First Pigtails!

Today I got adventurous and tried pigtails for Kendyl....and she let me!!!!
She looks like such a big girl.

Grumpy bear, Kendyl, and Steven.

Too cute!

Marching Band Preview (9/3)

The OJR bands (middle and high schools) performed a preview for the families, provided dinner/information and a good time. Beautiful night!

Andrew was not thrilled with the uniform at first (above), but when I saw him later after their performance, he looked quite comfortable and a natural band member. New uniforms take some getting used to and I'm sure he'll be wearing it with pride for our next picture (10/3 for their calvalcade!)
Here is the MS band marching on the field. Andrew is the first band member (with the huge baritone sax!).

As soon as the music started, Kendyl started conducting. I think she is skipping right to drum major!

Here is the entire MS band during their first song. They didn't march tonight as they are not quite ready. They have a few kinks to work out (crash between the trombone and Andrew's head during one move for one!) so they just played their music in this formation. Simply amazing to me that in 2 weeks of intensive band camp with a few other little practices, they all have the music memorized, plus a lot of the marching....and this is new to 1/2 of them!

There is Andrew in the front. I hadn't planned to bring the camera (since it's not the one with the great zoom), it just happened to be in the car and I'm glad I did. We have been telling him how much Bari is making him slouch (and at this age he doesn't believe anything we tell him!), but this photo really showed him. So, he will be working on his posture the next month before competition starts!

Bushkill Falls (9/3)

Yesterday the boys and I went to Bushkill Falls in the Poconos for a hike. And hike we did! Darn! We took the red trail which is the longest, toughest trail so we could see all of the falls (8).
This is the main fall, which we saw first. Absolutely beautiful. Pictures do not do this place justice, you really need to go.

The trails along the main fall were an act of pure engineering. The one you see here just jets out (limit 6 people) so you can see the amazing waterfall that goes into a tiny crevice. The "trails" at this point were as beautiful and natural as the waterfalls themselves.

At some point in the trail, the beautiful trail with wooded rails ended and we had to follow the creek up a very rocky and wooded way (no path, very few markers) up hill. Sometimes quite steep. It was rough going at times, but fun. We saw some amazing nature along the way (rock formations, trees, etc.). What you see behind Steven is a tame look at what we conquered....really!

Andrew always becomes one with nature and seems to enjoy it the most. Here he found a hollowed out tree and hid inside.

A bit blurry as I had to zoom all the way to capture him up so high. This kid is part monkey. This is him only 1/2 way up this amazing rock formation. Later he climbed all the way (without my initial knowledge) which turned out to be about 50 feet. Ugh!

One of the beautiful waterfalls that we finally found after our rocky path....and before we had to climb well over 237 stairs to get to the top of this series of 3 waterfalls. Only a sampling of the stairs we climbed.....my legs were a hurting by the end!

Andrew climbing a portion of our 237 stairs....with a wet butt! The condensation from his "bladder" left it's mark. We'll have to wrap it up next time!

Here he found the perfect tree for a rest.

Shortly after Steven was walking and hit his head on a directional sign....too funny. America's Funniest Home Video material - shame we didn't have the video camera going.

Finally got a picture of the 3 of us at the end!

We highly recommend visiting Bushkill Falls if you are in the area or it's a great day trip from our area.

Beach (8/4-5)

Thanks to the Q's for another great time at the beach! Lots of beach time, our traditional crabfest, and extra long Twizzlers!
My handsome boys.

Steven has turned into a fish.

Andrew is an awesome skimboarder.

This year the boys buried each other. Andrew was first and I gave him a shell bra, later we added a shell cup. Lots of laughs. Steven and Joe were buried later with similar pictures.

Heck of a Weekend :-(

I came down with strep throat (thankfully made it into the dr. on Friday morning). Guess I didn't catch it soon enough because it really knocked me on my rear for nearly 2 days.

