Weekend Barbeques.

Yep, that's my man. The biggest kid on the block.

Summer Reading Update

Well, Mr. Noah is about 7 weeks into his summer reading for school. Remember his goal? Well my friends, I think that he will blow last year's totals out of the water. To date, my book-a-holic son has read:

2823 pages!

He has until the end of August to keep reading because he doesn't need to turn in his papers to the school until the first week of September.

The boys have also read almost all of the 30 hours for the public library. They went in with their 15 hours and picked hockey tickets and ice skating passes. And through the base library they've earned countless free bowling passes for the base bowling alley. From last Wednesday to this past one, Noah read over 400 pages, so he got 4 bowling passes just himself! And Jonah and Sophia each got one for having 10 books read to them in the week time limit (the base library goes from Weds to Weds).

Noah's favorite books are the Cam Jansen books and Nate the Great stories. Clearly my boy likes mysteries.

Carefree Days of Summer

Oh, to be young again!

Helpless.

That is the word that sums up my mindset these last few days. One of my very best friends is going through a really rough time right now and I can't do anything to stop it. We are seperated by many, many miles...she's in California and I'm here in South Carolina. She's hurting and I can't go over and be the shoulder to cry on, or 'kidnap' her for a night out with the girls. All I can do is pray and send her quick notes to let her know that, when she is ready, I'm here to listen. And then I pray some more.

I have always been the one to fix everything for everyone, but I can't fix this.

I don't like this feeling. Not one bit.

Favorites

These are my absolute FAVORITE pictures of our trip.

A Week in the Adirondacks. Part Six.

Fourth of July was a very bittersweet day for us. It was wonderful because we added another family member by way of a marriage proposal (Nick & Justine we love you!) and had a fun day with family. But it was sad becuase it was our last day in Indian Lake, and none of us wanted to leave in the morning.
The town of Indian Lake had a fishing derby in the morning, and the boys participated. Even though they didn't catch anything, they had a really good time hanging out with their cousins and aunts. And they even won brand new fishing poles from the raffle!
Here's Sophia and one of her new favorite people, "An Day-bee".

Fishing Derby time!

Hubby's niece Jennie and Sophia were inseperable most of the day ;)

Jonah in the casting contest.

For lunch we had hamburgers and hotdogs. Sophia decided that she wanted the bun from the hamburger, and just the hot dog. She'd take a bite out of the bun, wash it down with some diet root beer, and then take a bite out of the weenie. It was pretty funny. (And yes, it was just a bit windy.)

After the derby we hung out with all of the family, had some delicious food for dinner, watched fireworks, and had a fire. It was a great way to spend our last night in New York. We can't wait to go back again!

A Week in the Adirondacks. Part Five.

Kayaking on Lake Abanakee.

Part of an animal skull the kids found on their hike with Nick (hubby's nephew).

Nick and Justine (Nick's fiancee as of the 4th of July-yay!) brought their ferrets along with them when they came for the weekend. The kids L-O-V-E-D them! Sophia called them 'carrots' and wanted to hold them, until they actually came near her, then she'd squeal and back away.

Eventually, though, she warmed up to them enough to smother them in kisses. The boys even slept with them the first night. (yuck!)

A Week in the Adirondacks. Part Four.

Wednesday we went to the Adirondack Museum, where hubby's brother-in-law Mike works. I was expecting a small, one building type of place, but I was wrong. This place was great. There were lots of different exhibits, all in their own individual buildings scattered around the property. We spent all morning and part of the afternoon there, and if it weren't for the kids being hungry, I could've stayed all day. If you are ever in the Adirondacks, I highly recommend it. It's kid-friendly, too, which is a HUGE plus.

(Please forgive the quality of some of these pictures. My camera batteries died midway through the trip, and the gift shop was OUT of AA's. So I had to rely on the camera from my phone.)

This is the main entrance to the museum. It's so rustic and beautiful. And no, I have no earthly idea what Jonah is doing.

Yet another big chair. I swear I could've filled an entire album of Big Chair pictures with all the ones we saw throughout the week.

Sophia really enjoyed 'cooking' over the campfire in the kids exhibit.

Noah & his (stuffed) fish.

Jo caught one too!

One of the old railroad cars on display. The kids could ring the bell and play in the engine room.

Going for a canoe ride in the pond.

The boys loved this tent......and this lean-to.

A beautiful view of Blue Mountain Lake from the observation deck on one of the exhibit buildings.

These beautiful swings were in the playground outside of the old schoolhouse. They had lots of great, old-fashioned games (and I mean OLD games...like ones they played during the covered-wagon days). The boys and Bobby were playing with some of them when Noah, very innocently, asked "Dad, did you play these games when you were a kid?" Debby and I laughed SO HARD. Hubby is the youngest out of him, Debby and myself, so when they asked him that, of all people, we couldn't contain ourselves. Oh did we laugh about that for days!

Noah & Jonah made paperbag puppets in the classroom and sat in the desks. They were really amazed that there was only one room and kids of all ages and grades were in the same class.

A Week in the Adirondacks. Part Three.

Tuesday we made a trip to Lake George. We had been planning on spending the day down there on the 4th to watch their fireworks, but since Mike had to work on Saturday, we decided to go on Tuesday instead. And it's a dang good thing we did, because it turns out that the holiday fireworks were going to be set off on Friday, not Saturday. I'd have been mad!
On the way to Lake George, there is a big 'ol wooden chair on the side of the road, and it is one of the things I remember most about my first trip to New York back in 2001 when Bobby & I were newlyweds. I had strict instructions from my mother to take a picture of the kids in this chair. So, here you go Ma! Mini-golf was a big hit for all the kids. But I think I enjoyed it the most, becuase on Hole #9, I got a hole-in-one, y'all!! Hubby claims he didn't see it, and so do the boys (of course), but Debby's got my back. Don't ya Deb?!

Next was a carousel ride. The boys have their ears covered because over the music there was a horrendous grinding sound that lasted the entire time. It was bad.

Beautiful Lake George.

I think that the general consensus from the kids was that the arcade was the highlight of the trip. Sophia's favorite was the "bowing addey". She got so excited! Now, Debby's probaby going to kill me for this one because I don't think she knew I took it. But it was so cute of her & the boys that I couldn't resist. I love you Debby, I promise!!

And a trip to Lake George is never complete until you've had some Martha's ice cream. Sophia enjoyed hers ALOT.

A Week in the Adirondacks. Part Two.

On Sunday, we headed up to Indian Lake, to spend the rest of our vacation with hubby's sister Debby and brother-in-law Mike. We had so much fun with them. The boys thoroughly enjoyed throwing their watermelon rinds over the bank behind the house so the bears could eat them (we didn't see any in person, thank God!). They loved roaming the woods by the house in search of the perfect marshmallow and weenie roasting sticks.
We did alot of swimming on the lake and in the river. (And when I say "we", I mean the kids and Debby. It was WAY too cold for me!)

Mike, Jonah and hubby skipping rocks across the river.

Sophia loved the water in the river until she fell over in it. She wasn't much of a fan after that.

We had a fire almost every night and we roasted weenies and made countless S'mores. Even Sophia got in on the action!

A Week in the Adirondacks. Part One.

We spent the first few days of our vacation in Northville, NY visiting some family on the hubby's side.
The Great Sacandage Lake early in the morning. Isn't it peaceful? We all enjoyed ice cream from Stewart's. We partied the day away at Grampa Corky's 80th Birthday. And the boys braved the chilly (to us) weather and played in the pool every chance they got!