we spent 20+ hours in the car over 5 days. 

 Here are the kidlets burning up a little energy when we stopped for gas.

 Sadly only half of our graduating class was able to make it, but we had a great time catching up anyway. :)

And here we are with families!  We counted it up and between the 14 of us who graduated 10 years ago we have 25 kids. :)  

Just the kids. :)

 

Claire and I graduated together, and were pregnant with Ben & Charlie at the same time.

This weekend was the first time they had met!

After the reunion we headed up to Rockville, MD to spent a couple days with my brother Micah.

Here we are at a Lebanese restaurant... yum yum!!!

 

Micah took the kids rock climbing...

Naomi did really well until she hit about 15' in the air... then she was ready to be brought back down. :)

Ben loved it.  It took a few tries (and maybe a bribe or two) to get him to the top, 

but he did it!!

 At the end of July I was able to escape with my Titus 2 group for 3 days at Dottie's family's lake house in Greenwood, SC.  What an amazing escape it was too!! 

We all attempted to water ski, rode around the lake in the boat, cooked meals together and ate them on the screened in porch, played Bananagrams until way too late, and did all the other things that 6 women do when they are away for a few days (and a few things that most women probably don't! :). 

Dinner on the Dock!

The beginning of 3 days of bliss.  :)

Dottie attempting to teach us how to water ski.

Becki - getting her Water Ski face on!

Melanie - after an attempt at water skiing!

We Celebrated Lara's 24th Birthday!  Chocolate Cake!!

Dottie & her Amazing Hat!

Camping in the Smokey Mountains

Sadly, the only picture I got of the Harris'

 Mother's Day weekend we took a whirlwind trip (3 days!) to Michigan for Andrew's Grandmother's 95th Birthday.  7 of her 8 children were there, as well as many grandkids!  

The kids did GREAT!!!!  We left at 5am and drove straight through the 12 hours, just stopping for gas and once for lunch.  We carpooled with Andrew's brother Jonathon and his wife Becki in their Pilot.  I had a HUGE bag of goodies and we pulled them out one at a time. :) 

 3 Hours In and doing Great!

 Finger Puppets!!!

WE MADE IT!!!!  (Now off to the pool!)

 We found a great Spanish Topas Restuarant in the tiny town of Marshall, MI.

(Thank you restuarants.com :)

This was my sangria. :) 

Getting ready to leave for home Sunday morning...

(That's right, two days after we left)

Monkey #1

Monkey #2

"These pictures take forever!!  But this thing is SOO cool!"

Having fun with Ronald on our one stop on the drive home.

---

And here are a few pictures by Andrew's dad!!

The man with the camera!

Some good old fashioned quality father-son time... with Angry Birds.

The Big Group!  

Us with Grandma!

The kids and grandma. :)

The girls.  Grandma Helen, Mother-in-Law Sarah, 

Sister-in-Law Becki, Naomi & me.

It was crazy, but fun! 

Weekend Away...

Andrew has this week off, and since my parents were coming on Wednesday we decided to take a little mini-vacation-within-a-vacation before they got here. We were planning to camp, however the forecast did not seem to cooperate, so we went to Charlotte for three days instead! (YAY for a husband who travels and get hotel points so we can stay for free!) Here are a few pictures from our weekend!

Celebrating a birthday with a friend at Papas & Beer!



Naomi was not such a huge fan of the hat.



Our hotel... 6th floor.



Ben was impressed by the "trees that grow inside!!"



Naomi was NOT a fan of the glass elevator.



We ate amazing food... middle eatern, vietnamese, japanese... SOO yummy.



And no vacation is quite complete without a trip here... :)



And on vacation Ben gets to watch cartoons in the hotel... he loves it.

On Saturday Ben and Andrew went to the Discovery Museum... and watched an IMAX film.

They also built a New York City Skyscraper.



On Sunday we went to the Discovery Kids Museum, geared for younger kids. Naomi and Ben both had a blast playing in the water.



Driving a Race Car.



Riding a Cow. :)



And on Monday we took them to a huge mall in Charlotte, and saw the HUGE catfish in the tank at the Bass Pro Shop.

All in all a GREAT weekend!