Virginia Beach

The girls in the hotel pool

Matt and the girls in the ocean

Sophie and Abbie are so excited to be at the beach!

Sophie's covered in sand! She and Abbie had a great time building sand castles with Paw-paw Tom and Aunt Leia

Sophie and Abbie with the big beach balls.

We rented this big surry bike one afternoon and got a workout. No fair that the girls can't help pedal!

We had a great time spending a couple of days at Virginia Beach with Matt's family while we were up there visiting them. Our hotel was right on the beach. The girls loved every minute of it. We applied plenty of sunscreen and spent a couple of mornings on the beach. When we arrived at the beach on Monday afternoon, it was actually kind of cool outside. It warmed up on Tuesday and Wednesday. Abbie would just scream and squeal whenever she waded into the ocean. She fell down several times when a wave came in but she would just get right back up and play some more. One night, we headed to one of the pavilions on the beach for a little miniature circus show. All of us enjoyed it, especially since it was free entertainment.

Busch Gardens-Williamsburg

Sophie and I by hot air balloon at Busch Gardens

Once again, the girls loved the Sesame Street area at Busch Gardens

                                         

The girls while we were waiting to ride something (there were long lines for some rides the first time we went because it was on the weekend)

Abbie and Sophie riding a boat ride

                                               

The skyride

Abbie drives a mini-Dodge'em car

Abbie flies a plane

Ladybugs ride

Sophie and Abbie met an authentic Leprechaun

Recently, we traveled up to Virginia to visit Matt's family in Richmond.  It was a long road trip but overall the girls were good travelers. We had a really busy but fun week.  On Saturday, we visited Busch Gardens, and the weather was great!  There was a big crowd but we had a lot of fun!  The girls enjoyed riding all of the kiddie rides.  Sophie rode the big bumper cars with her Daddy and loved that!  Abbie rode the little bumper cars 2-3 times and was super cute.  She drove around in a circle most of the time.  Sophie also rode a couple of the wet rides with some of the adults and had fun.  We enjoyed seeing a couple of the shows too!  They were having some cooler weather the first few days we were in Virginia which was really nice.  On Sunday afternoon after church, we just took it easy.  It ended up at that Tom and Teresa's church was having VBS that week which we hadn't realized beforehand so the kids went to VBS on the first night.  On Monday, we headed back to Busch Gardens for more fun and then headed over to Virginia Beach where we stayed for a couple of nights.  

                  

Summer Playdates

Meredith, Sophie and Abbie

Sophie (middle) and Meredith with Joe in back

Sophie and Lauren with their dolls

Abbie and Ashton (in front)

Well, I am way behind on our blog again.  I'm sorry for those who've been checking it lately (all 2 of you).  =)    I have a lot of pictures that I need to post on here because we just got back from our vacation to visit Matt's family in Virginia.  We were able to do a lot of fun things while we were there.  For now though, I'm going to post some pictures that were taken before our trip.

The first couple of pictures were taken at one of the member nights at the zoo.  We met our friends, the Smith's, for dinner and then we headed over to the zoo.  It was really hot that night but we still had a good time.  There was also a pretty good crowd there.  They offer free carousel rides, free train rides (their new attraction and they have some other special things going on.  We stayed clear of the train because it is really popular right now with long waits.  We were able to ride the carousel before it closed though.  We were also able to see several of the animals.   They offered free tours of the old home that is on the grounds so we took a quick tour of it.  All in all, the girls enjoyed spending time with Meredith but we were all worn out at the end of the night.

The other pictures that I included were from a little tea party that we had at our house.  It was somewhat informal but it was something that I thought would be fun for the girls.  My friend, Kathryn, had mentioned earlier in the summer that it would be fun to get our girls together with their American Girl dolls and let them have a tea party.  I thought it would be really neat for a birthday party sometime to do that with a bunch of girls but this time, we decided just to try it with one other family.  Our older girls (Sophie and Lauren) are friends and our younger ones (Abbie and Ashton) are a little different in age but enjoy playing together.  Each of the girls brought her doll and she sat with her.  We had star shaped sandwiches, jello, etc for lunch and then we made some little ladybug cookies for dessert.  I think all of the kids had a nice time including Ethan, my friend Kathryn's oldest child who is 8 years old.  I set him up on our Wii.  He did not have to sit at the girls table but he enjoyed decorating the cookies and eating them.  =)  Kathryn told me that she shared with Ethan's Sunday school class later that week that he had been to a tea party that week and a bunch of the boys snickered.  She definitely broke the ice when she shared that with the class.  =)  More to come on our trip soon!

Hatcher Dairy Farm

                          Here's our crew before the dairy farm tour! (Julia, Joshua, Jax, Abbie, Sophie & Carley)

                              Sophie sees what milking a cow is like

                            Carley and Sophie with some cows.

