Scott & Amy

The main reason for us going to DC this year was Paul's brother Scott got married. It was a perfect day for the couple. Unfortunately for the rest of us, we got to stand around in the heat waiting for pictures with two kids who were already tired and cranky. (Small sacrifice though)




Lana giving big hugs to Uncle Dave. We didn't take a lot of pictures being occupied with keeping the kids in line and hydrated.


Tanner keeping himself hydrated.

Kevin and Emma.

Grandpa.

Scott & Amy.

So sweet! Congratulations Scott & Amy!

Downtown DC

Friday morning we went downtown with Dave to go see the Natural History Museum and the American History Museum. We tried to get tickets to tour the White House but it turns out you have to do it like 30 days before you go. We did get tickets to tour the Capitol Building but they scheduled us to go right during Scott and Amy's wedding ceremony, so that wasn't very helpful at all.


In this picture we're on our way back to the Metro and the kids (and I) are pretty much pooped from walking around all morning.

Paul is always making new friends everywhere we go.

Both kids really enjoyed seeing the "big choo-choo's" up close.

Tanner getting eaten by a gigatic Tyranosauraus Rex head.

I am so glad these things are dead. I would never want to come face to face with one. Ever. And if I do, I hope it eats me quickly.

Tanner on the metro. He really enjoyed it. Except he thought that every stop was our stop so I had to watch him closely to make sure he stayed in his seat.

Harper's Ferry, WV

Washington DC has a ton of great stuff to see and do (a lot of it being free!) and we are usually in the area once a year but we don't always put forth an effort to go and do stuff. This year we decided we were going to do at least one thing we've never done and it turned out to be Harper's Ferry, WV. It's only about an hour outside of the DC area (that is always dependent on traffic). The drive up was pretty neat, we drove through a couple of small towns and when I could get internet access on my phone, I looked up the history of the towns and read it aloud to Paul (the kids were more interested in pestering each other in the back seat).




It really was the perfect day to get out and go. The weather was in the 80's, not humid at all. Just fabulous. We walked up and down the streets and poked our head in a few of the shops. Paul spotted a wooden toy car he thought Tanner might like but it turned out to be "a piece of art" priced at $35. Uh, sorry Tanner.

We had great views of the two rivers, the Potomac and the Shenendoah.

We even walked across the bridge to the Appalachian Trail. On the left side of the fence is a rail road track. I made the remark of how intense it would be if a train came by while we were walking the bridge. Not 2 minutes later you hear the sound of a train horn coming towards us. Thankfully it was on another set of tracks a few hundred feet away from the bridge, I think the kids would've freaked out for sure if it'd been right next to us.

I can now say I've been on the Appalachain Trail. Not sure if I'd call it hiking since we only walked about 300 feet of it or so.

The kids were surprisingly well behaved while we were there. We stopped by a little place to eat lunch. A man we sat next to at lunch told us he served in the Army with a man from Magnolia, MS which just so happens to be where Paul is building a house right now.

Before we left we decided to get some ice cream. While Tanner and I enjoyed our cones they were so big we couldn't finish them. Lana on the other hand wouldn't let us leave until she polished off her entire cup. She literally licked it clean. The girl can eat some icecream!

Dirt Cheap

Here in Mississippi, there is a store called Dirt Cheap. It is part of a chain of stores (Hudsons, and Treasure Hunt make up the sister stores) that buys salvage items from national retailers, sifts through the trash, and sells whats left in their stores. The prices get reduced progressively on the items until they sell. Now granted, just the nature of the business model leads to shelves full of items nobody will buy because they are either damaged, missing parts, ugly, or just undesirable (like all the high school musical 3 dolls, or the grocery cart full of greeting cards for $10). I do enjoy stopping in every once in a while to look for a great deal. These are some items we have bought:
Leapster hand held game systems-$6-$12 ea.
Leapster Games- all under $12, some as few as $4.
WII remotes-$6
WII Games-less than $20
35 lb Electric Jack hammer-$12
Professional Tile saw with table-$15
Sony-noise canceling earphones-$10
a bunch of toys
Bicycle-$12
Scooters-$12
Misc clothes
Samsung blue ray dvd player with netflix, pandora, blockbuster streaming installed-$38
Sony HD Handicam with 8 gig internal flash memory-$150.00
Gas bar-b-Q grill-$7.00
Dresser for tanner-$65.00
and the list goes on.
I am always very cautious when buying stuff from Dirt Cheap, because you never know why the retailer counted it as salvage, is it broken, missing parts, a return they couldn't send back to mfg, opened packaging, damaged packaging, damaged clothing, overstock? So far we have been pretty lucky, we have only bought a few things that were unusable. The store works out for me because sometimes I am a compulsive buyer, and this store lets me scratch my compulsive itch for, well, Dirt Cheap.
-Paul

Dauphin Island

Just another weekend checkin' out the local beaches. Other than the fact that I had to walk a mile round trip just to get to the bathroom, the beach at Dauphin Island was acceptable. The weather was breezy and overcast which was perfect. No rain, although it looked like it was going to.



I think Tanner was a fish in another life. He LOVES the water, he found it especially funny when a big wave would come a long and push him over. I, on the other hand, was trying to resist the urge to tie him to my waist with the beach towel because he was making me so nervous. He actually navigates the water fairly well.



Lana enjoyed running away from the big waves and playing with her friend Emma who's family met us at the beach.



