Mountains...

Last week, my parents invited us to all spend a week in the mountains at Wintergreen Resort. We had a wonderful time. We hiked, hot tubbed, ate, danced, and had a lot of quality family time. It was wonderful to watch Carson and Bobby spend so much time together...hours were spent playing outside, inside and in the hot tub. Thank you mom and dad for such a great week.

The house


The view from the deck


Samantha enjoying the leaves


Hiking










Thank you for a wonderful week, mom and dad!

Pumpkin time....

Last weekend we went to the pumpkin patch with the Parks family. This is an annual event and we had a great time. It was unusually hot, so in my mind, I just tried to pretend that it was a nice cool fall day. All of this while sweating it out in the almost 90 degree weather!!! Unfortunately, I didn't get a ton of pics, but here are a few....hopefully I will have some more fall pictures in the weeks to come.

There were pumpkins

Tractors to climb on



Diggers to play on


And hay to play on

Their relationship grows and grows....

I absolutely LOVE watching the relationship between brother and sister grow more and more. Each day they play together more and interact more. Samantha is so in love with her big brother. Whatever he is doing or where ever he happens to be, she wants to be a part of it. And one of my favorite things is to listen while we are in the car, and they just make each other giggle back and forth...it is so precious. I can't wait to see as their bond grows and grows.

On the move!

Samantha is officially on the move....and once she started, she has not slowed down! It is amazing to see how quickly she has mastered crawling. She was a little rocky in the beginning, but now there is NO stopping her. And if she really wants something or to get to somewhere (like any open door) she kicks it into turbo drive. She is such a cutie these days. Her personality is really beginning to shine through. Her little giggles and shrieks of joy just bring smiles to all of our faces.

Preschool!

It's hard for me to believe that my little man has started pre-school. Yesterday was his first official day, and it was a huge success!! He was so excited. He picked out his clothes, got his back pack ready, and requested "pikey (mohawk) hair." I dropped Samantha off at my cousin Karen's house so that we could have a special morning. We talked the entire way to school, and he went right in like a big boy. When I said that I was leaving, Bobby's response was "okay mommy!" I was so proud of my little man. Can't wait to see how the rest of the week goes.
Ready to go

So excited he was running to the front door

I think it's this way



Putting his name in the basket

Making himself right at home

Hugh Taft Island

As a child we used to go to Hugh Taft Island to play, enjoy the beach, and we always had a wonderful time. It makes me so happy to be able to take my own kids now to the same place to enjoy the same things. And I love that other than the changes that mother nature has made to the island....it is exactly the same. Bobby loved being able to run around, on "an adventure", hunting for crocodiles and swimming in the "hot baths" (tide pools). I can't wait for next summer when I can take both the little ones!

Last Days of Summer

We have thoroughly enjoyed this summer. So much of our time has been spent in Wilmington, and I feel so fortunate to have such a wonderful place to visit and stay whenever we want to. We have enjoyed numerous trips to the beach and last time we even went to the park. On our most recent visit to my parents, Bobby told me that "This is our home too", referring to my parents house. It makes me so happy to think that he is as comfortable there as he is in his own house.