7 Months!!

In August, baby boy turned 7 months! What was he doing at 7 months? Let me check my baby book...ah yes, he got his first two teeth! They came in on the bottom and he puts everything in his mouth to try them out! He is working on sitting unassisted. He took his first long car trip down to TN. He did great in the car, but we found out that he apparently doesn't sleep well in the car. I don't know if there is too much going on with the other kids or if he just doesn't like it, but he barely slept the entire trip. He wasn't cranky though and didn't cry - he just played with his toys and chilled. I think he might have slept about 45 minutes in the morning and maybe a half hour in the afternoon. He did great though! He swam in the lake and went on a boat for the first time while in TN. He smiles and laughs a lot and loves to be tickled. He's a happy and sweet baby!

I love this one of him sucking his thumb too - so cute!

End of Summer Fun

Once we got back from TN, there were only a few weeks left of summer.  So in between getting ready for school (which requires a lot of shopping), we tried to get in all our last minute summer fun.  I am not sure I mentioned this, but we did manage to grow a garden this year.  We were unsure of how it would work out, but it actually did really well.  We don't have quite as much space for a garden as we did in our last house (smaller backyard and much more shade), but we did find a spot by the garage and although it was long and narrow, it worked out pretty well.  We grew 3 types of tomatoes and cucumbers, which were so yummy!  I love garden fresh tomatoes!!

 We couldn't get to family camping this summer - Matthew was just too little - so we picked a night to camp in our backyard.  Unfortunately, the night we had set aside to do it, they were predicting thunderstorms overnight.  So, we set up the fire pit, made knights in shining armor for dinner and of course s'mores (messy, but delicious)!  Then we called in a night and headed inside for bed.  Oh well, maybe next summer.

 Paul has been offering to have us come downtown and tour his new office building, so one sunny afternoon, I loaded up the kids and we took the train downtown.  It wouldn't have been bad at all, except when we got to the train station, I expected to go inside the station to buy the tickets.  Well, the train station was closed, which meant you had to buy the tickets on the train...in cash...which I didn't have.  I tried to look as pathetic as possible when the train came and asked the guy if we could buy the tickets with credit card or if we could get on the train and he looked annoyed, said no, and closed the train door!  So we watched the train pull away, knowing the next train would not come for another hour.  The kids and I debated about what to do (should we drive downtown, wait for the next train, or just forget the adventure for the day and try again another time).  Finally, we loaded back into the car, ran to the ATM, and headed back to the train station to catch the next train.  The kids were great on the train.  I had brought some snacks and coloring stuff as it's about 45 minutes downtown when you aren't on an express train.  A woman next to me with a 2 year old seemed rather impressed with how well my 4 children were behaving, but I assured her their ages were currently easier than a 2 year old!  Anyway, we finally made it downtown and Daddy met us at the station and walked us to his building.  He gave us the grand tour, which was very cool.  We met his coworkers and his boss, ate some free snacks, and visited the roof deck!

 We spent a good amount of time in the game room too.  Then we picked up a snack and headed back to the train station to go home.  It was a fun afternoon, even after the rocky start!

 And big news...Abbey lost her first tooth!  She lost it at the pool and was so excited!!

 

Getting ready to put it in the tooth pillow for the tooth fairy to come!!

We also went down to see our favorite museum, Museum of Science and Industry!  Matthew chilled in his stroller for most of it.

 We toured the submarine, which is my favorite exhibit!

 Abbey the astronaut!  We also saw the IMAX movie about butterflies, which was really interesting.

 Juliette riding the cow.

 Matthew chilling in his stroller.

 It was also the home opener for the Irish that day, so Matthew sported his ND onesie from Cousin Godfather Andrew!

You can't see the picture very well, but the kids are pointing to the exhibit about BP for Aunt Theresa!

 We tried to teach Juliette to ride a two wheeler bike, but she wasn't quite ready.  That's OK.  We will work on it again next summer.

