Vacation - Last day

Our last day of vacation was mostly just getting ready to leave. The kids had a blast running around and playing outside. When we left, we followed Mat and Brittani this time so the roads weren't so windy. Much better on the way home, no one got car sick!

It couldn't go that easy, so on our stop for dinner we got a flat tire?!

One of our first concerns was that we couldn't drive all the way home on a spare. Wow, amazing how God helped us get it fixed and how quickly was amazing. First we couldn't drive the car at all, so we were pulled off in the grass under the bridge. We didn't have our Allstate Motor Club card with us, but technology was on our side this time (unlike on the way to the cabin). Allstate connected us with a Tow Company that called us immediately. And even better the Tow truck was only about 10 minutes away. Marty walked the kids and myself across the street to Sonny's, which we all love their food. As soon as we got across the street, the tow company called and they were at our car already. The driver had a friend that works at Tires Plus, right down the road, and had already called his friend to get them to stay open late for us! We were just blown away by the Tow driver and how much he went over and beyond what was necessary.

The kids did amazingly well at Sonny's.  They were so sweet and helpful.  I know they were glad to be out of the car and enjoyed coloring but they really made the experience so much better and so much easier.  

(someone obviously took the picture because it was funny. We didn't have that special that's for sure)

So within an hour or so, we had a new tire and had eaten a yummy dinner at Sonny's. What an adventure!

Vacation- 1/22/09

Thursday was a wonderful day.  It was warmer this day and the kids loved being outside.  After Breakfast, we all went for a short hike and had so much fun.  The mountains were beautiful and it was great to be outside.

  

The whole group ready for our hike.

All the kids bundled up going down the hill.

Graham especially enjoyed the hike and collecting things to show his class.

Molly absolutely loved her "walking stick." She did not want to put it down.

Molly loved that Anna wanted to help her get unbundled. 

After our hike, the boys made a fire and cooked hotdogs for lunch.  The funniest part was that it took a while for the fire to get going since the wood was a little wet from snow.  When the fire was finally ready to cook the hotdogs, we realized noone had gotten more hotdogs from the store.  We only had 4 hotdogs!  Here are the men cooking the (4) hotdogs. Graham is holding his nose from the smoke, not picking it.

After lunch we made smores by the fire though. They were so yummy! Here's Graham and I making our smores.

That evening we went to "Fun World" which is a huge arcade.  On the drive, the girls were really quiet.  Well, we discovered why when we got there.

We ate dinner there and then found out that they were closing in about 20 minutes!  So we played as many games as we could and as fast as we could.  We all commented afterwards that it really was a blessing and was fun.  We didn't have to deal with overtired or whiny kids because they were to busy trying to play as many games as they could.  And the kids still got some prizes and got to play lots of games.  We (actually Brittani) had to stop and take a picture outside the "Fun World" sign. 

Vacation-Second Day (1/21/09)

Wednesday morning Mat made piggy pancakes for all the kids. They turned out great and of course all the kids loved them!

Anna, Abbie and Molly (in the background) with their piggy pancakes.

Aren't they so fun?

That day we hung around the house playing and trying to stay warm.  Abbie and Anna loved playing together.  Aren't they so sweet in this picture?  I think it's sweet how Abbie's foot is wrapped under Anna's leg.

 

That evening we went to dinner at Rib Country with Mat's family.  They had paper bags for the kids to color on, so Marty being the kid he is made a mask out of one of them!

The food was great and the dessert was amazing.  Marty and I had a fried apple pie, yum! (there were no WW points counted this day)  I don't know what to say about the sign, especially since Mat's mom works there:)

The whole group after dinner:

I love this picture that Brittani took of Molly in her jacket.  Molly loved wearing her warm jacket and having the hood up.  I guess she loves pink furry things?!

I already posted the video of the girls singing a Hannah Montana song in the car so I won't post it again, but man were they so funny to listen to in the car.  All 3 of there little squeaky voices!

Vacation to Georgia-First Day (1/20/09)

I decided to post about our vacation differently.  Yes, I already posted pictures of Molly (sorry Abbie and Graham) and yes it was two weeks ago, I am just behind. 

We had planned to leave first thing Tuesday morning which would get us there Tuesday afternoon/evening.  But it was snowing on Monday and was supposed to snow all day Tuesday which we didn't want to miss.  So we decided to leave late Monday night, which actually ended up being Tuesday (it was 12:30am when we left).  The drive there went great.  The only problem was we didn't have complete directions so we drove to where the map told us but there was no cabin.  We realized the problem and tried to use Marty's GPS on his phone to figure it out but it wasn't able determine where we were.  Then we tried to call Mat and Brittani for directions but no phone signal.  We ended up having to drive about 2 miles until we got a signal!  Needless to say, we learned to not just depend on technology to get you where you need to go:)

Also, before we got lost, Abbie was getting really carsick from the really, really windy roads. (We didn't take that way home.) Her face had absolutely no color and she kept saying how bad her tummy hurt.  We were thankful she didn't throw up and that she ended up falling asleep.

When we finally arrived to the cabin it was snowing a little.  The kids all thought that was pretty cool.  Well, Graham was a little disappointed saying "where is the snow" because we had snow in Oklahoma when he was younger.  The boys, Graham, Bradley, Marty and Mat, went sledding and had a blast.  The girls stayed in the warm house and played instead.  

Here's a picture of Bradley and Graham all bundled up to go sledding and you can see how much snow there was:

That evening we celebrated Anna's 4th Birthday with a My Little Pony party!  Here's the birthday girl!

All ready to get some candy. And yes Mat is wearing a Pony crown!

All the party kids! (Molly loved that her PJs matched Anna's)

After the party and baths, now Anna and Abbie have matching PJs.  We didn't plan it, we just both shop at Target a lot.

Molly on vacation

I have so many pictures that I want to post from vacation. These are all of Molly. We thought she was just a little sick with a cold but ended up having a pretty bad ear infection (which we found out when we got back home). She didn't sleep well at all the first night but her energy during the day wasn't gone! Molly loved all of our vacation time. She loved hiking, going out to eat and even the campfire. She has no fear of new things.

Just today we were at the mall playing in the play area for a little while. She saw a man playing peek-a-boo with his little girl and so Molly just goes right over and starts playing peek-a-boo with them also. Then a few minutes later she just ran up and sort of hugged his leg! Wow, was he surprised! I love that she is so friendly but we definitely have to watch her. She isn't afraid of much.

Showing us her loot from "Fun World."

Putting 3-D glasses on a My Little Pony pinata.

Molly giving Daddy his phone, while I was trying to take a pic of him and Abbie. Molly does this all the time, she does not like peoples things laying around out of place:)

Anna helping Molly get her many layers off. Anna really wanted to help Molly and Molly thought it was so fun for Anna to help her (she doesn't usually let others help her though).

Bradley was kneeling waiting for the rest of us to catch up during a hike and Molly ran up and did the exact same thing next to him. She loves Bradley and loves to imitate him!

All dressed warmly and ready to go outside. It was really cold this day, for us Floridians!