Today was almost a no blog today blog. But instead some cute ones from last Saturday that need no words. It was honestly the perfect day. Josh, Shawna, and Rachel came over to play, low stress, a million snacks, big hugs, high fives. Sunny and crisp - 69 degrees. Funny texts.
Only a little excited
There goes my baby... Bye bye big sis...
Now it's time for Addie's trip to school... "Coo" as she calls it.
See my back pack, mama?
And later on that day...after Addie's going to school with mom...and lining up four hair bows in a row
And a few new friends...
it was almost time for sis to come home.
Is she here yet???
Watching and waiting...
It's taking too long, let's set up camp...
She's here, she's here. Let's go!
Addie was like a hyper little dog jumping over big dog...
We walked in together, even though she desperately wanted me to let her ride the bus today. I couldn't do it. I needed to see her get there. Be with her a few more minutes. "They don't let Kinders ride the bus to school on the first day." I lied. :)
She signed her name when she got there.
She hung up her back pack on her hook. She put on her name tag and she went off to play. She is the only Lily in the class, but there are two Emma's, two Claire's, and two Emily's. Wow. Not that I ever had any class/camp/etc. without more than a few Jenny's growing up, but 3x2 seems like a lot. The teacher has 24 students to keep track of.
Sometimes, they even move over her clock and "night stand" in order to make her feel more at home. This completely cracks us up!
I enter into a dark room to kiss Addie good night, but this is what I find...
Oh, here she is
This night she left bear-bear behind. I don't know how on earth that happened. Please note the little sign hung up next to her bed. It is a 7am/7pm stick figure drawing that Lawrence did to show Addie when she goes to bed and when she wakes up. It is working beautifully. God bless Daddy! :)
My sleeping beauties. See sometimes room sharing doesn't suck. And all that hard work was worth it. All the hard work is ALWAYS worth it. I could kiss those lips and those cheeks ALL. DAY. LONG.
I imagine that sometimes Addie is trying to come out of bed, but Lily shuts her down. Makes her stay in her own bed. Out of pure exhaustion, Addie falls to sleep here.
I'll rest here for a minute and make my escape later...after a few winks of shut eye.
And once in a while. Sister lets her in. But not at the top of the bed, that's where the "guys" go.
Addie doesn't mind sleeping at the bottom half of Lily's bed. She's just glad to be there at all.
And you just can't help taking one million pictures of this.
And wishing you had a sister of your own...
Click here to view this photo book larger
At the end of vacation last week I got an email from Shutterfly to create a free photo book. I have done this once before, after our last vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in 2008 - our last family vacation with Lawrence's family.
This time, I only had about 3 days to create the free book but I decided to do it, because I thought it would be a neat record keeping tradition, and as you know I am ALL about record keeping AND trying to do it the same a second time around - I love comparing things side by side in a similar fashion :). It's a little more thrown together and less organized than the previous time, but even so, I was happy to finish it and get it for free + 7.99 for shipping and handling (even if I did have to miss girls' night out last night to do so).
So the link above is the book that I created from our Sunriver vacation, outlined a few blog posts below. I don't use Shutterfly for the majority of my photo saving, only for times when they have awesome gift deals or something. While I was in my account, saving my book, I noticed that they had the book I made 2 years ago saved in my projects. While of course I have the actual book, I was pleased to have the electronic copy!
Click here to see it, or just go to the below post. It was fun to compare the kids, what a difference two years makes. I love that after creating this, it allows you to share the book as well.
Creating this book make me think of two things:
1. Thank God we are not in North Carolina this year for vacation, as Hurricane Earl wreaks havoc. This is the week that we vacationed there, and returned home the day before Labor Day. Oh, how I loved that vacation. I loved it. I really like this one two, but that one 2 years ago gave me true belief that vacation after children and with children can in fact be fun. And I LOVE the ocean. Of course, I really did love not flying this time around - I'm imagining the nightmare of getting through security and the things that would be in mouths on the plan and off - from both Addie and Bryson. Anyway, I'm imagining that my whole feel of that trip would have been different had it been now and we were evacuated from the islands! Sorry for whoever has that awesome beach house this week (and I'm not sure I've ever said that before!)
2. I created this book last time with a broken foot. In fact, since I broke my foot upon returning on vacation last time, I've been grateful for a non broken foot a lot this last week. Even though it was hard for me to get back in the work groove, and least I GOT to go to work. Last time I had to call my boss after a week's vacation to say I would be working from home for the next month and then another 4 weeks of no driving after that. Let's just say that crutches and public transportation do not mix. So making this book reminded me to be happy about my healthy working body. Hope you enjoy looking at these, I know I have, and I'm also glad to have these links, not to be lost in an unused Shutterfly account!
full of stuff, a quick trip to VooDoo Donuts, and packing up coolers of food, we were off. When we were pulling out of our driveway, Addie said, "Okay, evwebody, weddy to wok and wool". Very funny, little girl, who desperately needed a nap yet only slept for 30 minutes of the 4 hour drive.