 Happy baby playing in his toy!

 And we said a sad goodbye to Daddy's favorite place...Caribou Coffee :(

TN Trip Follow-Up

I was going back through the pictures on my phone and saw a few from TN that I wanted to post as well. I forgot to mention during all the fishing that we did, we caught something else....a turtle!  It was hard to reel in and everyone thought it was going to be a huge catfish, but instead, we hooked a poor little turtle :(

Just a cute shot of Juliette on the dock.

I briefly mentioned that Mama Kay spent a lot of time with Matthew so he could nap.  We came back from a boat ride to find them relaxing together on the swing - so cute!

 

 

I also forgot to mention that before Ben tried skiing with skis, he went behind the boat on this float, which is a beginner ski tool that teaches kids to stand up behind the boat and to get the feel of pulling back on the rope.  He did great on it!

I mentioned in my previous post that Juliette started out the week on the dock, then went to swimming in the lake as long as someone was holding her hand, to swimming freely off the dock (and venturing away from the dock).  She was a pro by the end of the week!

A few shots of Abbey and Daddy on the tube (before she flew through the air and into the lake)!

And this is a great shot of our car trip...two in the way back, two in the middle, and a dog that floated between!

End of Summer Trip to TN

It is freezing cold here...so let's look back to summer, when it was nice and warm and we went swimming and vacationed to TN! At the end of July/early August, we took our annual trip down to TN to visit Mama Kay and Papa. This year, like last year, Madgie and Patch rented a house close by so we were able to visit with them too. But, first stop, Mama Kay and Papa's house. After a long car ride, the kids were anxious to get their suits on and get to the lake. Maybe taking a quick break in the hammock first though....

This was Matthew's first time to the lake and his first time on the dock...he sure looks excited!

Like most things he has tried, he was pretty ambivalent about swimming in the lake.  He didn't cry or fuss, but he didn't get excited either.  Just another thing my parents are making me do...

Ben steering the canoe.

OK Dad, are we done swimming?

Belle enjoyed coming down this year and swimming in the water.  We had to push her in at first, but after a day or two she was jumping off the dock.

And she was sure to follow Ben in the canoe.

This cutie started off the week just putting her toes in the water. 

Matthew went on his first canoe ride too.

Abbey jumped right off the dock and loved relaxing in the water.

Eventually, Juliette would jump off the dock, as long as Papa was holding her hands as she jumped.  She did not want to be in the water without someone holding her hand.

Abbey though was doing crazy jumps off the dock!

This was the first summer that Ben went tubing by himself (without the boat going very slowly that is).  He really enjoyed it!

The girls love riding on the boat!

Ben tubing by himself!

Boating and swimming sure makes a little girl tired...

And there was a lot of fishing to be done too! 

Look what Ben caught!

A catfish!  We fried him up for dinner and it was actually pretty tasty!

Mama Kay and Papa with the girls on the dock.

The girls did a little fishing too.

We took Matthew to the beach and put him in a floatie.  Again, didn't cry, but didn't love it either. 

He did, however, really enjoy the swing at the playground on the beach!

Especially when big brother played with him.

Matthew went on the boat for the first time - my little boating kids - love it!

Mama Kay held him when the boat got going faster.

More fishing!

Juliette took to fishing this trip too.

Just a few cute pictures taken on the dock.

Daddy helping her fish.

While these three were fishing, Abbey was being a fish swimming in the water - she loved the swimming off the dock.

We got to eat some of Mama Kay's fresh from the garden produce...nice carrot!

Relaxing with a snack at the beach!

Playing in the sand - the girls really love going to the beach!

We played games of tic-tac-toe on the beach and had jumping contests too. 

Juliette is just happy playing in the sand though.

Matthew getting some sibling love.

And one day, Papa took us and Madgie and Patch over to the Smoky National Park for a splash hike!  Mama Kay stayed home with Matthew (thank you Mama Kay!!).  The kids before the hike - very excited!

