4th of July!

Happy Birthday, USA!!

We were able to have a nice relaxing day this year....we pretty much did nothing for most of the day. I DID remember to get strawberry soda and vanilla ice cream for Bob....so he shared his strawberry float tradition with the girls. Totally forgot to take a picture of it. My bad.

But we did get to see Grandpa Pat and Uncle Rudy!

 And then we set up on the lawn of Shen campus to wait for FIREWORKS!

 Bob and the girls took a little rest...

 ....how cute are they?!?! (yes, ALL of them!)

....Awwwww....

 .....and I even got some cuddle-time in! And then it got dark and we didn't take any more pictures.

....and on to June!

With Bob traveling we sometimes get a chance to go visit him and have some extra fun! This time we visited the aquarium in Boston.....and discovered that Danielle is just about terrified out of her wits by large sharks and whales hanging from the ceiling. When it's RIGHT inside the door, it makes for inventive parenting. Bob gets all the credit for the day not being a disaster as he had a bit more patience than I did sitting outside watching the sea lion....for over an hour. All said and done, we had a great time (minus the few roadbumps) and got to see some cool stuff.

 Boston!

Posing....then I proceeded to break the camera. We finally got it working again and we were able to get....

 Bob and the girls!

.....and we enter the Marine Mammal exhibit. And there we stayed for a VERY long time. First Mommy got to go wander around inside alone....

 ....while Daddy entertained the girls.....

 ....and they were fascinated with this guy:

 ....he was out of the pool for about 5 minutes....

 ....and then we convinced Danielle to go back inside and watched PENGUINS!! Very cool museum. Just beware the hanging whale shark -- little girls are scared of it.

Then a trip to Cousins' House!

Every year we take a trip to visit Marc and Sonja over Mother's Day weekend.....with Grandma visiting, it's the one day of the year that she gets to have both kids and all her grandkids under one roof!

 Caleb and Eli were happy to see us!

 ....Kirsten being goofy!

 Sonja cooked for us....

 Marc cleaned....

 Ashley was silly....

....and bedtime story time was definately a favorite.

Sooo....yeah. I'm FINALLY catching up!

After a very, very long hiatus.....I'm back! Well, I'm going to try to be. I have a lot to catch up on, so here we go:

Grandma Sweetie visited in May!

 Reading the girls a book....

 ....check out Ashley chillin'....

....Grandma's the BEST!!

Easter photo-shoot!

I claim absolutely no talent. But the odds of having a VERY NICE camera and taking about 100 pictures usually means that a few cute ones show up!

Cutie pie!

 Little smiles....

 See Mommy?

 ....just looking....

 Awww....

 Sisters!

 ....not sure why she looks so worried....

 ....secrets? (already?!)

 Just plain silly!

 More silly face!

 Oh, those eyes!

 What a sweetheart!

Easter Egg Hunt (with family)

The family got together on Easter and of course, we HAD to have an Easter egg hunt. Tim and Lynne were kind enough to hide all the eggs outside, and then we all had fun with the kids!

 The kids were let out to the backyard....but the 4 oldest were told to wait on the steps....

...while the two toddlers got to look first!

So exciting!

Timothy filling his bag....

Ok, how adorable is that?!?!

 The big kids are getting restless....

Mary's concerned because she sees an egg, but Timothy doesn't understand!

....and Danielle needs a hug and a little pep-talk from Aunt Mary about waiting.....poor thing, it's so hard to wait when you can SEE where you want to be!!

And they're off!!

Uncle Raymond helps Mary get her egg!

Ethan poses so well for a picture! (very artistic, Bob!)

Hi, Asher!!

....reach.....

...showing off a bag FULL of eggs!

....one last egg!