Our Mini Vacation

I took a few days off this past weekend and we took a mini-vacation.  We spent the weekend at the beach with my dad and Debbie.  It was an 8 hour drive for us, so the drives were very long...but the two days we had there were nice!  We were a little concerned ahead of time because there have been a  lot of shark attacks on the NC/SC coast recently - two at the same beach we were going to... But we're happy to say, we didn't see any (big) sharks in the ocean and we did get to play in it some. 

 

One of our stops on the way there was in a little town called South of the Border - that's a crazy place.  Rachel didn't want to be in any pictures that day, so here's a couple of Jackson.  We didn't plan to stop there, it just happened to be right when we needed a potty stop. 

 

 

 

 

We spent most of Saturday and Sunday out at the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These of Rachel jumping in the water make me laugh each time I see them... She looks like a frog in the first one.

 

 

 

 

We walked out on the pier Saturday night after playing Putt-Putt. 

 

 

 

 

 

I said we didn't see any big sharks, but we did see three guys catch baby sharks off the pier while they were fishing.  Jackson touched them each time - here he is touching one of the baby sharks...

 

 

 

Look at that long, crazy hair!

 

 

Being buried in the sand - made to look like a shark.

 

 

Playing Frisbee on the beach.

 

 

Jackson kept trying to stand on the boogie board - he did pretty good at it.

 

 

Dinner on the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, we had a really good time.  We came home Monday and then Tuesday we went to Six Flags Over Georgia for the first time.  They loved that!  And it was a great day to go because we hardly had to wait in any lines so we were able to walk right up to most things.  I didn't get too many pictures though.

 

Jackson wanted to see Bugs Bunny all day, but we never did.

 

 

On the train.

 

 

 

The first little roller coaster we all rode together.  Jackson was mad because he wanted to sit in the back at the last minute.

 

 

And Rachel rode her first big coaster - the Great American Scream Machine... She didn't love it and didn't hate it - but she rode it! 

 

 

Someone turns 5 next week and soon school will be starting.  Our summer is wrapping up...

 

 

The Fourth

Yesterday was the 4th of July.  It fell on a Saturday this year, so I was off on Friday.  Once again, we have been in a very rainy weather pattern.  Friday, it rained on and off all day.  We were tired of sitting inside so we went to the pool during a dry period that afternoon...that didn't mean it was sunny though!  We were about the only ones there and it was dreary out, but oh well!  The kids enjoyed it.

Saturday, we had planned to go to the big parade in downtown Woodstock.  We were all excited about it - prepared to go sit in the rain even.  Everything had said it would be held rain or shine and we knew it might rain so we left at 8:50 to go get a good seat and everything.  We get out of our van and start scoping it out and a policeman rides by and tells us it's just been cancelled.  Can you say disappointed???  I was just as sad as the kids were - if not more!  We were just really frustrated because they said it would happen rain or shine and they didn't follow through with that.  We would understand if there was severe weather moving through or something like that - but they were just calling for light rain.  And that didn't even end up happening!  So we walked around for a minute, the kids got a balloon and we went home.  Bah humbug. 

We felt like we needed to do something a little fun for the kids so we went to this new place close-by - Stars and Strikes.  It's a new bowling place with an arcade, laser tag, bumper cars, etc.  We had an hour and a half wait to bowl - so we played some games and ate while we waited.  The kids loved it.  And Rachel almost beat Michael at a game of bowling! 

We came home and all took a nap since we knew we'd be out late to see fireworks.  We left at 6:00 and got a good spot and set up camp.  Everything was going fine - I was excited because this was the first time that the four of us had ever been together to see the fireworks.  We tried to go a couple of years ago, but guess what?  They got rained out.  We hung out, listened to music, ate dinner, played with new friends - it was nice.  The radar was making us a little nervous though - more rain was set to hit us around the time of the fireworks.  And it did - but not too bad.  We got in the van for a few minutes and continued to watch. 

We got out easily and came home to more fireworks in the neighborhood.  We finished off our sparklers - this was both of their first experience with those... 

And walked across the street and watched theirs go off for a few minutes.  

So, it turned out to be a good day even though it didn't start off like it.  Rachel was a little let down that we waited for three hours for only 15 minutes of fireworks...

Back to work tomorrow...

Summer So Far

Our summer is half over already!  June was a busy month.  Swim team is now over but it was a great season.  Rachel improved SO much in all of her strokes, became a much better breast stroke swimmer, learned to dive and to do flip-turns this year.  We are so proud of her and all of her hardwork and dedication to it.  Even though the practices and meets were very hot, I wish it wasn't over so soon so that she could continue on for a while!  Here are pictures from throughout the season. (Note:  I didn't take most of these swim team pictures... a friend in the neighborhood took tons of pictures at each meet and shared them with us.)

 

 

 

 

Jackson and Emma - his new buddy. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having a great time!

 

 

Cutie.

 

 

He had to do what the girls were doing.

 

 

Last night was the swim banquet.  This is part of the 7-8's age group - quite a few of them were on vacation this week.

 

 

Rachel won the Golden Seahawk award for her group - one girl and one boy in each age group get it for best attitude, cheering on their teammates, always being there, etc.  So proud of her!  Next year, Jackson will be able to swim on the team as well!

 

 

We spent Father's Day afternoon at the pool. 

 

 

I tried to get some good pictures of the kids jumping in the water. 

 

 

 

We have discovered a new treat place.  It's called Bahama Bucks and this is their first location in Georgia.  They have sno cones, shaved ice, smoothies, etc.  So delicious!!! 

 

 

I painted two more paintings recently.  This one I did at my normal place and we hung it in the kitchen.  I really like the colors. 

 

 

And this one I did on my own at home.  It's in our living room now. 

 

 

Sunday at church they had a Celebrate America celebration which was really good.  They had 200-300 service men and women come up when they were honored for their branches of the military.    This is the kids afterwards about to play on the inflatables.  They also had about 18 food trucks there for us to have lunch.

 

 

 

And they got to meet a minion.  We can't wait for the Minion movie to come out!!

 

 

More adventures to come over the next month... School starts August 3rd...