Our fourth celebration

What a great weekend we had!!! We made the drive down to London, Kentucky on Friday afternoon and met up with Steve's family at the hotel. We spent the evening catching up and chatting by the pool. Everyone came in at a different time so it was fun to see who was coming next. We got up the next morning and went to Laurel Lake for a day of boating. Boy, everytime I go out boating, I really want to do it more and more!! When we got to the dock we realized that we had forgotten to ask for tubes with our boats, so no tubing for us this time, but we had fun anyway. We were on the "party boat", we had all the kids and was crankin' the tunes..Van Halen, Will Smith, Talking Heads...it was great and we were speeding around the lake, doing donuts, hitting other boats wake, it was so fun and the kids just loved it. The other boat had those who were more interested in a nice relaxing day on the lake! Well we decided to dock both boats over on a little beach and have lunch together. There was a big shelter with picnic tables and a playground up from the shore there, which came in really handy when a storm popped up!! We were planning to just sit on the boats to eat, but clouds rolled in and thunder started to be heard, so we headed up the hill to the shelter to wait out the storm. It only lasted about 15 minutes and then we walked down the other side of the beach to look for crayfish and wade in the shallow water. This is where Noah first realized his life vest will hold him up in the water and he can swim!! No remember, my kids refuse to officially learn to swim. We spent probably 400 dollars on swim lessons for Noah and he still refuses to do it, so getting him to lay back and float was a big accomplishment, thank you cousin Debbie!!! We had lots of fun there and the kids hated to leave, but we headed back to the boats to go back out and find some more fun to do. We splashed around for awhile, picked up some just arriving family members and then eventually tied our two boats together in a no wake zone and everyone went out for a swim. I got Noah to come out, promising I'd hold him, but after a few minutes he was ready to go at it alone!! I made sure Daddy got it on video that I let Noah swim alone in a big lake with who knows how deep the water is, so everyone would believe it happened. Once he was on his own, he was a complete fish, he loved it! He did not want to ever get back on the boat. I have to say that it was the absolute best lake I"ve ever been in or seen. The water was so nice and clean and warm even. It was just great. I could've swam there forever too, it was just so nice. I really want to keep going there, I love it. Well after about 2 hours of swimming we loaded the boats up and went back to the dock. We all then went back to the hotel, rested for a bit and then went out to eat at the Golden Corral. And of course when we got back from that, we went back out to the pool. I got the kids little floats to use and they were thrilled, that way I didn't have to get in with them and could sit on the side and talk to the adults!! All the older cousins are good swimmers and they are so sweet to the ones that can't swim. They pull them around and make them feel special when they finally make it out to the deep end and stuff. I really feel blessed to have them a part of my kids lives. Sunday we got up, hung around the pool a bit and then went to Levi Jackson state park for our big picnic. Steve's Mom and Sister and her family came down just for the picnic and it was nice to see them. The kids all got to play for awhile again and we all enjoyed a nice big meal. I was in charge of desserts and I made banana pudding, 2 apple pies and a big cake decorated as our flag with strawberries and blueberries. Everyone seemed to enjoy them, either that or their big liars!!! It was such a great weekend, I really love his family and look forward so much to these weekends. Next year I think we're going to Atlanta, that's where some of his family lives. We went there about 4 years ago and I'm excited to go back there.


Well one thing that also happened on this trip, is that while staying in one room with the whole family, I got a chance to hear how bad Abby's breathing has become while she's sleeping. She was snoring very heavily, having what appeared to be trouble breathing through her nose at all and then at times would pause breathing for at least 10 seconds before gasping for air and then pausing again. That would last for several minutes and then she would roll over and go back to snoring. I realized then that she needed to see the doctor. So this morning I took her in and the doctor looked in her mouth and said "her tonsils are enormous!!" and he felt that having them removed would most likely alleviate all of her sleep problems. So he referred us to an ENT specialist and we'll probably go to have the surgery from there. I'm a bit nervous and apprehensive about sending my daughter into a surgery, but I know it's a very routine surgery and I'm sure she'll be fine, it's just hard. I'm glad though, that we were able to find this out now befor anything else happened.

Noah also lost his second front tooth so he now has a big giant gap in the front! I think it's so cute!!

We went to Kings Island tonight to enjoy the cooler weather. It was a lot more crowded than I expected in the evening, but I'm sure it has something to do with it being a holiday week. While we were there we saw Ken Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn walking around (from the Reds in case you don't know), so that was cool. But of course it was the one day I decide to leave the camera at home, that'll teach me!! Noah rode Top Gun for the first time and loved it. We couldn't get Abby to do anything new, not even the Viking Ship, but she still loved her Scrambler and Fairly Odd Coaster!! We even stayed for the fireworks which we've never done with the kids and it was a nice evening. The fireworks show was very short and a bit lame, but the kids liked it!! So now I'm here typing you this big humongous post and I hope you have a great Tuesday. I need to go to bed so I can get my house in order. We're having Steve's Mom over on Wednesday for dinner, so I need to clean up. I've also been enjoying looking through some of my curriculum that has arrived. So far I've only received my order for the math and language arts curriculum which is not KONOS, but it gets me so excited just looking through it. Well I'm sleepy, so good night!!!




Noah and Mitchell, two tough dudes!!




Noah's big gap!!




We visited the homes and other buildings that were original to the area at Levi Jackson State Park.




all the Howards!!




Cousin Mike helping Abby roast marshmallows




Noah and his cousin Aaron




Abby and her Grammy




Mike helping the boys with their marshmallows




Noah sampling my desserts




my beatiful cake!!




Uncle Bob giving Abby a push




Abby and her cousin Julie




Noah jumping into the hotel pool




Abby at the hotel pool




Noah in the lake!




Abby on the boat.




We swam out to these rocks on the side of the lake. They were really cool. Water went up underneath them and made cool noises. You could see how high the water can get on the rocks, with the different colors.




Cousin Mitchell, isn't he so cute!!




Swimming.




More swimming.




Me and the kids in the lake




Uncle Bob and Aunt Fran




Abby on the shore. I thought she looked like Colonel Sanders with her bow tie!! It was fitting because 20 minutes away is the original KFC!!




Debbie getting Noah to float




Hunting crayfish, we only found 1 but he got away before we could catch him.




A cute pose




Me and the "B" on the boat




Our boats.