July 4th weekend at the lake

 July 4th weekend we went up to the lake house with the family and had 3 days of fun in the sun/rain with all the kids.  We let Gigi cook for us and let the kids watch each other so it was a lot of fun to just watch them enjoy each other.


Carter really enjoyed the dirt.

A sharp contrast from Avery who at no point in her life has wanted to get dirty.

Ru spoiling the grandchild that would give him the most attention by sharing his lemonade.  Apparently Carter enjoys lemonade.  It would actually be easier to list out the foods and beverages that Carter doesn't enjoy: Avocados.  That is it.  The boy will eat anything.  

 Maddy staying fly at the lake.

 Carter did not really enjoy the jetski ride as much as we thought he would.

 But did I mention that he enjoyed playing in the dirt?

 The little sea captain.  He really does enjoy the water like his big sister which is good.  Now that he is walking he wanted to walk into the water so we had to keep an eye on him.

 Anna and Avery had a blast with each other.  So much so that they stayed an extra week with Gigi and Ru.

Of course we had to have fireworks!

 The girls played with the sparklers, but larger ones were shot later on.

 Art class!

The 4 little kiddos, all of them smiling, all of them looking at the camera.  This is definitely going to be a Christmas present level picture.

 Anna can't help herself.

 Did I mention the girls had fun with each other?  Here they are being silly and making Carter laugh.

Since we were at the lake, the girls had to go fishing one evening.

Carter was more interested in finding out was in the box of worms (hint: worms) and trying to eat them.

Avery's big "catch"

 Anna's big "catch"

 Carter couldn't wait to get in on the action.

Now that Avery can read, it was a great help to Gigi to let Avery read some of the books so she could take a break and cook for us.

Or to teach the girls how to make cookies.  Anna was an excellent taste tester (taking down a spoon full of sprinkles instead of spreading them on the cookies).

 Everyone had a blast playing with Madison and she was an angel the entire weekend.

 And Carter loved being the goofball with everyone.

A week at the lake

So last week Laura loaded up the kids and with the help of my parents and my sister headed towards the lake while I was golfing in Myrtle Beach.  I met them up there a couple days later and missed some of the fun, but we all had a great time being spoiled my Gigi and Ru.

Gigi teaching Anna and Avery how to make sweet rolls.  She sent us home with some, but we didn't share with mommy.

 Of course Carter was a big hit with Anna.  Everytime he would come into the room she would say something like "It's baby carter!" much like Avery called her "Baby Anna" when she was younger.  Carter appreciated the attention and gave them both plenty of smiles.

 And lots of books were read.  Both Anna and Avery love having books read to them, so it was nice to split all the reading between Sara, Gigi, Laura, and Ru.

See the piles of books???

 Carter was also on his best behavior although he didn't do much swimming.

 By the end of the week the two little girls were pretty tired from all of the swimming, tubing, and jetsking.  Ru or myself would drive the jetski and Sara/Anna in one tube and Laura/Me/Avery in another tube.  This is me and Sara taking them on a "peaceful" standup paddle ride.  Avery enjoyed hanging her feet off the side and shifting her weight quickly from side to side, while Anna wanted to jump off at all times.

Uncle David was there too and did a great job watching Carter so that Laura could get in the water.

Lake Trip

This past weekend we went back to the lake so that Gigi and Ru could watch Avery while we sweated at the football game.  They had Anna as well so Gigi was excited about having her little girls play together.

Nothing like a good swing on the way down to the lake.  I think Anna has enough sunscreen on... 

 Luckily there are two so the toddlers don't have to share.

 Avery was showing mommy how do to the paddle board.

 The girls also had a good time digging in the sand area that Ru built for them on the beach.

 I think Ru had a good time as well.

 Avery and Anna playing with the 100 toys that Gigi brought.  Avery was a good big cousin for the most part.  In this picture she is surely in mid-sentence about how you are supposed to play with certain toys.

 Avery also convinced Ru to put together the train tracks for her.

Lake time with the Family

So this post is a little out of order, but the cute pics are the important part.  Before we went to the beach with friends and the beach with the Gibson family, we had lake time with the Marshalls.  I guess we saw the summer ending and decided to have a vacation marathon.
We forgot to bring the camera to the lake, so my cell phone and the cloudy weather didn't make for the best shots, but we had fun!  Gigi fed us well as usual, the 2 cousins got some good bonding time and the adults got some good nap time.  It was awesome to have everyone together.  If you haven't already, check out Sara's blog for some other good lake photos.

 Avery buttering the famous Gigi rolls

 She only eats tomatoes directly off the vine and at the lake

 Cloudy weather is great for fishing!

 Everyone is getting in on the action

Some lessons from Uncle David

Going fast with Daddy

That's our girl!

Lakefest w/kids

In prior years, we used to have our college friends over to my parent's lake house once a year for a weekend of fun, but had to stop this tradition when we moved to Charlotte because of the great distance to travel and that all of our friends were having little ones.  This year we tried to get a few together so the kids could play together.  The adults still get together at football games and on our canoe trip, but it was fun to see all our little kids "playing" together.

Each of the kids had their favorite cartoons that they liked to watch, but Peppa on the ipad with the Sawyers was a hit with Avery.

 Cheers with their little apple juice bottles.

 The Jessup family.  This may have been the only time Austin wasn't holding his ball.

 Avery has started to enjoy the jetski more and more.  Now she wants to go fast over the bumps.  I am more than happy to oblige.

 Austin with his ball.

 The "fun" thing about having 5 kids in the same spot at the same time, is that one of them is always unhappy about what is going on.  Avery took more than her fair share of turns at being the unhappy one.  This face is a great summary of how that afternoon went.

 Ava is looking at Avery like "What's your problem?"

 Austin and his yellow ball.

 The Sawyer family.

 The best picture of the rugrats all together.  Ava, Austin, Morgan, Macey, and Avery