Thursday, July 26, 2012

Family Vacation

This past week we took a family vacation to Stone Mountain GA and I highly recommend going if you are ever in the area.  We stopped by my Aunt Julie and Uncle Jim's for the night and had dinner with my cousins and their families.  They gave us some great intel on vacationing at there since they have gone many times.  We had 2 day passes to do all the rides and the girls had so much fun.  We stopped by our friends at Fort Jackson on the way home to finish off a nice leisurely vacation.  Pictures were taken by phone on this trip and we forgot to take it out at a few spots and here are what we got!

Playing with our Fort Bragg friends
First time in a cloth diaper
Cousins!

First time in a go cart
Golfing as a family - not doing that again for awhile
Riley got a lot of hole in 1's
Could be since she walked up and placed her ball in the hole!
Family vacation!!



Candy - courtesy of Uncle Jim and Aunt Julie! 
Molly picked out the longest piece of candy she could find and got one for Riley too.
Going up Geyser tower
Only a dad would take his girls to this view

Duck mobile!!  Riley passed out while we quacked away

The park had a ton of family friendly things.  We enjoyed most everything it had to offer!  We rode the sky tram up to the top and then had a nice ride around the mountain in the train.  The girls spent hours playing on all equipment and crashed every night. 
Going across the ropes course
Dancing on the lawn while we waited for the laser show

Riley and a friend talking about what was about to happen.
Tears soon came as the water got her

Visiting the Long's on our way back from Stone Mountain

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Lots happened in a month!

Ok so it has been a month and for some reason I don't have too many pictures but I do have some stories so here goes.
1. Kelly got to meet her Nene and Papa when then came for a visit with Aunt Jenn and Lucky.  It was great because every girl grabbed a person and didn't let go all weekend.  Riley loved sitting in Papa's lap and would only jump off occasionally when she noticed Molly who loved talking to Aunt Jenn and chasing cousin Lucky the dog. Kelly found her rightful spot in Nene's arms and would scream when you tried to pry her out.  It was a crazy weekend since Jon was on call chaplain, on funeral duty and got to preach but we are so thankful that the grandparents got to visit and the girls got loved on!! 
2. VBS - Molly got to go to the preschool class in Vacation Bible School this year and loved telling me what she learned everyday.  The second day was a little hard at drop off but by the end of the week it was like see ya mom I want to go to class.  We learned to TRUST GOD this year and she would sing to me her trust God song and it was so fun to see her learn things.  I got to be in the theatre with Karlyn, my friend who I asked to help me, and we got to see all 200 kids each day and talk about God sightings before showing our video.  It was so fun to be able to hear kids seeing God in their life.  Also I loved getting to work with Karlyn because she is so fun, loved  on Kelly and is really an awesome lady to learn from since she is one stage ahead of me in life.
3. Single Soldiers Retreat - we went with 49 of Jon's single soldiers to Charleston, SC and that was quite the experience.  We stayed for part of the night Friday to watch the soldiers play minute to win it games and then well a room full of 49 18-20 year old guys on a Friday night is not the place for 3 young girls since the vocab was not exactly what I wanted them to pick up.  The girls loved talking to the guys Saturday morning and afternoon at meals and giggling at their antics.
4. WILD Training for PWOC - I got to go to a training with some leaders in my women's bible study (Protestant Women of the Chapel) in the mountains of GA.  WILD stands for Women Intent on Leadership Development so we were taught some leadership skills and mostly that we need Jesus to be the center of everything!!  Our theme this year is generation 2 generation and we will be focusing on the goodness of the Lord and how he is faithful from generation to generation - Psalm 145:4.
5. Jon had a weekend alone with the big girls and I got a few texts of funny things: Molly found the marker and drew all over Riley, he had to keep them busy so in 1 day he took them to the park then Monkey Joe's bounce house then Taco Bell then Walmart and then home to sleep, the girls are eating machines, Sunday morning a girl in chapel gave her live to Jesus
6.  Jon left for Pre-Ranger School Monday at 2am, if he makes it through the next 16 days then he gets to leave for Ranger school 3 days after he gets back.
7.  We got family photos taken by our friend Erica who is a photographer and I am glad we had someone to take them all since with 3 small kids you have to take 20 crazy ones to get 1 good photo!  Below are a few of the outtakes and a good one of the girls
8. We have awesome neighbors who have been taking Molly around dinner for an hour or two to play so that I could cook when Jon was here.  Both of our neighbors have a girl close to Molly's age and it seems like they alternated who would take her and it was so great!!  So one day I braved having 4 kids and took Mikayla with us to Fascinate-U to play with the girls.
9. The girls and I are adjusting to life without Jon and will soon be traveling up to DC to see friends to make the time fly.

Can you feel the love?

Sisters

Candid shot of Jon spitting out his gum and me talking while the girls look oh so happy to be getting pictures taken!

Molly and Mikayla