Summer Catch Up

This may be the longest blog post ever. Between the demise of my laptop, the kids being around all the time this summer and another round of reading the Bible in 90 days, not much blogging has happened this summer. So here's a round-up of what we've been up to and some fun pictures we've gotten.

We'll start with 4th of July. My mom had a big family get together with cousins galore. Here are the cousins that were there: Brock, Bennett, Noah, Jackson, Anna Grace & Julianna (Adeline & Davidson weren't there that day). Anna Grace was so big holding the baby!

And here's the entire group. My mom & her sister and most all of each of their families.
(And I know, you're wondering who's baby is that I'm holding but it's my cousin's. Probably will be confusing years from now when the kids are grown & we look back! Oh well, she was asleep & comfortable!)

So little Julianna was not the only "baby" Anna Grace wanted to hold. Too bad Noah looks about as big as her in this picture. Not such a baby anymore!

Also for the 4th of July, we met some friends at Homewood Park to watch the fireworks at Vulcan. It was a great spot to watch and the kids had a blast on the playground before it got dark.

Here's Bennett on the dinosaur. It's the best shot I could get, he was riding so fast!

Noah climbing on the big jungle gym. He's growing up way too much!

This is just a silly picture. I guess we turned the a/c down too low one night because when Bennett woke up he was freezing. He insisted on wearing the Snuggie while he ate breakfast!

Did you participate in the dress like a cow & get free food day at Chick-Fil-A? Well we did and I think we had some of the cutest cows around! Shane & I strategically avoided the camera but don't doubt that we humbled ourselves to dress like cows as well. There's not much we won't do for free food!

This past week, we tagged along with Shane to Florence/Muscle Shoals where his company is located. We were able to stay in the super nice Marriott Shoals which was awesome. The room was huge and beautiful. The balcony overlooked the pool, which has all sorts of fountains & a water slide. It was pure luxury. The boys were thrilled to stay in a hotel for the first time in their recent memory. Noah even asked if we could just live there.
The first day, we visited the place I used to work. It was great to see all of my old friends there & let them meet the boys. I wish I could have spent more time catching up but they needed to work & I needed to get out before the boys ate their 10th hershey's minatures each & went crazy!

We visited a great playground that I think was built while I lived there but I didn't pay much attention since it was pre-kids. Here's a picture of just one part - pretty awesome.

We had a bunch of our old friends come and swim with us once we checked into the hotel and afterwords, we ate dinner at my all time favorite restaurant, Ricatoni's. Here's a sweet picture of all the kids. Glad we were able to get this shot!
Mason Buerhaus, Micah Buerhaus, Bennett, Noah, Haley Chambers, Molly Buerhaus

And here's Noah, charming the ladies!

The next day, we played in the hotel some more with another set of friends. Then after check-out we went to the library in Florence that they built while we lived there. They have a great kids section and the boys had a great time there. Then we headed to the much anticipated splash pad. It turned out to be Bennett's favorite part of the trip but Noah was a little hesitant about the unpredictability of how much water would shoot up at any time.

The boys heading over to the splash pad

Noah thinking about getting in the water

Bennett wasn't afraid! He was right in the middle of the super big water in the middle. He loved it!!

Noah finally getting into it!

Here are the boys laying in the sun to warm up a little.

That's all I have for now. We are just a few days away from school starting. We found out about who Bennett's teacher is and that a friend from preschool is in his class. The next post will be later this week after Bennett's first official day of kindergarten. Wow! But for now, we've had a great summer and I've really enjoyed spending alot of time with my boys!!