late night blogging.......

its been awhile since i've done this. just looked down at the clock and noticed that its 437am. sophia woke me up at 150am. actually she was calling for daddy but since he never seems to hear her i got up with her. as usual she was sacked out in 2 seconds while i was wide awake and hungry : ) downstairs to kitchen and computer. oh well this late night blogging is so much easier than fending off the kids. i better get back to bed though as they will be up in a couple hours. g'night!

Lexie

my sister is growing up. she's 11 now and such a good kid. i've always told her she is the most photogenic person i know. she came up to amy's with me and i took advantage of it by shooting her in the natural light. she has the best smile and was such a natural with the camera.

Max and Zach

i was so happy that we got a chance to see all our good friends from back home. these two adorable little guys lived across the street from us. max 6 was sophia's first playmate. and zach 4 is so much like logann it isn't even funny. the girls had a blast visiting them. i must admit i was a little worried as they don't play with boys much. but they played so well together, just like they did when they were little. it was cute! logann kept asking for them when we got back to NC. we sure do miss having you guys across the street!



amy let me use her studio to shoot the boys. max is such the little model, you can't see his bright blue eyes here, but they are breathtaking.

zach is such the little ham. i can't get over how much more animated he is at 4. he's a crazy nut just like logann

this is how i remember zach, sweet and cherubic. look at those baby cheeks still at 4, i'm jealous.

the one thing i hate about NC

Spiders!
Squashed this guy in my garage recently. Still having nightmares about him crawling into my bed. See that mutilated thing on the right that was his head which i swear was twice as big as his deflated body.Pre-squashed he was huge and furry, and scary ugly! Looked like a tarantula to me, in NC? though, what do you think bug lady Amy?

Great Sunsets in the Adirondacks

wasn't able to capture this without the blur, but i still think its kind of a neat photo. we loved watching the sunset from the dock

smores

I LOVE SMORES!

if i asked sophia what her favorite thing about the trip was she'd say driving the boat, logann's would be going to water safari, and john probably eating his "big breakfast" at the local diner. me i'm all about the smore. every night well before it got dark i would talk john into building a baby fire as we had no fireplace, and i'd go to town roasting my smore. i figured out a new way to make the perfect smore, shown above. you didn't know i was so talented did ya?

Perfectly Roasted Smore

marshmallows

chocolate, hershey's

graham crackers

have a man build you a fire

slowly roast marshmallow over fire making sure to turn often to avoid charring

remove marshmallow from skewer and make sandwich with cracker and choc.

return whole sandwich to skewer to allow for melting of chocolate

and toasting of cracker (a must!)

find a friend to share it with

ENJOY!

our camp

here's a couple photos of the camp we rented on white lake. we're not sure if we're going to rent it again next year or not. it definitely had its perks, i.e. the view, pontoon boat, kayaks, floating docks,etc. but it could use a little, no a lot of TLC, an outdoor fireplace, and less stairs to the water. my sister counted 57! wasn't looking for that much of a workout on my vacation.

heights

during our trip we were running out of things to do with the kids. john thought it would be fun to go ride the chairlift up mccauley mt. i think he forgot about my extreme fear of heights in his decision process.

i somehow braved the ride, with sweaty palms and racing heart : ) although who wouldn't with crazy logann sitting or should i say spinning next to you. too scary! but fun.

brave sophia waving and all

love the old school ski signs

the view wasn't great on this yet again overcast day

logann's big accomplishment, her first outdoor poop. of course the minute we get to the top of the mountain she's gotta go. we figured pee, and told her to go in the woods..... boy were we wrong!! john will be upset i posted this but i was impressed she could do it standing up, with such grace, she even allowed for the leaf wiping, yikes : ) my child is so accomodating : )

produce

my mom has been down visiting this week. yesterday i sent her to the grocery store for potatoes and she came back overwhelmed by the price of produce. i remember going through the same shock myself, things are much more expensive here. produce wise. not sure why though. anyway while we were in old forge i had to check out the farmers market. i do miss my fresh NY
fruits and veggies. don't these look good!

Never Again

Friday we made the drive back to North Carolina. The girls and I were all looking forward to getting back home after 2 weeks away. Unfortunately I didn't anticipate the DC traffic. The usual 10.5 hour trip took us 13.5! Being in the car from 7am-8:30pm was torturous.
We basically got stuck on 495 and were crawling from Potomac,MD to Fredricksburg,VA. I think it took us 3 hours just to get out of the DC commuting area.
I drove the whole 13.5 hours myself. As I was sitting on 495 I was wondering how people who do the drive everyday don't get massive road rage. I must admit I had moments where I envisioned myself ramming all the stopped cars. Or other thoughts like maybe I'll just take the shoulder and see how far I get. Blaring the horn crossed my mind too.
Maybe I should sign up for an anger management course. : ) Or it might be I just need a vacation from my vacation.
At any rate we've decided never again to drive to NY! At least not for another year or so. No Aug NY vacation for us. Think we'll just stay local.

Family

cousin Briana

John & his mom & girls

Uncle CJ

Grandma Hook

Viking

Viking Logann

Viking Jordan


Viking Grandma


Viking John

Logann had to have this Viking hat while we were shopping in Old Forge. Everyone had fun with it, I think it was the best $8 we've spent.

a boy cousin finally!

we met our new cousin Apollo this week. he's about 10 weeks old and so darn cute. i was able to walk him to sleep while he was visiting. got my baby fix! for now at least. i love babies.

The Boilermaker 9.3 mile race

The Boilermaker 15K starting line, Utica,NY

John and I and 11,000 other runners

it took john and i one min. 30 secs to cross the start line once the gun went off. we cheated and hopped a fence before the start to get up front with the faster runners. luckily we did because it took the runners in the back where we were suppose to be 11 minutes to get to the start! unfortunately they had chip malfunctions, the chip you wore on your ankle didn't register at the start so no one had exact times, only gun times. ours was off by a min and a half we think.

i'm dying in this photo, obviously!! john and i ran together the first two miles then he told me to go on ahead. i was trying to break 80 mins. i ran my butt off and still came in slower than i had hoped, 83 mins. and change. i am blaming it on the high humidity here in NY. and the 80 yr old i was running with that supposedly was going to run it in 75 mins!! john was behind me by a few mins. but of course he trained for a total of one week!

i beat him though, the start of a pattern.......i hope : ) !!

John trying to catch up with me : )

horses

riding Aunt Tara's pony



head butted by a horse ouch



aunt Lexie