I have never laughed so hard at the beach before I saw Emma's dad play "Dead Body" with her. He lies dead still on the beach where the waves was up while she pulls on his arm trying rescue him. I'm pretty sure it freaked some people out, thankfully he'd poke his head up every few minutes to check on his boys.



The hole digging contest. It's amazing how much fun kids (and adults) can have with just a plain ol' hole at the beach.

Last day of Preschool

It is a bittersweet day for me today. Bitter because it was the last day of pre-school for Lana.

FOREVER. (sniff, sniff)

Sweet because I get to have her home with me all summer long before I have to give her away to all-day Kindergarten.




I made the kids sit for a few pictures before leaving for Lana's End of the Year program.



When my kids are yelling and screaming at each other this summer I will look at this picture and remind myself that they are not always monsters.




This one was my favorite of Lana. I think she was laughing at Tanner doing something silly.



My "thoughtful" Tanner.

I love Tanner's facial expression in this picture.

Lana did so great in her program this year. She sang all the songs and did all the actions and there was no crying because she found us in the audience!

We have grown to love her friend Gracelynn because Gracie really took Lana under her wing this year (as much as a 5 year old can). Gracie looks out for Lana (and sometimes would make her a partner in crime) but she really helped Lana come out of her shell. During the program she even made sure Lana had found us in the audience. We're sad Gracelynn will be going to a different school next year.

Lana and Mrs. Monika

We could not have asked for a better teacher this year. Each night before bed Lana frequently talks about Mrs. Monika. Sometimes she'll talk about what she did at school but mostly she talks about what she wants to give to Mrs. Monika. There were a few days where I had to do a little convincing to get Lana to go to school but for the most part she was happy to hop in the car and go. Occasionally she was sad it was a Saturday or Sunday and that she didn't get to go to school.

There are actually 11 kids in Lana's class but they took the picture on the Kindergarten registration day and a few kids were missing.

Kindergarten here we come!

Copy Paper

By Paul:
So it seems like recently the children will color on everything they arn't suppoed to color on. I will find writing/coloring on walls, furniture, windows, floors, televisions cabinets etc. The thing that has me confused is that we recently purchased paper for the purpose of coloring on, but it is still clean. I have come up with an idea. I will cover the items I don't want a crayon or pen to come close to with clean white copy paper. If my theory is correct, the children wont go near it! So if you come to our house and see white copy paper taped over all the cabinets, you will know why.

Emergency Trip To Coast-Paul

As many of you know, we have a problem brewing on the gulf coast. On Tuesday I got a phone call from my concrete supplier about an emergency trip to the coast due to the pending destruction of the coastal area. The fear is that the oil spill will cause enviornmental and economic havoc to the coast. They decided to swing into action and do what they could, while they still could. They booked a fishing cabin and chartered a fishing trip. Now this is no ordinary fishing trip, but an emergency fishing trip. With the pending catastrophe, fisherman will be out of work, and the coast will be off limits to fishing. I am so glad I was able to selfishly give of my time to help in this great effort.

Family Home Evening

Just in case my children ever come to your house and color a picture of Jesus (or any other type of church figure for that matter) like an Oomp-Loompa, I just wanted you to know where it came from...




Our FHE's are never boring.



Especially with this crazy 2 year old who crowned himself King of the Crayons. At least he knows his colors and will hand you the right crayon now instead of throwing a random handful at you.




Thanks for making FHE fun!

Gulf Shores, AL

Yesterday we headed for the beach. We'd been wanting to get out of here for a couple of weeks now and even though we'd had a few things we could have been doing (and will be busy for the next few forseeable weekends) we made the decision to just go.

We tried to keep it a secret from Lana. I bought the kids' swim suits a few weeks back and every day Lana would ask me if she could put it on or she would tell me "the weather is perfect for going to the beach, mom". We told the kids we were going to the "park" to play. But the park was far away. Then as we were loading the car, the word beach slipped out of my mouth and Lana totally caught it. I tried to save the lie but I think she had us figured out.

This is me taking a picture from underneath the canopy, because this is where I was. Sitting in the shade, reading a book. Now it's not Destin or Hawaii but it was semi close to home (about 3 1/2 hours).

When we first got to Gulf Shores, we pulled into the first parking lot we saw. It took us about 10 minutes just to drive through the parking lot only to find out it was completely full. We said forget that and drove 5 minutes down the road to this beach. It's a state park but you just have to pay a fee to fish off of the pier. It was a nice and clean beach, had restrooms and plenty of parking.

The kids and Paul built sandcastles and ...

a sand ice cream cone. Yum! Paul later made it into a garden gnome but I didn't get a picture of that one.

The kids lasted about 5 hours on the beach and then it was time to head home. Seemed like a long ride home but well worth it.

An afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese

A couple of Saturdays ago one of Lana's classmates had a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Believe it or not, but I had never stepped foot in a Chuck E. Cheese before. The kids seemed to enjoy it. Tanner was mesmorized by the animatronic mouse and Lana was creeped out. The pizza was bleh, but who goes to Chuck E. Cheese to eat pizza?


Tanner enjoyed a piece of chocolate birthday cake.


Mmmm, chocolate cake mustache.



Lana is blissfully happy in the drivers seat while Tanner looks slightly terrified riding in the back. Might possibly be a real reaction in about 11 years.