There's this wonderful Saturday in September that a lot of goodness falls on.
Here's last year's. Jake helped out at the same 5K this year, but we didn't run it as a family. Jake and I are both training for the Atlanta Half Marathon, and I had just had a long run the day before... and it appears my knees know I'm approaching 30. So we decided to just hang out at the race while Jake helped. I couldn't resist a few shots afterwards.
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| How Joy felt about wearing a hand-me-down of Abby Jane's (however cute) instead of a new Auburn dress like Blythe and Janie. Just kidding- she probably liked it better b/c there are little Aubie's on the pockets! |
Next up was Taste of Kennesaw, where we sampled local fare, scored some balloons, face paintings, random other freebies, and were absolute cheapskates because we just let the little girls people-watch...
while Jake took Janie to jump in an inflatable that you had to pay for. After getting spoiled by all the free inflatables at the
festival a couple of weeks ago, paying for three kids to jump (when the babies were content in the stroller) seemed like highway robbery! I know, we're horrible.
Now this family picture might not seem remarkable, but it is since the display on our little digital camera is broken, and you basically guess every time you take a picture. Some nice lady stopped and offered to take a picture of us, and she said she thought she could see us in the extremely dim/ mostly not visible display. I was impressed with her effort and results.
Eating some dinner by the old caboose on display by the train depot. Joy missed the memo that it's not nice to have your mouth open and full of food when everyone else is smiling for a picture. Classic, though.
After naps and watching Auburn pull out another win!!, we headed over to the Owens for pool playing, more football for daddies, and a great dinner. It was an awesome night of the chaos and fun of six kids three and under, great fellowship and sharing of what life is like when you have kids (i.e. football Saturdays have a lot less conversations about sharing and not pushing and "please finish your dinner" and "no, Joy, we're all done eating" when there aren't this many children!)
I actually forgot the girls' bathing suits, so Blythe, Joy, Grant, and Dylan (all the one yr olds) all were running around shirtless. I think Blythe and Joy could really dig being boys.
Ericka is a fabulous hair stylist, and she brought her shears to give Abby Jane a quick trim after dinner right on the Owens' driveway. Maddy decided she needed a haircut, too. It was amazing to see two busy three yr olds sit like statues for Miss Ericka!
Here's Joy's real twin, Grant. We've just been hiding him away all this time. :) Isn't it amazing, though, how much more they look like siblings that Blythe and Joy do?
By the way, it just occurred to me in the last couple of weeks that Blythey's curly hair comes from my mom and her mom. My mom's mom, who us grandkids called Miss Skip, looked like Shirley Temple when Shirley Temple was quite the hit. So we're nowhere near that many curls or tight ringlets, but at least we figured out where Boo gets her sweet angel head of hair!
On our first morning there, Jake helped Cade catch his first fish, and this is right afterwards. Janie caught her first fish on our last morning there.
Blythe and Joy love morning water as well. I LOVE this picture. It is so THEM. Blythe is sweetly waving and smiling, Joy looks like Louis and Clark. Or Sacagawea.
Paul with Luke. Luke is not really into water, but he loved kayak rides with Paul! Something about daddies make kids a lot braver.
Mimi, the Pied Piper. I think I count four out of five grandkids following her along here.
Mimi is also a professional sand castle builder.
She built, they smashed.
WAR EAGLE!!! We loved watching Auburn WIN the first game of the season. Love watching Auburn, period. Looks like Cade is getting a little left out of the girl love here. Sorry bud.
Cade seems very ready to learn to surf when they arrive in New Zealand. If only they can get him to stay on the board long enough. His favorite thing was to climb up and jump off.
Bop Bop had to work really hard to get Cade to stay on long enough for them to balance on it together, but they did it!
Bop Bop with Luke and Abby Jane...
SWEET Blythey about to jump to her Daddy.
Enjoying the view.
This girl was Trouble, in a good way, most of the time. Joy is just a mile a minute and not into wearing floaties. I'm proud she made it home with us. To say the least, she had a good time.
One of my favorite things about the weekend was the playtime the grown-ups had. During naps and while kids were up, we went on runs, paddled and kayaked, and just horsed around like kids. All the grown-ups got to really enjoy just plain playing and relaxing. There were also games at night (and I should also mention that I happened to win the longest and highest scoring game of Phase 10 ever. It went on for hours, and I think the highest score was in the 600's... but I won. :)) Pictured below is what happened when my father-in-law and sis-in-law attempted to balance on the board together. Pretty good stuff.
The weekend, on the whole, was joyful and sweet, if bittersweet at times, and a wonderful way to soak in the gift of family as we launch into this next season of our lives. 
This picture is not winning any awards, but I want a record of the fact that I have gotten to be quite the expert at doing the pool with my girls- sunscreening, swimsuiting, swim diapering, floatie-ing, lunch packing, toy-bringing, and dry clothes to change into so we can go right down for afternoon naps when we get home. I've got it down pat, and I've loved every minute (well most minutes) of being at the pool with my daughters. There aren't many pics to prove it since I'm on the other side of the camera, but officially, "I was here."
So was Grammy on Monday. We had anticipated her being able to help focus on Joy, who prefers to practice actually swimming minus her puddle jumper these days, but it's hard for me to do with her solo and also keep an eye on the others. Joy was not feeling anything other than some mean teeth coming in on Monday (and the ant that bit my shoulder and her cheek at the same time while I was holding her), so it ended up being Blythe's morning to shine with Grammy.
This morning we got in our last time with the Jones family, with whom we put our first toes in the water in the spring, so it's appropriate that our last day in the pool before Labor Day was with their family! It's amazing that our timid little swimmers are now swimming without floats! Quite the transformation in a matter of months.
Their pool has a park nearby, and the fact that perhaps my kids, if not me, are getting pool-ed out, is evidenced by how much they wanted to play at the park after lunch and had such a grand time.
