Our favorite Place

We went back to the Outer banks last week. It was Fabulous!!!! I think it was the best week of weather we have ever had. It was sunny and perfect. We had about 10 minutes of rain one night. We drove down there all through the rain and were nervous that it was going to be rainy the whole week. Instead, it was heavenly. I am trying to convince Dave to move down there when we retire. He said if I stop spending money now we could retire there. If only I could...

Siena is so excited to be at the beach

 Claire once again is terrified of the sand. The whole week she was either on a blanket next to the sand to dig in it like this, or on her little chair. She would not touch the sand.

 The water was perfect. We found a sandbar out a little way and you could stand out there. I never made it out that far but Dave spent a good amount of time out there and Siena learned that she loved the Ocean. I think it helped that there were 4 older girls there and she tried to keep up with them and went in the ocean with them. She loved boogie boarding and went out to the sandbar. She was so brave. We saw dolphins and there were fish that were swimming and jumping out of the water right where we were swimming. I found it a little creepy. It was weird to be out swimming and have a fish jump right out of the water 3 feet in front of you. We never figured out why.

 Claire perched above the sand on her chair.

 Ben stayed mostly on the shore digging.

 The whole house. All 27 of us. It was such a nice house and it was really nice to be there with them. My kids loved all the other kids and had fun with them. It is actually the same house we went to a month ago with Daves family. It was fun going back to the same place. I was a little nervous at first because there were no kids exactly my kids ages. Siena loved the older girls and they were really nice to her. They all shared a room and Siena loved being in the bunk beds with the big girls. She and Paige, who is almost 5 got along so well too. They were really cute together for the week. Ben mostly followed around the 2 6 year old boys and liked to play with little Brian.

We had a girls night out and a boys night out and it was really nice. We had fun trying new restaraunts and being away from the kids for a couple hours.

This game scares me. Claire loves it.

Rocknoceros. We went to the library program to see this kid band. It was so much fun. Ben was a little scared until they started and he understood what was going on and then he joined in on the dancing. Claire took a while to warm up and I stood in the back with her. Then she saw her brother and sister dancing with friends and she had to join in. Siena had a couple days where she was obsessed with wearing her ballet leotard everywhere. I am glad that little obsession is over. They all had so much fun and it was a cute band. I told Dave he could quit his day job and become a band like this. He wasn't too excited.

I am starting to get to the point where I am anxiously waiting for school to start. I think Siena and Ben have had enough time together. They have started to argue too much. This is basically our last week of summer, then we go to the beach for a week before school starts. We have enjoyed our lazy days and I will definately miss that.

We have really taken advantage of the Water park Thursday night Family night. It is where the waterpark gives dinner and games and music from 4-7. I look forward to it just so I don't have to cook dinner. We have always found friends there that night and enjoy being there. Siena has really started to getting competitive about the games. She tried really hard at winning one of them. She tells me each day that we need to go buy a hoola hoop so she can practice here at home so she can do it the longest and win. It's a little sad that the chances are so slim that she will win. She is really trying and having fun doing it so it makes me happy.

Claire is 17 months and it is so much fun. She tries to keep up with the older ones all day. She is constantly following them around.  She has this new excited face expression and it is hillarious. If you tell her anything and get all excited about it she will get all excited too. It is too cute. She does know a couple things to get excited about. Ice cream and hot dogs. I tried to get her all excited about brocolli and it didn't work, so she understands some of it.

 Claire has a shoe obsession. Our shoes are always in different places than where we left them now. I had all the kids packed up in the car the other day while I ran around the house looking for my shoes. I have found them in the bathtub many times. Crazy baby!
She is not saying a lot of words but she knows how to communicate. If she wants you to do something she will come and grab your hand and pull you over to it. If she wants you to sit somewhere she will sit there and pat the seat like she wants you to come and sit with her. Who needs to talk when you can just drag people around.  If we ask her things now she will nod her head no. Atleast she isn't yelling no at me. She no longer ever wants to go to bed, cuddle, go inside or be all done. It's pretty funny and she is pretty adament about it.
We only have 3 more weeks till nursery. Yea! I hope it will be an easy transition. Really what is there not to like about nursery? Today she went with me to primary. She sat in her little chair nicely and rocked to the music while I got some things done. It was really nice.

