Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Mike is almost a civilian!!!!! He has the whole month of July off, and is officially out of the navy on August 2nd. Then he starts his new job as a flight simulator instructor on August 3rd. We took advantage of this long vacation to take a trip out to Georgia. Mike's sister, Kim, had baby girl triplets about 3 months ago, and his other sister, Laura, had a baby girl about 2 1/2 months ago. We had lots of little baby nieces (and cousins) to meet!!!


Sophie fell asleep in this cute position...the girls both did great on the 14 hour drive (one way!)
Mike had his dad both wearing their Nascar hats. Dad likes Kyle Busch, and Mike's favorite drivers are Jr. and Tony Stewart. The debates got a little tense at times, but the competition hasn't torn our family apart...yet!



Sure, Elsie looks sweet and innocent here with Pop, but this little girl of ours can be naughty!!! She gets into everything, as you can tell...








Don't worry...I promptly took the piece of dog food out of her mouth after taking this picture!





Making cookies with Grammy

Sophie was so gentle with her baby cousins. Here she is holding Natalie.

Elsie and Auntie Kim

Aubrey and Elsie (Elsie wasn't always so gentle with the babies!)




I just had to put this picture on here. This is how they pick up trash where Mike's parents live. Instead of those big trash trucks, the trash collector person just pulls a trailor behind his truck. I found it very interesting.


Sophie, Auntie Laura, Grammy and Elsie





We all met for dinner at Mellow Mushroom in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We were able to find tables to sit at, even with 1 high chair and 4 car seats!



Alex was putting pacifiers in 2 babies' mouths at the same time! Very impressive! He's such a good big brother!
Me and Elisabeth


Chris and Kim carrying 2 of their little girls (Anna was in the stroller)



We looked like a baby parade!












So the thing to do in Chattanooga is to bring cardboard boxes to this certain hill and go sliding down on them. We had to check it out...and we agreed that it was very fun!! Here's Aunt Laura and Sophie going for a ride!





Of course, Mike had very clever ideas of how to slide down the hill.


Uncle Craig and Sophie (we're trying to break the thumb sucking habit!)


What you can't tell from this picture is how incredibly fast I am going down this hill. Thus the terrified look on my face!


Mike even took Elsie for a ride...


and then made her crawl back up!




Sophie even went down all by herself (although we're pretty sure she didn't realize she was alone until she reached the bottom...otherwise she probably wouldn't have done it!)




Aunt Laura and Sophie going to look at the water





During the morning on the 4th of July, we went for a little hike in the Chickamauga battlefield.








The we all got together for dinner and fireworks! Such a cute family picture!



Grammy, Pop and all the grandkids!


All the girls






The guys put on a pretty good show!


This is such a funny picture! Mike caught her mid-yawn!


Laura and Aubrey


Me and Aubrey


Chris, Alex, Mike and Maggie went camping one night (while Mom, Kim and I did the night shift with the girls!)



Mike's "Yeah! I'm out of the navy" cake


We went to a little farm in Dalton that has camels, zebras, donkeys and ostrich.









Me and Natalie (as you can tell, I liked getting my picture taken with the babies!)

Mike, Grammy, the girls and I went to the Chattanooga children's museum. It was such a great museum and perfect for Sophie! This was in a little water area and they had cute raincoats for the kids. I just had to put one on Elsie!





The girls with Curious George (don't worry, that's face paint on Elsie's nose, not a lesion or boil or something like that)









This was a little medical area with play thermometers and stethescopes. Sophie is listening to this doll's heart (but she didn't want to put the earpieces into her ears!)





Sophie went right over to the hoola-hoop and knew just how to do it! She must have learned this in school or church because we've never played with one before!





We met again for dinner the night before our drive back home! We had such a fun trip!!!!! Can't wait for next time!!!!


"Yeah!"


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was such fun to have you here! Lots of laughing and memories made! You did a great job posting pix! When can you come(move) back? Miss you all, Love, Grammy and Pop

Aeronautical Athlete said...

Wow!! What a summer vacation you all had!! Love the photos! Good job on uploading them Susanne, that had to have taken forever! Well done!! Love them all. Had to chuckle at the photo of mike's parents with all the grandkids, whew!!! Cute!!

Your girls are just too big!! Glad to see that Rascal made the journey too!!!

Love you!
-Auntie Amy

Laura said...

WOW, what a trip! Great pictures! You guys look awfully comfortable with those triplets... Maybe you're next! :)

lizcannon said...

looks like so much fun. glad you let us know that wasnt a boil on elsie, i was worried :). guess what i am about to do? go see harry potter, so sad you cant go with me :(. also, a new girl started at our hospital, and she is from OKC, worked at mercy, and knows alisha. CRAZY! anyways, her grandma work on "the heart floor" at deaconess, but she didnt know which floor, but her name is like mary b-something? i cant remember, ill have to ask her again. but she said she was born at deaconess, and i said... ME TOO! ill get details. i cant believe elsies almost 1, that is so weird. maybe like lura said, youll have triplets :) that would be the most insane thing ever. but kim looks AMAZING! anyways i love you, give those girls a kiss for me, and give mike a high 5 for graduating the navy. also tell him i had a dream about him, and we were running a 5K and i totally beat him. yup mike, that's right.