Fourth of July at Baba's

We spent Independence Day over at Baba's house this year. Daddy's cousin Shad was in town with his family so the group was even bigger than normal! There were over 30 people there, all Daddy's extended family, granted one of them has yet to be converted (Uncle Greg is marrying Liz in November). We had a barbecue and then hung out until fireworks time! The kids were having a great time just running in the neighborhood field behind Baba's house. Kayda and Ella were actually together a LOT of the time. Dillon followed anyone and everyone around. He likes to be where the action is! Here are the pictures of their play!

The kids were introduced to pop its this year. Many of their cousins, along with my munchkins, were unable to throw them hard enough to make them pop. They tried and tried and evenutally we had the kiddos stomping to try to pop them.

As we do every year we had our tank wars. The four brothers (Uncle Pat, Uncle Scott, Uncle Greg and Daddy) all upgrade their tanks with jumping jacks, flash bombs, smoke bombs, other small fireworks, and tape them together to have a "battle" of modified tanks. They spend a LOT of time tampering with them. This year Kyle, Nathan, and Kevin joined in the fun. They line up the tanks towards eachother and light them all at once. It goes for several rounds, the aftermath continues to collect until all their creations have been used. It has actually ended up hot enough by the end that it's melted the asphalt, so this year they chose a spot were the asphalt was already in bad condition (a bad patch job). The little ones spent the time playing in Grandpa Mike's truck and in the space alongside Baba's driveway playing with the rocks!

Kayda and Dillon both got to do sparklers this year. Kayda did very well. Dillon did okay until I saw his almost put it in his mouth! Talk about scary!  Fortunately I yelled at him and startled him enough that he pulled it away. He didn't get to do that again. We did let the kids do the roman candles with us. Both of them really enjoyed that and Dillon ended up carrying one around for most of the evening.

When the kiddos weren't helping Daddy light fireworks (Daddy grabbed them and ran once the fuses were lit) Kayda would sit with soon-to-be-Aunt Liz and Uncle Greg with their puppy (Brooklyn). Kayda and Ella spent a lot of time there, poor Ella didn't get to hold the leash much because Kayda had it and would NOT let anyone else touch it.

I must say it was the most stressful Fourth of July we have ever had. The field behind Baba's house is a neighborhood field. There are houses with backyards against it all the way around. There were a few incidents with the neighbor next to us. Baba actually got hit by a firework! It rattled everyone pretty badly, Baba went inside. Fortunately they got her away from the firework and pulled her pant leg away from her skin (It was melted) before she got too badly burned. As it was she did end up with a little bit of a burn on her ankle. We're lucky it wasn't more serious. Later on in the evening the same group lit a fountain that shot colored balls one at a time up into the air. Well it fell over and everytime it shot it would spin and shoot a different direction. Daddy had Kayda out (they had been lighting a firework) and he turned and kept her sheltered. I was sitting on a sheet snuggling Dillon. I covered him as best I could with my arms. One of them actually went between soon-to-be-Aunt Liz and I to smoulder on the blanket beside me which fortunately was not in use. After the second incident the mood was pretty much ruined and everyone was a little frazzled. We had lost a good portion of our group after Baba was hit but the rest of us packed up after the second time.

Guess what? That's not even all! Daddy and I came home and the babies went right to bed. We had left Hank in the backyard, we had debated leaving him in the house but he still chews everything and it was too hot to leave him in his crate. When we opened the door and called him he didn't come. We searched all over the backyard and we couldn't find him. Daddy looked at the side gate and it was a little lose so we were scared he got out. I stayed home with the sleeping babies while Daddy went searching for Hank. There was no sign of him so Daddy decided to look out back again. Thank goodness he found Hank! Hank had somehow gotten himself between the wood pile and the house and hunkered down in there. We were SO relieved to find him. Definitely NOT the best Fourth of July we've ever had but the kids sure did have a great time!

Ocean City State Park (Ocean Shores)

We went to Ocean City State Park from Friday afternoon through Sunday morning. It was a short trip to see out friends Jesse and Kala Winter and their daughter Madison before they leave for Texas. My friend Kellina knows them as well so she came along. This was also the first trip we have taken Hank on!

Friday we got there, got set up and headed down to the beach. We didn't realize how long of a walk it was out to the beach so Dillon was already tired by the time we finally got out to the water. It was really windy out on the beach so it made it feel a LOT colder than the campground was.

Kayda immediately walked out into the waves and played with the sand with Daddy. Dillon tried to go out in the waves but he wasn't prepared for the change in balance and landed on his bum. He only managed to last a little longer before he was shivering in the cold wind so I stuck my sweatshirt over him (he could tuck his feet up and be completely encased in it)and carried him back to camp. He was asleep by the time we got there.

Daddy stayed behind with Kayda and Hank for a little while longer. They were both having a great time playing until the wind blew sand into Kayda's eyes so they headed back.

Here they are all bundled up by the fire eating... they're so cute.

Jesse, Kala and Madison got there on Saturday. We all headed out to Ocean Shores (it was all of 2 miles away), the Sand and Sawdust Festival just happened to be going this weekend. So we walked around and watched the chain saw carving, we were there to early to see any finished sand castles but it was interesting seeing them being built. The walks between places was very slow, between Kayda picking flowers and Dillon just getting distracted we were stopping every 30 seconds or so.



















