Pachelbel Bedtime

Anyone relate???

A little piece of Mexico

Last month we hosted Carolina in our home for a week. She was here to improve on her English skills. Seeing as I speak Spanish, I am not sure how much she actually "learned" but it sure was fun getting to know her. To start, we dragged her along to our church VBS and put her to work all week. What a trooper she was! Below are some pictures of our fun experiences with her.

We took her to Great Lakes mall and she kept saying, "I LOVE this mall!" We had a fun dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe as well.

Our next adventure took us to the zoo! We included her younger sister Valerie and enjoyed getting to know her too. They thought the Polar Bear and Kangaroo exhibit were pretty cool. In case you haven't been...you can walk through the kangaroo exhibit on a trail...very up close and personal!

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and look forward to having them back again sometime!

Carolina, in case you are reading this...Le Faltamos!

Niagara Falls

This past weekend we decided to take some family time over at the falls. The weather was in the mid 70's...making it perfect for a little getaway. And what would a trip to the falls be without a ride on the "Maid of the Mist".

Bella thought it was pretty funny that we asked her to put on a blue "trash bag". Of course she was happy we did after we got up close and personal with the falls.

Our next fun adventure was on the AeroCar that rides over part of the Niagara River...Bella thought were were "flying" over the water.

The highlight of our trip was our ride on the ferris wheel. Both Abbey and Bella throughly enjoyed this.

Happy 4th

Our neighboring city puts on a very large firwork display and have made this an annual family tradition. This year we enjoyed a get together at our friends and then all 60 or so of us walked down to the park to enjoy and met up with some others.

Despite Abbey's unwanting to participate in a family photo, she throughly enjoyed the display...in fact as soon as it was done, she said, mas, mas (more).

Bella almost immediately found a four legged friend and thanks to Auntie Chrystal, Bella kissed her friendly frog to see if he would turn into a prince! Ewww! After she kissed it she said, nope, no prince!

Zoo Daze!

We decided to invest in a zoo pass this year. We figured two family trips would cost us about the same, now we can make multiple trips and fun memories all summer. Here are a few pics from our first two trips!

My two favorite monkey's!

Jorge always teases me that we can't go in public without running into at least one person we know...at the zoo we ran into our friends Miss Kara, Miss Megan, Noah, Poem, and Valor!

Pigtails and Crewcuts

For some time I have been wanting to cut Bella's hair short...closer to a "bob" style. I got half brave a few months back, but only went shoulder length...didn't seem to do it. So I let her continue growing it out but it just seemed so stringy.

SO...while in Georgia, her cousin Breanna had a short haircut and she wanted hair like Breanna. So naturally we did not wait to jump on that. So off to the local kiddie hair salon...

BEFORE...

DURING...

AFTER...

Beach Bums

Columbus, GA is only 189 miles from Panama City Beach...which happens to be on the list of one of world's more beautiful stretches of beach! So naturally we escaped to the beach, not once, but TWICE! It was the perfect escape!

One of Abbey's favorites was waiting for the waves to roll in and roll back out...

We also learned that after our first trip to the beach it would have been a good idea to have a little pool for Abbey to play in...also somewhere to rinse her hands in...she was a little particular with the sand on her hands. Besides on our 2nd trip to the beach the waves were quite overwhelming, so the little pool was perfect!

On our 2nd escape my cousin's joined us for some family fun. We stayed on the beach this time...SO much more convenient, but all of us in ONE room! Fortunately we were barely in the room and when we were, it seemed to work out fine. Certainly made for some extra fun memories! And since "Uncle" Stuart had the snorkel mask, he found MANY little crabs for Bella and Breanna...was a little difficult for the girls to send the little crabs back to their mommies before leaving the beach, but they did.

Old Friends

While we were in Georgia we took the opportunity to catch up with some old friends. So as to not impose completely we took the whole weekend to visit with the Carey's! We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to say the least. Oddly our hubbies had similar taste in music and guitars as well. (http://thecareyclan.blogspot.com/)

They took us to lunch for some quick Mexican food! Always a hit with our family! Shell, if you are reading this...don't forget to try our MI favorite - Qdoba! Mmmmm!!!

Although Abbey is only a mere 5ish months older than Ava...she kept calling Ava...bebe, bebe. "Baby" Ava was adorable and sweet...and a great hostess! Not a fuss over sharing any toys nor her beloved Paci!

Thank you Carey's for a great visit!

Georgia Fun

While in Georgia it was not all doom and gloom, we tried to make the best of our time there and enjoyed making many fun memories as well. Below are some of those memories...

My cousin Breanna turned 9! She had her birthday at "Hollywood Connections". It's a movie theatre showing only movies for kids (G, PG, PG-13) and in the complex they have rides, arcade, putt-putt, restaurant, and plenty of screaming crazy kids! Fun!!!

Abbey LOVES water! We got there and it was already a "Michigan summer" so we bought a little pool to keep cool. Of course the neighbor came out to the fence a little concerned the "baby" might catch a cold since it was still a chilly 84 degrees. I reassured him we were from MI and were used to cold water and she would be ok. hehe Anyways, I went to turn the hose on and had my back to the pool, by time I turned around Abbey had made herself comfy in the cool water.

Playing in the rain...

Abbey's favorite chair to sit in and watch Elmo...

"Monkey Joes"...aka "Pump it up" Georgia style.

Field Day with Breanna