Birthday Celebration with Rebekah!

A couple of weeks before Rebekah's birthday, we were able to spend a special day celebrating with her for her 7th birthday! As usual, for each girl's birthday we let them choose if they would like to have a birthday party or a special day trip. Rebekah chose again this year to go to Great Wolf Lodge. It was so sweet when she asked about the trip because she said "this way I can share the trip with my sisters too!"

Here's the birthday girl with Wiley the Wolf.

Big smiles headed into the Waterpark except Allie who was too busy checking out all the exciting sights to look at the boring camera!

One of the reasons Bekah was so excited about the Waterpark is because she gotten much taller. Great Wolf has a wristband system and you can ride certain rides based on your height and wristband. She was about 1.5 inches from the green band so she couldn't ride the Tornado yet but she could ride any other ride in the whole area.

Brent took a turn down the slides with the big girls while Allie and I explored the kiddie pool area.

Also this year, Rebekah and Rachel were old enough and tall enough to ride the slides with the double tubes together!

The lazy river was another spot that the little ones loved

Bethany loved her sister's choice to celebrate at Great Wolf too. She was a fan of playing in all the pools.

 Brent took Allie and Bethany to have a little rest time and the birthday girl and I along with Rachel took on a few of the big slides!

 Bekah mastered the lily pad game on her own without any help this year too!

 Allie was old enough this year to love the water area. She was so much fun to watch as she tried to take everything in and play with everything! Pure joy on that face!!

 This picture of Bekah on this surf board was one of my favorite of the whole trip! One of the, new to her, rides that she was now tall enough to ride this year was the Wave Rider. We looked at it together and I noticed she kept watching it but looked a little unsure too. After a few minutes I said, " You can do it! Go try it out!" Off she went to get it line. It was a fairly long wait and when it was her turn, the kind lifeguard knelt down beside her and talked to her for about 2 to 3 minutes about how to ride the surfboard. She jumped on and hung on and did awesome riding this ride! I was so proud of how brave she was trying out something new on her own!

Bekah, we love you and we had a great time celebrating your 7th birthday with you!

Busch Gardens 2018

The first week of September we found out that Busch Gardens was offering a back to school special where all kids 9 and under got it FREE! We were in the area with a photography event and we only had to pay for admission for Brent and I because of the special!

Brent and I went to Busch Gardens one time the year after we got married but ww hadn't been back in 13 years and the girls had never been! We didn't actually even tell them where we were going until we got off the exit ramp into the park. They were beyond excited and surprised!

We have lots of different heights in the family right now so there were all different rides they could and couldn't ride, so we headed to the Sesame Street area first where there was something everyone could ride, even Allie.

Look at that smile! Allie loved trying the rides too!

Then they tried out some coasters for the bigger kids while Allie and I watched. This was all Brent riding with them. Unfortunately, I get queasy if I even look at a roller coaster for very long...

They did get a little wet. You can even see the rain in this picture while they rode! We were in and our of raincoats all day but it kept the temperatures nice for riding the rides all day!

After some lunch, we headed to Italy to "Escape Pompei"

Allie loved trying out her new walking skills all over the park!

On the way to Italy, we made a stop for these two brave souls to ride this large(!) roller coaster. I think Brent is enjoying Rachel being tall enough now to ride some of the bigger roller coasters with him!

While they rode, the rest of us found the Clydesdale horse ride. They all loved it!

They rode and rode and took turns riding with Allie and rode and rode again!

Then we got to see and pet the real Clydesdale horses!

We made it to Pompei and the 2 big girls were tall enough to ride while the rest of us watched.

They all loved this ride!

This girl finally sat down for a little rest while we waited for them to ride.

Next up were the spinning teacups

Followed by the river rapids!

We had the best day at Busch Gardens! Everyone found a ride or several that they loved and it was so much fun watching the girls' faces light up as they rode the rides. We will definitely be looking at the schedule at Busch Gardens hoping that they might do this back to school special again! It was a fun day for us all!

School Days are Here Again!

 On Tuesday, September 4, we began our 2018-2019 school year. The girls have been excited for the school year to begin.

 Bethany begins 4 year old kindergarten this year. We are excited for her as she learns and gets ready to begin to read this year.

 Bekah is officially a 2nd grader. She is excited about math (her favorite) and working on cursive this year. She loves reading chapter books now too!

Rachel is beginning her next to last year of elementary school. She loves to read and write. She also loves all things space, dinosaurs and art. She may just yet fulfill that dream of being an astronauts or paleontologist.
We are all excited for a new school year and all the learning and opportunities it will bring!

Outer Banks~August 2018

We were at the Outer Banks for a photography event in mid-August and were able to spend a little bit of time enjoying the Outer Banks while we were there. One of our first evenings there, we were able to go see "The Lost Colony" outdoor drama. The girls and I had never seen it before and it was great to finally have the opportunity to see it!

It was a beautiful night at the amphitheater and we all enjoyed the play!

We were able to get a little time on the beach in the midst of our photography schedule. I love that the little sister is now old enough to want to play with her big sisters and they are so sweet to play with her!

Allie loved practicing her walking on the beach!

There was lots of sand castle building 

and some soccer playing on the beach

One evening we rode the ferry over to Ocracoke to watch the sunset and do some photography.

Another morning, we started the day with sunrise. Here are Brent and Bekah headed over to catch the best sunrise light.

We were on the beach by 7:30 am that day. Miss Hollywood here was ready to enjoy her morning on the beach.

This was definitely sandcastle building day! Allie even liked trying to use the sand castle toys.

Rachel built 2 big castles on her own.

 Bethany and Bekah each built their own sand castle too.

This was followed by all the girls covering their Daddy in sand. He good-naturedly agreed to this.

 Then we all built a sand castle together.

Another morning began with doughnuts before we hit the beach. Can you tell how good those doughnuts were?!

 This was our resting,

 reading,

and dancing kind of beach day!

 We made to the pier one afternoon too.

 There had been storms the night before and the following day had some of the most beautiful blue green water that we have seen at the Outer Banks.

 It was also incredibly calm and we all enjoyed a little ocean time. Rachel took this picture of us.

 These little sand mermaids loved having a couple days at the beach!

 They had time for one last swim the day we left and they made the most of it!

It was a busy photography trip with some fun family time mixed in too. We are thankful we had a couple of late summer beach days together before we head back into the school year!