 We went to a Nationals game Friday night with the Earnests. We had a good time with friends. Our kids discovered the playground there. Ben and Siena Loved it. It is like the McDonald slides and tubes. It was perfect for them. I was there for probably two innings with them and I missed a grand slam for it. Claire really wasnt happy about being held back for the picture. All the kids had little Nationalsa caps it was cute. We lasted the whole game!

My kids have it all figured out. Siena has said that when she grows up she wants to be a princess. Ben keeps saying he wants to be a construction worker when he grows up. I am not really sure where he came up with that.  So he has told Siena that he will build her a princess castle when they grow up. So cute. It makes me laugh every time.

Some of July

I hate carrying around the big camera so here are some iphone pictures.

We visited Burke Lake Park. Dave has been training for the RAGNAR race and is wanted to go run around Burke Lake. He had told the kids all about the lake how they could go play while he ran around the lake. It turned out to storm that day so I took them back another day. It is always so crowded there. Even when it is near 100 degrees.

Claire rode the merry go round for the first time by herself. She was terrified until she realized that her animal didn't move.

We also rode the little train around. Ben was terrified of it. I don't know what his problem was. We have been on this train before. He was worse than Claire. Siena insisted that we sit in front and I think it was too loud for Claire. She hated the whistle. I felt bad I had 2 screaming kids and we were siting in the front of the train so everyone could see my screamin kids.

 We visited Pirates Cove. We love the waterpark. One day we couldn't convince any friends to come with us but the two older kids entertained themselves so nicely. It was a perfect day. They played nicely together for hours and Claire napped in her stroller. I finally got to sit by the pool and relax! so nice.
Then we went back the next two days with friends. I love being at the pool. Siena is finally really confident in the pool. Ben is doing great too and will go under water now.

 This past weekend we went up to Hershey. Cousin Brendan was baptized. It is always fun to be with cousins. We didn't get any pictures of the baptism and cousins but we got plenty of crazy pictures of the kids on Grandmas swing. It was a great baptism and then we had family time. We shopped at the outlet mall for school clothes and Dave clothes. No trip to Hershey would be complete without chocolate world. We go there everytime we are up in Hershey. It was a fun weekend.

what was I thinking!!!!!!!!

Wed night I was going to fry some potatoes with seasoning for dinner. I stepped away from the stove and came back and the oil was burning. Not thinking, I took the pan to go and dump the oil out. I don't know what I was thinking... so dumb. It splatted all over my right hand and on the floor and now I have 2nd degree burns on my hand. IT is the most painful thing Ever! I was in so much pain. I sat and soaked my hand for an hour. Dave was still at work so I called him and told him to rush home. I had my right hand in a soaking bowl as I was throwing goldfish at my kids to eat while Dave came home to make them dinner. It was horrible. I was in so much pain. I would rather go through labor than have second degree burns. I was so thankful that Claire wasn't crawling around on the floor like she usually is while I make dinner. Everyone was down playing in the basement so they didn't see any of this happen. I took some pain medicine and went to sleep. I didn't want to go to the emergency room after hours. I woke up the next day and my thumb has a huge blister on it and my skin all around my thumb is all purple. I about passed out it was so gross looking. I called my family Dr. that I haven't seen in 3 years and told them and they told me to come right in. I was at the Dr. for 2 hours. Luckily Dave was able to work from home Thursday and Friday. He basically has done everything. The Dr. said I couldn't get it wet through the weekend. No baths, no dishes... so Dave has done a lot. The family Dr. was worried that it may have been more severe and since it was so bubbly and she couldn't see my knuckle so she sent me to a plastic surgeon. I also had to get my tetanus shot since I was up for another one and you should when you get a burn I guess. That was really painful the next day. Now I feel a little bad for my kids when they are always going to the Dr. and getting shots. Poor kids. I passed out once in my life, when I got laser eye surgery. As my family Dr. was talking about my blister and maybe having the plastic surgeon cut away the dead skin I almost passed out. The thought of anyone touching my hand was awful. I had to lay down at the Dr. office for a while before they would let me leave. I can do pregnancy and delivery I just can't do gross blood and sores. It was an awful day. I now have lots of bandages and cream and some really good drugs. I was telling Dave that I really do need the pain relief drugs because about every 4 hours I can feel when it is starting to wear off and I start feeling pain again. The plastic surgeon said it was fine and not that deep. I am going back in a week to get it all cleaned up and cut away. I don't know how I will deal with that. Maybe take some good drugs before I go in. Yuck. I am never cooking again... atleast not with oil.