The kids got on the bikes straight away, 
and we all unloaded and claimed bedrooms. The house had 5 master bedrooms and we figured out sleeping arrangements that worked for everyone. Bryson was happy in the closet of our master, 
and the girls were thrilled to sleep in the kids bunk room with their cousins.
We tried to push Addie through her nap without luck, she fell asleep in the stroller for a few minutes only to wake up a screaming monster version of her self. Good thing we were on our way out of the museum as it was. She screamed the rest of the way back to the house, (about 20 minutes) and when we got there, I took advantage of her overtiredness to give us both a much needed nap, cuddling together. I guess Lawrence, Julia, and the in-laws had the rest of the kids, but I was so busy snoring and drooling in Addie's hair that I couldn't say for sure. 
At around 5:30 pm I knew I needed to wake her or she'd never go to bed that night. So I took the opportunity to take some sleeping photos of her. Lawrence came in to wake us both and found me awake, standing on the bed snapping photos. :)
Lawrence and I managed to have a lot of fun together on this trip. We got along awesome and were both in a very good frame of mind with a relaxed attitude. See what taking away work does for the soul?!
Uncle Mark making yummy breakfast sausage for everyone while I fumbled with my coffee, and dripped vanilla creamer all over the floor due to a mutilated lid. :) Then we bathed the children, who managed to get dirtier and dirtier earlier and earlier as the week went on. A surefire sign that fun is being had. 
It was COLD in the mornings, as low as 29 degrees one night, so the coffee and fireplace in the morning was great. Lawrence even went for a run and then jumped in the hot tub after that day. Something I planning to do each night but was collapsing with exhaustion after kids were in bed, so didn't. Exhaustion and dry skin! I was, we all were, very under packed in the lotion requirement department. High dessert. Cold and dry. A few times I spilled water on the kitchen floor and Lawrence was able to just mop it up with his dry feet. His joke, not mine. Anyway, that day, we also went to the park, sans our two little napping guys who stayed with Julia, and had sports fun with Lily.
Jayme and I beat Lawrence and his dad in a soccer scrimmage (and that is REALLY sad considering I was wearing flip flops)! We played track ball, did the parachute, and once the little guys were awake, Julia call and we all packed up and went to the North Pool in the afternoon, 
Came home, had dinner and then did S'Mores that night.
Bryson reading books with Grandpa before bed
Since we didn't want to see the screaming monster inside our 25 pound blondie, we let her and I stayed home with her (can you say quiet house!) then she and I met the rest of the fam at the pool (we discovered the much better and WARMER South pool this time) after a solid two hours of sleep. 
Bryson again LOVED the pool, when I arrived he was just falling asleep and took a nap, wet, in his bathing suit, wrapped in towels in the stroller. 
Man, he was cute. When we got back to the house, we all got showered and ready for family pictures. Devin Miller arrived a few minutes early and we had 2 hours of photos taken. They were good, especially considering we had 6 kids and 7 adults, and it was hot and kids were tired and hungry. 
She had her work cut out for her, and everyone was rewarded for sort of smiling pretty with more S'Mores that night back home. 
Uncle Mark also found an old style popcorn popper with a big pot/crank and made some home made popcorn. It was yummy and we all agreed popcorn just tastes better when it's made that way!
It was fun to have some kidless time with them, and to be able to sit and talk uninterrupted. It's been 2 years since we had that with Lawrence's brother and his wife. Way too long. I think Day 5, Wednesday was my favorite day of the whole vacation. No plans, beautiful weather, good family, I thoroughly enjoyed it. We aren't at a stage of life where vacation is relaxing. 
It's fun, but it is not restful. This would be the day that was the most restful day if there was one.
all morning with cousins. Addie and Tyler still have a really cute special bond and they can't get enough of each other. I found them playing school and reading books together in the loft, just the two of them. After naps, McMenimans's Francis School for happy hour in Bend. I might have given Bryson his first tater tot, and he might have really liked it. 
Before bed Addie asked me how many more nights left, I said, 2 counting tonight. She said, "But I tot we have a whole week". The boys smoked cigars after bed time and tried to soak it off in the hot tub.
Happy 10th Birthday Jayme!! In the morning, she went with her dad on a horse back ride, and our nephew gave everyone a scare with what ended in an urgent care trip for what turned out to be an asthma attack caused by partially by altitude sickness. Otherwise, the day was awesome. We played games, rode bikes, pulled the wagon
, played ping pong (Lawrence REALLY enjoyed playing with his mom),
foosball, and finally ate birthday cake and MORE S'MORES!! Before bed, I told Addie it was the last night, and she said, "But I still have one more pull up left". Ha! That was her Advent Calendar of the 7 nights of vacation. But she didn't bargain for us bringing an extra.
On the last day, we packed up - headed to Sunriver Lodge to take some pictures and then hit the road for the 4 hr drive home. 
We had one more dinner with Lawrence's family before they got on the red eye back to NJ.
All of us!
Jayme, Cassidy, Lily, Addie, Tyler
Lily & Bryson with cousin Jayme
The Herman Family
Of course we had to get some of matching girl cousins too! 
