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!" 