Making Memories

I had the opportunity to see some other very special people on our visit home. My little sister, Dee(left), is home from Venezuela. This is the first time I have seen her in a year! It was so good to see her and be able to talk with her face to face. It was also nice for the kids to finally meet her. And I got to see my sweet Mackenzie! Oh, I miss her so much! She is growing up so fast!

And of course we saw Mr. Blue Eyes, better known as our nephew Connor.

Special Time with the Santry's

Our time with the Santry's was my favorite day of the whole MA vacation. Why? Because we didn't do anything! We stayed home all day, played outside, ate pizza, talked, laughed....just hung out. I am a true believer that the simple things in life are the best and this day was pretty simple :) Uncle Tim and Nate...

Having fun with Grampa...

How many kids can Jake hold?!

Making a pyramid...well...at least trying to make a pyramid...

Fun in the fort...

Beezy and Abby are just so sweet together! Abby was soooo excited to see Bee! She couldn't wait for her to come over and was so sad to see her go.

Joe Joe and Nate. Nate calls Joseph, Joe Joe, and apparently Nate is the only one who is allowed to do this. Joseph must really adore Nate to let him do that!

Uncle Jake and Joe...

Elizabeth and Emma...

It was a great day and we made so many memories!

Ice Cream & New Friends

Jake and I are starting to blend together our two families. This is tricky when we live 7 hours away from both of our families and when we travel home it is usually only for a couple days. There is always so much to do and so many people to see in such a short amount of time. Since our most recent visit was a little longer, we had the opportunity to spend a little time with my family. The kids got to visit with my Mom, Memere & Pepere while enjoying some yummy ice cream. It's two chocolates and one bubble gum for these kiddos...

It was a beautiful summer evening...

Nathan adores my Memere. All week Nate had his little notebook and pen with him and he "wrote" my Memere a love note! He is just too cute!

An Afternoon with the Marshall's

Emma, Abby and Nate had the opportunity to spend an entire afternoon at Grampa Marshall & Memere's house a couple weeks ago. They had fun playing with Grampa, Memere, Logan and Luke at their new house.

Nathan liked the slide... Apparently, Grampa does too!

Luke and Emma out for a spin...

We got to meet one of Logan and Luke's pet. Let me introduce you to George...

George is the boys' pet snake. Yes...I did just say S-N-A-K-E!

And the kids LOVED him! But I kept my distance. Notice I don't have any close-up photos of George :)

Logan and Nate played on the tree swing...

Luke and his big brother, Jake. From what I am told, Luke is a lot like what Jake used to be at this age.

The whole family! Nathan is, once again, sad to be leaving :( Luckily we will be seeing the Marshall family all again later this summer.

Summertime At Nana's House

Whenever we go back to MA, Barbara & Jake's house is always "home base" for us. It is where we sleep, eat, and call home for however long we are there for. We recently got to spend 5 days with Barbara and Jake on our first of two vacations in MA this summer. (Note: in the picture below Nathan is pouting because he is sad that we were leaving Nana's for only a few hours, so precious!) The kids love to go to Nana's house and are always so anxious to see her, Grandpa Daly and Sage. The have lots of fun playing and exploring at Nana's house. Their favorite thing to do on this past trip was play in the huge pine tree across the street from Nana's. This was their fort and was complete with a secret door.

Nathan was a true boy playing in here with sticks and dirt and his great imagination.
On occasion, the kids even allowed adults to join them in their fort...

Abby and Emma had fun playing store and restaurant. Here in their fort they made several different creative "meals."

One day during our stay in MA, Nana, Jake and the kids ventured out to Dunn's Park for a day of swimming fun. Unfourtunately, they arrived at the lake to discover this...

So, needless to say, there was no swimming this day but they still managed to have plenty of fun! They enjoyed a picnic lunch...

Dug in the sand...

And played at the playground...

They did manage to find a way to have fun in the water before the day was through...

Who needs a lake when you have a water hose?!

Handsome boy...

Enjoying the warm sunshine...

Soaking up the sun...

And, of course, we had fun with Grandpa Daly too! Here is the handsome guy we all love so much...

We found Grandpa Daly asleep in his chair just like this with seashells in his eyes. We are not entirely sure how he ended up like this, but something tells us that Emma, Abby & Nate may have an idea! Gotta love Grandpa!

One Fish, Two Fish, Three Fish

Three little fish (better known as Emma, Abby & Nate) is what we had at our house this past weekend. It was hot, sunny, perfect summer weather all weekend and we spent all day both Saturday and Sunday swimming! Saturday, our friends who are members at the brand new local YMCA invited us to go swimming with them. All the kids had so much fun splashing around together. Since Jake missed all the fun Saturday while he was at work, Sunday we found another pool nearby (that doesn't require a membership to get into) to swim at. There were three pools, a diving board, water slide and fountains to keep everyone entertained all day. The kids spent a total of 9 hours swimming in one weekend!

I just love the goggles :)

Abby and Nate had fun in the mushroom fountain...

Abigail is quite the little swimmer now! Thanks to Grandmom and Pop Pop who took both Emma and Abby to two weeks of swimming lessons recently, this little girl is like a fish in water! She had plenty of opportunity this past weekend to show off all she had learned in her lessons. I think the most exciting part of this weekend for Abby was that because she is able to swim on her own she was allowed to go down the water slide by herself!

Emma is also a great swimmer and spends much of her time swimming underwater. I know it's lots of fun for her, but I must say that it is a little nerve wracking for Jake and I. Especially when you are at a pool full of kids and you are trying to keep your eye on her at all times! Emma was brave and tried out the diving board at the pool on Sunday. She loved it and probably would have spent the whole day going off it if it weren't for the fact she was not allowed to wear her goggles when jumping off the diving board (we didn't know this until after her first jump which she wore her goggles for). I think the next swimming challenge for Em will to be attempt to go underwater without goggles :)

And then there's Nathan! Let me tell you, this little boy has come so far! A year ago all Nate would do in the pool is play on the steps. He had no interest in letting an adult hold him and take him out in deeper waters, he had no interest in wearing his life jacket and swimming around himself, and he had absolutely NO interest in going underwater. Oh, how things have changed! This past spring at the hotel pool with Nana, Nate finally would let us dunk him underwater. On Sunday, Nate was willingly going underwater by himself! He spent the majority of his time at the pool on Sunday underwater! He was so much fun to watch and is becoming a little fish in water just like his big sisters. Here is a video so you can see for yourself...