It was a little chilly at the start, but not once we got going.

Papa leading our group.

We got to cross several streams.

Ben helping Juliette come across with the walking stick.

She didn't need his help though!

Madgie and Abbey crossing.

Keeping up with Papa and Ben.

There's some of our group!

Crossing streams

Looks like I am helping Juliette

But really she was helping me.  I was the only one to fall in the stream....twice....and I had the bruises to show for it the next day too!

She's a pro!

Then we came to a great spot for lunch by this beautiful waterfall.

How scenic!

After we ate, the kids played around for a bit in the water.

Paul was helping Ben come across and he slipped on a rock and got totally wet.  Not sure if you can see his face well in this picture, but he has a huge smile - he thought it was great!

On the other hand, this is the face of a little girl who had the opposite reaction when she fell and got all wet!

And here is how Patch reacted to falling in the water....just kidding, he didn't really fall, just pretending.  Look at his captive audience though!

After lunch it was time to head back.  At first, it looked like Paul was going to have to carry Juliette the whole way back.

But Patch jumped in and got both girls going in a race.  It was them against us and we didn't see them again until we got back to the car.  Apparently they ran most of the way.  Every now and then they would stop and walk, but then they would check to see if we were coming.  If they saw us or could hear us, they took off again!  What a great game, Patch!  It really got the girls going and made the hike back a lot easier on us!

And they're off!

That was a really fun day hiking, thanks for taking us Papa!  Back at the dock, this princess checks out the latest catches of the day.

Even I caught a fish!

More fishing.

Lake swimming kisses.

And Ben got brave this summer and tried water skiing.  He has never wanted to try before, but for some reason, got excited about it this year.  We pulled him off the dock to help him get the feel. 

He tried it behind the boat and got so close!  He almost had it, but then the skis popped off his foot and scraped it up and he didn't want to try again after that.  Unfortunately we didn't try with him until the last day, so he didn't get a chance to heal and try again.  We will see what next summer brings.

Abbey got brave on the last day too and went tubing with Daddy.  She loved it!  They went outside and wake and just had a lot of fun.  Until....she hit a bump funny and went flying off the top behind Paul.  I have never seen Paul scramble so fast to intentionally jump off the tube and get to Abbey.  She was crying and a bit scared, but when we pulled up on the boat, we all made a huge deal about how brave she was and she became pretty proud of herself after that.  She wouldn't get on the tube again though!

The last two days we went and stayed at Madgie and Patch's house and swam off their dock.

Abbey was another fish over there too.

Juliette on the dock.

Juliette wanted no part of being in the tube behind the boat (even before Abbey's flip into the lake).  She did get in with Patch for a bit though, as long as the tube was tied to the dock!

Matthew enjoying some dock time.

And Madgie made a cake for Juliette and Ginny to celebrate the end of summer birthdays!

That's right, Uncle Chris, Aunt Ginny and Brendan came down for a weekend too.  Ben and Brendan playing!

Daddy driving the golf cart down to the dock - this house had a seriously steep walk down to the dock.

Brendan is all ready to go on the boat!

At first, he was rather unsure about the boat.

But once it got going, he enjoyed it!

More beach time.

Playing in the sand with Brendan.

Brendan enjoying splashing in the lake.

And finally, Matthew interacted with the lake.  He sat on the beach and splashed the water, which he seemed to like!

And he liked grabbing the sand and eating it too...

We determined he liked the lake after all!

Ben spent his last day relaxing with a book at the beach.

We had a really great trip!  We love being at the lake, boating, going to the beach, and most importantly, visiting with family.  Thank you Mama Kay for spending a lot of time at the house while Matthew napped so we could take the big 3 out on the boat and to the beach.  Thank you all for having us - we can't wait to go back again (I am currently dreaming of the lake while watching snow flurries out my window!).