vacation 2012 {the 4th}

It's always so fun to celebrate the 4th on the lake.

We ended the night camped out in chairs watching a handful of private fireworks shows around us.

With a baby sleeping soundly, upstairs, in the closet, with his white noise.

vacation 2012 {on the water}

I'm finally catching up on vacation pictures, about one month later.

Every other year our summer vacation is spent in Michigan, with all of Dave's family.

We made the 18 hour drive straight through, only stopping for throw up, and feeding children.

We've taken our kids on lots of long trips in the car.  Last year we drove 18 hours to Destin, Fl.  And never before have either of them gotten car sick.  But for some reason, this trip, we found out they both get car sick.  3 stops, and a round of Dramamine later (all in our first 3 hours), we were smooth sailing the rest of the trip.

And sweet Gavin, he was next to perfect.  Silent for 99.9% of the drive.  I think he's going to be an overachiever.

We made it to the lake, got settled in to the third floor room.

Gavin's little crib fit perfectly into the big walk-in closet.  So with the door shut and his white noise on, he slept like a charm the whole week.

Our vacation consisted of mostly living in a swim suit for 6 days, no makeup, no blow-dryers or straightners on my part.  It's definitely my kind of vacation.

We logged a whole lot of hours on this lake.

Kayaking

Jet Skiing

Lots of tubing

 Dave got to try out the helmet cam.

This little guy got quite brave on the tube.

First it was no hands.

And then on his knees.

And Taylor graduated from the tube that's virtually impossible to fall off of (the big red one in the pictures) to this tube, all by herself.

We had one day of rain and then a few other showers/storms at times that came and went.

 

And this sweet boy had a grand ole time just sitting and watching everyone.

I'm so glad he wasn't crawling yet this week (he decided to start the day after we left the lake), because it would have been a lot harder to keep him confined and happy if so.

(maybe someday you won't have yucky gunky red eyes all the time - it's either tear duct issues or allergies, it's still not certain)

We decided it was time to try Taylor on skis.

 I didn't get any pictures once we started moving because I was too nervous to have something at my face.  She didn't get all the way up, but definitely got a good start.  It's the one thing we wished we could have spent more time doing.  But when you have 7 kids all wanting to do different things, it's hard to spend too much time teaching one of them for too long.

And of course the skiing stud got up for just a bit too.  I beg and beg him to ski because it's so fun to watch him.  He usually says no and complains he's too old, and that it's not that fun, and it's too much work.

But he did it for me.

Stay tuned for more of our vacation.

while he was sleeping

I still haven't gotten to our vacation pictures.

But these are from vacation and I thought they deserved a post of their very own.

This sweet boy of ours keeps us on our toes.  There's nothing too predictable about him, other than the fact that he's unpredictable and we never know what we may get from him.

One minute he can be cuddling cozily on the couch with me or giving me sweet kisses,

and the next minute he can be stomping his little feet as hard as he can down the hallway.

One minute he can be singing sweet songs about Jesus in the cutest voice I have ever heard in my entire life,

and the next minute he can be screaming bloody murder to demand his way or let us know he is upset about something.

One minute he can be shooting baskets, playing legos, or drawing contently,

and the next minute he can be throwing his paper and marker across the room out of frustration.

But I can't tell you how many times he has humbled me, or made me realize that his choice behaviors are very similar to my own at times.

One minute he can be throwing a humongo fit and exhausting us to our wits end,

and the next he can be zonked out in the middle of the living room floor at the lakehouse,

with 15 other people coming in and out from the lake about 4 feet from him.

I knew he was exhausted.  His vacation was spent swimming, tubing, swimming, and swimming some more.

So I tried to calm him and have him just lay here and relax and breathe for a few minutes after a major meltdown.  Within minutes he was out....

...and then he turned towards the window.

And finally, it was the most perfect moment ever, one I was certain I'd never get.

I have wanted for so long to photograph those lashes.

But when does a child actually fall asleep in the middle of a room, facing the best natural light ever?

When he's sleeping, I just want to scoop him up and cuddle with him soooo badly.

For almost 4 years, every night when I headed to bed, I detoured into my boy's room.

I crawled onto his bed and would half way pick him up and hold him in my arms while he slept.

Sometimes just for a minute, sometimes 10. 

He's a sound sleeper and I knew he'd always stay asleep. When I laid him back down, sometimes he'd wake up just enought to whisper back "I love you" as I kissed his forehead.

I love this little guy to death all the time.

But there is something so heavenly about him when he's sleeping.

And there is something so heavenly about those lashes. 

meeting cousin alice

I'm kind of doing pictures a little backwards.  We went to Michigan first, and then Cincinnati.

But I'm doing our Cincinnati visit first, because the number of pictures are way less overwhelming to sort through.

Plus I had grand plans of getting these all posted as a little birthday surprise to my dad (since neither him or my mom have seen these pictures yet). But I'm a little late on that.  Hope you enjoy anyway Dad.

Such sweet pictures these are.

This was the first time my sister and I have had our kids together.  On my sister's birthday too!

Gavin and Alice are just about 3 months apart. 

The big kids were so excited to meet Alice.  You would think they are babied out.  But they could hardle wait to get there and they were super disappointed they had to wait till the next morning to see her. 

We packed in as much as we could in the few shorts days we were there.

Some neccessary shopping.

And Gavin's first ice cream, in honor of Aunt Rebekah's birthday.

Even though we say Cincinnati, my sister actually lives in Taylor Mill, Kentucky, and Taylor begged and begged to get her picture taken with one of the street signs.

And wouldn't you know that just about 20 miles away was a Mason, Kentucky. He wasn't intersted in a picture though.

I wish our visit had been longer, but it was so fun for the kids to meet their new cousin for the first time, and for my sister and I have our kiddos all together!  I so wish the distance between us was much shorter.