Cincinnati!

Fasten your seat belts for the longest blog post ever - complete with 39 pictures for your viewing pleasure.  Probably just a few family members will be interested in all this nonsense!

Earlier this summer I tried to talk Lindsay into taking the girls on a trip with me to Cincinnati to visit our grandparents and the rest of our family.  Lindsay thought I had lost my mind and said, "NO!"  However, just two weeks ago Mom called and said that she was interested in going to Cincinnati.  Before she could really finish telling me why/when, etc.  I told her I was in -if she would have me.  Of course we invited Lindsay along just to be nice but knowing that she would say no. Wrong.  It seems having an extra set of grandmother hands made all the difference.

We ended up with two babies, 3 mama's and lots of luggage stuffed inside Heidi for our 8 hour drive to Cincinnati.  Don't we all look excited?

The babies were troopers and filled their time with lots of reading!

Upside down is the best!

Mom failed to make it to the restroom on our first stop.  I was wondering why she was whining in the back!

Actually, just a little sippy cup spill. :-)

One of the fun/hard/obvious things about traveling to new places is you don't know the area.  We ended up at a few sketchy gas stations.  There was no diaper changing spot at this gas station so we used the front seat.

A few hours worth of Veggie Tales makes the babies happy.

Finally, arrvin in Cincinnati.  I love cities that sit on rivers.  They have such a great downtown!

Caroline hanging out with Great Grandpa.  He's always had my heart.  :-) 

Old age is getting him though. Poor grandpa said, "How much does Caroline weigh?" I thought he was just showing interest (25 lbs). With tears in his eyes, Grandpa said, "I can only lift 15 lbs." Caroline then received the coveted spot next to Grandpa on the counch.

Caroline and Great Grandma!

My aunt Karla and Uncle Tim graciously hosted all 5 of us at their home.  I love it there.  They have so much space to run and play.  We spent a great deal of time on the back deck enjoying the cooler weather.  We didn't forget to pack the good stuff.   Caroline is enjoying a Georgia peach!

Uncle Tim filled up the swimming pool for the girls on the first night.  The plan was to let the water heat up and swim the next day but Kelsey couldn't wait.  She splashed and splashed and finally took a dive into the pool.  Thankfully, I was sitting right next to her and grabbed her right up.  She wasn't fazed a bit.

Uncle Tim and Aunt Karla have 4 grandbabies of their own that live near by so they were prepared for babies.  They had three high chairs ready to be used!

The girls dressed up like angels but it didn't take much doing!  They truly were angels for the entire trip!  Sweet girls!

My family lives in the "country."  The area used to be really country but it has grown and changed a lot over the years.  There are still rows of corn, horses and cows that can be seen on almost every corner but you can get to almost any restaurant or store of your choosing within 15 minutes.  I think it's the best of both worlds.  I ran 4 miles on a nice, flat country road between fields of corn and only 6 cars passed me.  It was great!  I could not get over this squirrel just hanging out on his belly! 

There were two places that we had to eat.  Gold Star chili was one of them.  I think Kelsey enjoyed her first taste of the delicacy!

PaulPaul came to visit us too!!  We were so thankful that our Dad drove the 4 hours down to hang out with us for the day.  He loved those grandbabies to pieces! 

The lady's head that you see in the back of the picture was Dad's middle school English teacher.  She remembered Dad immediately and said that she had some stories to tell.  Dad didn't seem to worried.  He said he had some stories to tell about her too!  One of the fun things about visiting the small towns is that everybody knows one another and there's always a hug or story to share.  I can't imagine what it would be like to live there but to visit sure is fun!  Lindsay said that if we lived there we would gossip too much!  I think she is probably right about that!

The girls really started to love each other!  They would kiss each other like crazy.  When one was crying they would pass the drink or pacifier over to soothe them!  On the way home, Kesley was sleeping and Caroline kept gently touching her leg trying to get her to wake up and play!

 

This is one of the real pool times that we had.

Lindsay loves horses and easily persuaded Uncle Tim to make a phone call to his friend/neighbor so that we could go visit his horses.

Dad showed Kelsey how to pet the horses.  He was quite the horsemen as a youth.  I hear stories that he tamed a couple of wild mustangs!

Lindsay fell in love with this horse, "Mouse."  I wouldn't be surprised if she talks Brad into getting him!  He is for sale and they said they would even deliver him down to Georgia.

We also got to see some cows and a baby calf.

This little dog, Tugs, was playing with Kelsey.  They were chasing each other around, both so excited!