 Carley with a miniature horse and a donkey (I think).

some cows

This summer, I really wanted to take the kids to visit Hatcher Dairy Farm but I knew that it would be more fun with friends.  They only give tours on Thursday mornings.  We were able to plan in advance and went with some friends from church.  We were able to go with the Davis and Dooner families (minus all of the dads) and Carley came with us so that Sophie would have a friend.  Although it was a pretty hot day, the kids enjoyed seeing all of the cows and trying to feed them, pet them, etc.   We were able to see a calf who was only 3 days old on our tour so the kids loved that and there was another calf that had been born within the week.  They also have a few sheep, chickens and geese on their farm.  The farm has been in their family for about 130 years now I think.  We were able to sample some fresh milk and butter at the end of the tour.  The chocolate milk was delicious and of course, we all had to buy some before leaving.  They also had a little kids play area with tubs filled with grain and typical sand toys.  There was a donkey, miniature horse and a regular horse there.  We had a picnic lunch with our friends before leaving.  Thank goodness there was some shade.  We were also thankful that they had one spot where you could use indoor toilets because Abbie refuses to use a port-a-potty.  All in all we enjoyed our trip to Hatcher Dairy Farm.  My cousin, David, who recently passed away, worked there for a short time so it made me think of him.

Summer Trips to the Adventure Science Center

Ava Grace and Abbie

Dr. Abbie

Dr. Abbie and Dr. Sophie

A couple of weeks ago, Abbie and I visited the science museum with Ava Grace and her mom. Sophie had gone to Centerville to visit one of her best friends, Anna Kate. Sophie attended VBS with Anna Kate and then they also had a day camp in the afternoon at her nearby campsite that their church owns. While Sophie was away, I wanted Abbie and I to do some fun things too. Anyway, Abbie had a great time showing Ava Grace around the science museum (it was her first time to visit).

This week, Mama's best friend, Miss Andrea, came up for a visit and we decided to head to the science museum. It ended up being a busy day for the science museum but we still had a good time. I'm sorry that I didn't get any pictures of Miss Andrea with the girls. The girls enjoyed the human body section (always a favorite for Sophie). Miss Andrea took Sophie through the star walk for the first time. Nana was sweet to take the girls for a while so that Mama and Miss Andrea could enjoy a ladies lunch.

Cool Playhouse

Just wanted to show a picture of the Gray's amazing playhouse that the girls were able to play in on July 4th. This picture doesn't really do the playhouse justice. They actually have a flight of stairs inside that lead to the 2nd floor. It has a nice roof on it and windows. It is so cute! They also have a kitchen inside. Sophie's friend, Carley, whose dad built this playhouse for her and her sister said that next she's hoping they can get air conditioning and some more furniture inside. =)

4th of July weekend

Abbie and Sophie are ready to go to our 2nd party on the 4th! They're showing their patriotism. =)

Aww....

Here are the girls before our first event on the 4th.

Mama and Abbie

We had a very fun but busy 4th of July weekend. On Saturday, July 2nd we attended a family reunion for the Waggoner/Ackerman families (Paula's side of the family). It was held locally and over 80 people were able to attend. I remember the last time that it was held (2007) because we had only been back in the Nashville area for about a month and I was expecting Abbie. There was plenty of good food and we had some good fellowship. The girls enjoyed playing with some of their cousins. I didn't take any pictures though.

That night, as I briefly mentioned in my previous post, we were able to see my cousin, Beth, and her three children as they passed through town on their way to Arkansas. They live near Cincinnati and I wish that we could see more of them. Her youngest daughter, Anna, is only one year older than Sophie. My girls are always glad to claim any cousins (within reason) because they don't have any first cousins yet.

We had a more relaxing day on Sunday with church and eating out with friends. On Monday, July 4th, we were invited to the Bobo's who just opened their B & B last year in Williamson County. They had a huge 4th of July party that went on for most of the day. They had a lot of games that people could come and play outdoors, live bluegrass music, and a nice lunch was served. We were able to stay for a couple of hours and then headed home after lunch so that we could get some rest. The Bobo's party was very nice and very well-organized (they had a schedule of events, little patriotic mementoes to take home, etc.). We enjoyed it and Paula's parents attended as well. On Saturday night, we headed over to the Gray's, friends of ours from church, who typically host our Sunday school class each year for the 4th of July. We had a good time relaxing and visiting with friends as we ate dinner. The kids had a great time playing in their huge backyard with their swingset, wonderful playhouse, sandbox, etc. One of the couples in our class shot off some fireworks before the big scheduled show. We stayed for those and then decided to head home before the big fireworks show. Our girls had headed into the house to play during some of the fireworks so we figured they must not care too much. We had a wonderful 4th of July!