Judson Family Reunion 2014

 Our first day we spent at Burke Lake Park.  It was beautiful!  We had a great spot under the shady picnic area and close to the lake.

 We rode the merry go round.  We wanted to get icecream but it was closed by the time we got there.

 We also rode the train around the park.

 The kids absolutely enjoyed hanging out with all their cousins.

 The second day we went to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home.  We had car troubles on the way there and wasn't sure if we were going to make it home.  Aside from stalling a couple of times, we made it back just fine.

 Share a Coke with me Paul!  Hahaha

 This sassy girl was not super happy about stopping to take pictures since we were all dying from the heat, but she sure can take a cute pic.

 Selfies with my Tanner Manner

 I love this kid

 My all time favorites

 Hanging out at Thomas Jefferson's Casa.

 The third and final day we went to Great Falls Park, the Maryland side.  We rode this boat up the canals.  It was pretty neat going up the canal lock.

 The girl cousins and Porter

 Such handsome fellows

 After the canal ride, we walked over to the falls and saw some great views!  Too bad it was so stinking hot!  I would've loved to have stayed longer.

 It was so fun to get together and do some really fun things that we haven't done before even with all of our visits to Virginia!  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for all your planning and funding of the activities!!!

Happy 9th Birthday Lana!

 So we started her birthday celebrations at the Judson Family Reunion, where we sang happy birthday to all the June/July birthdays.  Then when we got home on her actual birthday, we had some friends over for a pool party, pizza and chocolate cake.  It was absolutely perfect since we were still in the middle of unpacking our crap.
 I also did a terrible job of documenting the whole process but at least there's a few pics!

 We tried lighting the candles outside, but it was too windy so we had to move to the garage.

Happy birthday sweet girl!

Our first day of summer

We moved into our new house about 2 days before.  The house was still a mess, we had painters prepping for paint and I was frantically trying to pack up stuff for our Judson Family Reunion in Virginia in 2 days.  We took a break and spent a couple of hours out in the pool, enjoying the hot day and cool water.  We've LOVED the pool (thank heavens for those winter swim lessons we took!) and we have tried to take advantage of it every day we could this summer!

Tanner's Kindergarten Graduation

 Our Tanner graduated Kindergarten this year.  What?!  How on earth did that happen?  It turned out to be a fabulous year. 

 The night before graduation we went to say night time prayers at his bed and he got all sad on me and started to tear up.  When I asked him why, he said it was because he was going to miss Kindergarten and that he was also afraid that first grade wouldn't be as fun.  Oh man, what do you say to that?  "You're absolutely right?!"  Haha, I love my tender hearted boy.

 Tanner made a lot of good friends in his class and was happy and excited to go to school pretty much every day.  Even toward the end of the year I convinced him to start getting school lunch on the days they had things he liked.  Win win for both of us!!

 His Teacher Mrs. Rubin was fantastic.  She also got teacher of the year this year, so congrats to her! 

Congratulations buddy!  First Grade will be awesome!

First Six Flags trip of the season

  We scored an awesome deal on Six Flags season tickets last fall and today was the first Saturday we could go.  The weather was amazing and the park wasn't too crowded.

 Porter passed out while we were waiting for Paul and the kids to ride the Log Flume.  It was the longest wait of the day (probably about 30 min).

I was a little surprised they wanted to ride it considering the drop at the end.  But they LOVED it!

Afterwards we rode the Skyway while Paul walked with a sleeping Porter across the park.

While we were waiting for Paul & Porter I told the kids I wanted to take a picture of them and they were all whiny and didn't want to do it.  So I said, let's take a picture of you acting like you like each other and then we can do one where you act like you don't like each other.

 Not surprisingly they were all for it.

 My favorite ride this trip was the scrambler.  I tried to take a picture of us before the ride started and that's the face Tanner made.  Oy vey.

I love that Lana and Tanner and now old enough they can ride the kiddie rides by themselves!  Before I know it they'll be riding the gigantic roller coasters with Paul.  Kids grow up too fast...

Joint Base Air Show

 There is a joint military base right behind our house and they were hosting an air show this year (first time in a few years).  The showcase group was the Thunderbirds.  We saw the Blue Angels a few years ago at Keesler AFB in Mississippi and they were just awesome!

 I didn't get many pictures because I had to hold Porter the entire time.  He was not a huge fan of the loud planes (but didn't cry as long as I was holding my hands over his ears).  They had some pretty neat performers.  And due to the smaller crowd we had awesome seats.

 The Thunderbirds were pretty neat as well.  Not as cool as the Blue Angels though, but it was still an awesome sight to behold. 

The rain came right at the end of the show and as we were haulin' it to the car it started to pour.  A little wet, but glad we got to see the whole thing!

First father/son campout

 Fun was had by all (or so I was told).  And Tanner couldn't stop talking about for the next week and wanted to know when we could go camping again.  I'm not a huge camper, I love me a comfortable bed, air conditioning and a hot shower.  But it took me back to when we would go camping on the beach or up Kokee with my Tutu and Papa.  I'm almost considering doing the camping thing.  Almost.

Lana's art show

 A selected number of 3rd, 4th and 5th graders were chosen to have some of their art work displayed at our local library and Lana just happened to be one of them!  So awesome!  She has always loved art, drawing and anything crafty.  She was so proud and excited to show off her skills (and we are so proud of her in return!).  She had 3 art pieces hanging up.  Her butterfly.

 The Chinese dragon

And her vase of flowers.  Good job Lana!

At the park

 There is a small park down the street from our house that we frequent often.  More often than not one of the kids has to go pee or remembers they forgot to grab their water bottle (like I told them 30 seconds before walking out the door) before we've been there overly long.

Lana has also gotten into the "selfie" phase (side note, I just spelled phase as faze - I need a vacation).  She is constantly asking to see my phone so she can take a picture of herself, usually with Porter.

 Porter loves the park.  Right now he loves to walk around and point at things.  I will ask him, "what is that?" He usually replies by holding his hands up and shrugging his shoulders, like saying "I dunno".

 We went Yard Sale-ing AKA junkin' (there's your redneck word for the day) and found this push tricycle.  It's perfect for Porter because his short little legs can't quite reach the ground or pedal completely on his own.  And he loves it.  As per his expression in the above picture he is very serious about his riding.  Nothing is getting in the way of this boy and his bike.

Paul and I celebrate 12 years of marriage bliss this year!  After we took the kids to the park we left them with a babysitter and headed to downtown Tom's River for their annual food fest.  It was of course nothing like the Taste of Chicago I went to with Suzie and Steve (too many years ago to remember) but it was great to walk around and eat different types of food.  We settled on Gyros for dinner and split a salted churro dipped in dulce du leche for desert. Best thing I've eaten in a long time!