Two for the price of One

The twinners are 10!  The have been looking forward to this day the whole week.  We actually had a pretty lazy day, but it was so nice.  They played with their new toys and rode their new bikes.  In the evening we had Aunt Tracy here, and the Hunting family, minus Steve.  

The kids were truly grateful for all the gifts, phone calls, and cards they received.  Now for the sappy part.

These two made Mike and I a family, and they continue to bless our home tremendously.

Miles is my go to guy for help around the house.  He has amazing musical talents and social skills beyond his years.  He loves to tell stories just like his grandpa Tom.  And he has an energy for life that wears me out at times.  We love you "smiles."

Caleigh reminds us all of a cartoon character.  She makes us laugh with facial expressions, and her timely whit.  There's nothing this girl can't make with paper, tape, clay, wire, etc.  She is always busy creating things, it inspires me and makes me smile.  Our little "Lucy Lu."

Birthday Family Fun Day

This summer our Tuesdays have been dedicated to, what I like to call, Family Fun days.  Since the twins birthday was this week, we chose to do some birthday things.  The twins each got birthday money from grandparents (thanks guys) so they wanted to do some birthday shopping.  And what 10 year olds wouldn't want to shop at the Lego store and The American Girl store!  Mike grumbled a little bit at driving an hour and a half for a mall!  But I think he had fun.  

The Lego store is any boys dream.  It has everything you can imagine including an interactive "try me" screen.  You just hold the box up to the screen, it scans it then builds the lego set on the screen.  Then you can play with it!  How cool is that.
 

But before we could go to the Lego store, the American Girl doll store was our first stop.  Ahhh, it is so awesome.  What a cute store for girls of all ages.  All of us girls couldn't stop saying "cute."  

After the kids were shopped out (okay, really after they had spent every last cent) we headed to the Rainforest Cafe for some grub.  What a fun place to eat.  This was our second time eating at a RFC.  Our first time was in Vegas when the kids were much younger, with my dear friend Kata.  Griffin had to have been about two and terrified of the atmosphere.  He ate his entire meal under the table.  Everyone stayed surfaced this time and enjoyed the gorillas who looked over us as we ate.  

What a fun day, we were tuckered out at the end of it.  

Our final day with family

Shannon loves lighthouses so for our final day with their family we did a self guided lighthouse tour.  Apparently here in New England we light to make our lighthouses hard to find, so we had to rely on maps and GPS to get us to the few we wanted to see.  We also stopped at a store known for it's large lighthouse gifts and decor selection.  It was appropriately named the Lighthouse Depot.  The coast of Maine is so beautiful and has charming little shops in the towns.  It was a great day.  

Some of these pictures crack me up, Carter looked so much like Griffin that I would snap a photo and realize Griffin was missing, but I had Carter in the photo instead.  Ooops.  

We finished our day at Wild Willy's a local burger place.  Yumm.  We had so much fun with Matt, Shannon, Carter, and Ashlynn, we hope we can get together again soon.  

Our Stay-cation

After our Boston adventures we headed back home with Matt and Shannon's family.  We had a wonderful BBQ, with kabobs provided by Tom and Frankie,  yum.  We shot off our own fireworks and had a great show.  Our family got to experience fireworks in NH, which always includes tons of bug spray.  

The next day Matt, Shannon and kids needed to check into their Hotel in Maine, so we had a lazy morning then we drove them up.  Making sure to stop at UNH first so Mike could show off the campus and his office.  We drove through Portsmouth, NH then up to Maine and the beach!  

The kids had a great time burying each other in the sand and looking for starfish.  I could not believe how many there are this year.  The funny thing is there is no clam shells in sight.  We had so much fun the next few days playing in the water, and sand with our family.  

Boston Part Two

After the fun of the fireworks the following day we left, but before we did, we hit a few more Boston highlights.  

First up was Fenway park.  What a great place, full of the history of baseball.

The shop next to the park was awesome, with everything you could ever want Red Soxs.

After Fenway we hit the bunker hill monument.  Tracy and I opted not to walk the 294 steps to the top.  But Miles and Carter did it twice so they took our turn for us.    And in our defense there were stairs to go to the bathroom, so it's not like we were totally lazy.

A Boston Vacation

Our family Vacay this year was to Boston, to meet up with Mike's Twin Brother Matt and his cute family.  We were happy to have Tracy ride down with us and spend the weekend hanging out in Boston.  We first met up with Matt, Shannon, Carter, and Ashlynn at our hotel where we unloaded all our stuff then headed out to tour Boston.  I love Boston and seeing new sights.  Shannon is great about finding fun things to do,  so our first stop was old North Church where the kids learned about Paul Revere and made their own paper lanterns.  

 Right by the church was this great memorial dedicated to men and women who have lost their lives in Iraq.  What a great thing for the kids to see the day before the 4th.

 It was a pretty hot weekend, but we survived with water bottles, slushy's, and of course the famous frog pond.

The highlight of the weekend was seeing the fireworks shot off over the Charles river.  We found a spot only 10 minutes from our hotel, which was awesome since the traffic was crazy after the show.  We staked out our spot 7 hours before the fireworks started, I was so glad to have chairs, since every crack and crevice around us was filled with people. We can't say we weren't warned, it was totally worth the crowds.

Girls camp

I got the opportunity to go to Girls Camp this year and help with Crafts.  It was so fun!  I wasn't able to stay over (really I like my own bed, so I didn't mind driving home everynight).  The girls were all so fun and cute and creative.  Thanks to my awesome SIL Tracy and my father and mother in law who watched my kids for two days for me.  I know they are a handful.  

Each day when I would arrive at camp and walk the quarter of a mile from the parking lot to the craft barn the world would just melt away and I would feel the spirit so strongly.  I appreciated the simplicity of being around so many other LDS girls/women.  

Pinewood Derby 2011

The boys look forward to the pinewood derby (Mike included).  This was Griffin's first year and his car was custom painted by Mike.  Miles painted all the extra's on his.  Boy cars did okay, How do you make those things go faster?