Some Pics From Trip to MD

During our trip north I took Emma and gang to Chuck Cheeses to pay off a bet I had made with her. She won and chose to go to her fav restaurant. Gregory, Grandad, Grandma, Morgie and Tyler all came with us and it was tons of fun. Thanks to grandad and morgie for sponsoring the event!
We finally tracked down Mr. Cheese and after making him dance for us, we made him pose for us!


I told him all about my ceremonious head shots and he obliged....do you like my ticket necklace?


Two goofs in a pod...


More cheese.


Waiting for their fav "ride" ...the photo booth!


Big T schoolin' little P. Although, she is holding the tix!


Go Lebron!


Em thoroughly enjoyed winning her bet!


Pretty girls.


Pretty girls with wide eyes.


Yum! Their pizza is so good!


One night we went to Shadyside for dinner. Then we went to Shadyside soft serve for dessert! The girls enjoyed some RED slushees on Uncle Dave. Thanks Uncle Dave!


We had a great dessert after our homemade mac n cheese!


Nice smiles!


A beautiful hydrangea. I had never seen this color so I snapped a shot of it for nannie.


The girls thought it was pretty cool that the Crosses lived across the street from the river!


Goofin off before dinner.


Stop! In the name of macncheese!


Pic of fish at Graces...for Jen!


Ahhhh, father's day was celebrated at The Alamo. Soph took this shot of me in mid sentence.


Dad drove out to MD and came to dinner with us!


The Alamo gang, careful, their butts are dangerous!


Paige with her serving of fruit.


What did I tell you about "the face?"


Nannie! Always talking with your hands!


And look! You made my dad do it too!


We also enjoyed walking around the lake by Aunt Kathy's house. It has a cute little gazebo up in the woods.


Em, Sara, Pie and newly shaved Jake.


The girls thought Jake was pretty cool, even with a bald white head.

Some pics of the failed liftoff. We had a sweet spot all picked out but the weather didn't cooperate!



Those clouds rolled in from the west...


Tried to get Mike's big head with the clouds but he blocked it with his giant new phone!


Sorry Morg! Pic is a little blurry. Fun times at Chuck E. Cheesits (as soph would call it).


Soph with Lilly and gang at Nannies. Jeesh I was sucking at taking clear photos. I know I have better ones than these!

Confused?

Better late than never, here are some pics from last Saturday's excursion to Blue Springs. We took grandma, Matt and Katie this time. It was totally sweet until a huge storm pulled up just after lunch. We took the kids down the river one more time in the pouring rain, we really wanted to feel at one with nature! Then the lightening started all around us so we hightailed it to our soaking wet towels and made a run for the cars while all the other scared people huddled under the pavilions. This is definitely our new fav hangout!
I don't know why mom and I look so confused. Maybe the sun was in our eyes.


Yep, I was totally swimming with a huge school of fish!


Mom floats down the lazy river while the fish from above nibble her toes!


Paige and Katie pose perfectly!


Young love! Wedding date is set for June 5th!


3 bumps on a log.


And of course we have Soph's vacation face. She "smiled" like this a lot during our vacation up north. It was either that or posing like the fonz. Heeeeeeyyyyyyyy.

Springs, Springs and more Springs...

I'll try to keep this short since many of you never bother to read my insightful and humorous quips... Some friends had a cookout at DeLeon Springs on Saturday. We were super excited since we had not yet been to these springs. We had tons of fun as always and swam in the freezing water for hours! We also had great food thanks to Sam and Donna for sponsoring the event!

We had so much fun at those springs we decided to check out Blue Springs. If you'll remember from past posts, Blue Springs are where we go in the winter to see the Manatees. They don't swim there in the summer because by then the river water has heated back up and they go swim there! Whew! So during the summer, Blue Springs opens up for swimming. It is kind of like a lazy river. You walk up a board walk, get in and float to the end and repeat. I didn't get to take too many pics since I had to keep an eye on the kids. No worries, we are going back this weekend for Katie's b-day so I will take more then!


An alligator gar just chillin'. He let me get pretty close. He might look small in the pic but he was over 3 feet long! He was at Blue Springs.


Another fish, Blue springs, a little over a foot long.


I should totally work for Nat Geo with my awesome underwater photog skills! These fish were small, maybe 6 inches. Blue Springs.


Another little guy, Blue Springs.


ditto.


This is the head of the springs where the water comes forth of the earth. Pretty ominous looking huh?


The lazy river of Blue Springs. The water was super clear as evidenced above.


E-dog trying to avoid being pushed down river by the strong current.


All pics below this are from DeLeon Springs. The water was not super clear, but it was clear enough to get this sweet shot of me!


Em with her second grade teacher(and our friend) Liz.



Love this shot! Liz, Em and Sam...


Jojo is not so sure about 72 degree water!


This underwater shot is not so sweet. But that is my snorkel gear.


Someone, Paige?, trying out my gear.


And Soph trying it out sans water....