Busch Gardens-Virginia trip part 1

Abbie and Sophie in the England section at Busch Gardens.

Family tradition: getting a picture by this sign.  

Matt, Abbie, Sophie and Aunt Leia riding the Elmo ride.  This was Abbie's favorite when she was little.

Abbie's enjoying the mist.

Aunt Leia, Abbie and Paula on the teacups ride.

Abbie, Matt, Sophie and Aunt Leia braved the river rapids ride.  It was a little too cool for me that morning.

Girls on the bumper cars.

Abbie and Sophie with the tourist bear.

Mimi bought Abbie this snake as a souvenir.

Usually, at least once a year, we visit Busch Gardens when we go up to visit Matt's family in Richmond, VA.  We arrived in Richmond on a Saturday night this time.  On Sunday, after church and going out for lunch, we went swimming at Aunt Leia and Uncle Rahul's swimming pool at their apartment complex.  It wasn't crowded and we all enjoyed it.  Monday morning, we headed to Busch Gardens.  We had a rainy start to the day but the weather cleared off and we had a good time!  The girls rode lots of rides and we saw a few shows.  We came back that night very tired!   After Abbie went on the raft ride pictured above, she was very upset because she had gotten a little bit wet.  She calmed down though after a few minutes.  

I Spy Franklin and 4th of July Fun

in the middle of the square in downtown Franklin doing our I Spy activity.

the girls in downtown Franklin

downtown Vanceburg, KY

Abbie's waiting to ride the little train ride.

Sophie on the train.

Uncle Gary took us into the Old Vanceburg Depot where there's a little museum.  The girls enjoyed seeing this old post office set up.

nice and cool weather before the rain moved in

The girls are all smiles.  They are ready for a ride in Uncle Gary's side by side.

Come on, mom and dad, hop in so we can go!

silly girls!

They finally both jumped and stayed up at the same time!  Abbie looks like a ballerina!

Abbie taught Aunt Jo to jump too.

Aunt Jo and Uncle Gary with the girls.

Papa Tom's marker.  We took some flowers to put by it.

The girls chillin' with cousin Drew.

Sophie, Dani, Samantha, Drew and Abbie (front)

Whee!  Here I go!

Drew's chalk drawing of a minion.

Sophie drew a sunset.

Abbie's chalk drawing (I don't remember what she drew).

Our family enjoyed an extended 4th of July weekend in eastern Kentucky with several of Matt's extended family members.  We arrived there on Thursday night and stayed with Uncle Gary and Aunt Jo.  It was kind of rainy for a couple of days but the weather was mostly sunny on the 4th of July.  The girls enjoyed going out in Uncle Gary's side by side on Friday and just hanging out.  As you can see, the girls had a great time jumping and trying to get that on camera.  I hope these pictures bring a smile to your face like they did to mine!!

Friday night, we went to a festival in downtown Vanceburg for a while.  Then, on Saturday morning, we took the girls by where Papa Tom, Matt's dad, is buried.  They did not come for his burial in Kentucky but they did come for his funeral in Virginia  (they were several weeks apart).  We were able to take a few flowers from Aunt Jo's garden to put by his marker.

We spent most of the 4th at Aunt Peg and Uncle Danny's house in Wurtland, KY, in the town where Teresa, Matt's mom, grew up.  The girls had a wonderful time playing with cousins in Danny and Peg's pool.  They had several members of the family over for a cookout.  We were thankful that the rain held off for the afternoon.  Later that evening (after dinner, etc), we headed back to Gary and Jo's house and we went to see some nearby fireworks.  I was pretty impressed with their fireworks show because Vanceburg is a really small town.  The next morning, we got up and went to church with Gary and Jo and had lunch.  Then, we headed back home.  We had a great weekend!  

Special Times with Family

Matt and the girls for Father's Day.

Evie and Ellie

Karina and her lovely hat.  =)

Karina,Ellie, Sophie, Caleb and front: Evie and Abbie.  To the right: Karina's friend, Evie (I think).

Sophie and Sierra after her H.S. graduation.

Summer and Jonathan

Sophie, Summer, Sierra and Abbie

We had a lot going on at the beginning of the summer between a visit to Holiday World, Sierra's graduation, visits from family, etc.  Sierra graduated from high school on Memorial Day weekend  (I think that's right).  It was great to see a whole bunch of family like Aunt Patti, Uncle John, Keri's family, Uncle Robert and Aunt Joyce, "Baby sister"-Jackie and her husband, Martha's family, Nana and Paw-paw and a bunch of Aunt Shannon's family.   Summer and her boyfriend, Jonathan, (pictured above), just engaged a couple of weeks ago.  We are all really excited about it!

At the beginning of June, Abbie attended a half day volleyball camp that she enjoyed.  Paula's cousin, Craig, and his family came in for a visit from northern VA.  They wanted to help his parents to settle into their new home and Karina and her friend camp to attend a ballet camp in Nashville.  Sophie and Abbie always love playing with cousins.  Sophie often organizes everyone so that they can perform little skits and songs.  She has a lot of fun with that.  

Holiday World

Carley, Abbie and Sophie in front of our cottage.

Santa with all of the kids.  We went to story time with Santa.  =)

Abbie, Jessie and Carley are up early enjoying time on the swing!

Most of our group in the cabana that the Moss' rented for us to use.

the girls with the Santa Claus, Indiana sign.

The kids on the little bridge by the pond where we stayed.

Abbie, Weston, Sophie, Carley, Jessie and Houston.

all of the kids

Abbie and I on the carousel.

Jill, Jessie and Mrs. Moss are ready to go way up in the air.

Holiday World!

our family

This picture is a random one from a bike ride that Matt and the girls took at Ravenwood Farms.

Right after Memorial Day, our family headed to Santa Claus, Indiana with friends from church.  We stayed in Santa's Lakeside Cottages which were just a couple of miles from Holiday World/Splashin' Safari.  We spent two nights in the cottages.  We shared ours with the Gray's-Jill, Carley and Jessie.  Scott had to stay home and work.  They had a little pond by the cottages where some people were fishing.  They also had a swimming pool.  We arrived in Indiana on a Tuesday evening.  We had dinner at a local pizza place and then went for a swim.  We also roasted S'mores.   We met up with Anna Hicks and her boys, Houston and Weston and her parents, David and Kathleen Moss.  Wednesday morning, we got up and headed to the parks.  During the middle of the first day, there was a thunderstorm and some showers for about 30 minutes to an hour.  A lot of people left the park.  It was a little bit cool that day.  We were thankful that the Moss' had rented a cabana for all of us to use because we stayed there and had lunch until the storm passed.  Our family rode most of the water rides.  We had a lot of fun!  Matt rode two- three of the roller coasters including the new one, The Thunderbird.  Neither of our girls wanted to ride any of the roller coasters.  They did not have a good experience with the wooden roller coaster, The Voyage, when we went last year.   The second night, we had a wonderful dinner with BBQ, hot dogs, and other fixings.  Some people had S'mores again.   The second night, poor Sophie did not see the sliding glass door when she was coming in with her toasted s'more and she smacked right into it.  Poor thing.  I think it hurt her head some but it mostly embarrassed her!  We really enjoyed being able to hang out with Christian friends.

We went back to the park for a second day.  We left the park around 4 or 4:30 and headed home.  The girls enjoyed riding lots of rides that I remember riding at Opryland as a kid like the swings, the old Tin Lizzies, the big raft ride, etc.  We returned home Thursday night.  We had so much fun!