There were horses out on the beach that you could "rent", we parked near some and Kayda went NUTS. She is a horse fanatic. We took her over to pet them and she would've pet each horse if we had let her. Dillon was interested in looking at them but wasn't so sure about touching them.

Fortunately for us we found a pony ride that was $5 for a ride as opposed to $25 for an hour. Kayda chose a horse called "Bama" and Dillon rode "Spirit". Kayda LOVED it from the moment she was on the horse and wanted to ride the horse by herself by the the end of the ride. Dillon took a little while to warm up to it but definitely did NOT want to stop by the end of it!

Here's our group back at camp (Mommy, Daddy, Kayda, Dillon, Kellina, Jesse, Kala and Madison). The kids were usually off entertaining themselves, they especially loved playing on the air mattress in Jesse and Kala's tent. They bounced around for a while then then they dog piled on top of Kayda.

I think the rest of these are pretty self explanatory. Dillon did try out the waves again and did MUCH better. He gradually made his way out until his diaper was in the water (with Mommy or Daddy nearby of course).

Clark Lake

Today was officially my last day of work, until August 10th when I start doing stuff off and on for curriculum development and such. I was done at 9:20 today (half day) so Daddy and I went to lunch with the babies to celebrate. After that the kids and I went to Clark Lake Park. It's a small park with a very small lake, it's got a little board walk, a few bridges over creeks and a dock out into the water. A LOT of people bring their dogs there so that's what we did. The kids, Hank and I walked around to a little secluded spot with access to the lake. Right after we got there another group showed up with a couple of dogs. I was completely stressed because Hank hasn't really been around other dogs, kids...TONS of kids, but not dogs. I had him on the leash while I made sure he would be okay with them and was having an interesting time of it. The other dogs weren't on leashes and Hank was being very friendly so the other people told me to go ahead and let him off. I did and he did GREAT. Kayda, Dillon and I sat and watched him chase the other dogs around and around and around. He even ventured into the water a little bit! Granted his stomach never went in but he did go in! When the other dogs left the kiddos and I (and Hank back on his leash) walked around in the water a bit and threw some rocks. I wish I had photos but it is impossible to have two small children and a dog and then actually have hands free for a camera. We'll have to go back with Daddy and get some pictures another day.

Sprinklers!!!

I forgot I had these pictures!!! They're from several weeks ago during that deliciously hot spell we had. The kids were having a great time. They even figured out how to turn the faucet on and off to control the height of the water! Enjoy!

On another note... Kayda can almost color in the lines now! Check out her handy work!

More Surprises

Little ones are so much fun to have around. They're full of surprises.

Dillon can now nod his head "yes" he can shake his head "no" as well but doesn't use it as a word, simply as a fun action. Now if we ask him a yes or no question he will actually nod his head "yes" when he wants something!

Kayda surprised me with her emotional development. Daddy had a migraine so Kayda, Dillon and I were watching Ice Age 2 to try to calm down for bed. There is a part in the movie where a mammoth (who thinks she's a possum) remembers losing her mom. Kayda got VERY upset. She understood exactly what happened and started crying saying "mom gone". It took me a little while to calm her down after that one. I censor the things I let them watch for scary looking things but apparently I need to be more careful with the emotionally scary things as well.

Poor Babies

This has definitely been a rough week and a half for our family. It seems like on sickness after another is after us. Last week Daddy had shingles, Monday evening Kayda had a fever and was throwing up, she got over it by the next day foruntately, then Wednesday Dillon had a fever and was throwing up and now Dillon has "hand, foot and mouth disease". Basically he has mini-ulcers in his mouth which make it hard for him to eat/drink/sleep/be happy. Daddy is the one that made Dillon's comfort possible. Wednesday night Dillon was pretty much awake until about 3am and then woke up about every hour after that until he got up for the day. Yesterday he barely ate anything, was incredibly crabby and couldn't even stay asleep for his nap. Last night Dillon was screaming almost constantly (he was VERY difficult to calm down at all). He has been getting harder and harder to comfort. Finally at 2 in the morning, with Dillon unable to go to sleep, Daddy decided that it was WAY too far off of Dillon's normal behavior. Normally he's the easier baby to put to bed and even if he's sick he can sleep most the night and he would still be in a relatively good mood. So Daddy took him down to the hospital to figure out what was wrong, not just for Dillon's obvious discomfort but for our sanity as well last night was the third night of practically no sleep in a row. Turns out it was good that he went. The doctor was able to figure out the problem immediately and they gave us a medicine that pretty much numbs the inside of Dillon's mouth. They couldn't give us anything to help fight it off but at least Dillon can do the things he needs now. When they got home at 4 Dillon wasn't even asleep but didn't protest laying down to sleep at all. Dillon slept until 11 this morning! I am SO glad that Daddy decided to take him to the doctor, even if it was in the middle of the night, it never even occured to me to go in. Dillon is feeling so much better and maybe tonight Daddy and I will be able to recover. Hopefully he didn't get the other kids he's been around sick.