We're home!!

Well we survived our trip to Colorado. It was a beautiful place to visit. We all had a great time. It was fun seeing Alana and Kate play together. They had such a great time and tired each other out quite well! Dave got to see a lot of his family that he doesn't get to see that often, they live all across the country from VA to CA! I will be posting pictures a little later of the fun stuff we did. I have some to go through still and I am waiting to get the rest of the pictures that were taken from other family members, no rush Sarah ;) Sarah is the keeper of all pictures. She was the smart one that brought her computer to download all of the pictures on, almost daily.

Over all it was a great vacation and we would love to go back. We all think that in a few years when the kids are older there will be much more we can do with them. They can go rafting and horse back riding and all sorts of other things.


To give you an idea of what we saw every morning when we woke up here are a couple pictures from the back deck of the cabin!

Packing...

Boy how times have changed. I remember when I used to throw things in a suit case and not worry too much about what I had. As long as I had clean underwear I was happy! Now I not only have to worry about my stuff I am now packing for 4. Well 3.5 Dave is pretty good at packing for himself, he just needs a little guidance here and there. :) If Alana had her way she would throw every stuffed animal she has in her suitcase and put on her favorite blue flowered dress and wear that for the week. Undies....who needs 'em. Tyler... give me my stinky pooh bear and my trains and I am cool. They don't have to worry about weather and if they have their tooth brushes. That's what Mom is for I guess. We make sure that everything is good to go.
When we went out to lunch the other day I amazed myself. I had the 'magic' diaper bag. The kids were getting bored so I pulled out some peel and stick place mats with Dora on them. That kept them happy for a few minutes. Then I pulled out some trains, and a few cars and that kept them happy until lunch came. Then once lunch was there Alana needed a spoon for her oranges and low and behold I just so happen to have a plastic spoon still in it's wrapper for her to use! Tyler was having trouble with his scubetti (As Alana calls it) and sure enough I had a smaller spoon that he ended up using. I even had a pad of paper and a couple small boxes of crayons in there, just in case. Dave always makes fun of me for the amount of stuff that I think of to pack, but he is always grateful when the kids start to fuss and I pull something out of the magic bag and it occupies their time so we can finish our meals in peace, well as peaceful as it can be with a 2 and 4 yr old! I guess some part of Girl Scouts has always stuck with me! You have to be prepared for anything!
Though at times things maybe going a little crazy and life seems like a non stop roller coaster, I wouldn't trade this life for anything. I have grown to accept the unpredictability of having children. It makes you a little more relaxed, if you can believe that. You don't have to try to pack in going to every party and trying to do everything, sometimes it's best to just sit back relax and enjoy some quality family time. Even if it is just for a few brief minutes between tantrums and fighting and bloody noses. Oh yes we just had one of those. Alana apparently wasn't happy with Tyler and hit him in the nose with something. She of course immediately said it wasn't her that he did it himself. Ummmm try again.....nope it wasn't Blitz either......you don't have any other siblings to blame it on! She then broke down in tears (she knows how to work it) and apologized very dramatically to Tyler and we took them up for a bath to calm them both down and all is right in the world. A bubble bath does wonders!
Well now that I have avoided packing a little longer. I guess I should get back to it. Needless to say I won't be adding anything to the blog in the next week or so since we will be in Colorado for a family reunion! I hope everyone has a great week and I will post more pictures when I get back!

Moon bounce

Amy and William brought their moon bounce with them to try out with all the kids. That was one of the best things! The kids just had a blast playing in it. Tyler was more interested in the slide at first. It took a little encouragement (aka a shove) from Aunt Amy to get in the bounce part. Once he was in there he was hooked. There were a few collisions of kids trying to get in and out so we finally got them to go in threw the back and out down the slide. We were trying to figure out where to set it up since our weather really wasn't the greatest. Well it ended up fitting perfectly in our screened in deck! We pushed the table out of the way and sat in the chairs and watched them jump around like crazy! It was great. This would also easily fit in our basement so it could be used year round! Now it's a matter of convince Daddy that we NEED it, you know "it's for the kids!" That should work :) Or I can have Alana bat her little eyes at him and have her ask. How could he say no?!

Outlets of Gettysburg

On Saturday we decided to go to the outlets in Gettysburg. I have never been there and we thought we would take advantage of the sales plus tax free clothing shopping! The outlets are nice, smaller then the Queenstown outlets, but they have just about everything you would need. I was strong and didn't go into the candy store to get chocolate covered strawberries. Now I am kicking myself since those are one of my favorite things. I guess I'll be taking the kids soon to the candy store here in town to pick up a few!
There was a little merry-go-round that the kids really wanted to ride on. The only 'bad' thing was there were 3 horses and 4 kids. Luckily it wasn't Tyler's 'thing'. He sat on the horse but then wanted to get off once it started moving. So he stood in the middle of it for a bit until he was done with that. The other kids wanted to go a couple times. Not too bad, 50 cents for the 3 kids to ride around and have fun!
We took the kids to Fridays for lunch and they all did great. Both boys fell asleep on the drive home so we drove through the battlefields a bit while they slept. The girls watched a movie and that kept them happy.

4th of July

Amy, William and the kids came out for a long weekend over the 4th of July. It is always great getting the kids together to play. They all get along really well. Alana and Elizabeth had to wear matching dresses the first day and Aunt Amy actually was able to do Alana's hair and put it up! We were all shocked. Granted it didn't last long in her hair but we got some pictures to prove it was up at one point! We didn't do any fireworks or anything to celebrate, just grilled out and had the kids play, before the rain started.

the ballerinas
dancing around
snack time

Hometown Heroes Award

Dave, along with Chuck Wood, and Capt John Bean, was honored with the Hometown Heroes award in Baltimore. The Red Cross had a nice breakfast for all of the people receiving the award. They had given out 14 awards ranging from Fire fighters, Animal rescuers, police, and even kids that had done some amazing things. They had a special presentation for a few local families that had lost loved ones in the military. It was a very nice breakfast and though Dave doesn't like the spot light he has received from this one call he appreciates the acknowledgement.

Dave and I looking 'spiffy'

Rich Ruehl (president of IAFF local 2000) Capt Bean, Chief Herr, Chuck Wood, and Dave

Happy Father's Day

Alana couldn't wait to give Dave his father's day present. She made this in school for him. She was very proud of it. Dave said he is going to put that in his office at work! Proud Daddy!
This is what I 'threw' together for Dave. I had the kids do 2 paintings and then I put them on different colored squares of paper and put them in the frame. It actually turned out pretty cute. I sort of just came up with the idea and was hoping it would work. Dave said he wants this to go up in our room, that still really doesn't have anything hanging on the walls and we have been here a year and a half! The top left and bottom right are Tyler's and the other 2 are Alana's. She put tons of glitter on hers!