Friday morning I saw Kendyl playing with her left ear, but didn't think too much of it. Well she ended up getting sick for Tim Friday night and was not herself Saturday morning, so we made an appointment for her. Her first sick visit to the dr. in 22 months! Turns out I was right, she has an ear infection, but in the opposite ear than I thought....weird. She was a bit cranky and clingy today, but didn't seem like she was in too much pain. Hopefully she'll be back to her normal, fun, happy self tomorrow.

So the boys have been taking care of the girls in our house this weekend.

Crazy Day!

7 am - Tim and Steven left for Cub Scout Camp. They will be there until Wednesday. I have already received a call that they are having an amazing time!

10am - Kendyl finally woke up! Woohoo! I don't know what I did to deserve her sleeping so late, but it was nice. I slept until 9, then had some time to catch up on e-mail and some Tivo'd shows. Oh, then we woke Andrew.

11:30ish - we left for the zoo. The weather was iffy, but I found a site with hour by hour weather that said it would stop raining and just be cloudy/clearing and a thunderstorm would roll in at dinner time. After we packed lunch, drinks, etc. and go to get in the car....it was raining! So we hopped in the car anyway and decided to play it by ear.

I got a bright idea that if it was still raining near the zoo, we would just keep going and go to the aquarium. Sure, it would be $$, but it would be a nice treat. Well Andrew and I got excited about it and decided to do the aquarium (and it was iffy). We get to the aquarium and the parking lot was full and the line to get in was wrapped around the building! We decided to brave the weather and do the zoo. I was not waiting an hour just to get in the aquarium and then deal with crowds inside too.

$4 to cross the bridge, back to the zoo and thankfully it was not raining! It was almost 1:00 so we saw a few animals then stopped for lunch. Kendyl was so cute eating a cheese sandwich like a big girl (we don't usually give her sandwiches). Then she stole my Reeses Big Cup!

I went to take a picture of the big turtles....I forgot to put the camera card back in the camera!!!! No pictures today.

While we were looking at the orangutan it started to pour. We had a good time watching them, as always, but this time 1 was outside with some other monkeys. They were quite active. We decide to head out into the rain and make the most of it. Over to the lions and tigers as there is some shelter there. One tiger was in the water and Kendyl loved watching him. Suddenly he got out (1/2 way) and pooped in the water for all to see! Andrew and Kendyl got a kick out of that. She even ran over to me (after watching) with her hands over her mouth to tell me about it.

Then we headed for the carousel. Kendyl loved this! She rode a butterfly. The rain stopped while we were on the ride. We then headed for the new Aviary which was very nice, but much smaller than it looks.

Onto the bears. Kendyl loves playing in the fountain. She was soaked!

We saw so many animals and had lots of fun. Because of the weather, it wasn't too crowded, but more than I thought.

Usually we get ice cream while we were there, but all of the seats were wet. Andrew and I decided to head home for ice cream instead and made it Coldstone Creamery....and ice cream dinner! Yumm.

Oh, and to add to our crazy day, I made a wrong turn on the way home that I never do! And we got home just in time before a storm rolled in. Luckily the power was only out for about 2 minutes. Kendyl doesn't like storms, but Andrew came to the rescue with glow necklaces that quickly took her mind off the storms. He's a great big brother!

Boys Take a Segway Class (8/5)

Andrew has been wanting to do a segway tour for quite awhile, but he is not old enough. At the beach this week, we happened to pass this segway place on kids night. They offered 1/2 hour classes for kids 9-15 in their store. We made reservations for later in the evening, went back to the house for dinner and packing and made this our last stop in Sea Isle City before heading home.
Andrew, Steven and Joe (their good friend who we were staying with) were the only ones in the 8:30 class. She got each of them comfortable on the segway, then they played games for the rest of the class to perfect their skills. They earned points for winning each game and the overall winner (Andrew) won a prize. They played a lot of fun games in 1/2 hour.


Afterwards, the adults were able to try their hand at the segway. Funny! It really is quite easy and doesn't take long to get used to. I wish I had a longer time to play and get comfortable with it. I can't wait for them to be old enough so we can take a family tour...it will be so much fun!

They both had such a great time, they can't stop talking about it!