All of the girl greatgrandbabies.  What a bunch!

Grandma and Grandpa!  I love them!

These group pictures crack me up!  Caroline fussing and Natalie with her hand on her head - oh my!

Lindsay is so great with the kids.  She and Natalie were instant friends.  :-)

On our way home, we stopped in Louisville to visit my great aunt and uncle and Caroline got her first splinter.  It was a doozy!

Uncle Tony with his daughter Betty Jean and her granddaughter Gracie.

Kelsey decided she needed to help with the clean up at the restaurant. 

I don't have any pictures of this but the funniest incident of the trip occurred when we were getting the girls in their car seats after dinner on Wednesday night.  A yellow jacket was flying around Mom and kept landing on her shirt.  I can't recapture the hilarity of the event but these were a few of the comments made...

"I'm allergic to bees."  A couple of minutes later... "Well, my grandfather was."

"Mom, run around." "I'm not running around the parking lot."  This was said as if she was too good to act so foolishly.

"Mom, the bee is still on you."  "That's not funny."  "No, Mom really the bee is still on you."

Finally, we are trying to calm down and are driving down the road Mom sighes and says unintentionally, "lordy bee."  haha - funny right

We finally made it to Knoxville and checked in to our hotel Wednesday night and the girls were ready to go!

We took them swimming to get rid of some of their energies.  They both LOVE the water. 

Kelsey is a little more daring than Caroline though.  She would sit on the side and the pool and then hop on her hiney until she hopped off the edge!

Thankfully, we only had to sing twice on the trip! 

I had a wonderful time with my mom, sister and the girls.  I am so blessed by my family and the time that we have together.  I'm hoping for an annual girls trip! 

Reading

We have read to Caroline almost every single night since she was just a couple of weeks old.  However, the last month or so she has become fascinated with books.  Thankfully, she got some great new books from both sets of grandparents for her birthday.  Often times I will set her in her room, while I try and get some housework done, and she will pull book after book off the shelf to read.  I love walking in and seeing her flip through the pages.  She looks like such a big girl!

Mom Time

Our Mom dates are growing and growing with more babies and mama's joining us.  This past Friday a few of the mom's were able to get together with their little ones.  It's funny to see them all interact and watch as they grow. 

 Eli was practicing his cooking skills.  His future wife will appreciate it.  :-)

Ki is a baby magnet!!

Our newest member, Grant!  He was awake almost the whole time and never made a peep!  What a sweetie!

Katie climbed in the little tent to play with Eli and then declared, "Now I know what Grant must have felt like when he was coming out!"

All of the little munchkins together!

Chattanooga Triathlon

This past weekend was one of the long awaited triathlons. I asked several folks in our Sunday School Class if they would be interested in doing a relay triathlon.  Everyone seemed excited about it, until it was time to sign-up.  :-) 

These two were the only ones brave enough to hang out with us for the weekend!  Our sweet neighbors also joined us for the weekend.  Sarah did the running portion for Mark and me. 

Seriously, everyone's schedule is so busy I understand!  It's just a good excuse to try again. We're already talking about the 5k Habitat Run at church and the ING Half in March. 

We had a great time catching up with John and Lauren. They both have so many life experiences and it's neat to hear their perspective on things.

Here we are looking good at 6:00 AM the morning of the race.  Hello, sleepy eyes! 

The boys woke up pretty quickly once we reached where the race was going to start.  Look at those hunks!

After I finished the swim, I passed the chip off to Mark and he took off.  I got my camera out as fast as I could and this was all I could get!

Unfortunately, Mark didn't make it too far.   :-(  He had two flat tires before he had even started the race (while I was swimming) and then blew his last tire about 100 feet down the street.  Below is the proof of his 3 flat tires!!  Eeeks.  

 

Mike, our neighbor, said, "He (God) must not have wanted Mark to ride today." I will admit that I was pretty disappointed for Mark but when I think about it that way I'm grateful that everyone was safe and sound. Of course, Mark handled the whole situation with such grace, reassuring everyone that he was not disappointed and that it was just fine. Later as I thought back on the morning I remember John and I talking before the swim about how Mark never really gets angry. He gets frustrated, sad, upset, etc. but anger is just not an emotion that I see a whole lot of from him.  I'm thankful that he handled the morning so well.

I was also really thankful that we were able to get the timing chip to Sarah in plenty of time so that she could finish the race.  I think everyone had a great time.  I look forward to doing another race soon.  Mark has already got a new tire so there is hope!  

(Sadly, my camera died and I didn't get a group picture at the end.)