August: Virginia Beach

The day after Busch Gardens, we headed down to Virginia Beach for the day.  We visited the Aquarium and spent a good part of the afternoon on the beach.  The kids ran and played with Roy and Grandma and cousins and I got to enjoy a good cuddle from Lydia.  Such fun!

August: Busch Gardens

We hadn't been to Busch Gardens all summer so we used the excuse of Grandma and Baba's birthday weekend to go down and enjoy the park.  We all love Busch Gardens!  The kids had such a great day.  In a new family record, we were at the park from open to nearly when the park closed.  I'm still tired thinking about it! :)  But it was totally worth it!  We got to try out new rides, play in the water, watch 4 shows, eat yummy food, and then meet Grandma and Baba for dinner and a fairy tale show.  It was one of those days that I would love to recreate!

Tidbits

Random moments from our last few weeks:

• While we were getting ready to walk out the door one morning, Sam yelled to Abby, "We're making out!"
• Abby (from bathroom): "did you hear me burp in here?"  Me: "we missed it."  Sam: "oh, that's too bad!"
• While reading the kids the story of Nephi, Sam, Laman and Lemuel going back to Jerusalem for Ishmael's family (and their future wives), my Sam yelled, "No get married!"

Bits and Pieces

Here are random pictures from my phone.  When I have time I'll sort through the last 2 weeks of fun activities we captured on the camera.  I have cute kids!

Notice they all have washcloths on their heads.  For some reason this was a really funny game they played for a couple nights.  Everyone loved it. 

Lydia is big enough to enjoy a park activity!  I LOVE this girl! 

All the rest are pictures from Busch Gardens a few weekends ago.  It was a blast!  We stayed 10 hours straight, which has got to be some kind of record for our family.  We enjoyed 4 shows and tons of rides...more pictures to come when I have time.

And a random side note: As Roy was reading the Old Testament Reader to the kids, Sam started randomly shouting, "Ho ho ho!  Merry Christmas!"

Our Saturday

We took advantage of the library coupon book and did three fun activities on Saturday.  The kids LOVED it.  We had Krispy Kreme doughnuts, went on a walk through Huntley Meadows, and went out for McDonalds ice cream.  We drove past our old apartment on the way to get doughnuts and got to point out where Abby lived for her first 18 months and reminisce about how predictable and different life was just 3 years ago.  It was just school and a baby.  But we are so grateful for our two other babies who have come along, the jobs, and new friends.  Crazy how much can change in not very much time!  

But I digress.  On to fun pictures from a fun day!

Photo Catch-up

Somehow all three ended up in green pajamas.  They were so excited to be "matching" and just in generally fantastic moods that we had to capture the unplanned moment.

I've felt like a cool mom lately because we've broken our routine of park stops and other summer activities and have done some fun exploring.  Even though we just do one outing a day and just stick around home and our neighborhood in the afternoon, the kids are probably happier and play together better than those times when I've had us do two planned activities a day.  Easier for me in so many ways!  Abby and Sam have really built a great friendship and the world they have created with their imaginations is magical.  Lydia loves to try to participate in their world, which just means she wants to be in on the action squealing and laughing.  Three happy kids = one happy mama.

I've discovered that Abby and Sam love to go on exploration walks nearly as much as they like playing with friends at the park.  Lydia loves being outside as long as she can watch everyone.  We're blessed to be in an area that has tons of paths along water and what can be more fun than launching rocks and sticks into the water, meeting dogs along the paths, and trying to sneak up on squirrels?  (Disclaimer: the Summer Reading Program through the library here has a coupon book as a prize for meeting the goal of reading 15 books and using our coupons has been a huge motivation to go explore new areas.  Not that all the prizes are fantastic, but it's the journey that counts, right?).

A new favorite park is Hidden Oaks.  It's a little different than the norm and we had a great morning!  Everyone was happy exploring, poking around with sticks, and getting really dirty.

See?  Even Lydia is happy!  (Side note: Lydia now smiles for the camera...at least some of the time.  Love this stage!) 

Please note the matching Angry Birds shirts.  It's nice that they like to match, especially because I only have to think about looking for one color when I'm watching them run around! 

I love this sweet baby.  She's learning to give hugs and kisses right now and as gooey and hair-grabbing as her affection is, I adore those moments when she just wants to love. 

Happy girls, happy dad.

Texts (again)

• Abby: "We all have a best friend.  It's name is the Gospel."
• Abby: "I keep telling you, Mom, YOU ARE OLD!"
• Abby being funny-crazy & Sam asked, "Why are you freaking out, Abby?"
• Abby: "Oh Prince, you're so charming!"
• Abby came up with a new game and song: Sleeping Beauty and the Beast
• Sam just told me "you're in a heap o' trouble!"  can you name the movie?
• Cute as can be: